August 30, 2020

Someone is getting sick of eating by herself in her room.  So we had dinner together.

August 29, 2020

We drove down to see Riley today.  We picked her up and then drove over to McCormick's Creek.  We hiked to a waterfall, had a picnic, then drove to Lake Monroe AND showed her all of the places that we lived while in Bloomington.  We also took her to one of Uncle Joe's old houses.  We went to dinner at a place called Hoosiers and had tenderloins and Rick and Riley got some ice cream.  I'd say it was a pretty full day.

August 28, 2020

Pretty much the story of my life.

August 27, 2020

Apparently dorm food is leaving much to be desired.  Because of COVID, students can't eat in the cafeteria.  Instead, they have to go on to grubhub and order their food, then walk to a different dorm and pick it up.  The food is pretty much cold and nasty by that point.  They have promised that they are working to fix the issue.  Riley has a big fridge in her room (not like a normal fridge but probably twice as big as my little one I had in my room).  I bought some food that she can put in her fridge to help out.  She told me she missed vegetables because the salad bars are closed.

 

Remember last week when I showed you the cute car seat doll popping up over the car seat in our storage area?  I had to move the car seat today to get to the box underneath and this is what I saw.  I laughed so hard.

 

I had to go into the basement of the hospital today which is something that is pretty rare.  I passed the sign that showed how to get to University hospital.  Those are the tunnels that took me from ICU to the NICU at Riley for the 3 days I was in the hospital after she was born.

 

August 26, 2020

 Well, my content has certainly dropped in excitement since Riley moved away.  This is the quiz for a LinkedIn Learning class that I took this afternoon about Accountability.

But here's a bonus picture for anyone who misses her.

 

August 25, 2020

 

This is a weird picture, I know.  So, that's my laptop bag with my notebook on top of it.  It kind of symbolizes my weird work life right now.  Two days a week, I made the drive onto campus where I spend my day working.  The other three days, I work from home.  However, I've been trying to work from my parents' house at least one of those days so that my dad can have a little "down" time.  Mom doesn't need constant supervision but she really needs someone to be around to make sure she doesn't do something dangerous...like leave the stove on or set the microwave to 40 minutes.  So my laptop bag gets a lot of work.  Also, we are doing a lot of professional development classes so my notebook is getting a workout as well.

Today's class was on understanding bias.  It was a great class.  I loved the instructor but also noticed that she has really long hands.

August 24, 2020

 

Alton Brown pork...delicious and perfectly grilled by Rick.  We had it with leftover green beans and chicken rice-a-roni.  I mention the sides only because we made the green beans and have been warming them up each day in an effort to finish them off. 

 I told him they were getting thrown away if we didn't finish them tonight.  

Riley sent me a funny video and I screen shot this to send back to her as my favorite part.  

While at work, I was told that we had to resume our cleaning schedule.  However, our mop was gone.  We have somewhere around 6 storage units so I got to spend twenty minutes searching for the mop but I found it!  Then I got a text that said, "FYI...the mop is in 028"

I'm so fancy.

August 23, 2020

 

See, I told you there would be food pictures.  That is Rick's chili dog.  The chili was in the freezer, the dogs were actually brats and that may be a whole package of cheese.  That's the closest we could come to a track dog.  I had a hot dog with no bun and some ketchup.  

I have no idea why I took this picture.  It looks like a video game but I think it's a real picture of the race.

Riley went to a friend's to watch the race.  The friend is the daughter of my old college roommate.  She and I knew the girls probably wouldn't watch the race so S made this bingo card to keep the girls' attention.  They won and admitted that it helped.  Rick and I came in second although he didn't help at all.

August 22, 2020

 

I have the feeling that most of the pictures on this blog are going to be dinner photos.  

Here is a picture of my burger from dinner.  It looks a little weird because that's a yellow tomato in the middle and not a red one.

Here is a photo of Rick's burger.

His looks a little weird because that's 3 burger patties and an avocado plus bacon and some yellow tomatoes...and mustard.  Lots of mustard.

August 21, 2020

 Ya gotta love filters.  You can't see the gray in my hair, my face is thinner, my eyes aren't just dull hazel and I have visible eyelashes.

August 20, 2020

 Today was the day that has been both slowly and quickly approaching...maybe since Riley was born.  Many people have shared with me what it was like when their parents dropped them off at college or as parents, what it felt like to leave your kiddo.

