Our Covid Adventure

The week before Thanksgiving, both Mike and Quinn woke up with a sore throat. It is really dry in our house, so this wasn't completely unusual. However, they both told me that it felt different than usual. Spidey senses were a-tingling! However, by mid-morning, they both felt fine and we continued on with life. That night, Mike started coughing after we went for a walk and by the next day, he decided to stay home from work - just to play it safe. Quinn seemed fine other than being unusually tired. But her practice schedule had been extra busy, so we assumed she was just worn out from that.

By Thursday, Mike was still coughing pretty frequently and the district had announced that so many people were sick that they were just canceling school for the two days the following week - ahead of the Thanksgiving break. I didn't like Mike's cough and made him take an at-home covid test. It popped positive very quickly. So no one went to school on Friday. Instead, we all headed to the airport to do family PCR tests. If anyone thinks getting five people to fill tubes with spit sounds like great family bonding, I'm here to tell you that we give it zero out of five stars. 

The wait for the results felt like sweet forever, even though it was just over 24 hours. We were sitting down to dinner Saturday night when I checked my email (for the 900th time) and saw Q's results come in. Positive. Then Fiona's. Positive. Then mine. Positive. Mike got his. Positive. And finally, Declan. Negative. What the what?!?! We very quickly determined that one cannot separate a 7-year-old from the rest of his family for 10 days ... so come what may. [There also may have been talk about just licking him to get the inevitable over with ... purely joking of course ...]

Declan eventually popped a positive a week later on Thanksgiving day (speaking of things taking sweet forever. We kept asking him if he was Ironman!) - the day before Mike and Quinn were released from quarantine. Everyone had symptoms, but we all only had 2-3 days of feeling unwell - and even that was no worse than a bad cold. We are incredibly grateful that our biggest complaint was being stuck at home for so long. A few notes about our time in quarantine ...

The good

- We figured it out! This Is How People Watch Movies - they don't have any evening activities! We watched a lot of movies together. Jungle Cruise, Yes Day, Night at the Museum, Home Alone 1 and 2. Watching Declan watch Night at the Museum may be one of the highlights of our year. 

- Mike framed in his shed. Other than a cough that just didn't want to quit, by the time we all tested positive, Mike was feeling much better. So he used his time at home to work on the shed and the rink. And I used the accessibility of the tools to get some pictures hung!

- We did puzzles and played games and erased everything from the calendar. It was nice to have a short pause in the crazy schedule. 

- Quinn and Mike were released to the wild in time for her to play in a Thanksgiving weekend hockey tournament. What a way to celebrate a return to health ... three games in two days with a 3-0 record!

The bad

- Quinn missed the night that her team was introduced at the varsity girls high school hockey game. They got to stand on the bench before the game and have their names read. She was pretty bummed.

- Fiona and I had tickets to go see the high school drama club perform Mamma Mia. We didn't have our test results yet, but both agreed that even though we both felt fine at the time, it wasn't the right thing to do. She was very mature about it and we were really proud of her. 

- Poor Dec was the only one who ended up with the vomiting symptom. Thankfully it was only a day and his appetite came back pretty quickly.

- The blog, despite my best laid plans, did not get caught up during quarantine. While things were manageable during the day, we were all simply wiped out by bedtime each night. Putting words together to form sentences was just too much.

- We had to cancel our Thanksgiving hosting plans, but are very glad we found out ahead of having our company arrive.

The ugly

- The thought of poor Dec having to quarantine for fourteen days after the rest of us were out of quarantine! That is what would have happened if he didn't end up getting sick. So thankful that did not become our reality.

- I had a headache for twelve straight days. While stuck at home with three children. And a husband using power tools to build a shed. And did I mention three bored children? My poor head!

The Full Grocery Story

I alluded to a pretty substantial grocery adventure in a previous post. My friend Kim, who got the whole story over our office chat, encouraged me to share the full account. I wasn't sure and then reread what I wrote her. It is beyond funny and ridiculous. So here you go ... hope it gives you a giggle for the day!

