Another week of DSD Online and life

On line school has been a real process. The first couple of weeks were a real struggle. The district had him in a Chinese class that was teaching the same info as he learned in Kindergarten. I called the district and they moved him to Chinese 2. I talked to the Chinese teacher at CJH and she said that wasn't good enough that he needed to be in Honors Chinese 3 and that is not offered online. Li Li wanted him to come into school once a week. I said no. Eventually, somehow they enrolled him in Chinese 3 Honors online. He is almost caught up and with the 3+ weeks he missed. The other big problem was Science. His class was impossible. I emailed the teacher and asked if she knew of any tutors. She said "maybe he should be in the online program if he needs more help." What, I thought he was enrolled in online. I called his counselor and found out that he was in 4 classes that he shouldn't have been in. Somehow they made a mistake and put him in Independent study classes instead of DSD online. It was only a couple of days before midterms so we decided to wait until this week to fix the classes. Of course the counselor forgot to make the move. I called her Monday and she switched him to the correct Science class. He has A's in the other 3 classes and really likes them so we left him in those classes. At the end of term we will move him to all online classes. The online classes have Zoom meetings with teachers and a lot more oversight. He got credit for all the Science he had completed so he is now caught up with everything except Chinese. Up until the last two days I have sat with Sean for hours every day while he does his school work but today he did it all on his own.

Utah's COVID #'s have been going up, up, up. It's so weird we are going on 7 months of this strange COVID life. And we are almost 4 years of a moronic, dictator for a President. Hopefully the President will be gone soon. He is such a despicable human. Just listening to him makes me crazy. I tried to watch the presidential debates last night but could not stomach his insane rantings.

Had lunch with my peeps. It's weird to not be going in to work.

I've upped my walking goals and I've walked the soles off my shoes.

English Assignments

 Some of Sean's writing assignments have really made me laugh. I'm conflicted about putting them on the blog but if any of the other kids had written them I would have saved them in the file cabinet. As a matter of fact there is a file for each kid full of this sort of stuff. Since it's all online I don't have anything to file so I will save it in my blog.

Assignment: All about me

All about Sean Lindsay 

I was born on November 13th 2007 in Salt Lake City. My birth parents are Ryan and Jennifer. My birth mom was adopted from foster care at six months  and then she was put back in foster care when she was 6 and raised in foster care.  My birth father was raised by a drug addict and an alcoholic. My name comes from my birth father’s half-brother that he never met and it was the coolest Irish name they could find. My birth mom is Native American. 

When I was born I had a sister who was 2 years old and one who was 1 year old. There was a lot of domestic violence and drug abuse in the house, so then I went to live with my parents Don William Lindsay and Carol Lindsay. I was 4 when I was adopted and my sisters Kylie and Brie were adopted by a different family, the Richardsons.  I still see my sisters  a lot and we talk and have sleep-overs and  go on vacations together. I have 5 adopted siblings and a bunch of half siblings I haven’t met.  Last week I found out I have a half-sister named River. 

One of the cool things about my adopted family is that we travel a lot. I've been to six continents. My favorite trip  was to Australia because the weather is perfect to me, the food is great there, and there is a beach and an ocean which is a major plus. We also have a house in Florida so we spend a lot of time in Florida so online school really works since we travel a lot. 

I like video games because they are really entertaining, and I like building computers because I’m building something I’m going to use and I think it’s really fun because it has technology involved. I also really like staying home because like I have said a bazillion times I’m lazy and I really like traveling to places I haven’t been because It’s very different from your home and what you're used to and it’s really fun to explore. I play the piano because my mom makes me and when I was five I said I wanted a piano. It was a great mistake because she got me a piano and now she won’t let me stop playing until I graduate high school. There’s even a piano in our house in Florida. I also take Chinese because my mom says it’s good for my brain. 

My goals are to graduate college, try out every hot wing possible, and get a job with computers or a job that makes a lot of money and a job that I can work from home.

 (The teacher's only comment on his story was Thanks! It's amazing you've traveled so much. I've only been in a few states.)

