Magical Merchandise: 2022 Halloween Village Additions

I know it's only August, but Halloween is already in full swing at Disney parks!  The first Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party is this Friday, August 12th!  That also means that Halloween products are popping up all over the place.  So I'm starting my spooky merchandise posts early to make sure there's plenty of time to fit everything in!

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As you all know, I'm obsessed with the decorative villages by Department 56.  My personal weakness are the Disney and holiday themed villages.  Last year, I first told you about two magical new villages they released for the Halloween season, Mickey's Pumpkintown and the Haunted Mansion Village.  This year, they've added a few new pieces to the collection and I wanted to share those with you today!

I was so excited when I discovered they added three new pieces to the adorable Mickey's Pumpkintown village set.  This set is so cute and I'm obsessed with how charming it is!  This year, they released another building called the Haunted Manor.

There's also a candy corn tree called the Manor tree.  I love these!  I definitely need at least two of them... although I'm tempted to get a few extras to sprinkle around in our other decor.  You know how much I love anything candy corn!  The Mickey pumpkins are a super cute addition to them and are literally like little cherries on top!

Finally, there's a new character piece of Goofy dressed up as a mummy handing out candy to Mickey's two nephews who appear to be a pirate and a dinosaur.

I was so surprised when they first released the Haunted Mansion Village.  It was so refreshing to see Disney Theme Park merchandise available outside of the parks!  This set is stunning and it's perfect for Halloween, as well as year round for foolish mortals!

I was excited to find they added two new pieces to the Haunted Mansion Village set this year.  The first is a gorgeous Haunted Mansion gate.  The intricate detail on the iron gate is incredible!  I absolutely love this; it even includes the sign from the park!

The second addition to the collection are the iconic singing busts from the graveyard scene.  These are so clever to add because they're characters in the mansion as well as decor.  I hope they continue to add more characters and items from the mansion!

I love these new additions to last year's spooky village sets.  Eliot and I haven't ordered them yet, but we will most definitely be adding them to our village collections!  If you'd like to order them for yourself, you can still find them on the Department 56 website as well as a few small shops that carry their product line!  Stay spooky friends!!!  °o°

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Summer might be winding down, but Eliot and I are still trying to enjoy every minute of it.  Now that we feel better and we're able to leave the house again, we have been trying to make up for some lost time.  And the perfect thing to do when you want to get out of the house but you can't move around too much...?  Watching a baseball game.

Eliot and I have caught a few more Portland Sea Dogs games.  This past Thursday, August 4th was 90's Night and we've had it marked on our calendar.  They were wearing their teal jerseys, and you all know how we feel about the color teal... hehe.

Eliot drove home after his first day back at work so we could drive up the back way instead of the highway.  We were going to meet at the park and ride, but this made more sense.  I'm glad because I was feeling tired and it was better driving together!

Going to the game was my first post-COVID outing and I have to admit that I was pretty excited just to get out of the house.  I had completely lost track of time while I'd been home sick and Eliot and I weren't exactly firing on all cylinders.  We had forgotten about a weekday game and navigating rush hour.  We left the house later than we had planned to, and then on top of that we got stuck in traffic on the highway as soon as we merged onto 295.  It loosened up pretty quickly, but we were definitely running late.

Thankfully, the parking lot we've been using was still available.  We got parked and walked over to the game as quickly as we were able to.  I noticed myself huffing and puffing a lot and I could tell that my lungs definitely weren't at 100%.  I had to slow down and catch my breath a few times.

We got inside the ballpark and went to the store even though the game was beginning soon.  Eliot and I wanted to check out the store while it was still pretty quiet.  He found a new neon shirt that they hadn't had previously, so he bought that.  I found two new hats that I liked, but I decided to wait and see if they were available online. 

Eliot went to get French fries and I filled up our water bottles while he was waiting for those.  By the time we climbed up the stairs into the stands, it was the end of the first inning.  Our seats for this game were literally all the way at the top, so we took our time climbing up the stairs to them.  By the time we got seated, I basically collapsed into the seat and took a few minutes to catch my breath.

