April Fool's, Vaccines, Easter, and a Baby on Deck!
Happy Easter! With the help of some gloriously warm weather this weekend, we have supremely enjoyed listening to General Conference, having picnics outside in the back yard, and going on Easter egg hunts!!
Reach, Gwennie! Reach!!
As my life came back into view once again, our focus shifted quickly to getting ready for Abby's birthday on Thursday, which was also April Fool's Day!! Yes, Abby was born on April Fool's Day 6 years ago. Even though she doesn't know much about the world of April Fool's pranks, she does love a good knock-knock joke.
The balloon prep began in earnest the night before.
Amber and Abby had recently discussed what kind of theme to have for the party, and ultimately they settled on a "kitty cat galaxy spaceship" party! :) Amber was trying to encourage Abby to have something different from the standard unicorn and mermaid themed parties that are so popular these days.
Amber made her own "galaxy" frosting, with dark food coloring lightly swirled together, and then she dipped donuts into the mixture.
Between all the Whitworth relatives, Abby's friends, and our household, we had about 27 people in attendance!
Some of Abby's friends: Linzee Larsen and Ana Blatter
We had sandwiches, chips and grapes for dinner. The weather was quite nice, so we hung out in the fresh air for the most part. The kids played in the "kitty cat galaxy spaceship" with our recently built DIY shuttle control center/"the way back"/airplane cockpit next to it. This was a HUGE hit for the entire evening!!
Gwen, watching her cousin, Clark Whitworth, give spaceship commands and direct the crew into orbit.
We also set up corn hole for adults and children who might be interested. The kids played a round or two, but mostly played on the swings, in the spaceship, or just ran around and around the yard while the grownups enjoyed talking to each other on the patio.
Then it was time to open up gifts. It was getting a little chillier by this time, so we set out some quilts on the patio for the kids to sit on together.
First thing that morning, I also had a wonderful get-caught-up video chat with Chelsea. Her wedding plans are coming along for September 10th in Denver to Garret Wegrzynowicz. Yeah, just try pronouncing that! She's going to keep her maiden name of Stallings, ha ha.
Friday morning, after all the festivities from the night before, Abby wanted to put her roller skates on very first thing! It's an adjustable kind that can be 3-wheeled (like a tricycle) to start, and then when she's ready, they can be changed to function as inline skates. In just a couple of days, she has gotten pretty good at maneuvering all around the upstairs on the hardwood floors.
I loved roller-skating as a young girl, and even throughout my teenage years, I just didn't go to the skating rink as often. As an adult, I am ALWAYS excited to go to the skating rink with anyone who is willing. Getting Abby some skates really got me pumped to get my own pair, . . . so . . . I ordered some for myself! They will arrive on Tuesday. I'm pretty excited!! As soon as Abby is ready, we will go to the skating rink here in Idaho Falls together and it will be AWESOME!!
Friday was also an interesting day, in the sense that it was full of unexpected surprises and didn't turn out at all like we thought!!
For starters, just as I finished eating my lunch, my sister, Melanie texted me and asked if I was available to drive over to give moral support to her daughter, Natalie, who had gotten in a minor car accident here in Idaho Falls. I was on the scene in about 5 minutes. She was fine, other than some soreness in her shin and right shoulder/neck, but dissolved into tears when I arrived. I held her and hugged her for some time before getting more details.
Car #1 cut off Car #2 and then, oblivious to what happened next, drove off into the sunset. Car #2 had to slam on his brakes suddenly to avoid hitting Car #1. Natalie was in Car #3, behind Car #2. She, too, had to slam on her brakes to avoid hitting Car #2. But she ended up hitting the rear end of Car #2 anyway. She said they were going about 40 mph at the time.
The police officer gave Natalie the $90 citation, explaining that at the end of the day, if 2 cars touch, one of them is getting the citation. He very politely reminded her that she should always give enough space between herself and the car in front of her, so that IF something like this were to happen, she would have enough space to stop in time. A hard pill to swallow, but good advice, nonetheless.
What followed next was the scariest thing I think I've ever done. Before I got into Natalie's car to drive it home for her, I asked her if there was anything I should know about her vehicle. She told me that the driver side seatbelt does not latch. What?? That's right. It doesn't stay clicked into place. So I had to drive her vehicle on the freeway, with a 70 mph speed limit, with no seatbelt!! And what's more, I found out later that it also had some power steering issues (which explained the terrible sounds it made whenever I turned the steering wheel right or left). So I drove a vehicle 25 miles north with no seatbelt, with power steering problems, and that had just been in an accident. What was I thinking??!! At one point, I remember saying to myself, "Jesus take the wheel, take it from my hands, cuz I can't do this on my own." (song by Carrie Underwood)
I was extremely grateful when I handed the keys over to Natalie in Rexburg and got into the car with Amber, who had graciously agreed to bring the girls and drive up to Rexburg so that I could have a ride home.
I could understand more at that point why Natalie was so shaken up about her accident. No working seatbelt? It could have been much, much worse.
And since we were in Rexburg . . .