Assignment: Write a fiction story based on this picture. It has to have a character, a time period, weather and conflict.

Zeus is angry

 

On September 20, 2020 a continuous bolt of lightning began hitting the United States.  One bolt of lightning came through the atmosphere and then splintered into many lightning storms and destroying all the states that don’t believe in global warming.

 

 The weatherman couldn’t explain what was happening. There were no storms in the atmosphere that would explain the lightning. The lightning caused fires and there was no rain to put out the fires. The lightning destroyed the crops and very few animals are left. The lightning stuck the farm animals and killed them, others died in fire or they starved to death. And the fires are too dangerous to put out. All the places that survived wouldn’t let the people in the state or other countries. 

 

People would wander around trying to survive and trying to find shelter. Politicians were fighting blaming the crisis on everything but science. Politicians said it’s happening because the earth is flat or they thought Kim Jong Un was somehow controlling the weather.

 

The lighting went on for the next year and there was no school people couldn’t work and the economy collapsed. The United States was destroyed and no other countries would help. On September 20 2021 the lightning got even worse. Then a huge flash of lightning Zeus appeared and the people couldn’t believe it. There was no one to record the event because civilization was destroyed.

 

 The Greek God Zeus came down from the sky zapping the earth. Zeus   said since you don’t believe science you can say goodbye. “I knew God shouldn't have created you”  Zeus said. He then deleted the earth from existence for a fresh start.

 

Assignment: Write a true story from your life. Even as the Larry event was unfolding we were joking that it would make a great story some day. I laughed when Sean said he wanted to write about Larry.

   

Lost In Honduras “Larry”

Me, my family, and a bunch of my cousins decided to go on a cruise to central america. One of the countries we stopped at was Honduras.  We had hired a driver for the day and his name was Larry. We were going to a place called Daniels Sloth Hangout to see the sloths and go snorkeling.

The sloths were fun because they weren't kept in a cage and they were hanging from trees and we could even hold them. After seeing the sloths and monkeys and other animals we went snorkeling. Snorkeling was fun. We could see all kinds of sea animals.

After snorkeling someone said they wanted lobster so then Larry said “I know a place that has really good lobster”  and then he drove us like 40 miles away from the cruise ship to go get lobster.  We didn’t know what direction we were going.  The food there was mediocre and we had no idea where we were and what direction he was taking us and we kept saying “we need to leave, we need to leave” but Larry kept saying “its fine its fine.”  Then we started driving back to the cruise ship and we only had an hour before the cruise ship was going to leave.

We had 12 people cramped in the van:  4 cousins, my mom and dad, two aunts, an uncle and Larry. It was raining so hard the road was full of water and kids were filling the potholes with dirt.  We had less than an hour to get to the cruise ship. Honduras was a mess, the Government wasn’t working and the streets were full of garbage. The State department was telling Americans to get out. 

My cousin had to pee so bad he started crying but we couldn’t stop and we didn’t have passports with us, my mom didn’t even have a credit card and there were no hotels. Larry kept saying don’t worry mama. It was past time for the cruise ship to leave and my aunt was swearing at Larry. Finally Larry dropped us off at the cruise ship and the cruise ship was waiting for us so then we started to run for the cruise ship. People on their balconies of the ship were yelling at us and clapping.  We barely made it as soon as we got on board they closed the doors and the ship left. Thanks Larry.

 

A Face Lift

 No not my face, one of the rentals face. We've had V4 in Cedar Springs for 15 years or so. The kitchen is vintage 1972, the year it was built. We replaced the floors with laminate wood years ago and we've painted but we haven't replaced the counters. Don was going to remove them and replace them with laminate at Home Depot. Don still has to fix the windowsills so adding the countertop was a big job. One of the neighbors told me he had his counters refinished by a local company. I called the company Monday, they got me a quote within a few minutes and started on Wednesday. They finished today. It was pretty awesome.

Avocado green.

We also added some stain to the cupboards to cover up the scratches and dings. It probably only improved them by 30% but when you add the new counters it looks really good.

