April was a big month with things finally starting to feel like they were turning around as COVID vaccines became available to the general public in South Carolina. As a result our month consisted of Carl becoming fully vaccinated, me getting my first dose of the vaccine and starting to participate in some more typical life activities. We celebrated one of Carl’s co-workers (Vanessa) getting married, the 1st birthday of Prince Henry (our friends’ son), and started playing volleyball again after taking all of 2020 off. This was all much needed after both of us had been struggling with the monotony of COVID life at various times over the past several months. We even neutered 2 goats that belong to another of Carl’s co-workers and if neutering farm animals doesn’t scream normal Schmidt life, I don’t know what does, lol.
The month did go a bit awry when Roy (Carl’s dad) came to visit and ended up in the emergency room twice in one week with severe arm/neck pain. His one day visit turned into an entire week and his pain left him drugged and unable to drive himself anywhere which was an issue considering that he’d driven 16 hours here from IL so had both a van and a dog here with us. The result was Carl driving Roy and dog all the way back to IL on his day off at the end of the week. We’d previously decided we’d never be driving back to IL again after the drive to move here so this was in direct violation of the Schmidt code. Penalties still being determined. After some time in the hospital in IL, Roy’s pain is under control so that’s the good part of this story.