Hello!
It has been an eventful two weeks in the Leake household. We have spent A LOT of time together, thank you Covid, and I am just praying for a "normal" week for us next week...but what is even normal anymore?! I will start with this week, and then backtrack to last week, which did have happier moments in it. :)
First, I will start with something positive! Richard had to work last weekend, Saturday and Sunday, but it was his last weekend of call shifts at the U! He is well underway with his credentialing and everything that needs to be done before he starts his new job on March 1st! We have his work schedule through May, which is so nice to have! He is getting his ID badge tomorrow and finishing some more training he needs to do for Intermountain. It is exciting! Also, he has worked from home so much the last three weeks, that I think it will be less of a drastic change for him as he transitions from academic medicine to private practice.
Okay, onto the adventures of our week...
Last Monday I kept Gretchen home from preschool. She had a bit of a cold, we had not tested her for Covid, but she is currently having to wear a mask to preschool because every week it seems someone else in her preschool class tests positive for Covid. My kids really dislike wearing a mask when they have a cold (who can blame them?!) so I opted to just keep her home. Well, on Tuesday morning, I woke Rachel up for school, and listened to her sniff, sniff, sniff. She was SO congested. After listening to her just while we read scriptures, I took her temperature, no fever, and then spent the next 15 minutes convincing her to stay home. She begged me not to stay home, but she was also not real inclined to get off the couch and start getting ready for school. Eventually, I persuaded her, and spur of the moment, at 8:15, we decided to give her a Covid test. We have taken no less than 20 of these home rapid Covid tests since the fall and we have never gotten a positive. Well, less than 15 minutes later, we looked at her test and were shocked, completely shocked, when it was blatantly positive. Covid finally found us. Tuesday was kind of a whirl of emotion. Because we are all fully vaccinated, the rest of us could keep going about our lives, with a mask on, as long as we felt healthy. Marshall and Bridget were good sports about wearing masks at school. Once Rachel tested positive, we just assumed Gretchen also had it. I woke up not feeling great on Tuesday, and chalked it up to being tired, and then when Rachel tested positive, I thought I might have it too! Richard and I both took home Covid tests that morning, and both came back negative. Sweet Rachel, though not terribly sick, really did not feel good on Tuesday. She never had a fever, never coughed, she was just so congested and was very tired. I tried, and failed, to try and get her to do some school work, but she was really quite out of it. We did have zoom parent teacher conference for her at 4:00, and she just kind of leaned on me and nodded her head yes or no when needed. :) At 7:00 pm, she said she wanted to go to bed, so we just had all the girls head up and get ready for bed. After several minutes of waiting for Rachel to come out of her room, I walked in to check on her. I found her in pajamas, but laying on her closet floor. She was SO tired! So I picked her up, carried her to the bathroom, brushed her teeth, and then sat her on the floor up in our little hallway so I could comb through the mass of tangles in the back of her hair. Well, something happened to her while I was combing her hair, and within minutes she was talking to Bridget, and then she asked if she could play with the girls, and then at 7:45 she wanted more dinner and by 8:00 she was running and leaping all over the house. It was crazy! She slept great that night, and woke up still somewhat congested on Wednesday, but still brimming with energy. And that sums up how she has spent her five days in quarantine! One day of feeling crummy and four days of bouncing off the walls. She was really good about getting her school work done Wednesday-Friday, practicing piano, playing with Gretchen, and watching loads of TV!
