Years pass by!

Wow. I'm getting ready for Liam's graduation now by starting his photo book early. In the process, I've been looking at this blog to get some photos off of it. Kinda fun to read old stories about him as well. But seriously, life is almost COMPLETELY bonkers now. When I last wrote, Covid was not a word I knew. Now here we are locked in this world pandemic with people so panicked, full of fear, hate and mistrust. To vaccinate or not vaccinate? To mask or not mask? To isolate or not? There are divisive arguments between what is the "real truth", and basically it's like living in a war. Nevermind the fact that currently Russia has declared war on the Ukraine this week. I work at the hospital again and it's been full-on masks and gloves for 2+ years plus times of lockdown and then extra crazy measures as we work with our Covid patients. Travel was pretty much shut down and now remains very difficult and not worth the hassel. We also have extreme weather patterns occuring like SUPER hot summers with forest fires everywhere, freezing winters with record low temps, and then these wild rain storms that took out the Coquihala highway this fall!? I couldn't make this stuff up. And yes, if you had described these days to me when I wrote the last post I wouldn't have believed you. The kids have been resilient despite the craziness, and are overal good. I know they encounter anxieties that we never knew in our sheltered lives. They have way to much access to the "ways of the world" and all the attitudes and opinions due to the world wide web. They have spent the last few years pretty closed off socially, except for work. We haven't had many people over. We couldn't go to church, most sports/activities they did were shut down (boxing, music events, the ski hill) and even school for three months. Their jobs have given them some chances to meet people and socialize (thank goodness for that) and we have hopes that things will open up again for more events as those who have chosen to vaccinate have done so. It is time to move on (carefully so we don't over-run the hospitals), but truly we need to get to life again. Riley moved out in September, so the dynamics of our house have definitely changed. He is in Kelowna, working paycheck to paycheck to pay for the atrocious rent prices down there, nevermind crazy high food/gas/insurance prices. He seems to be happy and loves to be on his own timetable with his friends. It is calmer in our house for sure, and Liam and Shea get along great. Liam drives and works and is busy in school and volunteer work so that he isn't home too much. Hard to believe he will be gone off to university and we'll be down to only one kid in the fall!?! We're kinda waiting for life to go back to normal, but since it hasn't for over two years, we're kinda struggling to figure out a new normal. It is hard to make plans and to keep optimistic, but we're doing our best. Love to all...it's been awhile.