Manatees and more!

 

On Friday morning we started our day at the Manatee Lagoon in West Palm Beach. While we were walking along the dock, we saw two adult and one baby manatee as well as many barracudas and other fish. Our second stop was also in West Palm Beach - McCarthy's Wildlife Sanctuary. We had a two hour long guided tour during which we learned about the various animals they have rescued or are in the process of rehabilitating for release back into the wild. They have big cats (jaguar, tiger, liger, lions, lynx, cheetah, and more), primates, birds, reptiles, etc. Oliver liked that their squirrel monkey is named Oliver. We were allowed to pet one of the tortoises and hold a kinkajou, python, tarantula, boa constrictor, and a young alligator. Our third stop was Lion Country Safari. We drove through the safari, rode in pedalboats, played miniature golf, and fed some lorikeets. Extending our trip to West Palm Beach definitely added some driving time to our vacation, but the kids had a blast. We had dinner at Golden Corral and then drove back to Homestead to stay at the same Holiday Inn that we stayed in on Tuesday evening.

On Saturday morning we drove thirty minutes to the John Pennekamp State Park on Key Largo. We spent time at the beach before it was time for us to board a glass bottom boat. The waves were very choppy. We saw two sea turtles and some dolphins off the side of the boat, and we saw a variety of fish, one sea turtle, and one shark through one the windows at the bottom of the boat. After we got back, we spent more time at the beach. Nadia snorkeled most of the time. Around 4:00 we checked in at a beach resort. After putting out suitcases in our room, we made use of the complimentary kayaks and stand-up boards. After getting some pizza for dinner, the kids enjoyed the hammocks, playing some cornhole, and seeing a manatee along the dock. 

The weather has been beautiful the past four days - highs in the high 70's and lows in the 60's. It hasn't rained. The rental car company gave us an older vehicle, but we are thankful that we have a minivan (Dodge Caravan) as we definitely prefer a minivan to an SUV, which is what we had when we rented a vehicle in Seattle in August. This van is so old it has a CD player and doesn't have Bluetooth capabilities. Ian is usually the one asking to listen to a story when we're in a vehicle, but Nadia also really likes the book we are listening to on this trip (Keeper of the Lost Cities) so we've been listening to it even though we don't have Bluetooth. This part of Florida reminds me of Canada where everything is in two languages as everything is in English and Spanish down here. On more than one occasion we've been in a business and the employee only spoke Spanish. In terms of fellow tourists, we have heard a LOT of French being spoken. Speaking of Spanish, yesterday I hit my 1,000th day streak on Duolingo yesterday! We shall see how much Spanish I understand while we're in Ecuador. 

Birds and Alligators galore!

 On Tuesday morning we drove to BWI airport. Paul dropped the kids and I off and then took our van to the long-term parking. The kids and I waited for him so that we could go through security together. There was zero wait to go through security, which meant we had arrived earlier at the airport than necessary, but better safe than sorry! I had packed lunches for the kids and I the previous day, and we ate those before we boarded the plane. Because the time in the air to Charlotte was only one hour and they knew the ride was going to be a bit bumpy, we were told the flight attendants were going to stay seated the whole time, which meant no snacks or drinks. The landing was anything but smooth. The kids had flown to California in 2018, but they don't remember that much or at all. Our flights in August/September 2023 are the first they really recall. We flew on Southwest for our northwest trip, so the kids were comparing the similarities and differences with American Airlines. Unlike Southwest we had assigned seats, and there were places to plug in our devices to charge them. On our flight from BWI to CLT we needed to use our own devices to watch anything, just as it was on Southwest, but on our flight from CLT to MIA, there was a screen and headphones were provided. The kids liked the snacks better on Southwest, but Paul liked that on American (on the second leg of our journey) they gave him a full can of Coke rather than just a cup of it. 

The flight I had selected many months ago didn't include a long layover in Charlotte, but in the intervening time American Airlines changed our flight times and lengthened our layover by two hours. Originally, we planned to have dinner in Miami, but in light of the delay, we had dinner in the Charlotte airport instead. Paul got a sub from Jersey Mike's (they didn't accept our gift card, bah humbug), and the kids and I got food from Panera (they accepted the gift card). Oliver had cheddar broccoli soup which was a first for him, and he loved it. Since they were out of the yogurt tubes the boys ordered with their kids' meals, they let them have a dessert of their choice instead. When we landed at the Miami airport, there was another airplane at the gate where we were supposed to go, so we had to sit on the tarmac for almost another hour waiting for that gate to open up. By the time we trekked out to the rental car area, waited for a shuttle to the off-site rental location, and got our minivan, it was much later than we had anticipated. 