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Saturday afternoon, the kids and I were going hiking after all the hockey. But they wanted a snack first, which was fine. I put in my grocery order and set it for delivery between 6-8pm that night. Went and did our hike. Got home. Started dinner.

Sat down for dinner around 5:30 and get a notification that they have started to shop. Cool. Bring my phone to the table because there are always substitutions. Get nothing and about 20 minutes later, get a notification that it's shopped. Weird, because it's a week's worth of groceries and I'm surprised they could do it that quickly with no substitutions. I look up the receipt and am pleasantly surprised. No subs. No adjustments. My spidey sense should have kicked in, but it didn't.

The app said the delivery would be here by 6:25. The kids bop over to the living room to do their Legos and I clean up dinner while waiting. I'm eventually surprised it's not here yet, but it's also not 6:25. It's just usually faster.

About 6:22, get a note: Please rate your order.

Um. What order? Go look out on the front step. Nope. By the garage. Nope. Look up the order on my phone and says it was delivered at 6:02.

Send the kids out to find it while making sure I didn't somehow send it to the old house. Also look at the receipt and think "WHY is it so expensive?" and see a $75 charge for a "special request."

Kids come in. "No groceries anywhere, mom." At this point, I'm fairly certain no groceries have been shopped and we've been scammed.

I hop on my app and report that nothing showed up. Get in a chat and the person is super helpful. They immediately reverse the $75 charge and re-submit the order for delivery, telling me it will be to our house by 8:30. Not ideal, but fine.

Twenty minutes later, I get a note because it's been delayed until 9:45pm. At this point, I reschedule to Sunday because I don't want groceries coming at 10pm.

The reschedule never updates on my screen - but no shopping is started. When I hit reschedule, it shows me the Sunday morning time that I selected.

At this point, I give it to Jesus and go to bed.

Get up on Sunday and open the app. Says "delivery today" but the 8-10am delivery that I had selected is not selected and is no longer a choice. All the options remaining are in the afternoon or during the 4 hours of hockey practice.

I choose the "fast and flexible" option and tell F that if groceries come, do NOT answer door. Wait until the car leaves. Bring the bags in and please put the milk in the fridge.

Shortly thereafter, someone starts shopping. She makes substitutions and sends me photos of options via chat. I feel reasonably convinced that maybe groceries are actually being purchased.

She checks out about 5 minutes before I need to leave to bring Q to the rink. So I convince an unhappy Quinn to get dressed at home while we wait for the groceries. I get them inside and put the fridge things in the fridge and the freezer stuff in the freezer. Leave the rest on the counters while telling F to feed D before I need to pick him up for practice and there is food in the bags and dig for stuff and good luck.

Q and I get to the rink about 7 minutes before practice, but she only has to put her skates and helmet on so we are good. Uncle Brad is in the lobby, so I make him tie her skates (she hates how I tie them). We head to the locker room to drop her bag and are somehow not late.

Until we meet Coach Erik, who convinces (not hard) Q to play goalie. So now she has to take off most of her gear to put all the goalie gear on. She is annoyed with me because I didn't bring her gear so she has to use the association stuff and the gloves smell and she doesn't like that stick.

All of this happened by 10:45 am. But - I feel like the moral of the story is GROCERIES DID COME!

Date with Bugs

After the crazy hockey schedule of Mike's hunting weekend, Fiona explained to me in a very mature way (truly - I was quite proud of her) that she was feeling very overshadowed by hockey. And I told her that was fair. So we made a deal that we would go on a date the following weekend when Mike was back in town - just the two of us. I proposed that we would go to the Minnetonka General Store and pick out a Christmas decoration for the new house together. She loved that plan!

Then Saturday morning, Quinn found out she was playing goalie for the first time versus another association and she was pretty nervous. She asked Fiona and me if we would come watch her, which we said we would. But Fiona felt slotted behind hockey again. I explained to her that, while this did involve hockey, we adjusted our plans because her sister needed us. And that I would do the same to her siblings when she needs us. As a consolation prize, we drove separately to the game and went on a mini-shopping date that afternoon. She got a couple new tops, some new lip gloss, and a whole lot of one-on-one time. We had a blast and she was beaming from ear to ear when we got home.

