Coronacation - Finished the 3000 piece puzzle

I got this puzzle in January for my birthday. But we had done several puzzles over Christmas vacation and when I started on this one, it was kind of frustrating because we didn't have a space big enough to do it without it being in the way. And then, after the cats undid large portions of it several times, it seemed it would never get done. So I kind of left it there. But thanks to the pandemic and quarantine, I had the time (ha) to finish it.

Ended up with 14 misses pieces. Thanks to the cats thinking the half done puzzle was theirs for the lounging on. Made a little time lapse video (and yeah, I misspelled pieces in it).

And then I threw it away, because it had 14 missing pieces! Ugh.

q.u.a.r.a.n.t.i.n.e 2020: aka Coronacation

Soooo, life is weird right now. Really, really weird.
We've been quarantined for a month. We only leave the house to get grocery's once a week, or every other week. We do get take-out food a lot, and we go on an almost daily drive, per Piper's insistence. As an introvert, and mom to Max, I'm used to staying in, not seeing people for days. And although Piper isn't a huge extrovert, she is use to school and friends, so boredom set in quick with her. Max is oblivious that life has changed for the rest of the world. He's living his best life in the basement with his iPad. With one bonus, I'm not fighting with him in the mornings asking him to go to school. Steve is still going in to work, as his office is small, but he is only meeting with clients over the phone. The courts have all been closed, so business is pretty slow.
As church has been cancelled as well, we have an online meeting every other Sunday, and I'd love to continue pajama church forever ;)
Oddly, the one thing I miss, is going to the gym, which I find kinda funny. I really never thought I'd miss such a thing. And, my weekly pickleball game with my friends. I taped off a court in the driveway, but Piper doesn't like playing on the uneven surface.

Max is doing online classes with his teachers. Four, 30 minute sessions a day. He hates it, mostly ;) He often hides under his covers, or just flat out refuses to cooperate, or starts throwing toys. Every time I think I should just cut our loss and discontinue them, he has a really good day.

We've been baking a ton. Yum, and ugh. Pretty sure I have already gained 10 pounds. Ha.

With Piper's boredom, we been trying to come up with crafts for her to do. First up, cross stitching.

 

I got this as a white elephant a fews years back. It came in handy to teach Piper the craft ;)

Masks and gloves are now the norm when going out. So we sewed a couple for ourselves.

Birthday play-doh from Grandma.

Happy Easter

Max refused to color eggs this year, so it was all this girl.

 

Easter Legos... seems to be a theme going on here...

Max Turns 11 - Woah

Happy Birthday Max!!!!
You are 11 (going on 3).
You still have 3 basic interests in life - the iPad (mostly YouTube), Peppa Pig, and french fries.
So... I decided on a shark cake ;) Hey, we were quarantined, and Shark Week was having a quarantine Shark Weekend, so it seemed appropriate... OK, maybe it's me that likes sharks. And well, I am the one making the cake, and Max doesn't talk, so he can't tell me what he really wants, so... shark it is!!

I kinda loved how the waves turned out for the bottom layer.

Piper said it couldn't be scary. She wanted a cute shark. Ha. So.... tada!

Max liked it, I think. Or maybe he just liked the taste of it ;) A few years back he wouldn't even eat cake. I think he may have had 3 pieces in about 30 minutes this year ;) Not sure if that's necessarily a good thing, but...

Because of the quarantine, we didn't have family over. We skyped in a couple of the fam to sing. I actually took over cupcakes for my mom, brother, and nephew who live close, so they could eat cake with us ;)

{Yes, that is Christmas wrapping paper ;) Hey, running to the store for wrapping paper isn't on the essentials list for leaving the house, sooo... it's what we had! This quarantine thing is quite the experience.}

{Note the hair... I take a wack at it every few nights. It's getting shorter. Slightly less mullet-y. Ha}

Since we couldn't really go anywhere, we had a little playtime in the driveway ;) Actually kinda perfect for Max.

He 'said' he was drawing Peppa Pig ;)

I think the cats enjoyed the festivities as well.

Stay tuned for the bday videos, up next!

Max birthday videos

What does a shark say? Rahr rahr! ;)

March videos

Surprise - it's the cat ;)

March {the second half}

Mid March brought craziness to the entire globe.
Covid-19, coronavirus, THE pandemic of the current century, spread rapidly from China. Cruise ships weren't allowed to dock and passengers were stuck on board for weeks trying to control the spread of the virus. In some, it looked like the common cold, while in others, it looked like severe pneumonia and even death. When it hit Utah, our community just closed down. Schools, churches, any non-essential stores, restaurants, all shut down to prevent the spread of Covid-19. We were advised to shelter in place, or stay at home unless you absolutely needed to go out to get food. We started wearing gloves and masks to the store.
Our schools shut down the week before spring break.

Piper and Steve had rescheduled their Disney cruise (from October, when he landed in the ER) to spring break. But the week before the cruise, all cruise ships shut down, and so their cruise was cancelled yet again. Piper was obviously upset, and somehow that brought about the decision to get another cat (ya know, because 10 pets isn't quite enough - 2 cats, a dog, a gecko, a fish, a snail, a frog, and a couple of hermit crabs...).

We looked for a few days, and then found this guy, Gordon Ramsey. He was kind of a mess, FIV+, almost toothless, several wounds all over his head. But he kind of loved Piper. I told her we'd have to think about it.

And then I went back and got him, and surprised her. Yeah, I'm a sucker.

But he is really cute! (A month and a half later, he still has no name, is afraid of the dog and hisses and attacks her weekly, if not daily. Gets along with Scooter really well, but kind of terrorizes Kiki a lot.)

Since we were on quarantine, it was the prefect time to work on this 3000 piece puzzle that I got for my birthday.

And we got out the board games.

Also, sidewalk chalk became a big thing in the neighborhood.

 We added some Easter eggs in the trees.

People started panic buying toilet paper, bottled water, and ramen noodles. It was nuts. And since Max only eats about 3 foods (one of which is ramen noodles), I did actually start to panic. A friend left these on our porch :)

Costco was out of toilet paper for weeks and weeks. Social distancing was the new norm - staying 6 feet away from everyone except your immediate family you are quarantined with. This was the line to get into Costco.

Toilet paper was stocked finally!!!!

The 'new boy cat' (that's what I've been calling him) was adjusting pretty well, other than attacking the dog from time to time ;)

Piper fought off the boredom by doing crafts and making care packages for friends and neighbors.

Then, Utah had a 4.6 earthquake to send people into further panic, followed by a nice spring snowstorm. After shocks continued for a month!

I missed my weekly pickleball games with my friends.

Max was living his best life. No school!!!! And no church. Rarely put on pants. Only got in the car once a week or so to go get fries. Thank goodness the drive thrus were still open.

Not helpful, kitties.

And then, homeschool.

Weird weird times....