Anna Grows

 After a 2-year hiatus, Anna returned to Vienna Youth Soccer (VYS) this weekend with the first game on Sunday.  Actually, the first game was supposed to be Saturday, but the opposing team was exposed to COVID and had to cancel (somehow that was a fitting start).  The second game was Sunday and her team won 4-1.  Anna is happy to join some of her previous soccer friends and current classmates on the team.  The weather was spectacular for play with sunny skies, 83 degrees, and a light breeze. Since the weather was so nice, it was a perfect day to kick-off the grilling season.  Theresa decided ice cream was also in order and opted to make chocolate peanut-butter cup ice cream.  Since the ice cream maker is rather loud, Theresa sometimes will use the laundry room to run the ice cream maker.  The problem is that the only available outlet is on the floor, so she will just plug it in there for the 20 minutes needed.  Today, the laundry room door was not closed, and Joe let Storm back in the h

Coloring Eggs  Every Easter is different and this one was no exception.  This year we met up with Aunt Loren, Aunt Mary, and Cousin James in northern New Jersey at James' office for Easter.  Normally meeting at someone's office is not the first choice for a holiday dinner.... unless you happen to be house-sitting for your very successful boss.  Suffice it to say we enjoyed a weekend experiencing how the other half lives. James treated us to a luxury weekend in a gated community.  There was plenty of delicious food and entertainment.  Everyone had their own distinct bedroom and bathroom.  All of the bathrooms included heated toilet seats and heated towel racks (these are luxuries we didn't know we needed).  Anna was happy to camp out in her 3rd floor room, which also had a guitar that she was practicing on.  Unfortunately, she had homework to do over the weekend, but at least had a different place to work on it.  Aunt Mary enjoyed making dinner in the large kitchen, complete

Isle of Palms Beach  For the first time since the pandemic began, this is a combined blog post.  Does this mean the pandemic is winding down or does it mean the author was having trouble doing a remote blog post?  Perhaps it was both.   The last week of March was the end of the quarter for Anna at school. This meant a big push to complete outstanding homework.  Let's just say it was not particularly pleasant and Anna was very happy when the week was over (so was Theresa for that matter).  For spring break this year, the family opted for a drivable location and decided to head to Charleston, SC for the week.  Storm got to join in on the trip and as always, he was the most enthusiastic. This was the first trip to Charleston for Anna and Theresa.  The family found an Air BNB on the Isle of Palms, an island off the coast that happens to be 20 minutes from Charleston.  The island was lovely.  The drive was long (well over 8 hours).  The house was within a 3 block walk to the beach.  Act