the grovers - patently awesome: 2020-09

2020-09-23

Gwenism #27

Waiting for the results of a strep test at the doctor's office.

Gwen: (Reflecting on the fact that she had to stick her tongue out to be swabbed for the test) When you get tested for COVID, do you have to stick your nose out?

2020-09-19

All good things come to an end, so after Aunt Patty returned from her five-week trip, it was time for us to find new digs for the family while our house is under renovation. Gratefully, we've got grandparents nearby, so we divided and conquered. Our travel trailer is now parked at Grandma and Grandpa Scott's house, and Seth, Winnie and I sleep in there. (We are using the other bunks for storage.) Miriam sleeps in the guest bedroom at Grandma Scott's house. Bekah and Ana are sleeping in the extra bedrooms at Grandpa Dennis and Grandma Susan's house. Peach is living in the field at Grandma Susan's. We've been in our new living situation since August 9.

Grandpa Scott and Miriam in the guest bedroom where Miriam is staying. We also set up my computer in her room.

Ana petting Flee at Grandma Susan's house. It didn't take long for Ana to befriend the normally aloof feline.

Rebekah doing homework on Grandma Scott's living room floor. I particularly like the pillows she is using to prop herself up.

Winnie treating herself to a lunch of pickles, yogurt and string cheese at Grandma Scott's house.

Now on the the house itself!

Winnie and Miri pretending to be a fire in the framed fireplace in the living room.

View from the north side. Concrete was poured for the apron and the step just days ago.

View from the northwest. New garage is on the left with the walkthrough door pad poured. Concrete was also poured for the air conditioning unit closer to the corner.

View from the west. We now have a pad and step for the sliding glass door from the living room to the back yard.

View of the living room from the northwest corner.

View of the kitchen and dining room from the south.

Fireplace framed in in the master bedroom downstairs.

New concrete after the drains and vents were placed in the master bathroom.

View of the master closet/sewing room. The ceiling has been torn our partway for the HVAC.

HVAC in the ceiling of the master bedroom.

HVAC coming from the furnace in the crawlspace up through the kitchen area.

When they tore out the carpet, we found this lovely stuff on the stairs.

The ceiling wasn't going to be replaced in this upstairs bedroom, but after they took the shingles off, it rained and leaked through the ceiling.

The old master bedroom with no carpet.

Ana's old bedroom with no carpet.

View of the music room from the entry way.

View from the east of the front of the house. Covered patio with concrete and a step. Once the step was poured, we realized that the gable was not centered over the front door like it's supposed to be. So we will be getting a door with a sidelight to help everything look aesthetically pleasing.

There should be just a little bit of framing left to do in the master bathroom, then we hope things will move along from there.

Good Samaritan

This happened several weeks ago, but it needs to be recorded in the annals of our family.

One day, Miriam was out riding her bike around the neighborhood. She saw a man who was repeatedly calling out, "Marshmallow!" Being the sweet, sympathetic girls she is, Miriam approached the man and asked if he needed help.

"My dog is missing," he told her.

"What does your dog look like?" Miriam asked him.

"She's white, about this size [uses his hands to indicate about six inches], fluffy and has a little bit of brown on her like a toasted marshmallow."

Miriam rode off down our street and -- lo and behold! A white Pomeranian was walking around in someone's yard. She chased the dog around for a bit, picked it up and popped it under her arm like it was a football being carried downfield as she rode her bike back to the man.

"Is this your dog?" Miriam asked the man, a little out of breath but fully expecting relief and gratitude to wash over the man's face.

Instead, confusion and a hint of humor washed over the man's face.

"No, but she's a beaut."

Chagrinned, Miriam rode her bike back to the yard where she had found the dog and released it.

Thankfully, nobody reported a dog stolen from their yard in the five minutes Miriam made off with not-Marshmallow.

2020-09-18

Labor Day weekend

With our trailer acting as a house and set up as such, we opted to stay at Grandma Hendricks' cabin over Labor Day weekend. We made the drive from the cabin to hunting camp/camp to the cabin five times (once in the complete darkness that skewed my perception of whether or not we were on the right road), we visited Mesa Falls, we (some of us ... Seth and Bekah) went hunting and heard elk, we drove four-wheelers, we read books, we played games, we (some of us ... Seth, Bekah and Ana) saw the gut pile from the elk Mack got, we wore ourselves out.

Bekah, Peach, Winnie, Seth and Miriam outside Grandma's cabin on Friday, September 4 after we arrived. Peach loves hunting camp, so we couldn't bear to leave her behind. She slept in the kennel in the enclosed back porch and spent the rest of her time at the cabin chained out front.

