It is December and that means Alfred is back! Griffin spotted Alfred on the family room bookshelves – he was even properly wearing his mask and came with a note this year.
With December came snow and at the first good snowfall Griffin was out on the back patio just after 6 am one morning! He joined me for a walk with Brutus and we finished by enjoying snow fresh snow together.
We got all dressed in our matching pajamas and fixed some hot cocoa prior to decorating the tree this year. Even Brutes had jammies to match, though I’m not sure he was as excited as the boys and me.
Reid has no fear on the ladder, easily climbing high to help hang or deliver ornaments. Griffin conquered his fear and gained more and more confidence by climbing high too. We took advantage of a special Graeter’s promo of free delivery and capped the evening with bowls of yummy peppermint ice cream 🙂
We met up with the Manning’s and Kessler’s for a walk outdoors through the Columbus Commons which was decorated with Christmas lights. It wasn’t too long of a stroll, but it was fun and we were able to have hot cocoa together in the parking garage, lol.
When Lexi arrived on the morning of her birthday we showered her with a surprise of gifts and cinnamon rolls for breakfast. The boys were excited to watch her open things up.
And here are a few of just some wintertime shenanigans.
Given the Covid-19 Pandemic, we still wanted to find a way to share Christmas gifts with our friends and neighbors. We had the fun (funny?) idea of giving everyone a bottle of wine along with a container of clorox wipes, holiday themed disposable face masks, and a roll of toilet paper – ha! Signs of the times. We had fun assembling them and then driving around the neighborhood with the Tim Horton’s, the tail gate up, boys with their Santa hats on running up to everyone’s front doors to make the deliveries. The boys had the best time and were full of energy.
Afterward the boys were happy to snuggle on the couch in the new OSU blanket given to us by the Stephens. It is so cozy!
Ugh. Boys will be boys. Kids will be kids. However, I cannot stand finding things like this!! I walked in my bathroom one day to a disaster in which Reid had pretty much completely emptied my jewelry drawer and mixed and tangled everything together. I about lost my marbles. Kevin, as he so often does, found the perfect gift that he gave me for our anniversary and hung it up around the holidays. So I took to one of my favorite things and began organizing. So much better now to see and find what I want to wear!
Making mom’s recipe of chocolate macarons and Grandma Kirk’s Swedish Tea Cookies!
Another evening of winter fun we picked up hot cocoa and drove around looking at Christmas Lights, including one neighborhood that has a light show choreographed to music that you tune in to via radio station. It was pretty neat.
Here the boys are opening gifts from Abir Elmosleh and the Bolan’s (to remember 2020!). And then their Christmas gift from Lexi, a fort-making supply bin and blankets she made for each of them. They were in heaven. She also painted an awesome piece for Kevin and me of the boys. It’s a cute wintertime scene of them playing in the snow. We love it!
Kevin took Brutus to give him a holiday bath. He always looks so scared in these pics but Kevin says Brutus actually does great and seems to like it. He comes home smelling and feeling much better, that’s for sure!
Once again, amid the times of Covid, we did not gather with family for Christmas. Instead, we set up a time for Mom and Dad and the Bethune’s to come to our house where we setup tables in the garage and exchanged bags and boxes of gifts this year instead. Not nearly the same as all being together on Christmas morning, but a nice short time to gather nonetheless. All masked up with our winter coats on! Kevin also prepared awesome charcuterie boxes for each family. Delish! The Bethune’s gave us cute snow man mugs, hot cocoa bombs, and a fresh (still warm) loaf of homemade sourdough bread. Yummy!
Reid was exhausted and fell asleep at the end of our garage meetup. We put him down for a short nap and then decided to head to Enon to deliver the gifts and charcuterie box we had for Jim and Pat. It was a snowy drive but a fun one. We enjoyed our charcuterie in the car during the trip :).
When we returned home it was time to put out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots and a candy cane for the reindeer. Then we read the last reading from our Advent calendar and the boys put baby Jesus in the cradle.
Christmas morning the boys woke up early to a fresh snowfall and full of excitement to see what was under the tree. So many fun things including a pink remote control jeep for Reid, pokemon cards for both, OSU clothes, Reid’s own mug, a soccer ball and football pants for Griffin, the list goes on. These boys are blessed beyond measure.
