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I've been trying out masks to see which are comfortable (mostly from Etsy and Fashion Nova). Luckily, it's very cold where I work so it usually doesn't feel that weird, but the ones with the elastic straps do hurt my ears after awhile.
G has an interesting way to help with the masks that rub on your ears. Most of them seem to have pretty long elastic and she has started to wear her hair in a bun and criss cross the straps in the back using her hair to secure the mask. It's funny but she swears that it is more comfortable.
 
(Except malls which I miss :sad: )
Me too! As a 90s teenager, not having access to the mall is just terrible for me :rotfl:

(I finally found a fox mask :rotfl:)
So cute!

Sorry this is such a bummer of an update! Maybe things will change again before my next update and be looking good again, but I'm trying to plan for the fact that it might not. I really miss traveling and was hoping we'd get to go now that things are opening back up.
Ugh, I get it. It would be so much easier if we just *knew* when all this would go away. Because even if it was a terrible date way in the future, the anxiety of "will this happen, won't this happen?" would at least be gone. :sad2:

Sadly, I don't see us being able to go to Disney at all even through next year because of the reservation system.
I don't see me going back to Disney anytime soon either. There's just so much I'm not sure I want to deal with even if I could go. :sad:

They had a cool chocolate piñata one, but since it was just me I went with the churros. Which I didn't expect to come out in their own cart :lmao:
Happy belated birthday!!! LOVE your churros cart! :thumbsup2:laughing:
 


It's true! 90's me needs to go to the mall, even though I never find anything there and always end up ordering stuff online anyway. But there's nothing I hate more than mailing returns back so I'd rather try stuff on in person.
Yes. Yes. And, yes. :rotfl:
 


There definitely must be some ant thing going on because we've been having issues with ants at my parents' house in NH and while we've controlled it (to a minefield of ant hills near our graden), bugs are just everywhere. Could it be the next plague coming through in this impending apocalypse? Who knows? I'm sorry you had to deal with it too though. It's all... so gross.

I've been hearing more things saying that HHN is going forward as long as the parks are opened, which they shouldn't all things considered, but that's neither here nor there. It seems like the parks are opened so HHN30 is gonna be one weird year. I'm personally holding off on doing anything as much as in normal circumstances I'd have my Frequent Fear by now (which is probz not gonna be a thing, rip until 2021) until I know for sure Florida has their you-know-what together. It makes one so anxious though, doesn't it?

Glad to see you've been still managing to enjoy yourselves as this madness has started to get ahold of itself. Hopefully, we see a good turn for the better soon.
 
HHN or Chicago/Boston Trip-8.5 weeks

Sorry it's been awhile since I updated! I don't really have many travel updates. We've also been dealing with some bug problems. We've never really had bugs in our apartment (except when our old window was rotting a few years ago and some carpenter ants started hanging out around it before they replaced it). But 2 weeks ago, we had an issue with ants.

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(Which was actually pretty easily solved once we sprayed and put down some cinnamon. Yes, apparently ants hate cinnamon :rotfl: ).

But for the last week we've been finding earwigs inside :scared: It started out with a few, but last Thurs we found over 10 in one night.

View attachment 509702

Over the weekend we raked out the nest (it seemed to be under the porch, we don't really use our porch and it appears maintenance just throws all the debris under porches) and sprayed. (They seem to be coming in the cracks in doors and windows which sadly we can't fill all of and our maintenance isn't much help). If you following me long enough you might remember the Great Door and Window Debacle of 2017 where they replaced our doors and windows, but did such a crappy job that I knew we'd have problems down the road. I think we've reduced the number getting in, but we haven't completely solved the problem.

Also they mostly come out at night when Josh is sleeping so I'm usually the one that deals with them, and last week one got up onto the bed :faint: so I've had a bit of a hard time falling asleep at night :rotfl:. We've been here for 5 years, and we plan to move (our lease is up in Dec/Jan), we've had so many issues here this year that we're definitely serious about this time.

Oh, and we started watching the old Unsolved Mysteries because the new one just isn't as good! (I'd say rewatching, but most the ones I saw I watched with my grandma when I was little). My favorite segments are the ones about hauntings :rotfl: and the ones where they reunite lost loved ones.

Trip Planning

In the last 2 weeks there hasn't really been a change to Florida's numbers. In fact they renewed the quarantine for the Tri State area coming to FL, and we now have to quarantine here coming back from 19 different states (of which Florida is one of). My work has let me know we could do that (though the time would be unpaid), but it would not look favorable on my record. It looks like HHN will be going on (so far), and I'd really like to go, but I'm doubtful things will change enough to allow it.

We aren't cancelling officially till Aug (because the hotel is all we booked anyway), so I'm hoping we have enough info to make the decision then. Right now I'm looking at Chicago or Boston for potential trips to take that trip's place. I probably won't decide anything until it's really close to the trip, but the only thing I can really do right now is book hotels and airfare (which we wouldn't need for Boston). NY residents can enter and come back from both states without quarantining currently, and things look like they're opening in both places. I've booked a hotel in Chicago and flights to and from just in case we decide on that. I think we'd prefer to go to Chicago, but if we have to choose somewhere closer Boston is a good option too.

