Anna Grows

1st day on the job  It is Memorial Day weekend, which means the swimming pools are open!  This year the Lakevale pool was completely refurbished, including a new baby pool and the entire pool is handicap accessible.  The neighborhood celebrated with a grand opening on Saturday, including two neighborhood bands and a food truck. For Anna, Memorial Day weekend means that swim team begins along with her lifeguard job. Sunday was her first official day on duty.  She was thrilled to have her dad stop by to snap a picture of this big event.  She has two more weeks of school and then will be spending her summer babysitting, lifeguarding, and doing a little bit of junior coaching for the swim team along with swimming herself.  She is very much looking forward to being done with school and NO summer classes. In other news of the week, the tragic school shooting in Uvalde, Texas prompted many conversations at home and school as we try to understand what is happening ...

Lori, Anna & Lori's brother at the Big Jam  After a 2-year hiatus, the Vienna Jammers returned to a live performance!  Not only was it a live performance, but it was at the new Capital One Hall  with special guest Bakithi Kumalo, a Grammy winning bass player.  Anna had a great experience at the venue, including practicing with Bakithi and enjoying the green room for performers.  Theresa even got a moment on the big stage with the adult group, Jammers Gold.  The group only practices once a month and really can only play one song (and that is a struggle), BUT they still had fun playing for the crowd and with Bakithi.  The Vienna Jammers continues to be Anna's favorite activity (with school choir a close second). In other news of the week: Anna had her year-end choir concert on Thursday evening.  The year-end event featured several solos, including by most of the seniors.  Mrs. Latimer joined us for the show.  We didn't realize the fina...

 Theresa celebrated Mother's Day on May 8 in Ohio with her mom for the first time in many years.  Joe and Anna stayed behind, which meant no required Mother's Day planning for them (Anna remembered to send her mom a text about 3:30 on Sunday).  The weather turned out nice, resulting in a lot of quality time in the yard over the long weekend.  Grandma is stuck in a boot thanks to a torn Achilles tendon and Grandpa is dealing with fractured vertebrae, so there was some variety in activity.  One of the neighbors lent Theresa & Grandma his golf cart for an evening drive around town.  Theresa went with Grandpa in the 1965 dodge truck (aka Maudine) on Sunday morning to pick up a load of mulch.  Rather than dinner out, they opted to spend Sunday cooking out on the grill and decided to go out for breakfast on Monday morning followed by a trip to a local greenhouse to pick up flowers.  Grandma's friend, Mary Lou, also joined in the festivities. Grandma...

As the U.S. moves to living with COVID, it seems our own family updates have changed.  After all, we seem to have mostly moved on.  Oh sure, we get daily COVID case updates from the school with higher numbers than we've ever seen (proof that masks are effective) and there is the fact that both Joe and his sister Mary are suffering from long haul COVID cases, so really it is just a different phase.  We are living with the impacts of COVID. In the meantime, we continue to live our lives.  Highlights from the week included the following: We took advantage of the beautiful Saturday weather for some yardwork, including mowing and mulching.  Anna is mastering the lawn mower. Theresa completed the second week of the "new work schedule" with folks returning to the office for at least one day a week.  It was nice to meet many new co-workers in person.  Like school, there has also been an uptick of COVID cases at the office.  Hmmm... Anna and Theresa enjoye...

 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...

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 ...

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). ...