Mom and Dad sent us some pics from their Christmas day too and once again we were able to Zoom everyone in on a call later in the day.
Christmas dinner wasn’t quite the same, but we made do and enjoyed quite a feast of filets, turkey breast, roasted carrots and broccoli, charcuterie, cookies, and Mom’s figgy pudding that she delivered with our gifts. It’s not Christmas without the figgy pudding!
Later in the evening with had a phone call with Grandma and Grandpa Armstrong while the boys opened their gifts from them. The were super excited with their new cameras, gamers, and robot!
Random photo of our oven not being this clean since we bought it. A Christmas break project to clean it up after I mistakenly turned the oven on one day while a plastic Ikea kids plate was in there. Yikes. It was a super long cleaning process but turned out pretty well in the end.
I was fortunate to have some days off in December and on this particular day we went to the barn with Lexi to see and ride Tango. It was cold and the fields were SO wet and muddy. But we had lots of fun going through the pastures, meeting other horses (and a mini horse about Brutus’ size), and doing some riding in the barn. The boys each fed treats to Tango and had a great time. I even got to ride and it’s been a LONG time since I’ve been up on a horse!
And here we are saying goodbye to 2020 and welcoming in 2021. We had a family party in our living room with party hats and noise makers.
The progress on the office space updates continues at Millcreek. The framing is going in and the former overhead doors are now all framed out.
October was a fun month! We began our first weekend with a Saturday noon soccer game and then headed to Mansfield for our annual apple picking trip. We stopped at Mom and Dad’s to drop off Brutus and then headed to Apple Hill. We arrived to learn they were picking Honeycrisp, which is one of our favorites. At first we were not too impressed as we were having to pick apples out of the tip-tops of the trees. Having been blueberry farmers who often gave the advice “start at the end of the row and work your way back” you think we would have known what to do, ha! But sure enough, as we walked closer to the back of the field they were far more plentiful. We still had fun hiking those boys into the trees to pick the highest apples they could. Griffin is getting to be quite the man to hoist at 55+ pounds. Even “little” Reidy checks in at 34+ pounds! We picked up some apple donuts and cider from the shop too.
Then we headed back to Mom and Dad’s and I’m pretty sure Kevin and Dad headed to Best Buys to pick out a new computer for Mom. Yikes, my memory is failing me! Her computer was bulging from having had an overheated battery at some point. Kevin was able to get her new computer all setup and the programs and files moved over. We ended up spending the night and had a nice pancake breakfast the next morning. Griffin enjoyed helping make the pancakes with Grandpa.
While Distance Learning isn’t “easy”, it certainly provides a solid routine to each day. Griffin usually has 3-4 live meetings with his teacher each day. A morning meeting where they complete “morning writing work”. An afternoon meeting, where she typically reads them portions of a chapter book and they review what they will be doing for their afternoon work. Two days a week he has a reading group (with 2 other friends) and a different two days of the week he has math group (orange group with the same 2 friends as reading). Griffin really likes the live meetings. He can be shy sometimes. He has really good manners and keeps his mic muted so people can’t hear the background noise (not everyone does this!). He does a pretty good job staying focused, but can easily get distracted when Reid is around or if Reid is doing any sort of play or electronics. He is really great at Math and doing quite well in reading too. Writing is an area that Griffin struggles with wanting to complete. He and I have had numerous frustrating interactions when I ask him to double-check his spelling (of simple sight words or words I know that he should be able to spell) or check his work for the three this he is expected to know (punctuation, capital letter of the first word of the sentence, and finger spacing). When I point out anything his confidence tanks and he gets so angry and frustrated it often leads to tears and loud voices. I’m struggling with how to help him. This is where Distance Learning is so hard! While he submits work each day, it’s not the same as submitting work in a classroom. That being said, he can navigate Schoology, his OLSD portal, and the computer in general in such awesome ways. His know-how to get around between teams meetings, apps used live during live meetings, apps to complete his assignments, and so on is cool to see. Miss Peacock has such a great voice and is really encouraging in all her live meetings. We are really happy with her. She has twice had “supply pick ups” at a local park to get school supply bags full of things for the kids. Notebooks, booklets of work papers, a pumpkin, and so on. A little “perk” is getting to see her live in real life and play with virtual friends in real life at the park for a short bit!