We got settled into our seats and I unzipped my bag.  This was the first game Eliot and I brought the donkeys to so we made sure to get pictures of them watching!  We had missed a bit of the game, but it went by fast anyways.  There were a lot of 1, 2, 3 outs which made the game seem like it was flying by.  Still, we enjoyed ourselves.

We had been excited about 90's night.  The Sea Dogs had pretty teal jerseys on.  (The replicas were a few shades lighter, but these were a deep teal closer to Sharks teal.)  It was also Jurassic Night so they had two cars on display outside of the ballpark.  During one of the between inning entertainment breaks, Slugger did a silly skit where he was trying to catch a dinosaur with a net.  Then, the dinosaur ended up finding a dino friend and together they chased him across the entire length of the field.

Slugger had a 90's themed spandex suit on for part of the game.  They played a lot of 90's music during different breaks.  Naturally, our favorite was when they played "I Want It That Way" by the Backstreet Boys.

Another highlight of the evening was when I had my first Sea Dogs biscuit!  I had eaten a few of the fries earlier in the night (since I was basically starving when we arrived at the game) but I made sure to save room.  During the second half of the game, Eliot went down and bought my ice cream sandwich and a lemon ice pop for himself.  The Sea Dogs biscuit was refreshingly cool, yummy and I really enjoyed it!

As for the game itself, it wasn't incredibly memorable overall.  The Sea Dogs lost but we did have another home run and got to watch the lighthouse and fireworks!

After the game, Eliot went back into the store to look for the shirt I had planned on getting.  I decided I liked his shirt from our first game and that I wanted one.  Sadly, they didn't have any of the whoopie pie shirts that I was going to get left.  (That's when I learned that you should always buy the merchandise in the store that's not available online before you buy the stuff you can find in the online shop!)

We headed towards the exit but Eliot made an abrupt stop.  He went over to one of the guys working to ask a question.  (It happened to be the guy that does the in game entertainment.)  Eliot was asking him about the jerseys for Star Wars night since he was planning to bid on one of the Iron Man jerseys from our first game and he wanted to know what the design for Saturday's game was going to be.  The guy wasn't 100% sure, but he thought it was the Millennial Falcon design.  We talked about jerseys with him for a few minutes, then we said goodnight and that we'd be back on Saturday!

A few weeks ago, we had looked ahead at the schedule and discovered that Saturday, August 6th was Star Wars night.  At the time, we thought we were going to be at Six Flags this weekend, so we assumed that we'd miss the game.  We were bummed out, but figured we'd try to go next year.  After we got sick, Eliot and I realized we wouldn't be making it to Six Flag this weekend as we're recovering, so we could go to the game!

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So yesterday evening, Eliot and I went to our third Portland Sea Dogs game.  I was extra excited because we had special Star Wars baseball jerseys to wear.  Eliot's had them tucked away for years.  He had originally liked them because the "Rebels" jersey was stylized like the Boston Red Sox font and the "Dark Side" was designed like the New York Yankees design.  We had gotten a chuckle out of it at the time, and I had completely forgotten that Eliot had them.  Thankfully, he remembered where they were in his closet so we had the perfect outfits to wear to the game!  I was also excited because I had my new baseball earrings from Torrid that I wore along with my jersey!

Before going to the ballpark, we drove up to Portland early so we could swing by the mall area to get food and check the Dollar Tree and TJ Maxx out.  (I had hoped to also make it to Homegoods, but we didn't have that much time.)  I'm really glad we went to TJ Maxx since they had the Mickey 4th of July decoration Eliot and I had liked when we saw it in Ellsworth; plus it had been marked down three times on clearance!  They had two left so we bought both of them.  After that, we drove over to Chili's to pick up our to-go order late lunch/early dinner and we ate in the Jeep.

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After I finished eating, I drove us over the familiar path to the ballpark.  Eliot got out $10 and we parked in the parking lot we usually do.  Then, we started the hike up the hill and down the other side.  I'm still getting really winded easily so I had to go at a snails pace.  About halfway through the adjacent parking lot, Eliot wanted to backtrack to check if we'd closed all of the windows in the Jeep.  He handed me his backpack with two of our donkeys and I slowly continued to move forward.

