Memorial Day 2021

 

We went to the Airborne and Special Operations Museum for Memorial Day. 

We saw the new POW exhibit. Wow! It was both sad and uplifting.

We also showed Darby who General Darby was (not who she was named after but still an amazing man). Darby Phase of Ranger school is named after him.

Jason showed us how you jump out of a plane by using his Jumpmaster training.

We also saw the memorial paver of one of the Blackhawk Down soldiers outside the museum.

Before we left we visited Veterans Park. That place always touches my heart. 

The outside wall has hands cast in metal at shoulder height symbolizing the path of enlistment. There is one left hand in the park, symbolizing those who were left behind in war. 

There were also pillars representing each county of North Carolina and their soldiers.

I enjoy the fountains and sculptures as well, each representing a military theme. 

At home we watched a documentary about the Battle of Pointe du Hoc in WWII. Those were some brave men! Jason grilled us some burgers for diner. 

Church Duties

I suppose that we can now say Jason has had the full bishop experience. He has been bishop during a pandemic and during a hurricane and the ensuing cleanup. Last week has was asked to officiate a wedding.  And this week he conducted a funeral. I made the program.

Primary is starting back up!!! I have a new class. It is rather large but I don't mind at all. I am just excited to be teaching kiddos again. Too bad it is only for a few weeks and then we move. 

This isn't really a church duty but these are friends from church. Caper's mom needed someone to watch him for a few hours and since we are one of the few people she knows (they are fairly new to the ward) and caper LOVES my girls she asked me. It was no problem and they played and played. Darby loves little kids and wants to teach preschool someday. Caper snuggled up to Paige for an episode of Octonauts later on. It was cute. 

 

School's Out!

It's the last day of this crazy school year! Eva left for the bus first. Next year Darby joins her as a middle schooler.

Darby is finishing her elementary school years today. Life goes so fast. I am sad that they don't have a proper fifth-grade awards ceremony this year. But they do have these cool shirts. 

Paige is glad that this year is over since she particularly hated virtual schooling. But she will miss her teacher and friends. She REALLY hates the mask-wearing. 

And Brendan will be a sophomore after today. He enjoyed most of his classes and really liked a few teachers. Overall it was a pretty good first year of high school though it was VERY different from what it should have been. It surprised me but he disliked virtual schooling too. Even though socializing is difficult, he knows he learns better and it is easier for him to be organized when we are at in-person school. El Paso has in-person school so I am glad for that. 

Eva came home first. YAY for summer!

Looks like they had a party in elementary school. ;) They are SO happy to be done with masks, at least for a little while!

Brendan was kind enough to smile for the camera when he came home, even though he just wanted to get in his pajamas and start summer break. 

 

Middle of May

 School is wrapping up as is our time here. Jason decided to take the girls on one last visit to Beaver Creek. This is where they spent a lot of time during the early days of COVID when he was at home and school consisted of a packet. It's their special place.

Darby took her end-of-the-year tests and did very well. These are her percentiles vs all other NC students. The Reading score will come later. I bet I will get the other kids' scores soon. Her teacher just likes to get them out as soon as she can rather than wait for the mailing out, which will come later. 

Later: There is something that I'd like to point out. Online schooling was a big failure. When we got the kid's end-of-the-year tests we saw that the average scores across the state were "below the standard". Less than half the students passed the EOGs in most subjects. Our district's scores were a bit higher but still below the standard. Thankfully our kids all were in the above-average to excellent range but it makes some sad to think of all the kids who basically missed a whole year of quality learning. Not to mention how the teachers next year will have to try and make up for it. 

For Activity Day Girls they had a colored bubble activity and then played freeze tag. I'm not sure Activity Day Girls will happen much this summer so this may be one of the last activities my girls attend in Hope Mills Second Ward. 

My niece Sarah got engaged! She met him at BYU Idaho. He was her roommate's brother. 

Daddy went on a Dabry date this past week. They went to Gillis Hill Farm to walk around and have ice cream. She got to feed the chickens and walk around the pond. I highly doubt El Paso will be this green. 

Darby's Surgery

 

Darby had some minor surgery this week. She had to have something removed from her forehead. We thought it might be a cyst but when they took a piece out they found it was not. Still, it hadn't been going away for over two months so we decided to have it removed. Jason is friends with surgeons at Womack so they were able to fit us in. 

Apparently, she is resistant to nitrous because they kept asking her how she felt and she said she didn't feel any different. Then they'd have to turn it up. In the end, she did very well but the anesthesia made her woozy and throw up. It took a long time for her not to feel nauseous. Poor girl! She stayed home.

A week later (May 25): Here are the stitches about to come out. The doctor gave the okay to remove them (Jason did because he deals in stitches all the time). And here is the aftermath. The doctor says that sunscreen on it and keeping it moisturized will be the key to speedy healing and fading with no scar. 

Closing

 We closed on selling the house in Truewinds this week (May 10). We went in to sign the paperwork a few days ago and today we waited on word that the buyers had fulfilled their obligation as well. 

Their realtor has been a total pain to work with. She keeps requesting things that aren't in the contract generally being disorganized and then blaming us. We are paying "rent" to stay in the house until moving day so we will still need to deal with her but that cannot be avoided. After the paperwork had been signed with a provision that we stay until moving day she kept pushing to get us out sooner (against the contract). Just getting an amount settled on how much rent has been an ordeal and I am so grateful for our realtor who took on the brut of her attitude.

Their realtor wants to have a walk-through a few days before we moved out. I said she could but that we would be having movers come and the house would be covered in boxes. Then she said that if they HAD to wait then the buyers could only come the evening of the last day of moving. So I have to furiously clean everything as the movers are loading up. Oh well, at least we can leave early the next morning. 

The payment came through today and it was weird to think that the house is paid off and no longer ours. The movers are scheduled to come on June 23. I am beginning to clean what I can and touch up areas that need it.