Taped up and primer sprayed. The entire job was $475. A deal because it's done and we didn't have to do it. The supplies at Home Depot would have cost that much.

It was a really smelly job.

Here's the finished project.

Cleaning and painting

It's hard to see how really huge this pile is in panoramic. The parking spaces give a little perspective. We took four loads of green waste over to the park. They had 2 churches and 2 parks where you could dump all the trees and leaves. We cleaned out the pile of grass in the back yard as well. I had been feeling pretty good the past couple weeks but after the day of 17000 steps and loading trucks my arm and chest pain has returned. I went and saw Dr Morrill today and he thinks it's muscular skeletal. I've got a massage scheduled tomorrow. Our yard is back to normal! The renters we moved from V4 to 512 have seriously cleaned the yard up. It looked pretty good before but it's crazy clean now. They really cut back the trees and shrubs in the front yard.

We had a little family evening outing where we painted the fence at V4. It was pretty fast with all four of us painting.

 

Clean up day # 3

Goodbye tree in the backyard. I went over to the backyard neighbors to help clean up the tree limbs that fell from our tree into their backyard. Her son Jeff was there and said he likes to cut down trees so he ended up cutting down the entire tree. I had Carter come over and help me drag it all out to the front yard and when the neighbors came around to pick up trees they took it all. We had such good neighbors.

There was a pigeon cowering by the garage. It was banded on both feet. I picked it up and set it in a plastic bucket by the front door. I gave it some water and called animal control to see what to do. They said it's someone's pet and it's tired, just give it some water and it will rest and then leave. A few minutes later it was pecking on my front door. I opened the door and it walked in. I put it back out and eventually it flew away.

Hot tub was/is a mess. My arms still hurt from lifting out all those buckets of water. We are going to have to get a new cover.

Somehow Vally's bird house is still standing.

Sean had an actual Utah studies assignment where he had to identify 5 natural disasters in Utah and then research two and write reports. He chose wind storms and earthquakes. Afterwards for recess he and Tyson went outside and took apart the downed fence.

They had some unique techniques for moving the wood. We still have to load up the wood and take it to the dump.

 

This is Centerville Park. The picture doesn't portray the amount of green waste there. It stretches the entire parking lot. The National Guard is there directing traffic. We went to dump a load of leaves. The guy next to us had a dump truck and he said it was the 11th load he had brought from his neighborhood.

News says it was five times worse than 2011 wind storm

We were checking into the hotel in Tallahassee when I started getting text alerts about a big wind storm. I get alerts from SGI and Centerville and the alerts didn't say where they were coming from. I figured out pretty quickly in was Centerville. We really didn't know if we were going to be able to fly home in the morning. We weren't sure if we should head back to the island or risk getting stuck in Dallas. We decided to move forward because we really wanted to be home to deal with the damage. I called Mao Yu and had her move the garbage cans and all the lawn furniture inside. I called Jackson and he and Kyle came over and took the window box air conditioner and plexi glass out of our bedroom window. Later I got a text from the neighbors that Don's truck lid almost flew off and it took three people to get it down. The neighbors also moved our trampoline.

I'm torn between being really sad over all the destruction and really grateful over what a great town we live in. 

The pictures are endless and pretty much the same. Trees and destruction. We didn't have power for two and a half days we are at three and a half days and Carter still doesn't have power.

Our plane got in around 1 and at 5 I had to go back to the airport to pick up Carter. Cedar Springs is just a disaster. Actually the entire city has been declared a disaster.

There were really weird rotor clouds. Standing clouds that don't change position but just swirl around. The weatherman said we had the equivalent of a category 2 hurricane. I never want to experience anything greater.

The neighbors new camper is totaled.

                          Over by the pond where the beavers have been chewing on the trees it a wasteland. 

Cedar Springs is impressive.

No power so it was time for board games.

