Easter

We did our traditional Easter baskets but no pictures with the kids. We are watching church online still. My parents stopped by and gave the kids a chocolate bunny!

We Are Grandparents

Angie grew up faster than she planned to when she left home last July and be an adult. She is now Mom to a new baby girl.  She is healthy, and we are very thankful for that!

Valentine's Day

The kids are still doing remote school, and it is definitely not ideal. Lets just get through the school year the best we can! 

Along with Angie leaving in July, Dainis also lost his job for the second time at Honeywell due to the downturn in aviation with the Pandemic. When the holidays came around, he took on two seasonal positions, along with looking for a new job. He was working at both Macy's and Lowes, which was a great blessing. Out of no where, Dainis gets a call from a co-worker saying they are looking for someone with Dainis's experience and wants to hire him back to Honeywell for a position he never even applied for. God is so good! So he started back with Honeywell in January remotely. Unfortunately, his last weekend at Lowes, he caught COVID and brought it home to me! Luckily the kids never got sick but we quarantined ourselves away until we were all better.

January was a blessed month with Honeywell but a tough health month!

 

Christmas Is Here!

Christmas is here but it is a very different year with COVID and no Angie, Sandra, or Luis. We did our traditional Chinese dinner with Grandma and Grandpa but thru take-out and no church. We did our traditional pajamas and spend the night in our room. This year's movie was "Goonies". Everyone enjoyed Christmas. We did not go on any trips this year after Christmas and just enjoyed being home. Ingrid now works as a server at an assistive living home.

Juan played football at Canyon View, even though the kids were schooling in remote. Attendance at games was limited in some places but at least it got him out of the house and getting some exercise!

Time For School

Time for school to start but it has been very confusing with COVID. First the kids are remote and then they go back to school and then they are remote again! Ingrid is in her junior year at Desert Edge and Juan is in his sophomore year at Canyon View.

Ingrid was accepted into the hairstyling program at West MEC and is so excited. I think she is more excited about the program than Angie was. They will start out remote but hopefully will go back at some point in person. Although I worry about her safety, it is a difficult program to do remote. I am just sad that Angie is not here to share this with Ingrid. She would be busy at West MEC in her second year had she stayed!

Juan's 16th Birthday

Juan didn't want to have a party this year so we just had Grandma and Grandpa over to open presents. Juan and Ingrid both took a friend on the Pinetop trip. 

Juan did not do well at all with the remote environment and didn't turn in a final project to get credit for one of his classes. He finally realized like Ingrid that he needed help, and we were able to get him tested with a psychiatrist and uncovered some challenges we didn't know were there. Daily life can be a challenge, but we have learned a lot and medicine is helping!

Ingrid's 18th Birthday

Ingrid had a great 18th birthday! She had a few friends over for a pool party, and we took a family trip to Pinetop. It was great to get away, and we enjoyed some cooler weather and hiking. Ingrid also got her driver's license, which was a huge accomplishment! We ask the kids to have a job in order to pay half of their car insurance before they get their license. She got a job doing the wash at a massage place. She earned enough money to pay for her first used car and start paying her insurance. She is the proud owner of an orange Volkswagen 2003 Bug.

Parenting Is Not Easy!

Angie has graduated high school, finished her first year of technical school for hairstyling, has a car to drive, a home, a job at Starbucks, and a loving family. However, she wants to be an independent adult and not live by our rules. She does not have the funds to live on her own yet though so rather than working hard towards that goal, she chose to run away. The plan when she came back was to welcome her back if she wanted to live by our family rules. We had cleaned her room while she was gone. Instead of talking, she left again and ended up flying to WI. She lasted 2 weeks there when she met a guy on social media in OH. She left WI in the middle of the night and is now living as an adult in OH. 

Angie's Graduation

 Angie graduated from Primavera, and I think we are both glad she is done! It was a lot of work and I don't think Angie fully appreciates all of my efforts and realizes what a gift I have given her by helping her graduate. At least she has a high school diploma!