We knew we had to drive about 40 minutes to our hotel, and we planned to stop at a Walmart near our hotel to get some groceries, bug spray, and sunscreen. We hadn't checked any bags, which meant we couldn't bring those items with us. We spent the first night at a Holiday Inn. Not counting when we are on the Florida Keys, I booked rooms that included either two double or queen beds plus one sofa bed. Nadia just sleeps on the sofa without opening it up. She likes it best when there is a door separating the bedroom (or bedrooms) from the living room. Our first night in Florida this wasn't the case. The second night we stayed at a TownPlace Suites which had two bedrooms and a living room/kitchen. The third night was at a Best Western, and there was a door in between the bedroom (where the other four of us slept) and the living room (where Nadia slept). The first night the pool was closed for repairs, which was irrelevant for us since we went to bed as soon as possible after we checked in. The second night there was an outdoor pool, but the kids decided not to use it although we checked in much earlier than we had the first night. The third night the kids and Paul did go swimming, partially because there was also a jacuzzi. Ian is a big fan of jacuzzi tubs. Although I also like jacuzzis, I opted to work on editing photos on my computer. The breakfast at the hotel in Maryland was certainly the best one so far, but all of the hotels have served hot breakfasts so far, which are greatly preferred to continental ones since we only eat snacks for our "lunch." The worst breakfasts were the "grab and go" variety during COVID.  

On Wednesday morning our first stop was one of the visitor centers of the Everglades National Park, which is the third largest National Park if you exclude the ones located in Alaska. We bought a magnet, stamped our passports, watched a film, and the kids started working on their Junior Ranger books. Our second stop was Royal Palm. We took a hike with a park ranger along the Ahinga trail, and then we took the Gumbo Limbo trail on our own after that. Our third stop was to see a Nike missile that was placed there in the 1960's during the Cuban missile crisis. After that we drove to three other locations where we hiked a trail. Since the park is so large, we were unable to visit all of it. We ended our day by driving to the Shark Valley region of the park where we rode an airboat through the everglades and also saw a nature program that featured alligators and pythons. The airboat ride was the highlight of our day. We had dinner at Chili's and then checked into our hotel for the night.

On Thursday morning our first two stops were visitor centers in Big Cypress National Preserve. The kids had started working on their Junior Ranger pages for this site the previous day, so they received their badges after we watched a film in the first visitor center. There were MANY alligators very close to the first visitor center. At the second visitor center many manatees had been spotted the previous couple of days, but none were there while we walked the short boardwalk. We stopped at two other locations for brief hikes before beginning our drive on Loop Road, which is a dirt road. This was the highlight of my first two days as we saw SO many alligators so close to us when we drove on that road. After Loop Road we reentered Everglades National Park at the Shark Valley Visitor Center. The kids received their Everglades Junior Ranger badges at this point. They've now been in 132 National Park sites in person. Nadia has earned 202 badges, Ian has earned 204, and Oliver has earned 188, We had to wait in a line and pray for another car to exit so that another car could be allowed in the area, similar to what we experienced in the rainforest section of Olympic National Park in Washington. Thankfully, Paul was able to park in time for us to all participate in the 2:00 tram tour for which I had already booked our tickets. The tour lasted a little over two hours, and a park ranger spoke a lot about the park in general, birds, alligators, etc. I would say we saw over 100 alligators over the course of the day - from babies to adults. We didn't see any panthers, manatees, or crocodiles although all three live there. The birds we saw the most frequently were great blue herons, white egrets, purple gallinules, and anhingas. We also saw a couple of pink spoonbills. We ended our day by driving farther north as we had dinner at Bahama Breeze and then spent the night in Deerfield Beach. It was the first time any of us ate at a Bahama Breeze. As appetizers were half-price while we were there, Nadia had yucca cheese sticks and a side salad as her meal, and Oliver had crab and cheese dip with tortilla chips as his meal. Oliver had never had crab before, and he loved it. Ian had his usual chicken tenders. I had a delicious Caribbean salad. Today we're looking forward to seeing a wide variety of animals, and then tomorrow we will begin our time in the keys.

