You Can't Catch Me - I'm the Gingerbread Man!

This has been a crazy week of ups and downs! Everything started off great: Scott went back to school after the Thanksgiving break, my sister-in-law Pam Harmon came over for a lovely visit, and we baked a whole lot of gingerbread during the week - which made our house smell amazing!

Jacob and Hannah also came up to spend the weekend with us, arriving Thursday night. Everything was setting up to be a fantastic weekend with us all being together!! 

But then, Pam called with some bad news Friday morning. She was at the Urgent Care out in West Virginia, waiting to be seen by a doctor because she was certain she had coronavirus. She had gotten home on Wednesday, and Thursday night she felt really sick. She had pain all over her body, during the night her fever shot up to 103 degrees, she was coughing while we were on the phone, and when I asked her what her symptoms were, she responded, "ALL of them!"

This photo was taken of us on Tuesday, after she had spent the afternoon visiting, and just before she said goodbye. She had flown out to Idaho to attend her step-father's funeral, where she also spoke. Several of her family members up in Rexburg all reported getting sick on the same day - Thursday. They traced it back to the funeral. Darn it! One of the speakers that sat near Pam tested positive and she's pretty sure that's where she got it. 

Anyway, she called us because she felt so bad that we were likely exposed when she didn't even know she was sick yet. She texted me a little bit later on Friday morning to report that her test was positive for COVID-19. Dang it! 

Next, we had to discuss as a household how to proceed. Here we had Jacob and Hannah finally under the same roof, but we didn't want to put Hannah at risk during her pregnancy. Ultimately, they decided to head home and did so, just before lunch on Friday. It was a smart move, because we all wanted to do everything possible to protect both her and the baby. We were just sad that we couldn't play with them like we had planned. 

These are the only photos we got from Thursday evening. 

Jacob read a really cute book to Abby and Gwen, called Tumford the Terrible (about a very mischievous cat who doesn't like to apologize). 

After dinner, we played Christmas Carol Pictionary/Charades. You either draw or act out the name of the Christmas carol and your teammate has to guess. 

Hannah is on the left and Amber is on the right (Abby took this photo!)

Abby did a great job drawing or acting each time it was her turn. 

One of my Christmas carols was "Feliz Navidad." You can't use numbers or letters at all, so this was all I could think of. But it worked! Abby and Amber were on my team and they guessed it pretty quickly.

I was going for a mariachi band . . .

Saturday Night Coronavirus Update: I've been feeling really tired last night and most of today. But I feel better tonight, like maybe I'm over the hump. Amber felt sick last night, with a sore throat, stomach pain, and just generally a feeling of garbage. She slept well and woke up feeling somewhat better. She attributed that to taking essential oils and vitamins yesterday. 

Mid-afternoon today, she felt significantly worse again. She said her throat hurt, her ear hurt (probably because of her throat), she felt really dizzy, and she had a fever this time. Her temperature was 99.5 before dinner. But this evening, she is feeling somewhat better again. If she feels worse tomorrow, she plans to go and get tested. 

Sunday Evening Coronavirus Update: Amber felt really good today. No new symptoms, and her other symptoms are either much less or gone altogether. She drove over to get tested this afternoon at the Community Care clinic down the street, but they were surprisingly closed today! They used to be open 7 days a week, so that was unexpected! She will go over again tomorrow and get tested so we can have some closure. 

I did great today, but I also slept in until about 8:45, which felt really nice. I went hard all day, helping with the girls, working on my blog, prepping and cleaning up after some gingerbread decorating, etc. And now tonight I am TRASHED. 

As for the rest of the week . . .

Monday: After Abby took a bath, we wound up her hair into Princess Leia buns while it dried. Later, we took out the buns and, as she looked in the mirror, she was very pleased with her curls. :)

Tuesday: In the morning, I babysat for our neighbor for about an hour. Two year old Kambria and Gwen played together quite nicely, while Amber took Abby to her dance class.

Then I had a video chat with the Italians, Benson and Kylie. :)

Mocha had gotten in trouble recently, and she knew it. Look at that face, ha ha.

Also - they got SNOW in Italy!! Down in the valley of Aviano, it snowed for about an hour or so, but then it was gone. Up in the Dolomites nearby, Benson said they got 10 feet of snow! 

