We have a new grandson--the saddest happy day

We had originally planned our route through this northwest corner of Arkansas to do some leaf-peeping. This would give us time to quarantine away from everyone in anticipation of the birth of our grandson. But we were exposed to this dreaded virus on our last weekend before our quarantine. Then an early induced labor was scheduled a week before the due date. So instead of being healthy and quarantined so we could enjoy the birth, we are in the middle of COVID symptoms and far away from the excitement. It was the saddest happy day! Mark was still feeling very tired, and running a high fever today. Denisa was fever-free, but her heart was breaking. She kept crying at the thought of not being there to welcome this little boy into the family. We had looked forward to this day for so long! Denisa kept texting for updates, and we eventually got the news at 4:34 p.m. that baby Eli had been born. We were glad to get the first pictures that evening, of our happy son and daughter-in-law and their new baby boy.

Mark celebrated the birth of a new grandson by his fever spiking up to 102.8 this evening. While we thought he should be getting better by now, some of his symptoms are getting worse. We had planned to be on stand-by to take care of our granddaughter while her Mom and Dad were at the hospital. Instead, we were the ones needing medical care during this saddest happy day. We're still in our campground in Arkansas, while we really want to be with them in Kansas.

The next morning, we got more pictures. We are proud to announce the newest member of the Engelman family, weighing in at a whopping six pounds, 12 ounces.

Day #8 of COVID - Denisa is feeling good enough to be bored. Now that Eli has arrived, she needs to finish a baby present. About ten years ago, she made a queen-sized quilt using three-inch triangles cut from her large stash of scrap material. She also pieced a blue baby-sized quilt top, in hopes that she would one day have a grandson. Ten years ago, neither of our sons were even married. As she hand-quilted and then bound the quilt now, she can't wait to give it to Eli.

Mark is still sleeping a lot, and we noted that his cough is worse today. But Denisa continues to keep a record of both of our temperatures and symptoms. She penciled in that Mark is feeling better today. Maybe having a grandson will be just what he needs to get well! After seven days in this campground, today we ventured out for a drive around the area. Besides our drive into Rogers for COVID testing, and then another drive to pick up our shopping from Walmart.com, we haven't been out of the campground this week. It feels good to explore a little of this beautiful corner of Arkansas.

We went for a road trip down Scenic Highway 12, that snakes through Hobbs State Park. It looks like the trees are about at peak for our drive.

We only drove 12 miles down the road, but it felt good to be out in the fresh air and seeing new places. It's sad to realize that we won't get to kayak on this beautifully clear Beaver Lake. We'll have to come back on another trip when we can enjoy this area without the complication of COVID!

Even though we have appreciated our nice Corp of Engineers campground at Prairie Creek, Denisa is quite bored. She's never spent so much time inside our motor home's 35-foot walls!

She is well enough to take short walks around our park now, taking a few pictures. Her stamina is greatly reduced, so she has to make sure she has enough energy to get back home in this hilly campground. During these rainy week days, the park is almost deserted. So it's a great place to recover.

We would definitely rather be taking pictures of our new grandson, rather than our campground. We are sad to be still struggling with COVID on what should be a very happy week.

Living with COVID - a week of being weak

We are getting used to our new lives. We feel a little like fugitives on the run, staying hidden from others. Mark's symptoms continued to get worse as his fever is persistent and he has a sore throat and now a cough. He's not interested in eating and any effort wears him out. A couple ibuprofen finally brought his fever down and made him more comfortable. Then he could make the drive to our hiding place for the next week--Prairie Creek Corp of Engineer Campground, near Rogers, Arkansas.

With big camp sites, we had plenty of space away from others. God is taking care of us. When we made the reservation, we lucked into a great site. It was level and long--making it easy for us to get set up. God knew that we didn't have the strength to drag out leveling pads to deal with an unlevel site. Denisa had a head ache this morning, but she attributed that to sleeping on the couch for the last several nights. She is still trying hard to keep her distance from Mark's symptoms.

It's obvious to us that Mark has COVID, and it has been recommended that he should be tested. By afternoon, Denisa had a scratchy throat and runny nose, so we both went to Med-Express in Rogers for their drive-in testing.

We did all the paperwork via telephone from the parking lot. After getting registered, we pulled into one of the testing parking spots. A nurse suited up in protective gear did three nasal swabs--one for the quick COVID test, one for the slow COVID test, and one for the flu test. We waited in the parking lot for 15 minutes until the nurse practitioner came back with our results. We are BOTH strong positive for COVID based on the quick test. It looks like Denisa's efforts to stay well were futile. The good news is that she can stop wiping down everything Mark touches. We're obviously in this thing together! Even though Mark had a two-day head start, we're counting this as Day #1 of our official journey with COVID. We'll include pictures taken of our beautiful camp site, where we are sequestered this weak week.