Early Start

When I booked our airfare to Florida, I assumed we'd be leaving our home in the morning on February 13 because we are flying out of BWI, which is less than three hours from our home, and our flight is at 12:25pm. Our plans changed on Sunday morning when we found out we'd be getting 4-6 inches of snow in the morning on February 13. At church on Sunday morning, we talked to the couple that would be dog sitting both dogs for four days, until Cooper's family got back from Florida, and they said we could drop the dogs off on Monday night instead of Tuesday morning. I booked one room at a hotel about 30 minutes from the airport, and we arrived here last night at 9:15pm. Ironically, a few days ago it was really warm in Pennsylvania as temperatures reached the high 50's. At our game day on Friday, the kids played games outdoors in addition to playing some inside. I don't think we've ever stayed at an Embassy Suites. I am really grateful at the moment that we are planning to stay at one for one night in Virginia in May as this hotel has the most amazing free breakfast that we've ever had a hotel that wasn't an all-inclusive resort. They even have someone making omelets to order! They also offer free snacks/drinks at an evening reception, but we arrived too late to check that out. Over the last year or so I've gotten a little bit pickier about where I make our reservations. I certainly still try to pay as little as possible, but there are some chains I now try to avoid when possible, and there are others we know we usually like. Embassy Suites has now been added to that list although my back did not like the mattress last night. 

Paul went to work last Wednesday thinking it would be his last day to go to the plant before our trip, but he didn't finish the bookkeeping that he needed to send to the accountant, so he went back on Friday. He ended up also going in on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday! On Sunday we drove in two cars to church. After the two services, I took the kids to their last ice-skating lesson for the year, and Paul drove to work. He didn't come back home until after 8:00 pm! I took Nadia and Ian back to church in the evening for the youth group Super Bowl party, and Paul picked them up near the end of the game. I didn't watch the game, but since I didn't want SF to win their 6th Super Bowl ring, I was happy when I found out the next morning that the Chiefs had won. One of my nephews is a Chiefs fan, so I was also happy his favorite team won.

Although we had the added expense of one more night at a hotel, not driving from our home to Baltimore this morning makes it seem like this day won't be quite as tiring. Also making sure everyone has packed everything can be an ordeal, and it was easier to do that on Monday afternoon/early evening rather than early in the morning today. Yesterday was a hectic day as both boys had an orthodontist appointment (Ian now has braces on the top jaw), Ian had a piano lesson (working on the 2nd and 3rd movements of Moonlight Sonata), a day of homeschooling, walking the dogs, and also making travel arrangements and finishing up our packing. Praying that all will go as smoothly as possible for the next sixteen days while we're in Florida and Ecuador! I'm so thankful for the opportunity to make memories and see places we've never seen before! I did bring my camera, but I didn't bring my camera bag on this trip. Hopefully I won't miss my lenses too much, ha ha! Packing when you're flying is definitely different than packing when you're on a road trip in your own vehicle.

11.5 Years Old!

Eighteen months from today, I'll be the mother of three teenagers. The time is just flying by. In addition to today being Oliver's half-birthday, today is also the 27th anniversary of the day Paul and I met at a ballroom dancing class at Boscov's department store. Originally, I planned for him to have a date with Paul this afternoon at Kaos, but Xandir's mom asked if Oliver could spend a few hours at their home and then go with them to Kaos this afternoon. Yesterday Oliver did extra schoolwork so that he could have this fun outing today. 

Here are eleven current descriptions of our youngest:

1. He loves the blanket shown in the photo above. He carries that thing all around the house for many months of the year. 

2. He loves to try new foods - especially any kind of seafood. He's looking forward to eating some "gator bites" when we're in Florida later this month. 

3. He eats the widest variety of foods for lunch than anyone in our family. The items he requests include tomato soup, grilled cheese, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, any kind of Ramen, hot dog, ham and cheese Hot Pocket, or an egg salad sandwich. 