Ana with a lit sparkler at the cabin.

Lily and Miriam taking pictures of Mesa Falls on Saturday, September 5. The kids and their dad were visiting from Boston before their school starts later on in the month. Uncle Jason was out hunting, so Grandma brought the kids over and met us at the falls.

Grandma Susan and Ana checking out the falls. Fremont county has a mask mandate that requires people to be masked in all public places, whether inside or outside.

Winnie at the falls.

Miriam, Winnie, Lily and Calvin on the boardwalk at the falls.

Winnie and Seth on an adventure near camp. Winnie was pretending that she needed to tear apart decaying trees to find a key that would unlock the treasure. Or something to that effect.

Digging to the trunk.

Showing me some of the moss she found.

Calvin, Lily, Miriam, Bekah, Mack and Tav playing SkyJo at camp.

Bekah and Peach at camp.

Peach, Ana and Koda (Mack and Tav's dog) at camp. There were four dogs at camp (Grandpa Dennis' dog Ruby, Uncle Doug's dog Roscoe, our Peach and Papworth's Koda). They were entertaining. Peach was the most chill of all of them.

Analee driving the four-wheeler with Andrea riding behind.

Bekah and Seth out hunting. Uncle Jason shot this picture and sent it to us.

See above.

Bekah and Ana playing Numenera at hunting camp on Sunday, September 6.

Seth and Miriam playing Numenera before the big Dutch oven dinner Grandpa Dennis provides.

Miriam, Lily, Mack, Calvin, Winnie, Bekah, Ana and Andrea eating dinner.

School starts

With more anticipation than usual, our girls went back to school Tuesday, September 1. It was the first time they had been to class in the buildings since the world went haywire with the spread of COVID in March. Things look a little different this year: all students and staff members must wear masks unless they are more than six feet away from anyone else, the district has three different attendance plans for school (fulltime in the buildings, part-time in the buildings and part-time from home, everything from home) depending on how many active cases we have in our county, no assemblies or field trips, crowd size restricted at events like football games, quarantine procedures for students who were in close contact with someone who has tested positive.

It's a whole different world out there, but we're all weathering the storm as best we can.

In addition to the pandemic, we are nomads while our home is being remodeled. Instead of taking back-to-school photos in front of our garage door, we shot them around Grandma and Grandpa Scott's home, which is our home base for now.

Masked Miriam starting fifth grade in Mr. Tangren's class.

Excited about her backpack in front of Grandma Scott's house.

Masked Winnie starting third grade in Mrs. Campbell's class.

Excited about school in front of the trailer parked at Grandma Scott's house.

Miriam and Winnie walking to the bus stop at the end of Derek. Grandma Scott's house is much closer to the bus stop than our house.

Masked Ana starting eighth grade in team Leopard.

Sporting a binder and backpack in front of Grandma Scott's sunflowers by the shop.

Bekah starting her sophomore year. Actually, this is a post-second-day-of-school photo. Bekah leaves for marching band at 6:40, so it's too dark to take a picture then. And then I forgot to take one after the first day of school.

Masked Bekah in front of Grandma Scott's garage.

Hike #9: Tablerock

It's been two years since the last time we took the older girls on Tablerock (I was worried about doing anything too strenuous last year since I had knee surgery in February 2019), so we spent the last Friday (August 28) before school started trekking to the top and back.

Grandma Scott had been afraid that she wouldn't be able to make it to the top again since she got so sick last time we went, but with some extra precautions and Grandpa's assistance, she made it.

We did some tallying after we got home, and I'm pretty sure this was my 11th time hiking Tablerock. It was Seth's 5th. It was my mom's 22nd. (Grandpa didn't come up with a tally.)

As per our usual, we went up the Face and down Huckleberry.

Ana (ahead of Bekah on the trail ... you can see her hiking sticks) and Bekah headed through the aspens on the way up the Face.

Our attempt at making a heart around Tablerock in the background.

Grandma, Ana, Andrea, Seth and Bekah on top with the Tetons in the background.

Ana pointing out the mountain goats below. While on top before, we've seen marmots and butterflies. We had never seen mountain goats. It was fun to watch them until a kid with a drone chased them away. On the way down, we met a lady in full camo with a rifle slung over her back. She said she had spent all summer hiking 90 miles to hunt mountain goats. She wasn't happy when we told her we'd seen some but a punk scared them away.