The simple life

So - how are things here in our corner of the US? Well, not exactly exciting when it comes to everyday life. I am trying my very best to embrace the simple quarantine life which has absolutely no Paris Hilton glamour:

In reality my level of glamour is to at least put on some mascara and some earrings when I go to work to complement my “I took the wrong paper bag at the reception and am now stuck with a kiddie mask for the rest of the day” look:

The days are moving ever so slowly. Especially since Teresa is no longer here to suggest stuff to do or keep us on our toes when it comes to cooking. She moved back to Denmark on the very first available flight after she turned 18. Here she is in Newark airport next to her beloved old car

But considering what the fall is going to look like for all her friends starting college in the US, I truly believe she made the right decision.

The school district here has decided to move forward with online schooling only. Luca is kind of disappointed as he had really looked forward to going back to school this year. We have decided to have him sit with a friend on a daily basis though, so it’s not him, himself, and Luca every day. Ulrik - on the other hand - will be going back to university of Michigan in about a weeks time. They fedexed him a Covid test which he will have to swab Monday and return same day to the university, where they will run all the tests. I doubt they can keep campus virus free, but we’ll have to wait and see.

We are trying to get outdoors as much as possible and enjoy the rivers and woods and rocks

We have gotten ourselves a bar cabinet from the local secondhand store, which I upcycled with some golden koi fish

And I am following the upcoming election a bit more closely than I would usually do for US politics. I really really really hope that my newly purchased deck of cards will be a crazy souvenir for a long lost precidency when 2021 rolls around. On a positive note this deck of card was on sale at the gopshop so one can always hope that’s an omen of defeat.

High school graduation corona style

The school year has ended and for Teresa this happened to be her senior year in high school. A year that has by far not been one of the easiest ones in her life but where she still managed to refuse to give in and give up. And here she is. Graduating summa cum laude (special achievement that signifies being among the ones with the highest grades in the school) and getting to wear a purple cord around her neck.

Usually there would have been prom and parties and a large outdoor graduation ceremony. Well..... not this year of the cursed 2020. Instead she picked up her gown and cap quite a few weeks ago and got assigned a time slot, where she (and the rest of us) could meet up at the high school and she could be filmed walking the stage to get her pretend diploma (it had the benefit that they actually asked how to pronounce her name so for the first time in history the Frikke-Schmidt name was pronounced somewhat correctly in an official setting in the US😏)

The school had also provided all seniors with a sign to put in the front yard:

After all that, she went back home, took off the cap and gown and went straight back to homework and online classes for a few more weeks.

Yesterday was officially the last day and the school had arranged for a car parade with a route around the school blocked by the police. We had decorated my car accordingly:

And off we went. Of course our tiny Kia Soul got to go behind a gigantic pickup truck where a lucky graduate had a brother with a mullet who could hang out with her in the back of the truck. Very - ehm - Pennsylvania.....

Later in the evening there was the video recorded graduation ceremony with the teachers performing a piece of classical music, the high school chamber choir signing, speeches from the principal and the valedictorians (if which the female one seriously made one of the best speeches I have heard in a long time about how this class of 2020 will go out and rebuild a world in shambles), followed by all the stage crossings. And I have to admit that we fast-forwarded through this until we got to Teresa:

And now I guess she is officially done with high school - or at least the American one. By the end of July she will go back to Denmark to repeat her senior year in a Danish high school. She will get some of the freedom the US teenagers lack so desperately, and there will be family and friends receiving her with open arms. And she will have a little more time to figure out where she wants to go in life. I will miss her terribly, but honestly watching your child fold out their wings and fly away confidently and happily is how it should be (and we have made sure to book her a return ticket so we will se her again this Christmas).

Boom tick-a boom

It’s spring in Pennsylvania. The birds are chirping. The bull frogs are mooing. The baby turtles are wandering in the woods

And the ticks are freakin’ everywhere😡 It has gone absolutely nuts with ticks here. The other day, as I was working, one of them crawled across my computer screen! Luca especially is getting tick-paranoia and honestly who wouldn’t if they found 7! of them climbing on their bed as they were about to go to sleep. It turned into a tick-genocide as you unfortunately can’t just wash them down the sink. They will climb right back up to come and get you, so Luca made sure to chop them all in half first...... Otherwise we usually churn them in the kitchen sink incinerator.