Griffin’s 2nd grade pictures arrived and we think they look stellar. Look at our handsome guy 🙂 Lexi is doing really well managing both boys during the day. I know I’ve said this before, but it is taxing. Trying to ensure Griffin is on task, while keeping Reid entertained and not as a distraction is the real deal. And she is very encouraging and affirming – two things I’m working on improving 🙂
The weather has been pretty great lately, allowing us to still enjoy outdoor times when possible. One evening we did a last minute trip to Nocterra and while we were there Kevin was talking to his Mom. Reidy wanted to get on and chat with Grandma and it was pretty funny. He kept telling us to “shhhhh, he’s talking”. It was comical.
Soccer day Saturday’s have been pretty great – both weather-wise and just the enjoyment in watching Griffin play. He has been focused and determined. He came up with his own motto “speed, strength, confidence” (which you may have also noticed Lexi put in the classroom on the Affirmation Station Wall) and he is living it out. This boy was just born with sports in his blood. He knows so many professional players names and numbers: hockey, football, soccer. He knows sports scores of games that are either in progress or have ended. He knows when his teams are going to play next. He just follows all things sports.
Mini-me, Reid, likes to wear all the same things as Griffin and play soccer leading to and from the game each week. During the game, he couldn’t care less what’s happening on the field. He just wants a “snack and a show” and settles himself into the chair. See below for a quick series in Reid’s emotions and energy levels, lol.
Despite all the Covid yuck of 2020, we wanted to keep as many traditions going as we felt we could do safely. We took the boys to Young’s Jersey Dairy to pick pumpkins and ride the farm wagon. Grandpa Armstrong met us there and treated us to lunch after putt putt – thanks Grandpa! Reid rode the kiddie ride and Griffin went down the slide a few times. All in all, a pretty “normal” experience with lots of hand sanitizer and mask wearing going on.
Lexi brought pumpkins for the boys and Griffin also had his pumpkin from Miss Peacock so one afternoon they took to carving them. Note the masks: the kids thought they stunk. Oh dear.
We had quite a busy day one afternoon with eye appointments for Griffin and me, followed by a quick stop at the cemetery to check the progess (it.is.sooo.slow….but at least now there is grass), then a fun and brief visit from Haya and baby Summer before heading to the Boo-through at Tyler Run. The school and sponsors put on a “drive through” trick or treat event so both kids and Lexi decorated the car (inside as it was horribly yucky cold and wet weather) and wore their costumes. They each came home with all kinds of swag.
My morning walks before work are something I’ve really come to enjoy. While it is brief and there are many days I feel like putting it off, I’m always glad once I do it. I go a mile or 1.25 miles usually at most, as I have my timeline down to what I can get done in order to arrive at work between 7:55 and 8, without getting up super early. The early morning walks in the dark are rather enjoyable and provide some beautiful sights. It’s sometimes serene and I don’t see another person and other days I may see four or five others out at 7 am. I wouldn’t be keen on doing it without my Brutes though!
We needed to dig up and replace our Rising Sun Redbud and by the time we got around to doing it one Saturday, it was about 5 pm. We had an hour left of daylight and were able to squeeze it in, but our picks aren’t very great! Our amsonia is beautifully colored and so much more prominent without the larger tree there. It’s hard to believe that tree had only been there 4 years and had put on so much growth. It was kind of a beast to dig out! But we got it done and now have our baby one in place. Hoping this one grows as quickly as the last, minus the splitting!
We signed Griffin up for Cub Scouts again this year, so he is in the Wolf pack. It’s a small set this year, currently only 3 boys. They’ve met a couple times at parks to complete requirements while being able to maintain distance and wear their masks. He’s also selling popcorn, though mostly online or ordering-to-be-delivered-to-you-later; no in person sale from inventory this year. So it’s not as fun, but he still sold so much and was happy he beat his last years sales.
We purchased a Black Gum (Nyssa sylvatica Northern Splendor) and a Chinese Elm (Elmus parviflora Allee) for our backyard to replace where we’ve taken down more than 5 of our blue spruces. While not evergreen, these trees will provide a nice screen and beautiful fall color. Thankfully Mom and Dad had just purchased a new-to-them truck (and quite a spiffy one I might add) and when I randomly called from Oakland while we were tree shopping to ask if we could borrow their truck, they offered to just drive down. So about an hour and a half later Mom and Dad were there and Kevin and Dad headed to Oakland to pick up the trees. We got two Rising Sun’s for our neighbors Sam and Carlene as well, so altogether they brought 5 trees home and delivered the two down the street. We had a nice dinner of City BBQ on the porch. Whew, that was an unplanned busy day! It took us about a week or so to get them planted, but when we got around to it we had two helpers; Reidy and Brutes. Both constantly in the mix. Griffin was off playing with neighborhood friends.
