Here We Are----Week Four

Most notable this week was the announcement that we would be continuing online education for the remainder of the school year. While this came on the heels of our governor's "brilliant" and "knowledgeable" remarks about the value of opening schools because "kids are not affected " by this virus, it did not come as a surprise to me. 

I remember sitting at a basketball game with my boys in February when C.J. asked me if I thought schools would be closed for the virus.  I confess that even though I said yes, I never envisioned anything on this scale. In my mind I envisioned a two or three week break, with the school year then extending into June. 

But here we are ---on week four of lock down and here is how I've been spending all this time at home. Spoiler ---it's not overly exciting.

             -  Late Evening Walks: Ollie now knows when the 9:00 hour approaches and starts getting restless. I like these late evening walks because it's perfectly acceptable to walk around in the dark in your pj's. 

            - Learning Italian:  true story....my grandfather was 100% Italian. His mother (my great-grandmother) immigrated to the United States and spoke almost no English. She died when I was four or five and I have only a few memories of her.  I often felt sad that the language was not passed down and ended with my grandfather. So, I started about a month ago learning some simple words. I started with numbers 0-10, then moved to the days of the week, and colors. I am up to about 65 words now.  I have learned son, daughter, boy, girl, cat, dog, how are you, pretty, beautiful, hello, goodbye, breakfast, lunch, dinner, nose, mouth, ears, eyes, stomach, hands, feet, sorry, excuse me, aunt, uncle, grandma,  grandpa, no, yes, thank you, you're welcome, March, April, very good, not good, so so, I, me, you. 

I write out the word as it is spelled and then put in parentheses how it sounds phonetically. For instance; today is Giovedi (Thursday) - but phonetically is pronounced (Joe - va (long a)   de (long e) ) 

              - Giving Ollie Baths: A couple weeks ago we learned Ollie had a skin infection and I ordered some antibacterial/antifungal shampoo. I have to bathe him every other day with it and spend 10 minutes massaging it into his skin. He has begun to come running when he hears the bath water because he knows a 10 minute massage is coming up. I also have added Selson Blue medicated shampoo as an extra precaution. 

                  ---Watching 2004 Lightning Games: Fox Sports is replaying the 2004 playoff games on the "march to the cup". Game number three is tonight (they are only replaying the games they won)

                      ----Finding Old Pictures: This has been fun and speaks for itself.

                        My sis and me (about one)

                                             Me at about two-and-a-half

      News article on an f-4 tornado that tore through Oshkosh on April 21, 1974

       My elementary school - Sacred Heart School

                      Sacred Heart teachers. My mom is in the white shirt in the front. My third grade teacher is behind her, and my fifth grade teacher is the third one up in the zig-zag dress. My fourth grade teacher is in the polka dot dress. And, how weird is this? The man with the striped tie against the wall ----my future brother-in-law Kim. 

               the Franciscan nuns...my first grade teacher is in the front row with the open sweater (she was super mean and cruel), and my second grade teacher is at the top. 

                           2002 maybe?

             Itty bitty baby Zack

    Thank goodness for blood transfusions - give blood if you can

     It saved his life

           ---- and lastly...a couple more videos that kept me very entertained.

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