Anna Grows

 The week of March 9 was spring break for Anna.  It was a wild week that included things like applying for her college program, coloring her hair and going to the dentist.  She did hang out with friends and got to do an overnight road trip to Busch Gardens followed by a stop to see her friend's brother perform in Jesus Christ Superstar  in Fredericksburg (Anna will give you her review of that musical).  Time flew by and she is back at school for the final 8 weeks. Theresa headed to Ohio March 14 to celebrate Grandpa's birthday.  This included a surprise visit from Uncle Rod and Tim, so it was a full house (the first question from the neighbors was where everyone slept).  The family enjoyed breakfast out on Saturday morning.  They managed to get a few chores done, including getting the porch furniture out and hanging Grandma's bird houses.  It was a weekend of weather extremes that included 80-degree weather, storms, lots of wind, and 30-degre...

Flowers are Helpful  Anna returned home President's Day weekend for a visit.  She came home to dog sit Benny as her parents had plans to go to Ohio to visit Grandma and Grandpa for their 52nd wedding anniversary.  After a delayed train on Valentine's morning, she arrived with a very red hair color (matching the Valentine's Day theme).  There are no photos due to other distractions over the weekend (details in a moment).  Like many things, the best laid plans do not always materialize. It was a memorable Valentine's Day for all the wrong reasons for Theresa.  Rather than a trip to Ohio, she canceled to go to the office for what is now known as the Federal Valentine's Day massacre, the firing of thousands of Federal employees who were in their 1-year probationary period.  Theresa lost 8 staff members (80 for her agency) - all new, talented employees.  It has truly been a challenging time to work as a federal employee.  Despite all of the chaos,...

Back to the dorm After a month off for the holidays, Anna headed back to college on January 12.  She was home for the first snowstorm of the year on January 6 with more than 7 inches of snow (she did not seem to be around for much of the shoveling action).   Unfortunately, the storm knocked out power to the water treatment plant in Richmond, VA, leaving the city without water for most of the week.  On the plus side, it happened before classes started, although it did mean a delays in VCU students returning to campus as the dorms did not open until January 13 at noon.  Fortunately, water was working by then and the boil advisory was lifted.  Joe & Theresa drove Anna back for what was almost the equivalent of move in day as everyone was coming back at the same time. They made it in (lots of bottled water was being carried by all of the students) and got some lunch before mom and dad headed home.   Anna just finished her first week of classes and...

 It is time to say goodbye to 2024. It really was a year of transition in the Fagella household as Anna graduated from high school and headed off to college.  Many people have asked Joe & Theresa how they are adjusting to life as empty nesters.  Rather than empty nesters, a better term may be "bird launcher" as her parents feel that they have mostly prepared her to launch off on her own.  Anna has already acknowledged some of this preparedness after a semester in college (apparently the ability to do laundry and clean up after oneself is a rare skill for college freshmen).   There were many highlights and milestones in 2024, including: The first major snow in at least 3 years.  It was only 5 inches, but that was a lot! Anna & Theresa got to enjoy some Broadway musicals together, including Frozen  as well as & Juliet .  Separately, Anna got to see  Wicked  in New York with her cousins.  Theresa got to see Jesus Chris...

A visit to Meadowlark Gardens  The Christmas season flew by, partially because of a delayed start due to a late Thanksgiving this year.  We wanted in great anticipation for the arrival of Anna rather than Santa.  No one knew quite what to expect for her return home for a month.  Here is how it played out so far. Anna took the train from Richmond on December 13 (that would be Friday the 13th).  This took about 45 minutes longer than planned as she got to experience the reality of Amtrak sharing the rails with Norfolk & Southern (freight rail takes precedent).  Theresa picked her up in Alexandria and then Anna dropped Theresa off at the metro station so she could catch a plane for Ohio.  Anna proceeded to spend the rest of the weekend in her room as she was sick and finishing one final paper (it is unclear if Joe knew she was home).  Theresa arrived home on Monday in time to take Anna to get all four of her wisdom teeth out on Tuesday.  Ann...

 The Kohler family met up in beautiful Deep Creek Lake, Maryland for a Thanksgiving gathering.  This has become a bi-annual event with different houses each time.  This year's house had a lovely view from the top of a mountain and a wonderful deck to enjoy said view.  That was all good for Wednesday, but then the snow and wind moved in for the rest of Thanksgiving week.  Fortunately, there was plenty of other activities to keep everyone occupied. There were many ping pong games, led by Aidyn (at one point he and Anna decided to play while on their knees).  Grandma, an experienced ping pong player from her younger days, decided to show them how it was done but then realized this was contingent on them actually being able to hit the ball back to her.  She decided to coach from the sidelines.  There were also some highly competitive Uno games with Anna introducing new rules that the rest of the family did not know (Aidyn called them the "college rule...