We drove down and slowly made our way through the cars that were carrying incoming students who needed to be tested for the virus.  Riley was negative, btw.  

We weren't sure if we'd be allowed to go into her dorm, but we were.  We met her roommate and her (male) next door neighbors who happen to be from New Jersey.  We found out that the only people allowed on her floor are people who live on her floor.  So...no bringing up friends.  

Once we had everything dropped off that she needed, we headed out for dinner after picking up a friend.  Said friend is the daughter of my college roommate and I think everyone is hoping that they turn out to be close friends.  

Honestly, I think going out to dinner made the dropoff easier because it was so "normal".  We dropped off Nat and headed back to the dorm.  Riley had a zoom floor meeting scheduled so she was in a bit of a hurry.  There were hugs and a few pictures and then we drove off as she walked back in.  My brother called on the way home so that conversation made the drive easier.  

It'll be strange, I'm sure, how quickly our normal changes.

Picture 1 - Someone put our car seat doll like this in the storage room, adorable.

One note - on the way to work, I realized that Riley will be moved out for almost the exact same amount of time that she was in the NICU.  I cried.

August 19, 2020

I worked from "home" today while at my parents' house.  I told my dad that I would try to do that at least once a week to give him some time to run errands and just...breathe.  It was good for Riley.  She and mom took a walk and she did some exercises with her.

She also got her eyebrows done and we had a zoom call with Joe's family to celebrate my nephew's upcoming birthday.

Riley requested all of her favorite foods for dinner.  Macaroni and cheese is actually Rick's favorite and I think he made it just because it's his favorite.

Corn on the cob that has been sliced off the cob...fresh broccoli and mashed potatoes with bacon and cheese.  She actually made all of those things herself.

This is a bone in pork chop that she brined all day.  Actually, she went to the store with my card and purchased everything to make it.  Rick actually overcooked them a skosh which resulted in them CATCHING ON FIRE and him saying a bad word.  But they were tasty.

August 18, 2020

 

Riley invited my parents and my brother over for dinner tonight as sort of a farewell.  We had fajitas and lovely conversation around the table.  I didn't take any photos but I did get a picture of this pretty butterfly.

August 17, 2020

Two giant tomatoes out of the garden!

 

August 16, 2020

 

Riley's best friend is off to college tomorrow.  She asked if we could all go to the zoo, including her dad and Rick.  So we did.  It was hot and exhausting.  We went to lunch afterwards, which turned into dinner because it was already late and the service was slow.  We sat inside/outside which was interesting.  We were inside the building but they raised the doors where our table was so we were outside as well.  

We got to see the sloth at the zoo which was fun.  But if we were hot and exhausted, the sloth was too.  Also, C is going to school in the city so she actually lives closer to us right now than she ever has.  Also, her dad promised that he would pick her up and take her to IU whenever the girls want.  He said I could go too.

August 15, 2020

 

This morning we ventured out to the Big Cat preserve.  It's only $10 a ticket and the money goes back to the welfare of the animals.  These are all cats that have been rescued from other places.  Most of them are really old and were turned over when they could no longer be bred.  Rick LOVED it.  We've been once before.  It's not so much a zoo, set up for your viewing pleasure but an actual habitat for the animals.

Once we left there, Rick rode his bike back and we went to my parents' so that Riley could mow...maybe for the last time this year.  

We ended the evening at a graduation party for one Riley's friends.  He joined the military so they aren't going to see each other for awhile.

We took a covid photo but he requested a "pre-Covid" photo.

August 14, 2020

I am the parent to an adult child.  As such, it was not unusual for her to run to Dick's and get a pair of workout shorts for herself.  As I mentioned before, most stores will not allow you to try on clothes before you purchase them.  Anyway, she got home with the shorts and went to try them on...and they didn't fit.  Like, she couldn't even get them above her knees.  She asked me to check the nike shorts that she was currently wearing to make sure they were XS.  They were.  I went with her to take them back.  As soon as she headed for the section to swap them out, I figured it out.  She was wearing  XS Adult.  Riley purchased XS CHILD.  HAHAH.  Those shorts were probably for a 5 year old.  

My work masks came in the mail.

We were unable to celebrate my birthday at dinner last night because Riley had a saxophone lesson.  So we celebrated tonight with a Tomahawk ribeye.