Here is a video of Mocha running around in the falling snow for the first time in her life:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ppjUexvA8rmr5ipx7

After lunch, Pam came over to visit us. Marissa and Azure came for a little while, too, but when Azure needed a nap (badly), they left, while Pam stayed with us for the rest of the afternoon. 

At one point, Abby read her a book. 

At one point, Gwen came over to listen in, with her little babushka scarf.

Then we had a brief dance party in the living room, listening to some fun Christmas songs.

Then it was time for Pam to head out. So sad. I love visiting with her and wish that we didn't live on opposite sides of the country!

Wednesday: Not a whole lot to report. I worked steadily on my secret Christmas project, getting it to the 80% completion mark. 

Abby took this picture of me.

Thursday: We began the gingerbread baking festivities!! 

Amber made a batch of gingerbread for making into cookies, and I made a batch of Kathy Whitworth's amazing recipe that we planned for gingerbread houses. (recipe shared below)

Page 1: https://photos.app.goo.gl/nmV67zESbkSS1yin7

Page 2: https://photos.app.goo.gl/EYV4hyV81UDbd1BHA

Templates: https://photos.app.goo.gl/BeUFMSd1ysLdfGK68

We decided to be extra creative with our gingerbread and to make unique structures instead of just the standard ones. Amber wanted to make a Whitworth Family Bus/RV. So she made her own template out of cardboard. 

Scott and I will be making an Olde English Cottage with a thatched roof. Abby was very excited to help cut out a variety of shapes whenever I had little scraps of extra dough. 

Jacob and Hannah wanted more of a church structure, with a steeple, so we cut the pieces out for them, complete with a window opening for stained glass. 

With our last scrap of dough, I mentioned that it looked like some sort of animal. Amber thought it looked like an armadillo, so she added a few little touches to it so that it REALLY looked like an armadillo! :)

Amber crushed up some Jolly Rancher candies and melted them in the microwave for some stained glass windows. Then she spooned the goo into the window cutouts. 

Here's how Jake and Hannah's church window turned out. :)

ALSO on Thursday - I stitched a few loops onto some hand towels so they would hang more securely on our new bathroom hooks. AND - I got my secret Christmas project up to the 95% mark of doneness. Yippee!!

Friday: Sometime that morning, before our plans all changed, Amber fixed Gwen's hair SO CUTE!! Her hair is growing so slowly, but when Amber wet it down, she was able to pull it up into the cutest little ponytail!!

And later Friday evening, before dinner, I caught a couple pictures of Amber knitting at the dining table with Gwen. Gwen likes to do busy work with her hands, such as cutting paper into miniscule shreds. Amber gave her a few pieces of yarn to work with and I hurried to capture the precious moments. 

Just look at all of Gwen's facial expressions - she cracks me up!!

Sunday: We did Round 1 of decorating our Gingerbread structures. They are not done, but we had to stop so that we could make and eat dinner. We will finish things up by tomorrow and I will post our final products. Plus, the decorating mood was somewhat dampened because of two little girls and their mischievousness. (See below)

Here we are, getting ready to start decorating:

**Note: You may notice the shortness of Gwen's hair in the front. This is because during a short 5 minute timeframe of unsupervised play downstairs, the girls decided to give themselves haircuts with my sewing scissors from the craft room! Amber is still devastated at what happened, especially once they pulled up the video feed from the camera that's installed in the girls' bedroom and watched the whole thing. Bless their hearts, it's not easy being parents sometimes. Someday, perhaps, they will be able to laugh about the whole thing. Just not today.

Master Bathroom Updates:

Scott has been working steadily this week, making some amazing progress!! He has limited time in the evenings after teaching school, but comes home excited every single day to get to work in the bathroom. What a trooper!

He installed the rubber mat to protect the shower floor and lower walls, as well as some plastic sheeting.

He hung up our new bathroom mirror.

After we played around with several ideas for where to install the shower niches (recessed shelving), we finally settled on this. The 3 niches will be vertically placed at the far end of the shower.

He installed more hardy backer board around the lower half of the shower area. (He uses cardboard to stand on and walk on to protect the rubber matting underneath.)

And as of Saturday, he laid down the final layer of cement on the floor, with its perfect slope toward the drain.

Next, after the cement is fully dry, he will add the rest of the backer board for the upper half of the shower walls, and then we can start TILING!! But first, we have to choose our shower tile. We still haven't found exactly what we're looking for yet. But we're trying. 

Stay tuned.