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When I was about halfway down the hill outside of the ballpark, I stopped under a tree in the shade to catch my breath.  I was pretty tired at this point.  I stood there watching people walk by in my own little world while I tried to quiet all the huffing and puffing.  I willed myself not to start coughing because my ribs were already killing me.

As I stood there waiting for Eliot, people passed and chuckled when they saw the bag with Eeyore and Meep Meep in it.  A lady with sunglasses approached me after a minute and said something, but me being in my own world I didn't hear it.  I looked at her puzzled and she said "It's Joan."  It took me a second to connect the dots in my head since I was thinking she had originally said something about the donkeys.  

"Joan!"  It clicked a second later.  It was Joan who reads my blog!  I was so excited to see her again, but this time I refrained myself from attacking her in a hug.  I'm still very sensitive to the fact that Eliot and I are recovering from COVID.  We're cleared from quarantine and our 5 day post-quarantine mask requirement, but I'm still very aware of my bubble and don't want to get too close to anyone for their safety.  We talked for a minute and she asked how we were feeling.  I was also really excited to show them my Red Sox Star Wars jersey and tell them about Eliot's Dark Side Yankee jersey.  We got a chuckle about that.  We said goodbye and they headed down to the entrance while I stood there for another few minutes waiting for Eliot.

By the time he had arrived, I was feeling a lot better and rested, even though I was burning up with how hot it was.  We went through security, scanned our tickets and passed by the Stormtroopers at the entrance.  We were immediately greeted by a giant Chewbacca and a bunch of other Star Wars characters taking photos with fans.

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After a quick trip to the bathroom, I met Eliot in the line to the store.  I had two hats and a shirt I wanted to get and none of them were available online.  I figured that since this might be our last game, I better get them while I could!  (One of the hats is the one I'm wearing in the photos with my jersey.  I thought the red and blue would look great with my Star Wars jersey and the shirt I bought from before!)  We bought my two baseball hats and neon logo shirt and headed to get a pretzel for Eliot.  After a quick stop at the water fountain to fill our empty bottles with cold water, we made our way to our seats.

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This time, we were in the general admission, so we could sit anywhere we wanted in the bleacher section.  The chairs were pretty much sold out, although the stadium was not full.  We sat right in front of the seats we'd sat in on Thursday, thus ensuring our spot in the shade during the entire game.

They had the pre-game ceremonies and the game started a few minutes later.  This game was a lot more exciting than the other two we've been to.  For starters, the Sea Dogs scored two runs in the first inning!  There were also also a lot more hits from both teams and a lot less 1, 2, 3 out innings.

I wasn't feeling well the first two innings.  Eliot and I took a few photos with our jerseys on, then I took mine off to try to cool down.  My head and stomach were shot, and I felt a little nauseous.  Thankfully, once I was down to my tank top, I slowly started to cool off.  I forced myself to drink a bunch of cold water and after about 15-20 minutes, I felt stable.  My head hurt on and off the entire game, but my stomach was better at least.

Eliot and I enjoyed the themed Star Wars entertainment.  There were a bunch of people dressed up in costume.  Slugger was dressed up as the Mandalorian this year and he had a little "Baby Yoda" Grogu that he pushed around in a stroller.  They played some of the soundtrack during different breaks.  They also had the Sea Dogs players names in Star Wars font when they were up to bat.  They also had C-3PO jerseys on.

But my favorite part of Star Wars Night was in between the innings.  Slugger did another silly skit were he had to save C-3PO.  He threw Baby Yoda at one of the Stormtroopers and that was amusing as he "knocked him out" and he fell.  During another break, they had kids do a race in BB-8 inflatable costumes and the crowd was roaring with laughter as the kids attempted to run in them; it was really cute!

The people sitting in front of us provided another round of entertainment.  There were a huge group of mostly ladies (who work together) who brought their families with them to the game.  It was clearly their first game, and they had mixed feelings about it.  I think overall they were pretty bored with the game itself, but they got a huge kick of out of trying to take photos of each other when they weren't paying attention.  It became an all out war at one point.  I was joking with them that it suddenly "got savage in section 308" and we all got a good laugh about it.  Somewhere in the 5th or 6th inning, they'd had enough and decided to leave.  But they were pretty funny.