On Wednesday, Gretchen and Rachel set up a train in our big family room. It was really so cute. They made tickets for each of us and could not wait for Marshall and Bridget to come home from school. The elementary school had early out Wednesday-Friday, so Bridget was home just after 1:30 on Wednesday. The train was set up and ready to go. We each had our tickets and Rachel and Gretchen took our tickets one at a time, punched a hole in it, and showed us to our seats. Rachel took all of our orders for food, and was happy to make any food request. Gretchen was the conductor and kept the ride exciting with lots of downhills and tunnels. It was honestly so darling. We repeated all of this at 3:15 when Marshall got home. He was a real good sport about it and it was fun to have our entire family, and Ziggy, on the train. :) After this magical train ride, we decided to test Marshall for Covid because he had been a bit sniffly that day. Sure enough, positive. He was THRILLED. Anything to have school at home! Funny story though, a couple of weeks ago, Richard bought some more heavy duty masks for his own use. Wednesday morning, Marshall asked Richard if he could wear one of those masks to school. Richard said yes, and gave Marshall a new mask. Marshall tried it for a few minutes before he left for school and hated it. He complained that it was too thick, that it felt weird, it was tight, etc. We reminded him that we weren't making him wear that mask and that he could just wear one of his regular masks to school. Well, that afternoon, when he tested positive, for the most faintest of sniffles, he found that mask and wore it until Friday night! He only took it off to eat and sleep! He was committed to that thing.
For work, Richard was required to get a rapid test and a PCR test on Thursday or Friday. Since I woke up on Wednesday still not feeling great, I scheduled a PCR test for myself on Thursday. Richard and I took Bridget to school on Thursday morning and then went to the Farmington Clinic to do that. I was convinced, absolutely convinced that I had Covid. I really had not felt well Tuesday and Wednesday, and slept a lot, especially on Wednesday. By Thursday I was feeling better, but went ahead with the test. We both got our results Friday evening and they both came back negative! I was relieved, but also confused! I found myself doubting the accuracy of every single Covid test our family had taken that week. I am still wondering if how I felt earlier in the week was like a psycho-somatic response, or if I was sick with something else?!?! I cannot believe that after breathing the same air as Rachel and touching all the things she touches that Richard and I didn't get sick. I wonder now if Gretchen ever really had Covid. Did Bridget ever get it?! Ahhh!!! The questions are endless. I sure am grateful for our health, but when Rachel tested positive on Tuesday I was certain that it would just rip through all of us, and I was almost relieved Covid had finally found us. But now I feel like we will return to life tomorrow and we still get to worry if every cough, sneeze, and headache is Covid! Ah!
One big perk to having some of us in quarantine this week is that our evenings were suddenly very open! With dance and soccer off our calendars, we got everyone to bed early every night and also enjoyed time together. Richard could tell I was losing my mind on Thursday though. After I escaped for an afternoon walk with the dog, and a late afternoon trip to Target, Richard told me to go get myself some dinner and take even more time away from the house. I sure appreciated that! He and the kids made pancakes at home and I drove around, listened to a fascinating podcast and got myself dinner at Kneader's and isolated myself to a very unoccupied corner. It was lovely.
Friday night we had pizza for dinner and Richard and I finally watched Encanto with the kids. That music has been playing almost non-stop in our house since Christmas and it was fun to finally see the movie! It was so good. I loved it. And it made me love the music even more!
Yesterday morning, since Richard and I knew we didn't have Covid, we snuck out for a morning date. We drove up to Layton and got breakfast at Sill's Cafe. We have been hearing about this place for a long time, and it did not disappoint. It was delicious! We each got our own breakfast, and then split a scone. That scone was huge, and so good and loaded with honey butter. Yum. Last night, Bridget and Richard drove down to Provo and went to the BYU men's volleyball game and I stayed home with the kids who were still in quarantine. :) Richard and Bridget had Waffle Love for dinner and then had a fun time at the game, which BYU won! At home, the other kids and I had dinner and then I introduced them to Sister Act! Marshall and Rachel had their reservations, but then ended up loving it!
A couple of other things from the week...
Bridget and Rachel both had parent teacher conferences. They both got glowing reports from their teachers. Rachel made another huge jump in reading, and I am just so proud of her and grateful for her continued progress. Bridget had her first play practice for her role as Carlotta on Thursday and had the best time. She has had other rehearsals, but they have been for the chorus. She memorized her lines for Carlotta a couple of weeks ago, and was so happy to finally rehearse them with the cast! She loved it.