Why do we have that many ticks one might ask. Well.... not to mention any names and shame certain members of the family, but one of us in particular just loves hanging out in tall grass

We have started to give him that neck-pesticide for dogs that gets absorbed through the skin and that helps somewhat. Another suggestion we have had is to put the ticks in a flask with ethanol, which will kill them instantly. And of course my mind went off roads and started to imagine shelves of tick bottles one could take down and admire. Perhaps in the company of grandkids one day and tell the how 2020 was such a good season for ticks👵🏻

Ticks aside the US has also had the pleasure of housing killer hornets now (though not in Pennsylvania yet.....) and apparently we are in for a crazy cicada year as well. Yay. The summer of 2020 will be such a blast😑

Covid coping

I don’t know about all of you but I have reached that point where I don’t really know how to answer when others ask if I am OK. We are OK! Kristian and I both work from home without any salary cuts, Ulrik just finished his sophomore year in college, Teresa studies like crazy for her AP exams and Luca still has online school every day. We have food in the fridge, money in the bank, and we are all healthy. That’s actually not bad at all.

And at the same time I feel SO insignificant. This virus feels like a lottery you didn’t want a ticket for, and if your number gets drawn you don’t know how big your “prize” will be. We also have close family members in Denmark that are infected now and we can do absolutely nothing to help from all the way over here🥺 All of this combined really gets to me some days, and I have to be very considerate with how much time I spent checking the news and how I take care of myself.

One really good thing is that we finally have spring, and we try to be outside a lot more. This past week we discovered High Rocks Vista, and it amazes me that we live so close to something this beautiful:

Even Bailey seems to be speechless with awe......

I spend an embarrassing amount of time watching my plants grow, just because!

To keep my body going I have tried different YouTube fitness routines and it has been sort-of-fine. And then I discovered Sydney Cummings.OH MY GOSH!!!!! That women makes me work my 🍑 off with exercises like “skull crusher” and “one armed man maker”. I am not yet at the point where I don’t have to choose the easier versions of some of the exercises, but I can feel myself improving💪🏻

I also have my embroidery. Here is my progress from week 1 in quarantine to week 8 (or is it 7 or 9?????):

Amazing right?

Last but not least we had to perform a quarantine emergency haircut on poor Luca. At least we know now that if all else fails working as a hair stylist will not be something neither Kristian nor I need to consider

On the bright side is that everything grows super fast on this kid so soon the days of being a Prince Valiant lookalike will be over

Breaking news from week 4 of quarantine

We had the first thunder storm of the year. Quite a hefty one. Not everyone was a fan

I have made a new friend! Stuart the stinkbug who happens to be my office mate these days. As he is not bringing all his friends and as I am too lazy to get rid of him, we get a lot quality time everyday.

The trails in peace valley park opened back up! Parking is still not allowed as they try to limit the number of people on the trails, but since it is within biking distance it works. And - ehm - it’s a lot more fun to bike around lake galena if you don’t have to duck under police tape to get in. At least that’s what I heard from a friend.....😬

It has been time for taking care of my plants and even put some of them outside. And if I may say so - we now have the coziest corner in the courtyard:

While I was at it I made sure to propagate some new plants to replace all the dead ones in the office when we are allowed back. My office plants are safely sitting right next to me as I took them with me on the last day, but from what I hear one of the security guards is watering our office plants on his daily rounds (he used to work in my department before he retired from science), so now I am stuck with a bunch of extra plants. Oh well - I am sure it can find good forever homes for them anyways

Last but most certainly not least, a big old dream of mine came true this week! When I was a teen living far out in the country side with a lot of time on my hands, I ended up spending quite a bit of time in front of the sewing machine. Some attempts were better than others but I did become quite good at it. Here is one of my very first homemade things

Ever since I learned I was pregnant with a daughter I dreamt of the quality time her and I should spend in front of the sewing machine...... oh well. Along came Teresa and sewing is not how she likes to spend her time. Until you are in the 4th week of covid 19 quarantine and your mom bitches about how wearing masks outside is probably not the helpful anyways. Et voila. Teresa wearing her first homemade outfit:

We even wore them as we shopped in Trader Joe’s a few days later and both Teresa and I are quite certain the lady in front of us (as we were spaced out 6 feet from each other outside waiting to be allowed into the store) sneaked a photo of us wearing our fancy masks✌🏻