The highlight of the game was the Sea Dogs home run in the 4th inning where they got three guys in to home plate!  Everyone went crazy as the ball went out of the ballpark and the players ran into home.  It was pretty exciting to watch!

The best part of the night was that the Sea Dogs won!  They held onto the lead to win 6-5.  Eliot and I were excited to experience their first win at a game we went to.  The speakers blasted "Celebration" by Kool & The Gang as the players lined up to high-five each other.  We both surprised when fireworks shot out from behind the lighthouse at center field after the win.  Then, they also shot the sparkling flares out of either side like they do when we get a home run.  That was fun and a great way to end the season if we aren't able to go to anymore of their games this year!

It's definitely been a crazy few weeks between the Backstreet Boys concert, spending a long weekend in Bar Harbor, getting sick, and now recovering from COVID.  Going to the Portland Sea Dogs games has been a nice break from our day-to-day routine.  I'm sure that Eliot and I will be seeing a lot more of them in the future!  °o°

Fun Find: D23 Expo Disney Parks Predictions Video

Hi friends!  I wasn't planning to pop in with a post today, but I'm on a roll and I've got a little bit of juice left before I call it good for the day.  I've had a busy day doing a blog post dump and trying to get caught up after having COVID.  (My past five blog posts might look like they were posted over the past week... but all 5 were finished, edited, and posted earlier today.)  Thus, today I just want to do a pretty quick and easy post!

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Earlier this week, Eliot and I watched this video on Youtube while we were home on quarantine.  I thought it was really interesting and I thought that I would share it with you.  Eliot follows this channel and they did a video about predictions of Disney Parks announcements at the upcoming D23 Expo!  Obviously, it will be outdated in a few weeks once we see what Disney announces, but I thought this was fun to think about!

Let me start off by saying, I would 100% absolutely love to see an Encanto ride.  I would also love to have a Zootopia section in Walt Disney World... even if it seems very unlikely.  I'd also love for Disney to pick up the dropped Mary Poppins ride and Spaceship Earth refurbishment.  I think Figment really deserves a bit of love too!

The D23 Expos are always full of big theme park announcements and I can't wait to see what they plan to do with the parks now that we're coming out of the coronavirus pandemic.  Plus, I'm definitely very interested in seeing what Disney will do to compete with Universal's Epic Universe park that will be opening in a few years.

I guess we'll find out in a few weeks!  What park projects would you want to see?  °o°

One Month Until We Leave for CA

I'm injecting some positivity into my life today as we're looking at what's ahead of us!  

This past week has been a blur of sickness and COVID craziness... and now that Eliot and I are both finally out of quarantine and on the mend, I thought it was time to look ahead at something that I'm really looking forward to... our trip to California!!!

One month from today, Eliot and I will join my brother Jeremy and my parents for our family trip out to California for the D23 Expo and Disneyland!  We're also planning to take my family to Hollywood and we might have a few other things up our sleeves!

It's going to be so much fun!  Mom has never been to California... she hasn't even flown since she was in college on her first flight.  Dad and Jeremy have both been to California, but Dad's never been to Hollywood or Disneyland.  And Jeremy's been to the Disneyland Resort (with me back in 2017) but he's never been to Hollywood!  So everyone in the family is doing something new.  Plus, there's a few things we're trying to schedule that Eliot and I haven't done before either!  Yay for new experiences!!!

It's sure to be a whirlwind trip and I can't believe that it's only a month away!  This is another reason that I'm super glad Eliot and I got sick when we did.  I would have been devastated if we'd gotten sick right before our trip.  Better to get it over with now so we have time to rest and recover before the next adventure!!!

So cheers for exciting things in our future!  Bring on that horizon!!!  °o°

Testing Positive

Well, here's a post that I was hoping I wouldn't have to write... but here we are.

A week ago today, I took my first COVID test and it came back positive.  Yes, for the past week, I've been battling COVID-19.  And I've gotta say... it's been a rollercoaster.  

I would have written about it sooner, but I really just wanted to focus on taking care of myself.  Plus, I was having so much fun with my Christmas in July week that I didn't want to stop that to write about this.  I figured it made more sense to stick with my previously planned posts- even if I had to finish writing them and posting late.  Then, I could let you all know about my positive test when I was feeling better.  Today felt like the right time to write about it now that I feel like I'm on the other side of it.

