A Ton of Fun in 2021: Week 39 Recap

Well, we have put it off for long enough. After finding out our dear friend Steve Kurtz (Kurtzy) was in the hospital with COVID, we decided it might be time. I didn't tell anyone I was was doing it, but instead called Jeremy after I had done it and announced I had got the Moderna COVID vaccination first shot. There were so many contributors as to why I decided, but the #1 reason is that I want to travel to a conference in Seattle in November
and they stated the only way we would be able to attend is with a vaccination card. Don't mess with my travel and getting outta here. 

Kurtzy and I celebrate the same birthday. In fact, I remember joking in college something about my birthday and he said it was his special day too. I made him show me his ID and sure enough...birthday buddies. He also played football with Jeremy and was a close friend, close enough Jerm asked him to be in our wedding party. Most of the pictures I had of him were from our wedding. When I read the news on Facebook that on Tuesday, Sept. 21 he died of COVID, I didn't believe. it. Jeremy certainly didn't believe it either. We stayed up late that evening looking at pictures and remembering our friend. It was raining hard out, so we went outside around midnight and brought in all the outside furniture's covers so they didn't get wet. (Keep reading-ugh) Jeremy finally drifted off around 1, but I was reacting terrible to the shot. I was cold and teeth chattering and couldn't get comfortable. Furthermore, I was feeling like bugs were crawling on me. I ended up sleeping on the couch that night. 

Tuesday we thought was the worst, but Wednesday was our rock bottom. Since I was sleeping on the couch I heard Jeremy yell/cry out NOOOOOOOOOOO. Oh noooooooo. I ran downstairs to find the entire basement flooded throughout about 3 inches high. The kids came running down and we were all in disbelief. I started making phone calls. We found out we had $1,000 deductible and only $5,000 coverage. So the first thing we did was carry all our furniture up into the garage. We were exhausted from being up so late, I was really beat with maybe 2 hours sleep and my right arm felt like it was going to fall off. To make matters worse, the back stairs are wood, my feet slipped and I went riding about 5 stairs down on my back into the water. I sat at the bottom and just cried. Then said, well there is no time for this and got up and kept going. Now we have 2 sump pumps, a 3-foot retaining wall AND a back-up generator should we lose power. We didn't lose power and the sump pumps were running, but the water was still falling over the wall like a waterfall. It was simply too much to keep up. We called the city later in the week to come look to see if there was a back up on our street. They said it wasn't their problem, but it was the third highest recorded rainfall in a 12 hour period in Lima since 1901. Oh thanks, that's comforting- NOT. 

We called Browns first to get the water out. Luckily, they were there within the hour pumping us free of water. Next we called Swartz to dry us out. They came and Laken's hubby Jayden works for them. He rode some thing that looked like a segway and sucked out the water out of the carpet. He was here for like 8 hours on that first day. They put up 3 dehumidifiers and nearly 40 little fans throughout the basement...for 6 days.  They had to drill holes in the walls to dry out the insulation, so they took off all the baseboard. They also pulled up all the carpet to dry underneath as well. In the end we didn't loose too many big things- just the mattress that went on the pull out couch and the xbox that sat in the water too long. Otherwise, everything else was salvaged. We didn't get to put everything back together until the following weekend, but finally is put back together and all cleaned!  

Back at school, the PRSSA Chapter had a big week with speaker Steven Miller, ONU alumni who has worked at Disney for the past 23 years. It was such a great topic and since Steven had had Dr. I as a professor and this was Zoom call, we invited him back as well. Since we are headed to Disney soon for their 50th anniversary, I was particularly interested in all the tips and insight he could share about the parks. How fun to work on something so monumental. 

After the week we've had, Jeremy and decided we needed a night away at Texas Roadhouse on Friday night. I ordered a fishbowl drink and posted it on Facebook. My sweet friend Ann decided she wanted to treat me to the fishbowl and electronically venmo'ed me some dollars to cover it.  So stinkin sweet!  

The last part of the weekend ended with Isaac mowing by himself for the first time. Jeremy is so particular about his lawn, that I couldn't even believe it was happening, therefore I grabbed my phone and started recording. I don't totally feel comfortable with him running this next to the pool yet, but he's getting good.  I don't even know how to turn the the thing on and move it out of the garage, so win for me. 

A Ton of Fun in 2021: Week 38 Recap

I am always on Pinterest looking up a recipe to throw in the instapot or cook up for the evening. Recently I found a new love that I can't get enough of -Zucchini boats. No one else in my household will touch them, but they're missing out.  I've made them for lunch like three times in the last two weeks.  

