Anna Grows

Anna & her Girl Scout Troop  Soccer Season is in full swing and already the team has played in all sorts of weather, including record highs (the first weekend) and a rainstorm (this weekend).  Most of the fall team is back for the spring season and they are off to a 4-0 start.  In between soccer games, other activities from the past two weeks included the following: Anna started her instructor driver training this past week.  She needs to complete a total of 14 hours with an instructor, who can issue a provisional license if he passes her (no driver's test but rather an on-going evaluation).   Anna's girl scout troop got together to celebrate her friend Maggie's Gold Award.  It was great to see all the girls together and reminisce about all the troop activities.  You can check out the  Troop Video  with some great photos over the years. Anna and Theresa got the compost spread in the garden plot and the new fence ready for Joe to inst...

Anna's first prom was Saturday, April 15 at the  State Theater .  This was the first prom that was offsite following COVID so one could say things were back to normal.  Anna went with a group of friends and started off the evening with dinner hosted by one of her friends.  There was also food and photo opportunities for the parents.  One dad drove the group to the prom and another dad picked them up. The theme of the prom was "The Great Gatsby."  Anna reported that she really didn't notice any decorations beyond some cool lights. Apparently, the group decided to leave early as the dance was packed with shoulder-to-shoulder people.  There was some discussion of hanging out at someone's house, but the dad driver started dropping off the prom goers at their respective houses.  Anna was home by 10:30 and was very happy to take off her heels.  

Grandma, Anna, Aidyn & Grandpa  April 1-9 marked spring break for Anna.  This year was an eclectic week with a few road trips and the grand finale of an Easter weekend visit from Aunt Loren, Aunt Mary & James.  The big theme for the week was driving in that Anna completed her minimum required 45 hours of supervised driving time.  She has been working on this since the end of July, so this was a major milestone.  More on that in a moment. The family started off the week with a long weekend in Ohio to visit Grandma and Grandpa.  It is a good thing the travel day was on Saturday as Friday night was stormy in Ohio, including tornadoes.  We saw evidence of it the entire weekend with downed buildings and trees, including all the trees snapped like twigs in the cemetery where Theresa's grandparents are buried.  This was much discussed at the Sunday brunch, where Uncle Rod, Uncle Tim & Aunt Courtney met the rest of the family to celebrate Gran...

May 2016  It was with great sadness that we said goodbye to Storm on March 23.  He was suffering from arthritis and dementia, both of which had worsened significantly in the past month.  Storm spent the last 7 of his 17 years with us and quickly became an integral part of the family. Storm joined us in May 2016 as a rescue.  Anna had lobbied her parents for years to get a dog and one of the criteria was that someone needed to be home during the day.  Joe met the criteria when he retired in March 2016.  As fate would have it, Anna's carpool mom worked with a rescue group and sent out a message looking for an emergency foster for a senior cockapoo whose owner had to go to a nursing home.  Theresa, who was never a dog person, thought getting an older dog would be good as he was already trained, so the family went to meet Storm.  At this point, Joe could see he was going to be outnumbered as Anna and Theresa immediately took to Storm.  Anna was h...

Anna with Buckee enroute to Disney  After 16 years, Anna at last made her first trip to Disney World!  This is an epic milestone for Anna.  While her friends and seemingly most families in Northern Virginia have made the pilgrimage to Disney (often multiple times) for family vacations, Anna was denied the opportunity.  Oh sure, she's traveled to beaches and national parks around the country, but somehow Disney was denied.  Thanks to the Madison High School choir and orchestra program, Anna made the trip to sunny Florida for her first Disney experience. It should be noted that to take 3 busloads of high school students to Florida is no small feat.  This demonstrates the level of dedication of the teachers.  They left Wednesday night and rode the bus all night before arriving at 9 AM at Disney Hollywood studios.  Apparently, there were a couple of stops along the Way at Bucee's travel center ( Home - Buc-ees ).  It is worth checking out the web...

February 17, 1973  Grandma & Grandpa celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on February 17th.    This is a major milestone that only 3% of all married couples make it to!  Celebration plans were a bit altered this year as Grandma is still recovering.  Theresa, Joe & Anna had planned to come for the weekend and a family dinner celebration; however, Theresa ended up sick and the trip was postponed.  Instead, grandma was the recipient of lots of flowers.  They had a take-out dinner from the local Mexican restaurant and Tim and Aidyn surprised them for a weekend visit.  In the meantime, Theresa was feeling better and managed to make it back for a quick visit the following weekend.   In other news, Anna performed with the Jammers All-stars on Saturday at a performance by the Legacy Dance Company.  In addition to drumming and marimba, Anna got to add vocals as well as their group played the music for the dance finale.  It ...

VCU Visit  The college tours continue with a February 11 visit to Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).  Anna signed up for the open house and the family headed south to Richmond, Virginia bright and early on Saturday morning for the tour.  It turns out this was their largest open house since before the pandemic with large crowds of prospective students.  VCU is a state school located just outside downtown Richmond.  They are noted for the art and music programs as well as their healthcare program, so it really has everything Anna is interested in. It was a busy day with tours and information sessions.  Anna focused on the art program and talked with some faculty from nursing, radiology and laboratory sciences.  The most important visit was the dining hall (the open house included a free lunch).   In addition to the dining hall, another important factor in a school is whether they have a football team (no team = a higher rating on Anna's li...