4. He enjoys doing jigsaw puzzles although the 1,000-piece puzzles we've been doing lately are a bit challenging for him. Paul and Nadia do the majority of those puzzles. 

5. He still loves Nerf guns. He recently went shopping at Walmart to spend some money he received at Christmas, and he purchased another Nerf gun, a Lego set, and some fingerboards (basically a very tiny skateboard if you're as clueless as I was until he showed me one). 

6. He loves to use the iPad to chat with his cousins in Quito or to play a video game. 

7. His favorite book series to read are Dead Sea Squirrels, Imagination Station, and Magic Tree House. During our fall session of co-op, he read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

8. He still is very generous.

9. He still talks almost nonstop.

10. He still is the only one of our children who sometimes chooses to go to bed before his bedtime.

11. He loves to have his back, neck, or head scratched. He's also a hugger, for which I am very thankful.

I usually do my gratitude lists on Thursdays, but I'll write one today since I doubt that I'll write another post this week.

1. I spoke with the investigator again on Monday. He said he's going to ask the insurance company to reimburse us $20K from my 2021 ankle surgery. That would be such a blessing! I greatly appreciate his help!

2. I've been talking to Yvonne for 1-2 hours once a week lately. I don't talk to Wendy regularly, but she called me once near the end of January, and that was a treat. 

3.  We hosted two game days for homeschoolers in January, and we're hosting one more this Friday afternoon. I'm thankful we can have the kids' friends over. Our little co-op that we host in our home will begin in March and last for ten weeks.

4. Last Saturday Oliver went to a Nerf war at another church while Julianna spent a few hours at our home with Nadia. Their family (of 5) joined our family for dinner, Apples to Apples, and Quiplash.

5. Cooper has been sleeping through the night lately, which is greatly appreciated. The two dogs get along pretty well. We will be dropping the dogs off on Tuesday morning. We've had Cooper for two weeks so far. 

6. Nadia earned an A in her third class through Grand Canyon University. She'll start her fourth class in early March. 

7. The Living History Fair went well on Friday night. There was a really nice turnout for the event.

8. Ian's piano recital went well on Sunday. I'm also thankful that Pop Pop came up to attend it. 

9. Ian did well on his math and reading standardized tests on Monday and Tuesday. I can't say that Oliver did well, but he did better than he did in 2021 so at least he's moving in the right direction. They'll take their language test on Monday. In our state testing is required in grades 3, 5, and 8, which means this is Ian's last time until he takes the PSAT/SAT. 

10. I took my friend, Cheri, out for dinner on Monday night to celebrate her birthday (which was January 25). I hadn't seen her since December. 

11. We had tickets to go up the Washington Monument in 2020 which obviously was cancelled due to COVID. I have tried multiple times since then to get tickets and never managed to get them before they sold out. Today I got 5 tickets for March 8! I was SO happy when I completed that purchase!

Piano Recital

Ian's first recital was a duet recital in November. His first solo piano recital took place this afternoon. His teacher currently has 53 students, and the majority of these participated in one of her two recitals today. Ian was in the 2:00 pm recital. He played a Mario song called "Castle Background." The kids are allowed to pick what they want to play for this recital. In between the two recitals she hosts a reception. Everyone is asked to bring some finger food. After attending both services at our church, we did something we don't usually do, we ate pizza at a restaurant. Usually, we get pizza as carry-out, but we didn't think we had the time to go home as Ian was supposed to be there early to run through his piece before the recital began. Pop Pop drove from his church and met us at the restaurant. Paul and Oliver used Pop Pop's car to run home to let the dogs out. Thankfully, they hadn't gotten into the garbage like they did on Friday night while the kids and I were at the living history fair and Paul was at work. We knew a lot of the kids who performed in the recital today. I'm very thankful for the time Ian puts into practicing the piano every week! I hope that he will keep developing his skills with Mrs. DeVito for four more years. 

As for the living history fair, I think next year will be the last time Nadia will participate, and the boys will be at least taking a break. There were two kids who chose to do Elizabeth 1 this year. The other girl was much younger than Nadia. Another girl did Elizabeth 2. There was more than one Washington and more than one Thomas Edison. As the adults went around and asked the kids questions, Ian said a lot of people told him they didn't know anything about Robert Boyle. Next year I'll let the kids pick people from the 1700's to the present. Ian had a demonstration using a syringe and marshmallows to illustrate Boyle's law. 

