Life Beyond Quarantine

This picture is perfect to describe our quarantine.

And this one describes the rest of it.  Luna doesn't show up well on camera though.

Sure enough though, we did our 10 days out from last active symptoms and reentered the world once again.  July 4th was our first day out of quarantine.  We went to my sister's house for some smoked meat and swimming.  We had a really competitive water basketball game between the parents and kids.

The boys were doing some kind of poppers.

We came back to our house afterwards , bringing her family along with us because we live outside the city limits and can do our own fireworks.  

 

It's Independence Day!

Due to some craziness with our landlady and next year's rental contract, we are having to move.  We have been looking at houses and thought we missed out on the one that we liked the best.  While we were looking at it, our realtor (and good friend) texted the listing agent to find out more and found that they'd just accepted an offer.  However, it fell through a couple days later and we jumped on it.  All looks well so far and we are pending contract as I write this which is quite a bit later than the actual July 4th.  So we went into full packing mode the week after the Fourth.

The day before the holiday, my sweet boy Bob, AKA the Flash, brought me Peter Rabbit and asked me to read to him right after I'd laid down for a tiny break.  How can one resist the Flash such a request?!

Brian used our ice cream maker to  make us cookies and cream home-made ice cream in the afternoon of the 4th of July.  We all got very small portions as the electric machine isn't built for big families.

Brian smoked some ribs and we had chilli dogs too since we didn't have quite enough ribs to go around as a main course for everyone.

After dinner, my brother's family came over for roasting marshmallows and making s'mores.  This didn't turn out so great because it's so HOT here, but we were trying to burn some of our built up brush that wouldn't fit in our compost bin since we are moving soon.  Let's just say it was short lived.

Then we moved to the front yard and did our own fireworks.  No big fireworks shows this year, because...corona.  We didn't let it get us down, we made our own fun and the rest of the neighborhood did as well.  We are outside the city limits and so completely in our legal rights to do our own fireworks.  

It started out in the light of the evening and with all children happy and excited...

Someone *may* have went overboard in buying fireworks.

Every child held sparklers (Secret:  I never have held a sparkler!)...

Still smiling...

And then somewhere early on in the evening, a Saturn something or other shot some fireworks between a few children and the two littlest boys, Bob and Turner never fully recovered.

At some point in hopes of coaxing out their cousin, one of my boys got the noise cancelling headset for Turner so he'd come back out of the house and watch the neighborhood shows.

Our Smiley Face Independence Day 2019

I have been going to the gym this summer and so I started the day with a little Cross-fit action at the gym. Brian and Genevieve went running because she is working on her 100 mile challenge this summer.  At this point, she was almost halfway there!

We drove to Marble Falls to visit friends and family.  Started out at Nanna's house for some haircuts for Drew and Bob, and then we all met friends at a restaurant.

Nanna got herself a new cat, Molly, and she was overwhelmed by our brood, so Genevieve spent the good part of an hour trying to convince her to come out from under the chair.

The fireworks in Marble Falls are done from a boat in the river.  There was a church that hosted a festival and opened their lawn for firework viewing.  We claimed a spot with blankets and chairs, and the kids got sno-cones, jumped in bouncy houses and played games while we waited for the sun to set.

I passed out glow bracelets as the sun set and I reminded all the kids about the game I played as a child with my family during fireworks where we'd try to guess what color would be next.  And as the fireworks started we quickly realized that that game is out of date since they don't just do one firework at a time anymore.  Plus, the fireworks would start one color and change to another color.  Then the littles' minds were totally blown when the fireworks made a star shape, a Saturn shape, and then to top it all off, a smiley face.  You should have heard the gasps.  Somewhere in there Judah, who was in my lap, and I came up with the idea to give the displays names.  Judah had some really good ones like "Rain Cloud," "Dripping Shimmer," and "Buzzing Bees."  I loved listening to his creative, and sometimes funny/sometimes genius names.

Bobby is growing up I guess because he sat captivated in his mini camper chair.  It was a really nice afternoon/evening where I felt we made meaningful memories together.  Hannah only has four years left with us, and that is hard for this mom to accept.

We arrived home at midnight and the oldest four went out with Brian to do their own fireworks display.  The littlest two were carried in and placed in bed already sound asleep after the hour drive.  My heart can't handle watching my children play with fireworks.  I'm a wuss when it comes to fire.

The day was quite busy, but I did find myself thinking of Lillian a few times.  It was nine years ago today that I miscarried, and she would be eight years old now.  I wore my Lily necklace that Brian got me years ago as a nod to my Sweet Pea.