We have a killer line up of PRSSA Meeting's this fall. This week was no exception. Micheala Long came in this week to speak to the group. She works for Cooper Tire in Findlay, but they just got absorbed by Goodyear Tire recently. She talked about all the change that has happened recently. I was just happy we could grab dinner and catch up. 

Today's volleyball game was at 9 a.m. at Waynesfield. We played Cory Rawson today.Missed 20 serves overall.  😢10-25, 16-25, and 18-25.  As Olivia said after the game, "we are undefeated in being defeated". LOL. Well that's one way to look at it. Plenty of room for growth throughout the season!

It's time to decorate for Fall! We headed to Amhurst after the volleyball game in Waynesfield and picked up some mums and pumpkins to sit around. It was also Elida's Laural Oaks craft show outside. I've never been, but decided to go over and walk through. I found a sign to put on my porch that says welcome and was so excited to bring it home and put everything together.  Below is the final look. I'm loving it.  

Cleaning Olivia's Room. No one wants to do it- she certainly doesn't ever want ever pick it up. It looks like a tornado went through most days and I can't handle it anymore.  I made her carry everything out of her room. I mean the only thing that remained was the bed frame and her dresser without the drawers. Everything got wiped down and sorted through.  The closet was emptied as well.  I wished I would have taken before pictures. Nearly 5 hours it took to go through everything. We moved the bed a couple of different ways and ended up back to the original space. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought her a little night stand to put her elephant lamp on and she's made a deal with me if she can keep it clean for a month, I'll give her $20 to get something new to put in there. I am trying to get her to make it a habit.  Time will tell. 

A Ton of Fun in 2021: Week 37 Recap

How many people get to spend their Labor Day celebrating one of their most favorite people in the world turning 88?! This girl! Sylvia (my mom's mom) AKA Granny has circled the sun 88 times in her life and she's still living on her own, gardening and feeding the cats. I simply adore her and don't get to see her as much as I'd like and I should because she's one of my biggest fans. As the first grandchild on that side, it's no secret I'm the favorite (LOL- sorry to bust your bubble Megan!). There are plenty of girl grandchildren - actually 5 of us and then my brother. So us girls always joke we're all the favorite. At any rate, for Granny's birthday we all met at Sue's to celebrate. We sat around talking while our kids swam (or those who weren't old enough crawled around) and we just enjoyed each other's company.  It was amazingly perfect in every way. Oh, and Tom's sweet corn is AMAZING! Olivia and I had at least three ears each!

I could have stayed at Aunt Sue's for days, but my kiddos had their first day of school Tuesday, Sept. 7.  Isaac is entering 5th grade and Olivia 4th.  Both were so excited to get going, as they did have four months off and all the area schools have been back for several weeks.  In our typical traditional style, we got first day pictures of both kids before seeing them off. I'm so happy that Jeremy goes into work late in order to see them off too.  Maw also comes over wish them well!  

Ok, so we are trying out a new gym this fall for tumbling. Infinity Gym in Ottawa is where Olivia will now be taking tumbling. Our old gym seemed to not be helping her progress as quickly as we'd hoped. In fact, she was doing back handsprings and still in with other girls who couldn't do cartwheels. It was time to either quit the gym or get somewhere where instructors would push her and have her progress. This week was our first night. Olivia said they did lots of things to see where their skill levels were so next week they could appropriately place them.  

Monday and Wednesdays every week we have volleyball.  This week practice was moved due to team/individual pictures. Oh my goodness this group is a hoot! I grabbed my phone and snapped a few of the 4th graders who are on my team. Brandy, Sophia, Lia and Olivia!

Thursday is always a crazy day of teaching and then PRSSA in the evening. But this week was pretty anticipated as Chris Nelson was coming to speak. Chris worked at Ketchum when I interned there and he had Steve Iseman (my prof and late in life colleague) as a professor at Ohio State. At any rate, he's one of the best in the field concerning crisis PR and always still makes the trip to ONU to speak to the group.  Steve was able to come enjoy the evening with us too, so all and all it was outstanding reunion!

This last picture is just the kids getting on the bus on Friday.  I think it's funny that they alway open up the back hatch of the vehicle and sit in there waiting for the bus. I've really never thought too much about it, but wanted to capture this moment as it's just something they do throughout the year and wanted to be sure to include it in the blog!