Okay, jumping back to the previous week, I will just touch on the highlights...
The kids didn't have school Monday and Tuesday and Richard didn't have work. On Monday morning, we picked up my Mom and drove up to Midway to go to the Ice Castles! I have been wanting to go there since we moved to Utah and we finally made it happen! We got there right when it opened at 11:00 am and the sky was a gorgeous blue. We got some amazing pictures right at the beginning with the blue hues in the ice and bright blue sky right behind us. It really was so cool to see the natural colors of the ice during the daylight. It got more overcast as the morning went on, so I am really glad we had the first hour or so with the blue sky. It was so neat to walk around and explore. There was a gorgeous fountain, slides, an amazing tunnel to walk through, as well as so many different passage ways. One had a cathedral ceiling and it was just amazing. The icicles were so cool! So many different formations. There was also a big ice chair that Rachel found that we had fun sitting in and taking pictures. We dressed really warm, and we all wore boots, but the ground was a little tricky to walk on. It was snow and ice chunks, but the snow wasn't packed down, so it wasn't easy to walk through. Gretchen, who was so excited to go to the ice castles and even wore her Elsa shirt, did not like walking around. She has never liked walking on uneven terrain, and this was the epitome of uneven! That definitely soured her enthusiasm and even though she started having more fun at the end, we listened to a lot of complaining from her. :) The teenager was also done having fun within 15 minutes. So, despite our oldest and our youngest, the rest of us had a great time! Bridget and Rachel could have stayed for hours! It was so fun having my mom there with us, and we also all loved talking to her on our drive to and from. When we were done at the Ice Castles, we stopped for a late lunch at Dairy Keen, along with everyone else in Heber it seems, but it was still good! It was a fun outing for us and after living here for 5 1/2 years, I am glad we finally went! I would love to go back at night in a couple of years to see it all lit up!
Another highlight for me from last week was I organized a neighborhood book club and I hosted our first meeting! It was a huge success! I am really, really looking forward to this! We have a great group of women and that night we scheduled all our meetings, picked all the books we are going to read, and planned who is hosting when. It was so much fun, and I am so excited!
Last Saturday night Bridget had to work at the farm. The girls she usually goes with couldn't go, so I went with her. I was grossed out, literally, the entire time, but I was also in awe at this little farm girl! She navigated hungry and excited goats, sheep and chickens. Those chickens, gag, the fresh eggs are not worth the smell of a hen house I will tell you that! I was just so proud of her. She is just completely in her element there. She works hard and never gets flustered and loves those animals.
And lastly, just a couple of random notes and funny moments I want to record. Rachel has lost a total of eight teeth and none of her permanent teeth have been quick to come in. Well, she has been missing four of those eight for well over a year, and they are finally growing in! It is so crazy it has taken so long! I also find myself really soaking up every minute of Gretchen's smile with her tiny little mouth and tiny little teeth. I am pretty sure I am going to cry when she loses her first tooth. And speaking of Gretchen never growing up, tonight at dinner we were talking about what Richard and I want to be called when we are grandparents. :) Yes, we are thinking way down the road! Anyway, Gretchen immediately chimed in and said, "I will be here with you! I stick with you! I am never growing up!" One more Gretchen story. For some reason I had to give her a fast bath last week, can't remember why. Usually, she has a bath bomb and long play time, so she was real upset this had to be so rushed. She screamed and cried the entire time. When I pulled her out she yelled, "That was hideous!"
And one more funny thing, and then I promise I am done! One night last week, Marshall said, "Okay, so I just want to make sure, you don't get paid in medical school right?" Richard just about died and set him straight real fast! Haha!
As always, thanks for reading! Here's to February! I cannot believe the first month or 2022 is almost done!
Love,
Richard, Jenny, Marshall, Bridget, Rachel, and Gretchen :)
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