I showed my aunt this and she said that it must have been underground for 34 years rather than 17. Lol!

My aunt lives about 7 miles north of us. We have none but we went to her house and could hear them through the closed windows if our old (squeaky and rattling) van on the highway! She had thousands in a small tree outside her condo. It's fascinating. She is in her eighties And wears hearing aids. I told her maybe turn them down a bit when she was complaining. Anyway, it is 85 here so her air conditioning is running and with her windows closed you can't hear them inside anyway. We are just amazed that we have none and she has so many. She wasn't amused when I told her the local news said they would be gone by July 4th.

I have one unvaccinated 11yo. She wears her mask everywhere inside as do my two who are not quite fully vaccinated (2nd shot last week). Next week though she has a couple days of basketball camp and I'm sure there will be no masks. I'm ok with it. Numbers are low in our state at the moment.

This is why I always tell my kids when they first stay home by themselves to not hide if someone knocks on the door but to make lots of noise so someone knows they are there.

A steam rug cleaner. I was all set to buy one a few weeks ago when our regular vacuum cleaner quit. Then my Chromebook quit, then a headphone jack piece got stuck in my phone which meant a replacement and now the rug cleaner has fallen way down the list again. My printer also appears to have bitten the dust today. My older kids say they are going to hide all tech from me!

Everyone back to normal here by about 36 hours post shots. Everyone except my 11yodd fully vaccinated!

Update on my two boys: 13yo was complaining of a headache by noon yesterday. He must have been having a few chills because he kept taking his temp. No fever. 15yo had no headache and functioned normally all day but had a fever of 101 by 10:30 last night. He took Motrin and went to bed.

DS 12 and DS 15 received second doses last night. DS 12 reports a slightly sore arm but feels fine. 15yo has yet to surface. We were the only people at the mobile clinic last night. They were waiting on one more appointment and were shutting down early. It was at our local fire station. They were expecting a better turnout on Saturday at the local ice cream place because you get free ice cream there 🤣. It was a good experience since we all just sat and talked during the 15 minutes. My 12yo got very anxious during the first shot but the relaxed atmosphere last night helped him tremendously! I was very happy because my 19yods didn't receive a card after his first dose and I was concerned about whether the health dept. had a record of it. They looked it up, found it and filled out a card for him and gave it to me (which I'm sure they weren't supposed to legally do 🙄) but anyway, now we have it and he can get his second shot done this weekend.

I've been enjoying all the stories this morning. I've messed up birthdays of my kids so much at our pediatrician's office that I'm sure they are worried about my mental acuity. The worst was when they asked me to spell one of our boys names. His name is Ezekiel but since the day he was born he has been Zekie (Zeke now that he is older). When he was about 7 the receptionist needed his name and asked me to spell it. My mind went completely blank. I tried three or four times before I got it right. She just kept giving me this deadpan stare while I was nervous giggling, trying to explain why I couldn't spell my child's name!

It is hard. My mom has aged so much this year. We had a family gathering yesterday and she sat on her motorized scooter the whole day! I found out she did move shortly after I left but my son said it was quite an ordeal to get her off it. I didn't realize how weak and immobile she had become. Part of it was because we were outside but she also had an unexplained fall early this week so I think she is partially afraid to move.

I'm way to stubborn to actually hire someone else to do it. I'll just struggle and then complain 😂

My daughter and I still laugh about the time a few years ago when she was moving and the guys left the us putting the Ikea bed together. We both like written directions; those picture directions just didn't work for either of us!

A meme went through our state fb page recently that said something like "Don't worry, ANYTHING you do in a homeschool is better than the public school.". Boy, did I have to bite my tongue not to reply!

We put a pocket door on a hallway that leads from our family room to half of our bedrooms about 10 years ago. Our builder looked at me funny when I requested it and several people told me I didn't want it, but we love it! No problems in 10 years and it's probably been mistreated more than average because of lots of kids and grandkids playing with it. I wonder if you could just have the track replaced?