More soccer fun followed by fun new sweet trips from a really atypical visit to Kroger. Atypical in that I hadn’t been to one in ages, so I picked up all the fun treats you can’t find at Aldi 🙂 We also recently taste-tested the chocolate chip cookies from cousin Graham’s school fundraiser. They passed with flying colors and didn’t even cool before being consumed.
Work for me has been super crazy busy lately. We’re working on our 2021 budget, staff planning, hiring new employees, including my newest hire: Head of Human Resources and Employee Experience , filled by none other than George’s daughter-in-law Shaina Pealer – who is going to rock this role. She worked at Millcreek earlier this year on “Special Projects” (read that as many things I needed help in getting done!) and she was super-great. She worked for us while looking for a job since having relocated to Columbus from NYC. She found a job and departed at the end of May. In late September I learned that she had been let go from her job (which was in the fashion/retail industry which has been hard hit by COVID) and it was simultaneous with Management meetings we had been having regarding staffing, company needs, long-range planning, and so on. When we were discussing hiring someone for HR, George mentioned he may know of someone and asked if we wanted to know who it was. Well, of course we did – so he filled us in on Shaina. We jumped at the chance to recruit her. I met with her twice out of the office and offered her our new role. It is a huge job to fill and while she doesn’t have any technical HR experience, she is a lawyer who has also worked in large companies with great HR departments (Bloomingdales) and has so much experience form the employee side. She started on October 19th, right in the craziness of Insurance renewal season, hiring other open positions, and all kinds of things) and she is crushing it. So looking forward to streamlining the responsibilities of HR from being shared work of me and up to 5 or 6 others (all in different ways) into a single dedicated role. Yay! I may work my way out of a job, lol. Just kidding of course. This will give me time to do less of the daily action items and more of the larger planning and operational activities. At least that is the plan.
Whew. All of that to say since I’ve been working later and can’t always make it home at 5, when I come home, this is often what I see. Kevin let’s Lexi go usually around 5 each day, but he still works until 6:30 or so. It’s a challenge when your company is based out of Mexico, on central time, and they also start their work days later than we do in the US (9am)! Griffin is usually playing with friends or watching a show/playing a video game and Reidy is with Kevin in “his office chair” watching his own show (and as you can see, about to fall asleep). Little man is at the age where he doesn’t want a nap, but can often use one.
On Halloween morning, we got up and headed out early to go see cousin Rowan play his last soccer game of the season. We weren’t able to get to any of the earlier ones as they were at the same time of day as Griffin’s, but wheweee, it was a brisk fall morning! The sun was bright and the grass was crisp with frost! But it was a lovely morning to bundle up and cheer for our Crew player, #12. He had an awesome goal that we got to see. We’re thankful to live in the same town and go to our cousins events – though we hardly see each other often enough, especially in Covid times.
Later that day it warmed up really nice and the boys were outside raking leaves with Kevin playing in shorts and tshirts. Our driveway was a meeting spot for pizza and other snacks prior to trick or treating with our neighborhood friends. I got a little bit crafty and made a “healthy” item of ghosts/strawberries/grapes to go with our pizza. Each year we get a neighborhood pic, and these kids are growing up fast!
Ella the dinosuar, Eli is Darth Vader, Abbie is a robber, Miles is Spiderman, Hadi as a Samurai, Griffin as a Knight, Georgia as Maleficent, and in the front row: Jay as Spiderman, Abbie as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Reid as Spiderman, and Dewey as Hulk. Missing Cole and Cooper this year who were with their Mom.
And the adults of course: Kevin, Scott, Amy, Mike in the back and Lyndsey (with Honey), Megan, Chrissie, Karla, and Alex in the front. We missed Brian and Lisa, the Stephens, and the Serra’s this year (who had sick kids, not Covid!)
