Well, it's been quite a while since I posted! Sorry about that. The last three months have been busy... The whole month of October was filled with marching band - either a competition or an all-day practice every weekend for 5 weeks straight...plus the Friday night games and practice every afternoon. And they marched in her school's Homecoming Parade.
Candy!
Friends from our neighborhood.
And Rachel went to her first high school Homecoming dance - she and her friend, Annie, went together.
Halloween came and went. Rachel was too busy to really think about it or come up with a costume. So she took a few pictures as a ghost and then just put her sloth outfit on for the evening. Jackson was some kind of lit-up masked character.
And then the Atlanta Braves won the World Series!!! Yay!! Cobb County closed schools on the day that they had their big parade, so I was able to go. Unfortunately, Cherokee didn't close and Rachel didn't want to miss any classes or not make it back in time for her game that evening, so she went to school, but we let Jackson stay home and the three of us went downtown for it. That was an experience - especially riding MARTA down and back. I'm not posting a lot of pictures from the actual parade, because they flew by and half of the players were facing the other way.
A few pictures taken in downtown Woodstock...
Jackson made the Academic Bowl team at school this year and competed in two competitions.
And he got braces - again! A few years ago he had them on his top teeth only but now they are ready to do a full set. Here we go again!
The kids and I met my friend, Kim, down at the Braves stadium one day for lunch over Thanksgiving break. We had to get a few pictures with the pretty tree...
Lucy got a pair of funny looking pajamas....
In the midst of all the craziness that is December, my last grandparent, Grandpa Davidson, went to Heaven to be with Jesus and Grandma. That was what he wanted and while we miss him here, we know he's better off and happy now. Michael and I made a super quick trip up to NC for the funeral and hurried home that afternoon because Rachel was marching in the Woodstock Christmas parade with her band. We made it just in time.
This was funny. A pirate from one of the floats came up to Jackson and it took a minute for Jackson to realize that the pirate actually stole some of his candy - instead of giving him some. It was hilarious to watch his face.
Rachel had her Christmas band concert and I was able to get a picture of her in her dress before we left. She plays percussion so it's always hard to get a good picture at the concerts because she's always in the very back.
And Jackson had his first band concert playing the trombone. It was crazy hearing the very beginning again, after we are used to hearing the high school band at this point. But you have to start somewhere!!! They did a good job and Jackson even had a speaking part towards the end.
For a few days before Christmas, we went back to NC, and this time stayed at a VRBO house on Mountain Island Lake. The view was gorgeous but it was too cold to stay outside and enjoy it. We also brought Lucy with us on this trip - her first time going on a long drive.
This was the only family picture I took while I was there, unfortunately. It's from dinner the first night with dad & Debbie and Cheryl and Bruce. We weren't able to see the rest of the family that night because Covid hit. We were able to visit with my mom and Jim the next day though - but again...no pictures.
Jackson wanted to do his version of the polar plunge - and he did it - twice! It was 37 degrees outside and he jumped in the lake. He got out pretty quickly though...said it was freezing!
Our outside decorations including the lit-up stop sign that everyone in our neighborhood loves to see.
The night we got back from Charlotte, things went sideways for Lucy. I woke up to her whimpering at 12:45 that night. We could see that she was acting very weird - like she does when she's had a seizure. Within a few minutes, she'd had two more with us there - so it was a cluster of three of them. These were the most intense ones we've ever seen her have. Michael and I took her to the emergency vet at 1:30 that night and she didn't have another one, thank goodness. They put a port in her arm though in case they had to administer meds through an IV. That didn't happen but we did start her on the medicine for epilepsy. We'd been holding off until we knew we couldn't any more and this was it. She has to have medicine every 8 hours, basically for the rest of her life. She slept most of the next day but then she had another one again in the middle of the night the next night. We upped the med again the next day and so far, she hasn't had another. Seizures aren't fun to begin with but when they keep happening in the middle of the night, it's even worse. And I was having a hard time sleeping because of her and I wasn't feeling good either.
Christmas was this past weekend and no surprise here, I didn't take any pictures. :( I was totally off my game this Christmas break. Not feeling good has affected my brain. Ha. Christmas didn't really feel like Christmas for many reasons I think. We've been so busy this whole month, it has been 70 degrees here for the last week, everyone is sick, Lucy's issues, etc. Anyways...
We got season passes for Six Flags for Christmas and decided to go the day after Christmas. There were several "technical difficulties" that they experienced throughout the day - including getting stuck on the swings and another ride they were excited about riding shut down before they could get on... So, it was a day!
We're in the last few days of 2021. This year has been more normal that last year was, that's for sure, but we're ending the year still talking about Covid everywhere. Michael is still working from home - going on two years now... He's been going in a couple of days a week for a couple of months now, but not every day. The kids are in school like normal, as am I. I'm actually starting a new position at my school next week. Rachel has joined the crew for drama at her school and will be busy with that this next month as they get ready for their winter production - Footloose! Happy New Year!
