Anna Grows

1st Day of Junior Year  The school year kicked off for Anna on August 22.  This is the earliest ever, but she was ready.  The first week is always a bit bumpy with working out new routines and schedules.  Overall, the first week was a success.  Here are some of the highlights: Anna is attending an Academy class this year- Exploring Health Sciences .  These are specialized classes at various county high schools.   She needs to catch a bus for a 20-minute ride to a different school.  The first day, the bus was late and then got lost while on the route (Anna missed the first 45 minutes of her last class of the day).  Let's just say it took a few days and another bus driver to smooth out the schedule.  She is excited for the class and will definitely have a lot of medical stuff to discuss with Aunt Mary. Anna learned that this year's spring choir trip will be to Disney World.  Anna may be the only kid in her school that has not bee...

 After a COVID-19 delay, the Virginia Fagellas finally made it to Ohio for a quick visit to Grandma and Grandpa's from August 14-17.  Cousin Aidyn was also around to join in the visit.  Fortunately, we had some of the nicest weather of the summer with temperatures around 80 degrees.   One of the main activities of the trip was a photo shoot for Anna's 16th birthday.  Grandma has a friend that does photography on the side and agreed to do pictures at a local nature preserve.  We are still waiting for all of the photos, but the initial sample came out great!  Most importantly, Anna had a good time (after a week hiking in the woods, the mosquitos and other assorted bugs at the Black Swamp nature preserve were really not an issue for her).  Stay tuned for more photos.   Our other Ohio activities included the following: Anna and Aidyn enjoyed driving various people around in the golf cart, which one of the neighbors let them borrow. Anna...

  This week's blog features a guest writer:  Anna.  She returned on August 13 from her week-long trek on the Appalachian trail with lots of stories to tell.  What better person to write about the trip than her?  Here is her first-hand account: Why hello everyone! It's been a little while since I've written on here, but I will try my best to relay all the events to you. Hold on to your hats because it was a pretty hectic week. Day 1/8 Completion Certificate This was the first day of the trip. We started off around 9:15 AM and drove to the Outward-Bound Headquarters located in Baltimore. Once we got there, I had to take another one of the many Covid tests I had already taken that week. After getting a beautiful negative test, I joined the rest of the awkwardly milling about teenagers while trying not to burst into a flaming ball of anxiety. I got to meet the instructors as well as a couple of the other kids that would be a part of my group. After a little while, t...

 After 2 weeks, both Anna and Theresa finally tested negative for COVID.  It was a long 2 weeks with Anna unable to work and Theresa working from home.  We also had to delay a trip to Ohio.  Meanwhile, Joe kept his distance, which seems to have worked as so far, he did not get it.  Anna and Theresa used the quarantine time for some driving practice.  It was uncertain whether Anna was going to be able to go on her Outward-Bound backpacking trip.  Two negative COVID tests were required, including one the day before.  She just made it with a negative test on Friday before departure on Saturday. Saturday morning, Anna started her Outward-Bound expedition.  She is on a 1 week backpacking and rock-climbing trip on the Appalachian Trail in Maryland and Pennsylvania.  While she has done girl scout camps before, this is definitely up a few levels with true backwoods camping and hiking.  Those that have done these trips rave about the program...