Unfortunately, Eliot also got it... more about that further down.

But, it's a miracle that Mom, Dad, Nana and Kaitlin are all alright.  We're all working with the assumption that Eliot and I got sick from the Backstreet Boys concert on 7/21, but we have no idea where we picked it up.  Kaitlin was at the concert with us, and she's ok.  Then, we spent a long weekend in Bar Harbor with Mom, Dad and Nana.  

That was my biggest fear... that they would get sick because of us. 

Thankfully, they are all feeling well.  Since it's been a week since I tested positive, and over a week since they last saw us, we feel pretty confident that Eliot and I didn't accidentally pass anything along to any of them.  And for that, I'm incredibly grateful.

As rough as this past week was, I'd gladly take the rollercoaster of COVID if it meant no one else in my family had to endure it.  And what a week it's been... 

Tuesday, July 26th

Tuesday started out fine.  I was working hard to get a few mouse ear orders completed and out in the mail before our local post office closed at 4:30 pm.  Right before I went to the post office (just before 4:30) I started to feel ill.  I assumed it was stress from trying to get everything done under a time crunch, but it didn't go away after I got back from the post office.  I felt waves of nausea coming and going but didn't get sick.

As the evening progressed, I started to feel worse.  My throat started to hurt and I felt achy all over.  I took my temperature and it was 99.7 but I was freezing, and then a few minutes later I was boiling.  When Eliot came home, I told him I didn't feel well and that I thought I had COVID.  A few minutes later, complete exhaustion suddenly took over me and I decided to go to bed early.  (Before 10:30 for me is definitely early, and I fell asleep right away.)  At that point, I went to bed suspecting it.

Wednesday, July 27th

The next morning, I woke up and I knew I was worse off.  I told Eliot that I thought I had COVID, and once we got out of bed, my first order of business was taking a test.  I felt so crummy I couldn't even focus on reading the test directions.  I handed Eliot the test pack and told him to tell me what to do.  He read everything and walked me through it.

You have to wait 15 minutes to get the results of an at home COVID test.  It wasn't even a minute into our timer before the line showed up almost immediately.

It was positive.

I immediately called my parents and told them both to get on the phone.  I proceeded to start the conversation with "now nobody panic.  Let's all keep a level head," because I knew that was not a conversation they were expecting.  I was terrified that I would have gotten them sick and I was starting to spiral a little.  They were a bit taken aback, but at this point, there wasn't much we could do but pray that they wouldn't get sick.

After I got off the phone, Eliot promptly took a test and he was negative.  He called into work to find out what the procedure was and they told him he could come in but he had to wear a mask.  He made sure that I was ok for the day before heading in.

After he left for work, I went to work contacting everyone.  I made sure to let Kaitlin know since we had all been at the Backstreet Boys concert together.  Thankfully, she was feeling ok!  After that, I contacted the chiropractic office since I had been planning to go in to help them with something.  Finally, I called our dentist to let them know since we have a teeth cleaning appointment coming up on Monday the 8th.

I'm so glad that I was proactive when I first got my test results... because after that rush of clarity, responsibility and productivity, I slowly slipped into oblivion.

The rest of Wednesday was a lost day.  Honestly, I barely even remember it.  At some point, I took my temperature and it was 100.1.  I remember I took two long naps during the day.  I felt like crap and was so tired.  In between my naps, somehow I was able to watch The Devil Wears Prada but that's about the most productive thing I did.  My nose was stuffed up and I was completely miserable.  

Eliot came home with Wendy's for my dinner.  I was so sick that I could only eat half of a baked potato.  The chili and salad went into the fridge for the next day.  Before bed, my temperature had only fallen to 100.8, so I took more Tylenol and went back to bed.

Thursday, July 28th

For a split second, I woke up thinking that I might be feeling better today... and then I started to actually wake up.  I realized that I felt a lot of pain in my neck and had a massive headache.  For me, massive headaches usually lead to feeling nauseous, and this was no different.  I dragged myself out of bed to take my temperature, 99.7.  I forced myself to take some Tylenol and an hour later or so later I felt a lot better.