Dog Mom

 Although I longed for the day that I would be a mom since I was in elementary school, I never aspired to be a "dog mom." I grew up with cats and frankly the best word to describe my attitude toward dogs for most of my life was that I was fear. My friend, Tab, used to have a longhaired dachshund. Ruby really helped me to see that I could enjoy a dog because she sat in my lap like our cats had when I was growing up. Paul had grown up with dogs so I figured that we would get one someday, but I figured that would be whenever he was home more. If I had stuck with that plan, we wouldn't have gotten a dog until the fall of 2023, but we got one in 2020 to try and bring a bright spot amidst all things that were cancelled and impossible to do that year. I never would have dreamt that Milo would pick ME out of the five members of our family to be his "person." We are dog sitting Cooper for three weeks. He's been at our house for one week so far. Cooper has picked Paul and I as his two favorite people in our family. Instead of having ONE shadow follow me around the house, now I have two shadows. Having two dogs has been good in some ways. I'm not a fan of having TWO dogs bark at the same time because there's a dog or a jogger on our street, and it's a challenge to keep their leashes from getting tangled up when I walk them, but Milo definitely enjoys having a buddy. He gets up VERY willingly in the morning whereas other times he'd rather stay in bed with Nadia or Ian when I come to get him at 7:00 am. Also, sometimes when it's just him we accuse him of "going on strike" because he doesn't want to walk. That doesn't happen when Cooper is with us. This does not mean that I want to get a second dog! One is enough for me, but I'm happy that we can trade dog sitting duties with another family. It's much better for the dogs and saves us hundreds of dollars. 

On Sunday afternoon Paul picked up the 1/4 of a cow that we had agreed to purchase from someone in our church. We've never bought that much meat at one time before or paid that much for food in one month before. I used some yesterday to make beef stew, and I'm planning to make a roast on Saturday as we have friends coming over for dinner that night. We'll definitely be eating more steak than usual this year as typically I might buy steak one time in the year, but now we have a lot of steak in our freezer. 

Monday morning began with the piano tuner spending about two hours at our house. Pianos are expensive to own, but I love hearing Ian practicing every day! It was a hectic day as I also took Ian to his piano lesson and to the doctor for his annual physical. The kids' babysitting job for that evening was cancelled, but they still had a two-hour Seussical rehearsal in the afternoon. At Ian's physical I mentioned that over the years several people (including Paul and Drayton) have mentioned that it sounds like Ian has sleep apnea. When I mentioned it to the pediatrician years ago, he said Ian was too young to be concerned about it. This time I was told we should have it investigated. We're starting the process to have a sleep study done on him in the spring. Since we have become self-pay patients, we've been paying $50 per visit at our PCP. On Monday they told me that the cost for a well-child check has gone up to $100 because of the vision/hearing screening are a separate $50 charge. I wasn't thrilled with the change, but I know their prices are still far less than what other doctors charge self-pay customers around here. Over the past year Ian grew three inches and gained at least fourteen pounds! His BMI last year was only 3%, which put him in the underweight category. This week they weighed him while he was wearing his winter coat and sneakers, which wasn't the case last year. With those on, they said he gained seventeen pounds, which put him at the 12th percentile for his BMI. I had him step on our scale once he came home to see what he weighed without his coat and shoes, and his weight dropped by three pounds. If our scale is accurate, then he weighs 90 pounds and is 5 ft. 2.5 inches tall. His height is at the 24th percentile (compared to 26th percentile last year). If he does weigh 90 pounds, then his BMI is at the 6th percentile, which still means he's not in the underweight category, and his weight would be at the 10th percentile (compared to 6th percentile last year). With his coat and shoes on, he weighed 93 pounds, which put him at the 14th percentile for weight. Either way he's growing taller and gaining weight! He slathers on a lot of peanut butter on his apple slices at lunch every day. I think this helped him gain weight! 

I haven't been doing well at taking pictures lately. I plan to take some on Friday evening while the kids are participating in the history fair, and I'll take a video on Sunday of Ian's performance at the piano recital. We'll be on vacation for two weeks in February, which should give me opportunities to take a lot of pictures!