Our General Store date was happening on Sunday. So when Q's ride after soccer texted us that they were no longer going to practice, I pulled out all the stops to get that child transported from the high school to the rink (where Mike and Dec were) because there was no way I was canceling on Bugs again. 

Ultimately, I got the original Ms. A (our first day care provider) to pick up Q and bring her to the rink. She met the very stringent requirements of 1) available, 2) can pick my child out of a crowd and Quinn knows her so won't freak the frack out, and 3) has a driver's license. Ms. A brought the added skills of loving Q to the core of her being. In fact, she thanked me for letting her pick up Q. I mean ... you are welcome, Ms. A. Happy to do you that favor! 

Once all the puzzle pieces were in place, Fiona and I headed out for our date. We got to the General Store right when it opened, so started on the second floor to avoid the crowd. Fiona.was.in.heaven. She had so much fun looking at all the unique crafts throughout the store. We even found a new ornament for the tree and were able to get it personalized. After one pass through the store, we took a break in the little cafe and ate popovers and a smoothie. Then we did one more walk-through and headed out with our treasures. She talked me into a book about "advice for teenage girls" and I smile every time I see it open on the window seat. My favorite advice page: "hug your mom every chance you have." Yes!

We stopped at Michael's on the way back to Shakopee and let me tell you, girlfriend can spend a lot of time looking at sparkly scrapbook paper. She also found the saddest looking small Christmas tree ever and asked if she could have a small tree for her room. I told her "absolutely" - but not that one. A better one. Then, as expected two other small Vannestes wanted in on that room tree situation too. You'll be happy to know that three small trees were procured, delivered while we were in quarantine, and are lovingly decorated and festive in their rooms.

We ended our date by swinging by the rink to pick up Quinn. And I ended up leaving both girls there for Mike to bring home while I picked up the groceries and a few things at Target. Fiona and I had the best time just visiting and shopping and hanging out together. A perfect date!

That Girl Goalie Is Your Kid?!?!?!

I mentioned in the last post that Quinn unexpectedly was tapped to play goalie while Mike was hunting. The three M4 (advanced mites) teams were being divided into two teams (two boys teams and one girls team) for a full ice scrimmage. As Q and I waltzed in three minutes before the game, one of her coaches stopped her in the hall and asked if she wanted to play goalie. She immediately said yes and I silently berated myself for not throwing her goalie gear in the car ... because I had a sneaky suspicion things would play out like they did. 

She was able to use the association goalie gear and Coach helped her put on the pads (I have no idea how to do it!). I only got to watch a little bit of her game because I needed to run home to get Declan for his practice. I made him get ready in the arena so I could watch the end of the game, which was a shootout. From what I hear from others who watched the whole game, Quinn played very well. Then she found her groove in the shootout and stopped 20 straight shots. It was impressive! D and I were sitting next to several of the dads from the boys team and they kept talking about how the boys' shooting was off that day. It was all I could do to keep "or is my girl goalie just that good?" inside my head!

Quinn's team played a half ice scrimmage against Eden Prairie the next week and it was, as Mike described, "not a fair fight." Because it was half ice, they used the smaller nets. And the poor EP girls didn't have a chance to get that puck past Q. Bugs, Dec, and I went to the game and it was extremely one-sided. One of Q's teammates said in the locker room after the game, "I think we won like 30-6" and Q piped up "I did not let in six goals." She let in three. And two of them she would really like back!

That night, Mike was riding to his hockey game with Brad and another Shako coach on his team. Brad was asking how Q's game went. As Mike talked about her solid performance between the pipes, the other coach said, "Wait?!?!? That girl goalie is your kid?!?!" Apparently while the dads in the stands couldn't figure out why their boys couldn't score, the boy team coaches were very clear at the talent level of the goalie! Word is out and Q even got asked to tend goal for a tournament that the boys team is playing in January. We passed, but it is a nice compliment to her skills.