It ended up being a beautiful night for a walk in the neighborhood. Kevin and I got split up, as I stayed with Reid and the two of us went door to door with Abbie and Chrissie. Kevin went with Griffin and the big kids. There were a lot more people handing out candy than I had imagined. I even met a couple neighbors I hadn’t previously met. Fun night filled with so-much-candy.
And here are a few videos from this month. Soccer games, neighborhood football pickup game, and playing in the leaves.
May started off with some beautiful weather and an Essential Workers parade that came right by our house! It was a Friday evening and we gathered with several neighbors who came down to our common driveways where the parade turned. There’s a video below, but the kids (and adults!) thought it was pretty cool! Griffin drew some chalk art and we decorated some to celebrate.
Sadly, Pat’s brother Richard (Dickie) passed away unexpected in April. There was a graveside service in May that Kevin and I were able to attend along with Pat, Jim, and Brett. It was a nice service and a sunshine-filled afternoon. I hadn’t been to the cemetery before, where Pat’s parents and brother, Elwood, are also buried. Their gravesites are quite unique and it was neat to hear the story behind it.
While I left work for a short time to go to the service, Dad was there taking inventory of his hosta seedlings that we planted and to pickup the remainder of the bag of soil. That was a lot of counting!
We haven’t ventured out much between my work being busy and with the Stay at home Order. But one morning we woke up and I wanted to get out and about and get some fresh air with everyone. So we packed the kids bikes into the car and headed down to pickup Buckeye Donuts! We had a small picnic on the Oval near the Library on campus and the kids loved riding their bikes around. It was really our first time going out with the kids. We had our masks and wore them when we went to the Horseshoe and rode our bikes around. We also ventured to “downtown big city” and walked around some in the public space across from the Arena. We took a family photo at the same place Kevin and I had pictures taken on our wedding day. Reid and Griffin each took pictures of us!
With the nicer weather and not really having options of going anywhere we’ve been spending a good bit of time outside. Brutus has been really great on walks, in fact I often take him without his leash on and he listens really well. He’s been enjoying some front yard freedom with us too.
Look at my little sleeping boy! He is probably faking it here, but he’s cute nonetheless 🙂 We’ve been wearing masks at Millcreek since early to mid-May when businesses were allowed to open up following the guidelines in place by the Governor. Even though we had operated the entire time as an essential business, we were not required to wear masks during that time. It definitely makes things interesting and they are not at all comfortable to wear in the heat and humidity. But anymore it’s just the norm. Each person is wearing theirs upon arrival to get their temperature checked each day. Given that most of the work at Millcreek takes place outside, we encourage our employees to wear them, but they aren’t required if working alone in a greenhouse or when outdoors and social distancing can occur. Walking quickly in and out of hot greenhouses or working within them proves to make mask wearing uncomfortable and a “practical” challenge for keeping them on all the time for our employees. And I get it – it’s not comfortable!
An upside to being home so much is the boys are really learning to play well together and have been having a lot of fun. Kevin sends me pictures like this while I’m at work late :).
Reid seems to be our little early morning riser, often getting up just after 6 am. I’m usually up by then too so he comes to finds me and he has recently wanted to come on walks with me each morning. Can you believe here, in May, he is wearing his winter coat and a blanket!! There were a few mornings of freezing temperatures in mid-May and we definitely had some frosts.
We took a drive to Enon to see Pat and Jim and to deliver some spring flower planters to Pat for Mother’s Day. It was a chilly and breezy afternoon! The boys stayed in the car most of the time since it was chilly and we all kept our social distance while walking around the yard a bit. These are strange times! We headed to Young’s for lunch and experienced their new “drive-thru” which was actually quite smooth!
In the mornings Reid helps me make my coffee, he grabs a snack, and then lately we’ve been sitting in the dining room and watching nature. This usually by 6:20 or so. We sit there for a bit and look for birds, bunnies, squirrels, dogs, and such. Then we go up and I get dressed and we head out on our walk with Brutus (Reid in jammies sometimes but if I’m dressed he often wants to get dressed too!). I like our new morning routine.
On Mother’s Day I work up to a lovely morning with the kids. We were all wearing our matching family jammies. There were lovely flowers, coffee mugs, and my most favorite – my yearly painting of the boys handprints, which we later hung in our bedroom along with the others.