This may sound harsh but he's an adult now and any further education is his responsibility. He made this choice himself after you provided him the tools to complete the math that he needed at the appropriate time. He now needs to take on the responsibility to figure out what he needs as far as a math education and how to get it. If he wants to learn, give him the Saxon books and let him at it but I wouldn't be involved any more unless he came to me with very specific conceptual questions. Maybe suggest a few math courses at the local community college.

I registered today to and it took forever because I forgot that we had blocked gambling sites on our server 🤣🤣.

I guess I'm one who needs to confess that my 11yodd will not be masking as soon as our mask mandate drops which is currently scheduled for June 2. We've been following the mandates and are going to continue following them. If numbers start going crazy again or kids begin to be more at risk, we'll reevaluate. I'm not going to continue to mask (and have already stopped - went to Sam's club yesterday - it was awesome 😎). I'm fully vaccinated and am following our state guidelines. If you all want to view me with suspicion whenever we're out and about I guess I'll have to live with it.

This is a really, really small church! When we walked in yesterday, our pastor greeted us and I asked what we were going to do. He looked at my dh (a deacon) and shrugged and said we were following local mandates as always which meant any one who was vaccinated doesn't need to mask. So it's a few anti-vaccine ladies who are annoyed.

In a strange and ironic twist of life, I am in trouble now at church because I didn't wear a mask yesterday despite the fact that I am fully vaccinated. Our church has been masking since the state mandate started - I think it was in July. Our family was masking from the time we started back meeting in person last June so before it was a mandate. Our state dropped the mandate for vaccinated people, so yesterday, I didn't wear my mask and today on fb have discovered that I am accused of being divisive in our church because those who are not vaccinated had to still wear a mask. I'm done! So done! I know some of you might not agree with me about not wearing a mask but the situation is that we are a very small congregation and are very well-spaced out. I play the piano for our services and am completely by myself in one corner for the majority of the service. For most of the year, I have been ostracized because I insisted we wear masks and follow the state mandates in a different situation (not church) and we were the only family involved following the mandates. Now I'm in trouble for following the mandates for the opposite reason. I'll be masking now until . . . forever? Because no matter what I do, I'm wrong. . .

Just checked in with my 13 and 15yo. Over 48 hours post vaccine. Both no symptoms except slight sore arm yesterday. 13 year old says his is still sore if he pushes in it - then proceeded to demonstrate by digging his fingers into his arm. Dude, that would probably hurt no matter what! 🤣 Happy to report that my 19yods got his first Pfizer today. At a mobile unit at our local ice cream shot so he got a t-shirt AND free ice cream!

We were just having a similar conversation. So, if we follow our new state mandates, my dh and I and our 17yods don't have to wear masks, my 20yods(hasn't had the time to get the vaccine - works nights, 60 plus hours a week at a new job) and 11yodd do, and my 13yo and 15yo (first shot this week) do. What a mess!

My two sons who received their first shots last night each got a free t-shirt! I was jealous, I didn't get a t-shirt! This week I have seen a bakery offering a free donut to those who come get the vaccine in a mobile unit in the parking lot and an ice cream store offering free cones for the same at their lot. If that had been going on earlier I definitely would have picked one or the other instead of just getting a shot 🤣

My two are doing fine. They both said their arms were sore but that it was no big deal.

15 yods and 13yods received theirs an hour ago. 15yo did fine. 13yo was very nervous and had to put his head down between his knees because he thought he was going to faint after the shot but is fine now. This is a known reaction for him and wasn't a surprise.

They are including everyone. There is no penalty for already being vaccinated. Everyone who is vaccinated will be entered into the drawing. There is going to be a way to check or register sometime next week, I think I saw. My ds who is 17 is excited about the prospect of winning the scholarship money. He has free tuition at a private college near us but he is my kid who would love to go and have an adventure and the possibility of free tuition, books, and room/board made him all excited last night. I didn't point out the remote chance that he wins! He can have fun dreaming until it's all over - LOL! (sorry - typing the same time as Storygirl)