Eliot went to work and I attempted to get some stuff done.  I wasn't super productive, but I did check off a few things on my list.  I was still stuffed up... and Thursday's new additions were coughing and sneezing.  About halfway through the work day, I was overcome with exhaustion so I took another long nap during the afternoon.  I was able to eat my salad for lunch, and my chili for dinner, but that was all I could stomach.

Friday, July 29th

Friday was the day the next shoe dropped.  Eliot had continued taking tests before work each morning to be safe.  And today, his results came back positive.  The line was barely there, and he felt 100% fine, but it was there.  It was so faint that I made him take a second test and really make sure he got a good sample from deeper in his nasal cavity.  That test was also faint, but technically he had two a positive results.

Eliot called work to let them know that it was a barely there positive, but that he would be staying home just in case.  We'd monitor his symptoms over the next few days to see how he was doing before he made any decisions about the following work week.

Thankfully, since he was still feeling ok and not showing any symptoms, we had a little bit of warning.  Eliot went to the grocery store (masked up and hand sanitized) and got a bunch of food, water and Gatorades for us to power through the next few days.

Mid-afternoon, Eliot and I both took a nap since we were tired.  After my nap, I had a phone appointment with my doctor's office.  I talked to the specialist on the phone and he said I was a candidate for the antiviral medication if I wanted it.  He gave me a prescription for it and sent me the info (a 35 page document!) just in case.

That evening, Eliot drove over to Windham and picked up Chipotle since my appetite was coming back a little and that's the only thing that sounded good to me.  Then, we watched a little bit of television before we called it a night and went to bed early.

Saturday, July 30th  

Saturday was a mixed bag.  On the one hand, I was really proud of myself because it was the first day that I hadn't taken a nap.  On the other hand, Eliot was definitely sick.

Saturday Eliot was like Wednesday Melissa.  He had the fever and chills that I'd been facing.  But unfortunately for him, he also had a massive headache that wouldn't go away.  I had it cropping up here and there, but it never made itself a permanent fixture in my misery.  Eliot was completely miserable like I had been Wednesday.  He slept most of the day on the chair in our living room or in bed.  

Midway through the day, I decided that I was definitely improving and that I wasn't going to bother taking the antiviral.  The 35 page document for it kind of spooked me, and taking 30 pills in a five day time period wasn't something that I was super excited about anyways.  Thankfully, I did seem to be a little bit better anyways.

I suggested that we start watching all of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies since we've been talking about rewatching them all sometime.  I figured that he was going to be home for a bunch of days with me, so this was the perfect time to do it.  When he was awake, we watched the first movie.  Later in the evening, we also watched the new Hallmark movie that was premiering.  We went to bed as soon as it was over.

Sunday, July 31st

Sunday, I felt even better.  It was the second day that I didn't take a nap and I was really proud of that.  Eliot on the other hand... was still battling.  He still had the fever, chills, stuffed up nose and headache.  He didn't seem as tired though since he didn't need a nap.  He just didn't feel like doing much of anything.

We continued our Pirates of the Caribbean marathon with the second movie.  After that ended, Eliot said he needed a break so we decided to watch something more light hearted.  I made some sort of joke that was from Mean Girls, and that's what prompted me to find that on Netflix.  Eliot's never seen the movie and I make references from it all the time.  I figured it was time he finally watch it.

He enjoyed the silliness and light-heartedness of that movie.  It was good to laugh a little, even though it hurt like hell.  My lungs and ribs definitely didn't appreciate the jokes, but it was good to have some levity when we both felt like crap.

Later that night, Eliot drove into town to get Applebee's for dinner.  Neither one of us felt like cooking and I thought that would be an easy place to get take out without being in contact with anyone.  When he got home, we ate our dinner and watched the third installment of Pirates of the Caribbean before going to bed.

Monday, August 1st

By Monday, I felt a lot better.  I was still coughing quite a bit, but other than that I was doing pretty good.  Eliot was feeling better but he was definitely stuffed up still.  He also continued coughing, sneezing, and had a really runny nose.

