So August started off with the family reunion. I'm going to be honest, I had a bit of a bad feeling about it from the beginning. It wasn't like a spiritual, hey-something-bad-is-going-to-happen feeling, more like me just not wanting to go! And I was a bit trepidatious of us being in such a crowded location. But I wasn't really worried about COVID. I thought, Eric and I are vaccinated and the kids will probably be fine, so I didn't give COVID too much thought. But when we walked in and saw the massive hoards of people and none of them wearing masks and completely ignoring the signs that asked non-vaccinated people to wear masks, it did make me a bit uneasy. A bit, but not enough for us to peace out and skip the reunion or anything! So we stayed. And as far as actually spending time with Eric's family went it actually was a little better than I expected. As expected, we didn't see much of Mike and Kristie's or Joseph and Erin's families except during our scheduled family times on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. But we did see a bit more of Carma and Travis and Blake and Shannon and their kids than I expected. And we got to spend a fair amount of time with Greta and Matt and their kids and Matthew and Valerie and Silva. And Emma floated around and made sure she spent some time with everyone. Overall, it was actually alright. I didn't as hot or stressed as I was worried that I would. And the kids had a BLAST. Emery LOVED the water park and would have kept going down those little slides with Maren and Silva forever I think. And Levi had a great time doing magic quest with his cousins. And the family nights were nice. The first night, we did a little family history activity where Papi had spray-painted PVC pipes brown and gave each of us "branches" to write our names on and together we literally built our family tree. That was pretty cool. And the next night Joseph and Erin were awesome and put together Seran Wrap balls for us again and, like last time, it was absolutely hilarious and a really good time. That was probably my favorite night of the reunion. We also spent some time Thursday morning doing a service project together as a family picking up trash at a park in Grapevine near the water park. That was a nice addition to the reunion I think, although it was awfully hot out there and honestly we didn't last super long. But we did get a lot of trash picked up with all 30+ of us working on it.
Anyway, so the family reunion was good. The kids had a great time and got to be with their cousins and that was what was most important to me. But then, Monday morning, we got a text from Joseph that both he and Erin tested positive for COVID. And from then on, we all started dropping like flies. Carma and Travis' family came down with it, Blake and Shannon's family tested positive, Emma got it, Nona felt symptoms, Matt and Greta's whole family got it and we got it. Eric and I tested ourselves and the kids on Monday night with OTC antigen tests and all came back negative so we went to meet the teacher night that night at Levi's school and met his new kindergarten teacher. But the next morning Eric started having a cough and feeling really tired. He started wearing a mask at home and we had him sleep upstairs to try to keep the rest of us from getting sick. The kids and I were good that week. I worked like normal and we sent Levi and Emery to school with masks on. But then by Friday, Eric's PCR test came back positive for COVID. On Saturday, my throat started feeling a little sore and on Sunday I woke up with a fever and also tested positive for COVID. The kids had no symptoms but we kept them home on Monday to be safe and retested Levi and he also tested positive for COVID. So we've all been in quarantine since then. Thankfully, our symptoms have all been pretty mild. The kids have been almost completely asymptomatic the whole time. Levi maybe had a tiny bit of congestion for a day or two but that's it. Emery hasn't had symptoms at all. We weren't able to test her again because all of the OTC antigen tests in the area have been sold out, but we just assume she also got it. Eric was worst that first week with fatigue, a mild fever and a cough and he's better now except for a lingering cough. I was worst on Sunday just super fatigued with a low grade fever. Since then I've just been a little tired and have had some mild congestion which hasn't gotten worse but also hasn't gotten better and is just kind of hanging out. We were lucky and I credit that to me and Eric being fully vaccinated. Most of our family members thankfully only had mild symptoms as well except for poor little Maren who was really sick with a 102-104 degree fever for several days and scared all of us although thankfully she never had to be hospitalized and she is doing better now. I still can't believe how many of us who were fully vaccinated tested positive! It really changed my mindset about COVID. I mean, I think I took for granted the fact I was vaccinated would mean I was protected but now I understand that the vaccine's job is to prevent SEVERE illness, death, and hospitalization- which it has done. But it is not to keep us from getting it at all or spreading it. And this Delta variant is no joke! Erin and Carma right away were like "the family reunion was 100% worth it! Wouldn't change a thing!" But Greta and I were talking and we don't feel the same. They were like, "my kids just get 10 more days of summer! and made great memories with cousins. yay!" But I'm like, this is not a good thing that we had an outbreak in our family. Who knows how many others we may have infected? And I'm glad that for their families it was only mildly inconvenient but I'm sure Shannon felt differently with her very sick little girl. And it is not easy for me and Eric to quarantine at home with the kids and have to juggle working remotely and childcare. Levi went to his first three days of kindergarten but now is home until next Friday! I'm worried that by the time he gets back, all of his classmates will have made friends with each other and he will be an outsider who doesn't know the rules. And Greta and Matt were both pretty sick and miserable and trying to trade off taking care of three energetic children while being very fatigued while Anson missed his first 10 days of school also. It's not all hanging out and playing videogames. Anyway, so I've had a lot of feelings about all this. Greta and I have talked on the phone several times which is helpful.
All things considered, this past week of quarantine actually went pretty well. Somehow, miraculously, Eric and I were able to trade off working and work at night and I ended up only having to take 1.5 hours of PTO! Which was exhausting but nice to save some of that PTO for my maternity leave. And the kids have been getting a little extra screen time and been a little bored but altogether not too bad. We've found some things to keep us busy. The kids and I have cleaned a fair amount, I've gone through all our newborn clothes and baby boy clothes and sorted them out into things to keep, recycle, sell and give away. I was able to get most of the stains out of some of Emery's old white clothes successfully which was nice. I built the shelves to go on the sides of the Murphy bed and Eric and I installed those. And I started building some under-the-bed storage drawers for Emery since we will need more clothes storage space once we get baby girl's clothes into her room. And the kids and I have played together a fair amount playing Mancala, Legos, Emery's princess game, Sushi Go, etc. Only a few more days and then Emery can go back to school and I can return to work in person- as long as my symptoms improve!
With all this going on, we've missed some of the things we were looking forward to, like the start of the soccer season! Emery and Levi both have teams and Levi gets to be with Willy from the ward which he is pretty excited about. I am excited for both of them to get to start playing! I love soccer.
On top of all of this, I can't believe how soon baby girl will be joining our family! It's less than 6 weeks away now and it's getting real. Eric and I finally went looking for our infant car seat and realized we no longer have one so ordered a new one haha. I've finished our baby registry and Lindsay Merkley and I have made some plans for a shower. I'm getting bigger and more awkward every day and my pubic symphysis and L hip are killing me at night (mostly when I roll over or stand up and take the first few steps to go to the bathroom or in the morning) so I'm seeing a pelvic floor PT on Thursday to try to get some help for that. And this week at work I start training my replacement on our team at work! She's an experienced therapist with her PCS so I'm a little bit intimidated but she's new to ECI so she'll still have some things to learn. Hopefully, we can both learn from each other!
Anyway, so that's what's been going on. Here's hoping me and Eric's residual COVID symptoms clear up quickly and we can get back to more normal life!
