Anna Grows

It is Halloween week!  Where did the month of October go?  What did we do?  Here are a few highlights (at least what we remember): Anna ready for murder-mystery Anna's first choir concert was October 17 as part of MAD music day (noting that she goes to James Madison high school).  The choir and orchestra director team up and host all of the elementary and middle school choir and orchestra students from the feeder schools.  It is a great recruitment tool so that the kids see what they can do in high school.  Anna did four concerts that day.  It was really a treat to watch as this is the one joint choir/orchestra show of the year.  Our neighbor, Mrs. Latimer, joined in for the show.  You can watch Anna perform  Sunny Side of the Street  and  The Call  with her choir. For the first time since 2009, new carpet was installed in the family room and basement.  This required lots of moving and subsequent discovery of items fo...

Anna at Homecoming Game  The end of September is upon us, and we are closing out the month with a harvest moon (and the last super moon of 2023).  It has been a busy few weeks since Anna's birthday, especially for her.  Here are some of the highlights. September 29 was the homecoming game and Anna's choir sang the national anthem.  You can check out the  National Anthem Performance .  Note Anna is in the front row on the right side. Anna joined the National Arts Honor Society, which requires her to do service hours each quarter.  Apparently, community groups frequently contact the school art department with projects.  Her first event was face-painting on Friday at a local elementary school fair.  Stay tuned for more art adventures. In between school activities, Anna started a new job at Crepe Amour  after the concert season at Wolf Trap ended.  She is learning to make coffees and crepes.  She was thrilled to have her parents st...

Anna celebrated her 17th birthday on September 3, which also happened to be a long Labor Day weekend.  Anna decided to celebrate with seven of her friends at home.  The festivities included a taco bar and Mexican food for dinner, a homemade hummingbird cake and almond ice cream (along with some vanilla and chocolate cupcakes), presentation night (that would be Anna's friends showing up with power point presentations on a topic of their choosing.... you had to see it) and watching Anna's favorite movie,   Monty Python and the Holy Grail .   Benny may need a few days to recover from the festivities.  He was quick to realize the party as a target rich food opportunity and quickly integrated himself into the group while they were upstairs (he also got lots of pets from the girls).  He slept in the next day and spent most of the day resting. Other adventures for the week included the following: Benny managed to break open a box from Chewy that arrived and m...

1st Day of Senior Year  Senior year is underway!  Anna began classes on August 21 for what is going to be a busy year.  She is excited for most of her classes, which include: Government (a very cool teacher and no shortage of material to talk about in this class) English (They are reading Hamlet  this year) Digital Art Probability & Statistics (the teacher said this class is for the kids that have not enjoyed math up until this point) Choir (possible choir trip to Nashville in the spring) Studio Art & Design 2 Human Anatomy & Physiology (lots of lab work) Joe & Theresa attended back to school night on Thursday which included a special session at 5 PM for senior parents on all of the deadlines (graduation will be June 4) followed by meeting all of Anna's teachers, complete with bell schedule, from 6-8 PM.  It was a full evening!  The choir teacher noted that after several years, the pie guy is retiring (this was the annual fall pie sales that...

Today our guest blogger is none other than Anna herself writing about her recent trip to Japan.  Enjoy!   One of the Big Buddha statues we visited  As I'm sure a few people here have heard already, I went to Japan last month. My school organizes a trip to a different country every year and anyone is allowed to go. We had a group of about 40 people plus 6 or 7 chaperones. The first major hurdle of the trip was the flights. Since our group was so big, we couldn't get everyone on the same flight. So, while 20 or so people got to take a direct flight on ANA to Tokyo, I had to fly Air Canada to Toronto, wait for 2.5 hours, fly 14 hours to Narita, and then drive an hour to Tokyo. Eventually though, we got there. Our first hotel we stayed at was very nice but very small. I could reach my entire body across the two beds and touch both walls! One of the main defining features of Tokyo is the amount of people that live there. The high volume of people results in buildings being bui...

 Anna had a rare four consecutive days off the first week of August and took the opportunity to make a quick trip to Ohio.  Theresa dropped her off at the airport curb on Tuesday morning and Anna hopped a quick flight to Dayton, where Grandma & Grandpa picked her up.  Anna served as the driver for the rest of the trip and drove back to Paulding.  Grandma & Grandpa enjoyed having Anna around and hearing all about her Japan trip .  Anna always enjoys her visits to Ohio and was able to help with the garden and a trip to the new Pancake House restaurant (they have huge portions).  Anna flew back on Friday in time for work. Grandma is still on her antibiotic regimen.  Since her arm is in a sling, she cannot sleep in bed and has been sleeping in the recliner at night.  The family room as at the opposite end of the house from the bedrooms, so she has her phone to call Grandpa if needed.  During Anna's last night, Grandma woke up at 4 AM and ...

 Grandma has attained status in the 1% club.  Unfortunately, it is not the 1% club she aspired to be in.  Grandma is in the 1% of patients that contract an infection months after their shoulder surgery.  She had a reverse shoulder replacement in September 2022.  It was not until the end of June 2023 that a bump suddenly appeared on the shoulder.  After some tests, the doctor quickly determined that she had a bacterial infection and the infected prosthetic piece needed to be removed immediately.  Two days later, she was in surgery.  Her overnight stay in the hospital turned into 5 nights as they determined the type of infection and treatment.  For now, she is on at least 6 weeks of IV antibiotics.  After the infection is clear, they will do surgery again to replace the prosthetic part.  The 1% club. Theresa was able to go back to Ohio to assist.  This time nephew Aidyn was also there (he had been staying with Grandma and Grandpa...