Day #2 - Denisa had already started a notebook with Mark's symptoms and temperature readings. Now her data would have two columns as we started tracking two temperature readings. We are glad to be in a lovely place, but we are sad to be spending this time feeling so unwell. Her symptoms started ramping up, as Mark continued running a fever and feeling achy. With no one well enough to cook, we were glad to have leftovers from before Denisa got sick. Neither of us had an appetite, but we knew it was important that we kept drinking and trying to eat.

Day #3 - Neither of us had any energy, and just walking the length of the motor home wore us out. Besides writing down our frequent temperature readings, Denisa also wrote some of our symptoms. She wrote things like, "We are achy--even our hair hurts." We had back pain, and strangely both had sharp pains in our right shoulder blades. We were parched from our fevers, and had to make a concerted effort to keep drinking fluids. But the scary symptoms started this day when our lungs began to feel compromised. It's hard to describe the feeling, but Denisa's lungs felt strangely "thickened," and we both felt an unusual pressure in our chests. After all the news stories about shortness of breath and respirators, these were the scariest symptoms.

Day #4 - As if being sick and sequestered inside wasn't bad enough, we got a couple days of rain too. Our outlook is gloomy, both inside and outside. We got a phone call from Med Express this morning, checking on us. They don't offer follow-up care, but they recommended the local hospital emergency room if our symptoms persisted. They had gotten the results from our long COVID test, and they reported that it was very positive (of course). We were glad to tell the nurse that we felt better today than yesterday. But we both have severe fatigue. We both felt like we were twenty years older than the week before. Our camp site was reserved by someone else for tonight, so the main project of the day was dumping our tanks and moving to a new site. That would be no problem on a normal day, but today it took all our energy and wore us out. If this is what it feels like twenty years from now, we won't be RVing in twenty years. We got a break from the weather, so at least we made the the move when it wasn't raining.

Day #5 - This would be the day that our cases of COVID took different paths. Mark's case started sooner and he suffered from more persistent and higher fevers. While Denisa started feeling better on Day 5, Mark's symptoms took a turn for the worse. He slept more today, and he started some odd symptoms. His legs felt numb and his chest felt bruised. Denisa knew he felt bad, when he started saying that he might go to the doctor tomorrow . . .

Day #6 - We had heard that COVID symptoms can seem to come and go, and today it came back with a vengeance for Mark. He was so weak that he couldn't even stay awake. He slept all night and then all day. Denisa had to rouse him to make him eat a little and stay hydrated. It was frightening to see him so lethargic. He agreed to use our insurance's telemedicine service. It was nice to get a medical opinion that this turn for the worse and his symptoms weren't unusual. COVID often lulls you into believing that you're getting better, only to smack you back down. This was a smack down kind of day. Will this virus ever give up and go away?

Even though this blog feels like it is speeding through the week, we can assure you that it was one of the longest weeks of our lives. Even though it felt like Denisa had a light case of the virus, she was still miserable with aches and fevers and severe fatigue. Mark's symptoms were doubly serious and just kept hanging on. Living with COVID is miserable as we finished up our first week of being weak.

It looks like one of us has COVID

 With the news that we had been directly exposed to COVID, we hurried back to the Oklahoma panhandle where our motor home was parked. We had been spending the nights at our Mothers' houses, so it was time to get everything gathered up and moved back into our home so we could stay away from everyone. Mark's Mother watched us from afar as we prepared to leave. Denisa's Mother showed up with a goodie bag of treats for our travels and waved good-bye from a distance. 

We got the news about our exposure on Monday morning, and Mark started running a fever on Tuesday evening. He obviously didn't waste any time starting to show symptoms of this virus that we have dreaded for the past six months. So we hit the road on Wednesday morning for points to the east. We had made reservations at Corp of Engineer parks. With large secluded sites, we would have plenty of space to stay away from others. We could reserve and pay on-line, so we didn't have to come into contact with anyone when we arrived. Mark took a couple ibuprofen to knock down his fever, and drove the four hours to our site at Irving Washington campground on Lake Keystone. His symptoms quickly ramped up as his fever rocketed up to over 104 as COVID started taking over.

Since it was during the week, few people were at the lake. The beach was deserted, so it was a great place for Denisa to get out for a little fresh air. Trying to stay well while taking care of a sick patient in a 35-foot motor home is tough. Mark got really sick really fast. He had no energy, no appetite, and stayed in bed. When he left the bed, Denisa wiped everything he touched with lysol wipes, and sprayed more disinfectant on all surfaces. She really didn't want to get this virus!

She stayed outside as much as possible, and was glad for the deserted beach. She didn't see any wildlife, but she found their foot prints in the sand to prove they were around.

This is a place that we would normally stay for several days. Normally, we would walk the hiking trail, and put our kayak onto Lake Keystone. But we're here just for one night, and our lives are anything but normal right now. It looks like one of us has COVID, and the other is taking care of him while desperately trying to avoid getting sick. As the sun sets over the water this evening, we're trusting that God will take care of us, as we wander through some uncharted paths this week.

Starting our COVID quarantine

 Our dear friends, Connie and Steven made the drive to the New Mexico mountains to spend time with us this past summer. Now they invited us to visit them at their house on our next available weekend. We have just one free weekend before we start our quarantine. Since we had a new grandbaby due in three weeks, we will be starting our isolation after this weekend to be sure we are COVID-free to be around the new baby.