Amber felt like it would be a great idea to visit Jonny's grave again, especially since they will only be here in Idaho for another month. We picked up some mini blizzard treats from Dairy Queen and headed out to the Rexburg Cemetery.
Incidentally, I have a cute video that I took of Papi doing just that - two days before our visit to the cemetery.
Click here to watch: (20 seconds)
Around the same time that we were leaving Natalie's apartment complex, Amber got a phone call that she could come and get her COVID-19 vaccine that very afternoon between 2-5 p.m.!! She asked if would be okay for me to come get mine at the same time, and they said Yes!! So as soon as we were done hanging out at the cemetery, we drove home, met up with Scott, dropped off the girls, and headed over to get our arms poked. I certainly wasn't expecting to get the vaccine that day, but I'm glad that we did!
The line seemed pretty long, which worried me after that 3 hour long line at the Phoenix Rental Car Center . . . but it only took 30 minutes to get up to the front of this line. Another few minutes waiting inside the lobby of the office building, and then it was over before I knew it! We both got the Pfizer shot.
I felt a little bit woozy within a few minutes of the shot, but then I felt just fine. Later that evening I felt woozy again, just briefly, and then I was fine again. My arm was a little sore that night, and during the night while trying to sleep. I took some ibuprofen that first evening, and just once more on Saturday morning. And that was it! I was able to move my arm just fine and even pick up heavy items, like grandchildren, with no problem. But if you bumped into my arm, or hugged me a little too tightly, yowza. Back off and don't touch my arm! Today it feels completely normal. And I didn't have any other symptoms at all.
Amber was dizzy off and on, too, and her arm was sore as well. When she woke up Saturday morning, she reported that both arms were sore, and her neck was a little sore. Thankfully, it worked itself out within a short period of time, and her symptoms were minimal throughout the day.
We go back for our second dose around April 23rd. They said we can go up to 4 days prior to the 23rd, or as long as 45 days after. I think that sooner is better than later. :)
Another big project that we did on Friday evening, was to try our first test run of doing an epoxy countertop surface. We had an extra shelf that came from our walk-in closet renovation, so that ended up being our first guinea pig.
Here is a link to a Google photo album that I made. We will be adding to this in the near future as we practice, I'm sure.
In a nutshell:
- We primed the shelving with 2 coats of primer (I think Scott lightly sanded the surface first)
- Mixed the 2-part epoxy goo in a few different mixing cups
- Added Mica powder for color to each cup, mixed that up
- Poured out and spread the color onto the shelf
- Added some design elements
- Changed our mind a few times, smeared out the previous design and made a new one
- Once we were satisfied, we let it sit to start curing and hardening
- 2 days later, it is very hard and dry
- We just need to add the final glossy top coat now and let that cure
Then, Saturday, Scott took an old table that we have had stored in the garage for some time, and he did a 2nd practice session. I did not take part in this process, but Amber helped him with the design elements.
You can see how it turned out here: (It's GORGEOUS!!)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w_ErFpxjMNFYRNtBBJ87kmbTepfNYVdh/view?usp=drivesdk
Kylie is miraculously feeling much better this past week because she got some medications from her Dr. One of them is a sleeping aid, and then something else he partnered with it. Amber did something very similar when she was pregnant with Gwen. The doctor prescribed for her to take half of a Unisom tablet (sleeping aid) with something else. I'm sorry that I can't remember what the other one was! But it worked! And it's working for Kylie as well! She said she hasn't thrown up since last Monday. That's fantastic!!
We have a few more things we want to try and experiment with before we do our kitchen counter tops next month. But we are learning a LOT! The most unexpected thing? It only took maybe a half hour to go from ugly to beautiful with the epoxy. That's pretty amazing!
Also on Saturday, in between sessions of general conference, I had a little picnic lunch with Gwen outside. The weather was so warm! Around 70 degrees by mid-afternoon. Wow.
Look at her cute scrunchy nose! ha ha
We also got to talk to Kylie during our picnic lunch. She was sitting in her bathroom over in Italy, helping the pregnant momma cat (that she rescued recently) to deliver her kittens!! Two babies were born, then after a 30 minute break, two more were born. Kylie would break open the sac and rub the kitten's tummy until it mewed. Then she would pass the baby to the mommy cat to take care of the rest.
Here is one of the babies that she held up for us. It was just mewing and mewing, so tiny and cute!
They are looking for a new place to move into because there is mold growing in their current house and the landlord doesn't seem to be very worried about it. I'm not sure how quickly they'll be able to get moved though, because Benson heads off for 18 days of training this week in GREECE!! So perhaps when he gets back they can start looking in earnest for a new place.
Also this coming week . . .
Jacob and Hannah are heading into the hospital sometime on Tuesday to be induced. We will have a new grandson this week!!! We are beyond excited and can hardly wait! It is going to be so extremely hard to have to wait in order to hold him. Stupid coronavirus. I don't hate a lot of things. But I hate coronavirus now because it will prevent me from holding my new grandson anytime soon. And that's dumb.
But I will wait. And I will be patient. Because that's what a grandma is supposed to do.
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