5 of 52 of 2022

I was able to be home Friday and Saturday night since  Jim came down to take care of mom.   Last night was the first night since January 7th that I was able to sleep at home in my own bed. The Mighty Young gang was pretty happy that I've been home. The Sophie dog has been pretty stoked about me being home. I'll be able to take her to Lola's tomorrow. 

Today Hannh and I went back to Annie's Canyon to hike the difficult trail and it was pretty awesome. We took some photos here and there. The hike took about 7 minutes. The rock walls were really rough so I came out with a scraped knuckle. Afterwards we went to the bank to try to open a fiduciary account for the VA to deposit money into. Unfortunately they weren't able to help me since the bankers were fully booked today. We then went to a Trader Joe's to pick up food. We scored 28 Valentines stickers. Hannah was pretty stoked about it since she wants to give them away with her Valentine's cards.  We also went to Barnes and Nobles to buy some books and toys. Overall it was a pretty awesome day. The next time I'll likely be able to do this is February 19th when Jim can come down again, we hope. 

4 of 52 of 2022

Tyler went to 6th grade camp and Camp Cuyamaca this week. He left Tuesday morning and came back Friday at noon. He had a great time he said. Some of the memories he shared was that he saw donkeys having seen, hiked in the mountains, accidently showed his nakedness when his towel fell in the cabin and that they bunked with kids from Pride Elementary. 

I'm glad he had a great time. He even tried new foods and took part in stuff he normally wouldn't have done. The only casualty of the trip was him losing his sleeping bag and pillow before he even got to camp. 

3 of 52 of 2022

This week was kinda crazy for me. From a work front, I'm still trying to get motivated for the coming year. It's been hard because the work has been blah and the people I work with are a little high maintenance. From a home perspective, it's been a little rough. It was my first full week at moms and it was a little rough. The first half of the week I was doing morning, day, night and overnight duty because Paul came in contact with Jackie who is covid positive. Luckily he was able to resume dinner duty on Wednesday.  I've also been buying camping stuff for Tyler's 6th grade camp.  We are almost ready to go. He has almost everything he needs and we did a dry run with packing his bag. He did good with packing and unpacking his bedroll.  We are waiting on his hiking day pack and nausea meds. Once we have all that on Monday we can pack him up completely. And he'll be off to camp and on the bus at 8am on Tuesday.  I'm sure I will be counting down the days and hours until he returns Friday at noon.  This is the first time he will be away from us. I'm extremely worried due to covid and the fact that he's such a picky eater. The picture attached to this post is of Tyler sleeping in his sleeping bag for the first time...at Lola's house.   

2 of 52 of 2022

Today is my first day back to spending the night at mom's house.  I'll have 13 nights here before Jim and the gals come down on the 21st and stay 2 nights.  Unfortunately Paul isn't able to help for at least the next 14 days since Jackie tested positive for covid and they've been in contact with her.  So what does this mean for and my family?  It means my time at home gets cut short by 2 hours because I need to be back at mom's by 630p to give her dinner and medicine. It's awfully convenient that all this goes down when Ralph leaves and there's no one else to help.  This is one of the many reasons I don't want to stay in contact with them after mom dies.  When I first found out about this inconveniently timed covid result, I was extremely angry because I always get the shit end of the stick when it comes to my brothers.  None of them understand the time I'm sacrificing from my family. I think Ralph has an idea but doesn't understand it completely.  Once mom dies, all my time and attention will be finally directed towards my family to make up for lost time.  Until then I'll have buckle down and get thru it.  So much for thinking 2022 will be better. It's off to shity start.   

1 of 52 of 2022

Today is the first day of 2022.  My goal is to complete a blog for each week of this year. I successfully blogged each week of 2021 and hope to do this longterm. 

To end 2021, Hannah got her ears pierced by Enigma Piercing in Normal Heights.  She did amazing.  She has been wanting her ears pierced since she was in kindergarten.  She was super nervous.  Our piercer, Rubi, was awesome.  She talked Hannah through every step.  Hannah didn't really feel any pain and was surprised at how quickly it went.  Her first earrings are of a weiner dog and a wishbone. 

Our last adventure of 2021 was exploring Annie's Canyon Trail in Solana Beach.  Tyler wasn't as excited about it as I thought he would be.  Hannah, on the other hand, loved it.  We went up the easy trail which was switchbacks up to the lookout point.  Hannah and I plan to go back to do the difficult trail thru the actual canyon. 

I'm hoping 2022 will be a little better than 2021.  But if 2021 teached me anything it was to not have any expectations to minimize disappointment.