Unexpected Blessing

Sometimes when we get an unexpected phone call, the news is very unpleasant, such as when the police called to inform me of my brother's passing in March 2019. Yesterday I had an unexpected conversation with an investigator from the Pennsylvania Insurance Department. It was unexpected because we had filed a case with them in November 2021 and hadn't heard anything from them since 2022. It turns out that another resident of Pennsylvania filed a complaint against the same insurance company in 2023, and during that investigation they uncovered the fact that the insurance company wasn't licensed in the state of Pennsylvania. To avoid a felony charge, the insurance company opted to reimburse the other customer. The investigator then remembered he had received another complaint previously (mine). He said if we submit documentation from the hospital showing what we paid, they will tell the insurance company they have to reimburse us if they want to avoid prosecution. He fully expects that we will be reimbursed! I thought that God's answer to our prayers in 2021/22 had been "no," but it turns out His answer was wait. I never thought we'd get the money back even though I knew their lies were the reason we had to pay such a large bill. We are so thankful that it seems like we will be getting our money back as we paid almost $20K for my ankle surgery! 

Here are some other things I am grateful for today:

1. We hosted two game days at our home for homeschoolers this month. The kids played Wits and Wagers, Outburst, Spontuneous, Battleship, Apples to Apples, etc. 

2. I've been participating in a Bible study at a friend's house one night a week. We've met three times so far. I've also been discussing another Bible study with my sister over the phone. 

3. Nadia and Ian babysat for a small group study at their youth pastor's home once, and they will be doing so again next Monday.

4. Paul and I enjoyed watching season 4 of All Creatures Great and Small together via the PBS app.

5. The kids all had private ice-skating lessons from 2:00-3:30 on Sunday. Paul ice skated with Oliver once earlier this month and with all three kids on Sunday afternoon. They are all having a second lesson tomorrow. A third (and final) lesson has been scheduled for February 11. 

6. Nadia and Ian are enjoying participating in rehearsals for MCS's spring musical - Seussical. 

7. My dad made it safely down to Florida. 

8. We are dog sitting a thirteen-year-old dog for three weeks. He had a stroke last week before his family left on vacation. Thankfully it seems like he's mostly recovered. The first night at our home went very badly. All of us got very little sleep due to all the noise he made, and he marked a lot of territory in our home (carpet, couch, walls, and drapes). Thankfully it's going much better now. 

9. Ian continues to spend a lot of time practicing the piano almost every day. We recently made the change from 30 to 45-minute lessons. For his (early) Valentine's Day gift this year I got him a new book of piano music.

10. Paul, Oliver, and Nadia have really been enjoying doing jigsaw puzzles lately. I bought them each a 1,000-piece puzzle for Valentine's Day - a tank puzzle for Paul, a dog puzzle for Nadia, and a Lord of the Rings puzzle for Oliver.

11. For years I've had the goal to drink more water on a regular basis. I recently got myself a new water bottle, and I think this is going to help me achieve my goal to drink at least 64 ounces of water a day. 

12. I (and then we) had dental insurance for about 30 years. We lost our coverage when Paul sold the company at the beginning of August. The bills for getting our teeth cleaned was much higher than I was anticipating. I also was shocked at how much it cost to have two of Ian's teeth extracted in December. So, I signed up for a dental insurance plan for our family earlier this month. I am confident we will save a lot of money over the course of the year. I had my teeth cleaned this week, and Oliver had two teeth extracted. The extractions will cost more than we paid under the dental insurance we used to have, but they also cost a lot less than what I paid without any insurance. 

Snow Days

 Our first snowfall of the season happened on a Saturday. The second snowfall was yesterday. The kids around here ended up with a four-day weekend because Monday was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and Tuesday was a snow day. My kids have five days of school this week. I deeply respect what MLK did for the Civil Rights movement. We took our kids to the National Park site in his honor in Atlanta, but we don't take a day off of school for MLK Day or because of snow. As a side note, although he did many wonderful things for the people of our country, I think he was an awful husband. It seems that he and JFK were having a contest to see who could be the worst womanizer? Similar to MLK, I am grateful for how JFK handled the situation in Cuba and didn't get us in a nuclear war, but I also think JFK was an awful husband. The schools around here had a two-hour delay today, and that did impact us because Nadia and Ian usually have art and chorus at Meadowbrook on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Chorus was cancelled yesterday, and the art period was almost cut in half. We decided just to skip art yesterday. A snow day means I don't walk my usual four miles with Milo. The first snowfall this winter was a wet snow. This time it was a very dry snow, so it was much easier to shovel. We're supposed to get more snow tomorrow. Because of that forecast plus the fact that Oliver and Paul are not healthy at the moment, we've cancelled our plans to go skiing at Ski Sawmill tomorrow. Maybe in 2025 the kids will be able to go skiing two times.

