COVID - 19

These are crazy times.
A little over a month ago we started to hear about a virus in China, the Corona Virus. It has flu like symptoms, really contagious, about a 2-3% mortality rate (mostly older people and/or immunosuppressed).  Made it's way to Japan, then of course the United States. Eventually we started hearing words like "shelter in place", "Quarantine", "Self Isolation".
Our schools are closed until at least May 1st. I've been working from home for 13 days now and the kids and I haven't been anywhere except grocery pick up and the occasional hike. Our governors, mayors, President have said we all must socially distance ourselves from anyone but our immediate family. Thank goodness my work is letting me work from home since we wouldn't have anyone to watch the kiddos. My dad is over 60 so I don't want to put him at risk by having him watch the kids. The thing with this virus is you could have it and not have any symptoms but you could pass it on to someone else for like a month!
So we're doing our part. Staying home. Of course there are essential businesses that remain open, hospitals, grocery stores, pharmacies and of course the beverage industry. So Todd is still working. IN fact he's in Memphis this week trying to get the plant down there back on track.
We start eLearning on Wednesday and man I'm nervous! I'll have to continue to work and have these kiddos do schoolwork 4 days a week. Eeeek! We'll see how it goes. For now, we're sheltering, social distancing, quarantining and hoping people listen and we can go back to our regularly scheduled program in about a month!

Panama City Beach 2019

Fall Break has been questionable all year. We didn't know if we were going to be able to go until only a few weeks before we left. We didn't have a huge budget so I was on the hunt for a reasonable condo for months. I found the perfect one right in budget but it meant switching condo complexes from the one we've been going to for 10 years! It ended up being great though and nowI'm pretty sure we want to go back to Emerald Isle every year!
I was pleasantly surprised by the ride down this year. I got the three littles busy bags with puzzles, coloring books, etc. and I got Evan about 10 used DS games. And allllll the downloaded movies on devices from Netflix. Oh and the best part!? The kids didn't know we were going anywhere! We didn't tell them we were going to Florida, we woke them up at 4am, told them we were going for a little drive and they went back to sleep. We told them when they woke up and they were super excited!

As soon as we got there we checked out our room, it was amazing! And the balcony was HUGE! Then we went to the beach for a bit then watched the sunset. Magical. The next 7 days were about the same. Beach, pool, beach, pool, eat, beach, pool, eat, sunset, crash out while watching tv.
We did a few things outside the resort. The pirate cruise which was a big hit and we rented a pontoon for half a day to go to Shell Island. So fun! We tried fishing but it was a bust. It's hard to know where to fish in the ocean.

I took family photos on the beach and even with all the yelling and craziness they turned out great. We had an impromptu dolphin show while we were out there, it was awesome!
Nows the part I bombard you with pictures. It's so hard for me to narrow them down so sorry there's an overload.

This and That

Man.   I don't even know where to start. So much time passes between blog posts I forget what I've covered, what I haven't shared. But of course everything is shared on Instagram and Facebook so I guess the blog isn't needed? But no, I still really like the idea of having a blog. It's just so dang busy right now I don't have a lot of available time to blog.
Winter, Spring and Summer have passed by in a blink. The kids are back to school. All four had birthdays in the spring and summer and I now have a 10(!), 8 and 5 year olds! Crazy.
We had Audrey in gymnastics over the summer and that's wrapping up in time for her to get back into dance. After being out of dance for two years Erin starts back this fall. Both boys are in soccer. Evan tried out for both Select soccer and soccer at his Middle School but didn't make either team. He took it in stride though. Honestly, he could care less. He likes soccer but he doesn't love it. He's in it as long as he can have fun - competition isn't his objective. I'm ok with that!
That said, I'm going to post a few pictures of the past 6 months and I'll let the pictures tell most of the story. We've had fun, and we're enjoying life!

And how could I forget to introduce Max!! He's a silver lab. And currently the bane of my existence...but he's a puppy and he's learning. 

 Hopefully more to come soon - and more organized :)