We've decided to not go anywhere in Dec (unless Sep really really doesn't work out I guess). I think we're going to use that week to move. If we don't go on a second trip, I can start looking for cars earlier next year, and I definitely would like to replace mine soon.

I know I pretty much said this in my last update. But I'll keep updating, and even do a small TR for wherever we do end up going this year, but as for theme parks I'll keep this going for next year. (Tentatively next year we'd like to go to Cali in May, and Florida in Sep. If we don't do Chicago this year we may do it in the same trip as Cali, and I'm not sure if we'll do a long trip in Sep or a weekend one and then do a longer one in Dec which would include Miami).


Some photos from the last few weeks:

My birthday cake! It was chocolate cake with buttercream frosting, and the colors were an attempt at tie dye. (The Lactaid in the back is my brother's :rotfl:).

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My aunt got me these flowers:

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4th of July:

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(He was not looking which is probably good because he was driving :laughing:).


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We can gather in groups of up to 50 now so my cousin had a family & friend BBQ on the 4th. Here's dad, me, my uncle, my aunt, and my cousins. (My brother was working).

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A neighbor of theirs was setting off fireworks so here's one we could see:

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Last night we had my brother's birthday party:

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His cake was white with peanut butter frosting, and for some reason my aunt bought us all giant bags of random M&M flavors :laughing:.

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As always, your family pictures are lovely.....and the cakes are fabulous!!!! I want a tie dye cake now!!!! And beautiful flowers too......

Love those Unsolved Mysteries shows too!!! It passes an hour or so some evenings.....I discovered some old shows about hauntings on some obscure channel a few weeks ago......completely addictive!!!

Oh the travel issues are just off the scale right now!!! You do right to not cancel just yet......Boston sounds a good option. I`d love to visit there.....it`s on the ever growing bucket list!! Every time I went to NY someone suggested I`d love it in Boston.

You`ll get sorted out I`m sure......you have some excellent Plan B`s......:thumbsup2
 
Raeven, what part of Chicago is for your stay?

I lived in the city and there are some great places to go and do there.

Hope whatever plans you decide on will be great!
 
That cake is beautiful!! I hope it tasted as good as it looked!!

I'm so sorry about all the travel plans having to change or cancel. It would be nice to do a short trip to Boston or Chicago though, both amazing cities. I'm so itching to travel again too, but who knows when that will happen for us, in Canada we can't even leave our own province right now.
 
I hear ya on the travel plans. I am so glad we were able to go to FLorida early June, and we got back last week from 10 road trip to/through South Dakota, and very glad we did that. Nature always helps-lots of hikes in National and State parks.
I still have my flights and hotel for HHN-but like you I'd normally be buying my ROF pass-last year we splurged for express with it-heaven!
When we did Universal in June I was perfectly comfortable in the parks, but the second day just got sad that this is the way we have to experience the parks right now-when I use the parks to shut out outside world. That feeling got re-enforced after the national park road trip. I am leaning more and more to cancelling my Disney AP.

Happy Birthdays to you and your brother!!

And hopefully you do get a getaway somewhere this year!! Am also thinking with money saved from reduced trips will be nice! I have a cruise booked for January but will cancel/postpone that until later 2021 or 2022 when I feel like sitting on hold for hours :sad2:.
And now second guessing if should even plan for Europe next year (after trip this year cancelled) or just plan for 2022 and not have the anxiety of "will it or won't it" happen...

The not knowing is so hard :)
 
We're pretty much in the same boat for HHN. We have a trip booked for September for when we originally planned to be in Cali but if the quarantine situation is still the same, we won't be able to go either. My hospital was briefly offering the option of volunteering for a covid test if you travelled to one of the states and then you could return to work without quarantining but they aren't offering that anymore unless you can prove your absence would cause a "staffing disaster" lol.

I'm still hoping something will change by then but I've accepted there's a 95% chance it won't :(
 
That feeling got re-enforced after the national park road trip. I am leaning more and more to cancelling my Disney AP.

Aw yeah that's part of it too. I'm leaning towards cancelling my Universal one and then getting a new one next year. It seems pointless to pay for it this year and next and go 0 times.

Happy Birthdays to you and your brother!!

Thank you!

And hopefully you do get a getaway somewhere this year!! Am also thinking with money saved from reduced trips will be nice! I have a cruise booked for January but will cancel/postpone that until later 2021 or 2022 when I feel like sitting on hold for hours :sad2:.

I hope so too! I hope you can go on a cruise next year.

I was looking up some info on a The Kitchen at HR and one of your videos was right there!!!

:thumbsup2

:laughing::thumbsup2
 
Yay for 2021!!!!

It sucks, but least you know what you`re doing now Raeven........hope you get your Chiccago or Boston trip sorted, it`s nice you have options still, and hope no quarantine issues pop up for you. Always a worry right now.....

Lovely pictures as always, looks a beautiful place to visit.

Now I`m looking forward to your 2021 TR........:cheer2:
 
So bummed for you with HHN being canceled.
I would just watch Chicago’s restrictions. Several states will have to quarantine now - I don’t think you are effected but we are here in Georgia . My in laws live there and we want to visit but who knows when that will happen. Good luck with your planning and hope you get to get away.
 

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