The last time we got a nice family photo was in 2019. My broken ankle interfered with the plans in 2021. I made efforts (ex. picking out outfits) to have it happen multiple times in 2022 and 2023, but it didn't happen. I really, really, really hope 2024 is the year! I'm hoping for a nice family photo near our home that includes Milo and also maybe a nice family photo sometime when we're on vacation. The last one I loved was taken at Myrtle Beach. The last time I got one of the three kids plus Milo that I really liked was March 2021, and at least we got an updated one of those four this week. It would be very helpful if I learned how to use a tripod plus use my phone as a remote to control my camera. I'm very thankful for my three kids and Milo!

The kids chipped in and bought Paul a 1,000-piece WWII tank puzzle for his birthday. Paul and Nadia have been working on it, and it's almost done. Several other Star Wars and Marvel puzzles have been completed in our home in 2024. Oliver helped with those as they had been ones he received for his birthday in August. 

Seussical the Musical!

When I was in first through third grade, we lived in Texas. Although my health improved after we moved to Maryland in 1981, there were certain things I really loved about living in Texas. My dad pastored a church that involved a decent drive from our home, so we used to spend the afternoons with a family in the church in between the morning and evening church services. Sunday afternoons were the best because they typically involved swimming, horseback riding, being taught rope tricks, etc. I also loved the Christian camp where I spent a week each summer. At that camp I was taught how to participate in a few different rodeo events, and we would put on a "rodeo" on the last day for the parents. My kids have taken horseback riding lessons, but up until this week, they had never attended a rodeo. I have a list of activities I want the kids to experience before they graduate from high school. We've accomplished some of them but not all of them. For decades I've heard people talk about the Pennsylvania Farm Show which has been held in Harrisburg every January for over 100 years. President Eisenhower won some competitions at the Farm Show! It lasts for a week, and about 500,000 people attend the event. The last three days of the event they also hold a rodeo. On Thursday after we picked Nadia and Ian up from art/chorus at the Christian school, we drove to the farm show. The rodeo started at 7:00pm. We didn't stay until the end because the kids were getting tired, and we live a little over an hour from Harrisburg. Oliver already asked me if we can go again next year. I don't think we'll go every year, but I also don't think it was our last time to attend the farm show or a rodeo. The contestants in the rodeo were primarily from the northeast part of the country, but some were from Florida, Texas, etc. The shocking thing was that three of the contestants were from Watsontown (the small town we live in), and three were from Milton (the small town where our church is located). One of the men from Watsontown was the champion of his event! 

I would have chosen to buy tickets for the rodeo today because it took place earlier in the day, but the kids had a Bible quizzing competition this afternoon. Last night the kids quizzed from 7-10:30 pm. Teams from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana traveled to compete at our church. I stayed at the church from 8:00-3:00 today to assist as a timer during the quizzing. Nine kids from our church were split into three different teams, and all three of our teams took places #1-3 of the eight teams. Ian was on the winning team, and Nadia was on the team that got second place. The girls' team (Nadia, Faith, and Jill) only lost to the boys' team (Ian, Xandir, and Ben). The funny thing was that they each had a sibling on the other team. Ian didn't do as well on the individuals as he did in Ohio in November, but he did come in 5th place. Xandir and Lucy are Oliver's age, and they are both quizzing for the first time this year. They are doing a great job. I hope Oliver can follow in their footsteps when he joins the team next September! This year they are studying Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. Next year they're studying Luke. 