Lost and Found: 4th of July

 The day started off the way most Fourth of July's do for me.  I woke up and thought of my 4th eight years ago.  This particular day, I remembered her when I put on the same dress that I wore eight years ago.  I guess it's because it is blue.  Although my 4th always starts out this way, I also have so many good memories of this holiday from my childhood that intermingle with this touch of sadness for the child I never got to know.  I am so blessed to have a big family to make memories with on Independence Day.

We started the day with daily Mass at the chapel with our own personal priest giving us a beautiful homily about faith and how it must change you.  Then we drove to Saarbrucken and got on our BBQ Donut.  That's right, you heard me correctly.  It's an inner-tube on the river with a grill in the middle!  Crazy stuff, right?!

The Brians Test Driving It

First thing was for Brian to test drive it, and the kids and I took some pictures while they were gone figuring out how to work this thing.

This is when the real fun began.  One Brian drove and one Brian grilled the meat and veggies we brought.  My job was to cut up the meat for everyone when it came off the grill.  That turned out to be more challenging and time consuming than usual.  The table was a funny shape and we only had one real knife, so I had to cut it up for all nine of us.

Hannah was trying to not get dirty, have any bugs land on her, or break a sweat in the sun.  She had a blast. 

Genevieve and I worked on a crossword puzzle some of the time.

My Two Little Loves

We accrued a good number of duck friends as we motored down the river.  They must be familiar with the BBQ Donut and the food that could fall from it.

If you look closely you can see our entourage of duck fans trailing us.

After our two hour BBQ Donut ride was over, we went home to get in a nap before the late night of fireworks commenced.  The fireworks were on the American base, there was a large carnival type thing that was going on most of the day.  We went to get something to eat for dinner and hung out with friends until it was time to get settled for the fireworks.

This is when our perfectly good day starts to spiral downwards.  We found a spot for our blankets, and Drew needed to go potty.  Then Bob say s he needs to go too.  Brian ended up taking all four boys and our two male friends along with them.  They had not been gone for long when the anthems begin and we all stand.  After the anthems, the fireworks immediately started going.  We turned to realize that we couldn't see a thing because they were exactly behind the tree.  We frantically grabbed our stuff and tried to find a close by place where we could see.  I didn't pick well.  In front of us, people were standing to watch the fireworks and we had to look between their heads (which kept moving) to see some of the fireworks.

Our cell phones were jammed in the area of the fireworks for some reason, so I couldn't message Brian our whereabouts, so I kept looking back to see if they materialized.  Eventually, they show up and Brian was frustrated that we couldn't really see still and so he grabbed one blanket and moved to another spot leaving me with Bobby and Drew, and the girls.  I didn't want to miss any more of the fireworks, so we just stayed in place, but I was lamenting the fact that we weren't all together.  I asked Drew if Judah was with Daddy and he said that he was with Godfather.  I said something to the effect of, "I hope so" and kept on watching the fireworks.  Bob wasn't sure about them, and so I was trying to make it seem super fun and not at all scary for his sake.

What seemed like about ten minutes later Brian comes back and asks if Judah is with me.  He proceeds to tell me, a little panicked, that he is not with him or Godfather and that he hadn't seen him since they started making their way back to us form the potty break.  Time to freak out.  It's dark and loud and my almost five year old son is missing in a sea of Americans all crowded into one little corner of Germany.

Isaac tried to help me look for him around the field while Brian disappeared to look for him too.  Again, remember that the cell phones were not working at all.  I was trying to stay calm, but had no idea where to look.  Brian came back about 10 minutes later with Judah, saying he found him in the Child Lost and Found where the military police had taken him when a nice lady had brought him to them after she'd found him wandering around crying.

It turned out that when the fireworks had started, Bobby started crying and Brian picked him up to carry him.  Judah covered his ears and was following behind, but at some point got distracted by watching the fireworks.  When he looked back up to find Daddy he was already lost.  

Our ridiculous view of the fireworks...if you're reading this, please sit down when people behind you are trying to see!

In Brian's defense, he's not at all used to having Bobby thrown in the mix for potty breaks.  It was a change in dynamic that he didn't think through.  When you have a big family, it is so common to pay attention to only the youngest and most helpless and assume the older ones can keep up.  It was a good reminder to us to talk again about our separation plan to the children and what to do in a similar situation.  It was also a good reminder to Brian and I to be more vigilant.  And finally, it was the best place for him to have gotten lost (even though it didn't seem like it at the time) as it turns out because they were all set up for the occurrence of lost children.

But it did ruin our fireworks for sure!  I barely saw those things, and not only because of the standing up people or the trees.  You better believe that I gave that boy the biggest, longest hug I could when I got him in my arms.  I covered him in kisses and told him a hundred of times how happy I was that he was safe with us again.