Then right before Thanksgiving (as we locked ourselves in covid isolation), the Spotlight Players from the first month of the season were announced. Players are nominated by the coaches for showing great effort, great sportsmanship, and having a positive attitude. Quinn was the M4 player of the month! Her nomination read: Quinn is always willing to volunteer for goalie. She is a great listener and has put in extra effort at improving her goalie skills. I know many of her teammates appreciate her taking the majority of the goalie slots.

Even more than being a reliable goalie, Quinn is a quiet leader on her team (I keep telling Mike she's the Joe Mauer of the team). She leads by playing her hardest every shift and bringing an understated confidence and emotional stability to the game. Mike says as a coach, it's really fun to see how the other girls look up to Quinn and how she is settling into her role as a leader. 

It was a long few days for Quinn when she couldn't be on the ice. Thankfully, she and Mike were out of quarantine the day after Thanksgiving and she celebrated by playing in a Turkey Cup jamboree. Her team went 3-0 and by all accounts, destroyed the competition. She tended the pipes for one game and played out for two. While Q enjoys playing goalie, she also enjoys playing out and is happy to not have to commit to a position quite yet. We just love watching her play because her joy is visible. 

Hunting Weekend Hiking

The end of October flew by between our fall break and Halloween. Then just a few days after Halloween, Mike headed north for five days to meet up with his dad for hunting opener. His departure also aligned with a ramp up in the hockey schedule - 10 straight days of one (or both) Q and D having hockey commitments. 

Because Quinn and Dec had back-to-back practices both Saturday and Sunday, I knew that would mean Fiona had a lot of solo time. So I promised her that we would do something fun after hockey each day. Then we were blessed with the most wonderful weather for the weekend - so a couple hiking adventures were on the docket. 

Saturday, Bugs showed off her maturity as I left her in charge of feeding Declan lunch while I ran Quinn to practice. She did a great job (although there were comments about his Moral Compass behavior when I ran back to grab him for his own practice) and then had a second lunch to keep Quinn company when I traded hockey players. By the time everyone was home from the rink, they all needed a mid-afternoon snack. 

Finally, we were ready to bust Bugs out of the house. We decided to go down to O'Dowd Lake and look for our turtle friends. We struck out on the turtles, but found a great beach full of rocks. The kids spent an hour throwing rocks and floating sticks and leaves in the water. I'm not sure the folks at the fishing pier around the corner appreciated all our rock throwing ... but it was so much fun. We also couldn't believe how low the lake was - and instead of navigating across the rocks to the island, we simply walked across. No wet feet or anything! Perhaps that is why we couldn't find any turtles!

Because it was also Daylight Saving Time that weekend, hockey was earlier and we were able to start Sunday's hike earlier as well. We went to Spring Lake park and decided to follow the trail all the way down to the lake. It was about a 2 mile road trip route. There were plenty of stops along the way to climb trees, balance on fallen trunks, find walking sticks, and other such off-roading activities. I occasionally wondered if we would ever actually make it to the lake.

We did - but found that the rock throwing set up there was not as good as the day before. That said, there were a lot better skipping rocks and Dec showed off his skills. He even had one skipper that probably had seven skips! I lined the kids up to take a picture and commented on the sunset. Then I realized the sun was setting! The time change meant the the sun was going down around 5 pm. Yikes! We had not factored that into our plan. 

So I hustled everyone back toward the trail and tried to limit the off-roading slightly on the walk back. We didn't limit it completely - because my favorite part of the whole thing was all the giggling while we walked. We really did have the best time together! However, I was almost positive that I was going to have to pick our way back to the car in the pitch black if the snails pace continued.

[We also had the most random grocery experience over the weekend. I ordered our groceries to be delivered on Saturday evening. I got a notification on my phone that they were being shopped and that they were on the way. Then I got a survey about my experience. Except no groceries had arrived. I even sent the kids out on a scavenger hunt to see if they could find them. I reported the missing delivery and they rescheduled it for that night. It never came and I eventually rescheduled for Sunday morning. Then they unscheduled my reschedule. So I had to reschedule again, making the delivery very inconvenient with the hockey schedule. But eventually we got our food! And Q was at hockey with three minutes to spare ... until she decided to play goalie. But that's a story for a different post.]