Our friends live just three miles from a state park, and we spent one morning hiking along the rocky hills of Quartz Mountain State Park.

We walked along the park road, all the way to the lodge that is undergoing remodeling. After spending time in less picturesque places since we left the mountains, it was good for our souls to wander God's wonders this morning.

As we made our five-mile loop, we came upon many members of the park's deer herd. If you look carefully, you can see a couple walking down the road toward us.

We'll zoom in a bit to show the deer inside the park are used to state park visitors like us.

We walked all the way to the end of the trail, crossing the pedestrian bridge close to the lodge. Can you read the warning on the bridge?

We didn't even consider swimming or diving from the bridge today.

That's because there is no water anywhere close to that very long bridge this summer. 

It's late in the season, so it's fun to find wildflowers still blooming. 

It's a good walk when you get good exercise with good friends, and get good views shared with wildlife and wildflowers!

It was a foggy morning, and we looked out from their front porch to see an odd spectacle. We saw hundreds of large birds, sitting on the ground and on the available fence posts.

With the fog and the poor lighting it was hard to get a good picture of these big birds. Why would so many be congregating here in this pasture?

We did a little research, and found a much better picture of a Swainson's Hawk on the internet. We believe they are migrating south, taking advantage of the big crop of grasshoppers and small rodents in the field.

On this last weekend before quarantining, we didn't do anything in crowded places. Quite the opposite, we spent the weekend in their home. We did take one drive around the area, inspecting the cotton crop. Many of the fields in their neighborhood have opened up to show the fluffy bolls of cotton. This field still has its leaves, so it's not yet ready to harvest.

Steven was raised on this cotton farm, so he knows all about the process of watching those tight bolls crack open . . .

to free that big fluffy handful of cotton.

We drove by fields that had been sprayed to defoliate the leaves. They look like fields of snow, almost ready for harvest.

For part of this weekend, we were joined by their daughter and son-in-law. We were glad to meet this newest addition to their family, since we missed their wedding just six weeks before. They weren't there long, as they headed home on Sunday at noon. We stayed until Monday morning.

After a delightful weekend of good fellowship, we headed towards our old home town on Monday, where we had dentist appointments scheduled. We had just filled out the dentist's pre-visit questionnaire where we had just confirmed that we didn't have any fever, and hadn't been in contact with anyone that tested positive for COVID. THEN WE GOT THE PHONE CALL! Their son-in-law was feeling bad when he got home, and took the fast test for COVID this morning. It was positive! That news turned our plans upside down! We had to cancel our dentist appointment and our lunch plan with a friend, and immediately started our quarantine. We had planned to quarantine starting this week to get ready for a new baby, but this is now a quarantine to prevent the spread of COVID. After being so careful, how could this be happening to us?

Denisa's Happy Birthday (again) and Carter Time

 After celebrating Denisa's birthday a week early in Oklahoma City, we drove back to the Oklahoma panhandle for a few more days. Then we were glad to head towards the Kansas City area for more fun with our son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter.

We started our visit with more birthday celebrations. Denisa is enjoying a birthday that just goes on and on!

She got to choose her birthday menu, and she selected ribs. It was a fabulous choice! Luke has a Green Egg smoker, and we can report that he is very good at cooking with it!

With Jordan's salad and vegetables, it was a meal fit for a birthday queen!

We prepared Carter's plate with meat that we had carefully taken off the rib bone for her. But after she saw all the adults eating, she let us know that she wanted to chew it off the bone just like the big kids!

Mark ordered a coconut cream pie from the best-reviewed pie bakery in Kansas City. It was delicious! It's been a great birthday, as we picture birthday dessert #3!

Since we've been away for the summer, we planned to stay for several days. We enjoyed dancing in the back yard,

long walks in the park,

trips to the playground,

and time at the indoor splash pad.

We haven't had a wildlife picture of the day lately, and Carter loves animals. We were all fascinated by this frog sticking to the glass of their front door one rainy day.

Even in the suburbs, we are fascinated by wildlife encounters.

Our plan had been to take Carter back to Beaver with us, so she could spend a couple days with her great grandmothers. But Mark's Mother was directly exposed to COVID-19 at her weekly hair appointment. She found out that the county health department required her to quarantine for two weeks, so we didn't make the planned trip back to the Oklahoma panhandle. Instead, we stayed in Lenexa until the next weekend when we would baby sit so Luke and Jordan could go out for their 6th anniversary. So we got more time to read books,

eat snacks at the park,

and play the piano and sing,

In preparation for a new baby brother that will be born soon, we practiced our stroller pushing skills. We hope the new baby likes popping wheelies in the stroller!

This toddler has suddenly grown from a two-year-old into a big girl ready to be a big sister! She likes wearing Granddad's glasses, as she pretends to be the teacher and instructs us all to take naps.

We can hardly wait until there are two grandchildren to visit at this address!