About halfway through the day, I was tired so I decided to take a short nap.  I hadn't gotten as much sleep as I should have the night prior, so I wasn't worried about it. 

Eliot and I watched the 4th and 5th Pirates of the Caribbean movies throughout the day... thus finishing our Pirates of the Caribbean movie marathon.  It was good to see them all again since it had been awhile since I've seen any of them.  Plus, I've never actually watched all five of them in a row before!

That evening, we both were feeling better so we worked on a little bit of stuff for both of our Etsy businesses before calling it a night and going to bed.

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Tuesday, August 2nd

On Tuesday, Eliot finally turned the corner.  He was feeling a lot better and you could tell that we both felt more like ourselves.  I could still feel it in my chest and I would occasionally cough... but not often.

I decided that I needed to take a shower.  I had taken one on Thursday, but I was so weak that I almost collapsed.  After that, I decided personal hygiene wasn't something worth breaking my neck over, so by Tuesday I really needed to clean up.  This time I made it through, but got out of the shower completely exhausted.

Thankfully, I bounced back.  Eliot and I worked on some orders during the day and in the evening.  We were listening to music and both of us were singing along.  My voice was lower than usual, but it felt good to be doing something "normal" again.

This was the first night that I actually wanted to cook something for dinner.  I made myself one of my childhood favorites, Kraft Mac & Cheese and piggies in a blanket.  It wasn't anything fancy but it definitely made me feel better.  (Yay comfort food!)

That night, Eliot and I watched The Greatest Showman.  Both of us sang along during parts of it.  After that ended, we went to bed so we could get some rest.

Wednesday, August 3rd

This morning, I woke up past 11 am to an empty bed.  Eliot had decided to stay home from work for one more day to be safe, and somehow I slept in without hearing him get up.  I came downstairs to him cooking bacon and happy as a clam.  I made myself scrambled eggs and we tucked in to watch a Youtube video tour of the Disney Wish.  

Eliot and I have got a bunch of orders that we're trying to get out in the mail this afternoon since our quarantine is officially over today.  It'll be a longer than usual process since we're adding an extra step of sanitizing all of our products and wiping them all down.  Then, Eliot will be packaging them up wearing gloves to be safe! 

I'm not sure what we'll be doing this evening, but we're going to hang out at home and get some more rest since we're both re-entering the real world again tomorrow!

And that gets you caught up to the present!  I'm sure it's going to be another week or longer before we both feel like we're back to normal.  I can tell that my lungs are going to take a bit of time to fully recover.  However, we're grateful that it was only as bad as this.  Eliot and I both know we could have had it much worse... not that this was a cake-walk, but it wasn't terrible.  Hopefully, this is the last we'll see of the 'rona!  °o°

Already August

August is here and summer feels like it's flying by too fast.  But Eliot and I still have a ton of stuff that we're cramming into our summer before it flies away for the winter.

The past few weeks, I've been trying to crank up the volume on my Summer Bucket List... but I'm also being realistic.  At this point, we're not going to get a lot of the things that I wanted to get accomplished done... even the "easy" ones.  However, my main goal right now is to make the most out of the last few weeks of summer!

Eliot and I had originally planned to go to Six Flags next weekend (8/6 & 8/7) and back up to Bar Harbor one more time (8/20 & 8/21), but we'll probably can the Bar Harbor trip.  There are only so many weekends between now and when we leave for our trip to California.  Eliot and I are trying to get as many orders done for our businesses as possible.  Plus, I don't think we'll be feeling up to going anywhere next weekend which means our planned Six Flags trip is getting pushed back a week or two.

There's still plenty of things to look forward to though!  Eliot and I are hoping to enjoy some more activities in our local area.  I'm also excited that Halloween merchandise is starting to pop up in stores.  We've already seen a few things and I'm hoping to find a few more treasures this month.  I'm sure that will definitely put me in a spooky mood before our Disney trips next month!

I'm sure August is going to fly right by too!  I'm going to soak in every last second of my ice cream, lobster rolls and cake batter iced coffee before they yield to pumpkin spice everything.  I absolutely love the fall, but I'm going to enjoy the crap out of the rest of my summer and warm weather here in Maine!  Slow down summer!!!  °o°