2021 Has Come & Gone...Now to Try to Catch Up (January-March)

 2021 was quite the year and it went by without me doing a blog post. I got so far behind, that is was dauting thinking about getting it started again. It still feels that way, but I'm going to try to just knock out a post for every few months. It won't be anything special as I'll just being using pictures and my calendar to try to remember what actually happend as I can't hardly remember what all happened just yesterday :-). So let's start with January through March.

Looking back at pictures, January and February were full of basketball and snow.  But in the first part of the month, I started my BRCA surgeries with having a complete hysterectomy. I have my ovaries, tubes, uterus and cervix removed. I had to be there at 5:30am on a Monday morning and Lincoln had games in Jeff City the day before, we Andrew and I went to his games and the Hickmans gave him a ride back to Kirksville while we stayed in Columbia. We had an early dinner at Cracker Barrel since my surgeon didn't want me eating after 3pm. And since we were staying in a hotel near where our old apartment was, I went for a run around the old neighborhood and then spent the rest of the day trying not to think about how hungry I was while eating jello cups. The surgery went well the next morning and I was able to go home later that day. Andrew, the kids and my parents were great about making sure things were taken care of around the house and meals. They went in on house cleanings and some food gift cards and it all made the recovery process easier.

Besides the surgery, it pretty much was basketball and snow. I think we had quite a few snow days, which the kids enjoyed. They did try to do some virtual learning with some of them though. But they also got outside and played, went out to the ranch and did some sledding and exploring and helped out around the house. 

Lincoln played basketball several weekends in Jeff City, Columbia and finished the season in March at a tournament in Leonard where they came away with first place. The twins' season was shortened because of the weather and sick teammates, but they just played in the Schuyler league and kept improving. I think their only losses came from the other Kirksville team.

Jackson and Ellie were still doing hybrid learning and had A and B days as far as attending school. It was actually nice having them home a little more and Jovie really enjoyed it too. 

Lincoln and the twins got to have Valentines parties at school, but parents weren't allowed to attend. They also were supposed to make Valentine boxes. They are never something my crew are too excited about, but we got them done. The kids gifts were gift certificates to get whatever snack they wanted at the store for a family movie night. And we had some family in town that weekend, so I made a candy charcuterie board for everyone to share. 

February also brought the time for me to start training for the Des Moines Half Ironman. It was definitely different all around after being off after surgery and even some before surgery. Plus, our aquatic center was still closed, so I did my swimming on a tether at the Depot Inn pool. Not ideal, but I was thankful they let me use the pool. Andy also set me up with a guy near him who was selling his girlfriend's tri bike that had electronic shifting. I was appreciative that Andrew let me buy it and loved the ease of the shifting once I got it indexed.

As February turned to March, we finished up basketball and started looking at soccer with a few practices when some warmer weather would show up.

For Spring Break, we took the kids to St. Louis for a few days and had a great time. It was a Christmas gift for them and we included a few different activities. When we first got into town, we went to the Upper Limits climbing gym. It wasns't crowded at all, which was wonderful and the kids had a great time. It was nice weather, so our next stop was Ballwin Sno-Cone and we met Sara's family there for some ice cream, sno-cones and funnel cakes. Then that evening we went to Top Gold and brought Bella and Brady with us along with Lissy, Molly and Brad. It definitely was a learning lesson for my kids on how to swing a golf club, but they were getting the hang of it by the end of it. We stayed the night with the Sedlaks and then ended our break the next morning at Defy. We went in the morning and pretty much had the place to ourselves so the kids could just bounce all over. It ended up being a great little break from Kirksville.

The rest of break was spent back at home not doing too much. Ellie decided she wanted to redo her room. She used some paint we already had and Andrew helped her paint. Then she used some of her own money to buy some accessories and we pitched in a little bit. She was pretty happy with how it all turned out. 

Andrew started up his new hobby of slabbing wood. He cut down some big trees and then would make slabs out of them. He currently has two wood piles (one out at the ranch and one in our backyard) where he is letting the slabs dry out. He is supposed to be using some of them to make a new patio table for us. 

Andrew also spent quite a bit of time out at the ranch taking care of his cows and putting out hay. Good thing he had Jovie to help him out.

I had my second surgery of the year in March, but it was just PRK surgery on my eyes to help with my distance vision. It was more frustrating than what I was hoping as it took several months for my vision to actually clear up which actually affected me more than I thought it would. My distance vision is definitely better which is wonderful, but I did lose my near vision and have to wear reading glasses now. I knew that going into it though. I don't have any pictures of myself, just Bennett wearing my protection goggles.

The end of March saw track season begin with the Snowshoe Classic. While it was cold, it was fun seeing Jackson out there again. He realized it was going to be a season of adjustments and relearning as his last track season had been in 8th grade and he put on some weight and muscle since then which changed how his body moved. I think it was by the third meet he decided to give up on high jump and focus solely on hurdles.