We haven’t allowed any customers to walk or shop through the nursery since the whole COVID-19 thing began. Along with that, we haven’t allowed school age children there either, which basically means kids of employees. I did, however, go out on a Sunday with Kevin and the boys to get succulents for teacher gifts for the end of the year. We parked outside the gate and walked to the greenhouse and the boys had a great time. Rock climbing the rock “wall” was their favorite part, lol. It’s been strange to not have Kevin and the boys visit me each week. Typically, they bring dinner out during the week usually one time each week so I get to see the kiddos since my work days are so long. This was the first time they’d been there in over two months!
Griffin made this lovely play-doh version of Kevin, complete with his briefcase! Isn’t it lovely? I particularly like the smile and spiked hair. Finn also helped Daddy clean all of our car mats, which were horribly dirty. Especially mine from the gravel driveways at Millcreek. They all look sparkling new now :).
Brutus loves it when anyone will play ball with him in the back yard. He really loves his jolly ball.
Our latest thing now that school is out is family bike rides! We’ve decided to make it our summer mission to bike ride to each of the ice cream shops in Powell! So, to begin we went to Graeter’s. It was our first time going out on Jewett Road with Griffin on his own bike and he did a fabulous job. Kevin and Reid went first, then Griffin, then me. We were able to make it there in about 17 minutes and home in even less. We got “curbside” delivery where they brought our ice cream out to us along the path, which I had preordered through the app. It was great!
I’m doing a separate birthday post for Reid’s 3rd birthday, but here you can see him enjoying several of his new things! I think he’s pretty happy!
Memorial Day was a bit different this year with no parade. It kind of broke our tradition of up and at em early to get Tim Horton’s to take to the parade! Instead, we gathered in the early evening at the Vertucci’s new house for a driveway happy hour with the Manning’s and Vertucci’s. We brought our chairs and tent for some shade as it was a hot day! We had fun catching up with everyone and the kids watched some shows and blew bubbles.
Matchy matchy! The boys are really in to wearing the same clothes or pj’s lately. And recently I was able to get them both new shoes that were the same. Griffin’s poor tennies were in such bad shape the velcro didn’t even stay attached anymore and the toes were about rubbed off. Looking sharp boys, let’s keep them looking new for awhile, ok? Griffin’s athleticism is quite admirable! He’s recently been doing some “trick riding” he calls it where he shows us all of his skills. Here in this video he shows us how he stands on one side of his bike (one pedal) while biking. He’s got some great balance and core strength and I love his current motto “speed, strength, confidence.”. He’s been talking about becoming my trainer, so he can train me to run. He’s quite a fast runner and this discussion came up since I can’t run at his pace, lol!
Griffin loves to get Lego sets and typically starts building them and then gets either bored or distracted or frustrated and moves on to making his own inventions. I’m amazed at his ability to make such creative things! His ships, planes, ninja structures, etc., are made with such detail and often symmetry. Full of weapons that actually fire!
Our second bike ride for ice cream was to the new DQ up on Seldom Seen in Powell. We were able to go Jewett Rd., to Liberty Rd., and then cut through Adventure park to the bike path that goes along the railroad tracks up to Seldom Seen . When we arrived, we saw signs that said their lobby was closed. Oops! Didn’t think to look that up first. We then tried to order through the app, which said they were closed. They clearly were NOT closed and after talking to an employee, she suggested we order through Grub Hub. Whew, while the menu wasn’t the same, thankfully we were able to order dinner and dessert as we had biked there for both and it was a good 3 mile ride!
The boys have really been wanting to help in the kitchen lately, which I’m encouraging as they seem to like to eat their efforts, lol. So they fill up on healthy fruits :). They are actually both quite good with their knives. Kevin has been giving the boys haircuts throughout the quarantine. He does a great job and the boys love it! They get hair cuts and then time in the shower or bath which they love. They’ve been making lots of forts with Haya and also playing Monopoly seems to be a new favorite for Griffin during the day.
While the end of the year ended a bit unusual, it was nice to be able to say goodbye to Mrs. Hale when Kevin drove to the school to pickup his classroom items. It was a “curbside drive-through” pickup and you weren’t allowed to give hugs or anything, but he was able to wave from the car and give her his succulent planter. The buses also drove their routes in order to say goodbye for the summer to the kiddos. Mrs. B drove through without stopping, but thankfully since she goes down to the turnaround on our street they caught her on the way back and gave her her succulent planter too. Yay!
