Anna Grows

Anna & Choir Friends  It was an eventful week for Anna.  For the past few months, she had been looking forward to the spring choir trip.  Due to COVID, this year's trip was limited to Virginia (past trips have gone to New York and Florida).  The fact that there was a trip at all was a success.  This year's trip was to Williamsburg and Virginia Beach with stops at Great Wolf Lodge (an indoor waterpark), a day at Virginia Beach, and Bush Gardens amusement park.  Standing between Anna and the trip was homework and a potential concussion. Monday Anna was not feeling great and had a headache from her fall the day before.  She came home from school a bit early and took a break from Jammers and swimming during the week.  She was also working through her homework requirements (her mom put some key deadlines that needed to be hit before she could go on the trip).  Wednesday, she sent a text from school that she hit her head again.  Actually, ...

Anna Post Lifeguard Training  It was quite a busy week.  Monday, March 14 was officially Grandpa's 80th birthday.  Theresa got to enjoy breakfast with her dad before catching a plane home.  It was a fun weekend of birthday celebrations.  You can check out photos from the family gathering  HERE . Theresa made it home in time for Anna's theater class performance on Monday night of The End of Civilization as We Know It.  It was a one act comedy that her class worked on and was quite fun to watch.  They performed the play three times that evening so that the cast could rotate.  Anna had one of the main parts in the first performance, which meant that Joe and Theresa had time to stop by the college prep night for Sophomores that happened to be going on afterwards.  That was enlightening and a good reminder that time is flying by quickly! Tuesday night was a high school choir concert.  The choir had to do a state assessment later in the w...

It is hard to believe two years have passed since the pandemic started.  Looking back at the first blog post during that time, we seemed so innocent.  The start of virtual school and remote work.  The hikes in the woods.  Stocking up on paper towels and toilet paper.  We thought it would be short term.  Fast forward two years and we all look older.  Our lives are forever changed in many unexpected ways. Courtney, Rod, Aidyn, Tim, Jim & Karen, Theresa, Grandma & Grandpa Perhaps it was fitting that the two-year anniversary was marked by a celebration of Grandpa's 80th Birthday.  Why was this fitting?  Well, it was the first time the Kohler family was all together in almost two years.  Actually, it was more like almost together as Joe was unable to join the trip due to lingering effects of COVID.  Anna stayed behind with her dad and Theresa made the trip to Ohio for the celebration.  We made the most of it and celebrated w...

 March is here, which means Theresa celebrated her birthday on March 1.  It also happened to be Mardi Gras, so she made her first king cake to take to the office.  It turned out good for the initial try, although there were several people that wanted to know if there was a plastic baby in the cake (according to tradition, whoever has the baby in their piece of cake needs to bring the cake next year).  Unfortunately, there were no plastic babies on hand when this idea went into production.  The only option was the small, red, plastic Darth Vader action figure that Joe pulled out of the drain a couple of weeks ago (see prior post).  Theresa thought that would send the wrong message and decided to forgo the baby. On the celebration front, Joe made a delicious fish dinner and picked up some mini-bundt cakes at Nothing Bundt Cakes.  Anna got her mom some snacks for the office and the big gift was roller skates. After trying them in the house, it quickly bec...

Our first indoor concert in 2 years   This week was quite a roller coaster ride on several fronts.  We started out the week with a holiday and gorgeous weather and ended the week glued to the news watching the latest on the invasion of the Ukraine.  Here is a summary of the week's events. Monday This was the nicest President's Day weather ever.  It was 65 degrees and sunny, so we met up with friends Klara, Fefzi and the boys for some sunshine.  Incidentally, Klara is a former political scientist with an expertise in Eastern Europe turned cyber security specialist, so she is a very good person to talk about world events with.  Since she grew up in Eastern The Barns of Wolf Trap Europe and has spent time in Ukraine, she has quite a perspective on what is going on in Russia.  We will get to that later. Monday night was a special treat as Theresa got tickets to see Mavis Staples at the  The Barns of Wolf Trap .   After all these years,...

Happy Valentine's Day The title of the post may be a bit misleading as we did not spend Valentine's Day at the army museum (although Joe may have considered that a very romantic gift).  The week began with Valentine's Day and ended with the army museum.  Maybe I should begin again. Monday was Valentine's Day.  Joe treated Theresa & Anna to some beautiful flowers and cards.  Joe received some chocolate covered peanuts (his favorite) and a card.  Note there are no pictures of the peanuts as they were placed in a secure location.  Theresa made some heart cookies to share with the neighbors and the few people in the office.  Anna must have celebrated with her friends based on the number of candy wrappers Theresa found in her bedroom on Monday night.  It was not quite the same as exchanging valentines in elementary school, but it was a good reason to wear red. Anna's big success for the week was making millionaire shortbread, complete with homemade...

COVID Tests arrive  It is week 100 since the pandemic started and I am happy to report that our free COVID test just arrived on Saturday.  Oh sure, we really needed them about two months ago when there was no testing available, but we are ready for the next surge.  In a creative move, the Federal government decided to leverage the post office to distribute COVID tests (you can order your tests  HERE ).  Again, someone should have thought of this around week 40 after tests were available, but I guess that wasn't in the pandemic planning either.   In other news of the week: We had 3 days of 60 degree + weather.  Today is snowed.  It was good while it lasted. Anna and Theresa finished the Ted Lasso  series.  Joe watched a couple of episodes and decided it was not for him (there was not enough gun violence or construction projects).  He may have regretted his decision after hearing lots of laughter coming from Anna and Theresa....