Five years

Five years. It's been five years since my mom died. Not a day goes by that I don't think of her and miss her. You don't understand how much you will miss your mother until she's gone. When Carter was born I had an absolutely terrible delivery. I remember saying to my mom, "why didn't you tell me childbirth was so awful?" and she said "I thought I did." After she died I wanted to say to her "why didn't you tell me I was going to miss you so bad?" I imagine she would have said, "I thought I did."  I  know she was miserable and she told me many times she wanted to die but it doesn't take away from how much I miss her or how often there is something I need to tell her.

She said she looked like Mrs. Chancelor from the Young and the Restless in this picture.

                 

This was the last place I took her it was a bridal shower for Riley at John and Julie's house.  Mom was so excited about going and then at the last minute she decided it was too much trouble. I told her she should just go because she had been looking forward to it for weeks. She didn't have much fun, she didn't like the food, it was an hour drive and her back hurt. On the way home we stopped at McDonald's for an ice cream home and she said "that it wasn't worth the effort. I don't want to go out again" she said, and she didn't.

        So many of my childhood memories are related to my mom's polio and her falling. Shortly before the cruise she got hit by the door at Shopko and fell and got a concussion. I don't think she ever 100% recovered. I let her go into Shopko by herself and I was asleep in the car. I had MRSA in my finger and felt like crap. Someone started beeping a horn and I looked up and saw mom laying on the ground. I ran over and sat next to her on the ground until the ambulance came. When I was in 3rd grade my mom took me to the dentist and we were at the hospital and she fell. I remember standing in the hallway crying as they wheeled her away. Eventually we left the hospital and the parking attendant was gone and my  mom was crying because she didn't have money to put into the machine to get our car out of the parking lot. I had my lunch money in my bag and remember being so proud that I was able to "save the day" with my lunch money.

  She loved being a Grandma with Steph and Carter. 

                                              

 I still haven't figured out where this picture was taken.

                                          

     Oh yeah, our Glamour shots. That was a fun day at the mall.

                                

Myrtle Beach with Don's Mom, Sharon. Mom really enjoyed that trip.

A family baby shower for AJ

 Ah the 60's

                                                                     

    With AJ

                                                                          

 With Alex and Emma

                                                                  

 I'm guessing Myrtle Beach

                                                              

The beach was always our big trip

 In Idaho Falls at the temple when we went to get sealed.
 

                                    
                                                    

 Feeding popcorn to the little Sean bird

                                                  

With Grandma Dolder and Uncle Ed in Lynchburg

    When Marian and John came for a visit.

                                              

At Kerr lake with a baby Carter

                                                 

With Grandma Dolder and George Barrows

     Christmas in NC

                                                                   

No clue where we were eating

                                                          

Grandma Dolder is actually in the picture. Dad must have been taking it.

 Christmas at Grandma Dolders house on Hyde Park avenue in Durham.

                             

  Mom always liked Tepenyaki

                                                     

    Grandma Dolder's house again.

                                                   

 A conference I was in charge of when I was working at PVH

           

  Sitting in her bed at 4132 Chapel Hill Road.

                                                  

 Where she always was when I was a kid. In the kitchen.

                                           

   Dad would bring home some awful cast offs from the hospital. Like this ugly yellow chair.

               

Her new chair lift.

         

When I was looking through pictures I came across a bunch of pictures that were taken when mom was dying. I could barely stand to look at them much less post them but this one kind of made me laugh.  Mom fell and cracked her head in the kitchen and she had me take pictures and post them on Facebook with no information. She enjoyed people calling to see what had happened. The next day I had to wash her hair and she couldn't stand so I got in the shower in my underwear and had her backed up in the wheelchair to the shower and I washed her hair with the shower head. I told her she was the only patient I ever stripped down to my underwear to help shower.

 

If Roses grow in Heaven

If Roses grow in Heaven
Lord, please pick a bunch for me.
Place them in my Mother's arms
and tell her they're from me.

Tell her that I love her and miss her,
and when she turns to smile,
place a kiss upon her cheek
and hold her for awhile.

Because remembering her is easy,
I do it every day,
but there's an ache within my heart
that will never go away.

Author: Kirsten Preus