Nadia and Ian had a busy day. In addition to the quizzing competition, Ian practiced his piano solo on the piano he will be playing on at his recital in a few weeks, and they both had auditions for the musical at the Christian school. Nadia sang "Feed the Birds," and Ian sang "Hakuna Matata." They both were given parts! Nadia will be Mrs. Mayor (JoJo's mom). Ian has five parts - Vlad Valdikoff (black bottomed eagle), Max (the Grinch's dog), citizen of the jungle, hunter, and in the circus. I hope they have an enjoyable experience over the next three months. They will have three performances April 11-13. 

Snow Day

The snow that the kids encountered at the ski resort on Wednesday was primarily manmade. We had our first snow that actually accumulated on the ground yesterday. I'd estimate we got about four inches. I had planned to sign the kids up for ten weeks of ice-skating lessons, but the day before we drove to Chicago for Christmas, I found out what the schedule will be for the spring musical rehearsals at MCS. I already knew they'd miss some lessons due to our vacation in February, but when I learned they'd miss even more due to musical rehearsals, it didn't make any sense to sign them up for the class. I contacted one of the instructors to set up some private lessons instead. The first one was supposed to happen yesterday afternoon, but as it was snowing at that time and the ice-skating rink is 30 minutes away, I cancelled their lessons. Oliver's was rescheduled to this afternoon. It turned into a date with dad. We drove in two vehicles to church. Nadia, Ian, and I came home after church. Paul and Oliver went out to eat at KFC and then went ice skating for 2.5 hours of which 30 minutes of that was a lesson. 

We didn't leave the house on Friday or Saturday (except for Paul who went to work on Friday). I spent the extra free time doing some data entry for a missionary and doing some planning for future trips. Sometimes I am mocked for planning so far in advance, but honestly, sometimes it's necessary. In December I contacted our Representative to try to get tickets to tour the White House and FBI in March. I was too late for getting tickets for the FBI. We *might* get tickets for the White House. We'll find out sometime next month. I did recently get tickets for Ford's Theatre for April. It's too soon to attempt (again!) to get Washington Monument tickets. I had tickets for the White House, Washington Monument, and Ford's Theatre in 2020, but those were all cancelled. I'm trying again four years later. Although I know where we plan to go in 2025 (Hawaii for one trip and Louisiana/Texas for the other), I have done VERY little research into the Hawaii trip yet. In contrast, I started doing research for our trip to Europe that we're hoping to make it the spring of 2026. I know that seems SO far in advance, but honestly, I spent years planning our big road trip out west that we took in 2021. I like starting to make the itinerary for a big trip farther in advance so that as the months go by, I can tweak it as I learn of other places we might want to visit, etc. 

My current hypothetical itinerary for Europe has us staying there for about 2.5 weeks and visiting Paris, Amsterdam, Belgium, England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Ireland. Nadia had requested that we go to Paris, Rome, and England. I don't think we'll actually go to Italy in 2025. I want to see the tulips in Amsterdam, and Paul wants to visit Waterloo and Ypres in Belgium. Paul and I made three trips to Europe in 2002-2004 so, it's been twenty years since I've been there. We visited Spain, Italy, France, and England together; since that time, Paul visited Italy and Poland without me while attending two conferences. I went on a trip to Austria/Germany in 1997 with my family.  I have listed some things in our itinerary that would be repeats for Paul and me (Eiffel Tower, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Saint Chapelle, Versailles, and the Arc de Triomphe), but mostly I'm planning to include experiences that will be new ones for all five of us. There are other places in Europe we'd like to visit at some time in the future. If the Lord tarries, we shall see where we end up traveling in 2027 and beyond. Paul and I both prefer to splurge on experiences/making memories over purchasing "things." I'm very thankful we have the resources to take our kids to various states and other countries! I purchased our tickets for visiting Alaska recently. Because of getting an Alaskan airline credit card, we can check our baggage for free, we got one ticket for free (using miles), and we only paid $99 each for two of our round-trip tickets. We still have quite a few miles left over. I'm hoping to use those miles for one of our two vacations in 2025. I also have a decent number of miles left over with American Airlines that I hope to use next year. 

One sad event from the last week was the passing of Nadia's guinea pig, Peppa. In October she started losing some hair in a few different places on her body. Looking online we saw that there were a wide variety of possible causes. We started giving her some vitamins as that was the cure for one of the possible problems. It's possible we could have taken her to a vet and possibly there was a cure for whatever was ailing her, but we didn't want to end up spending hundreds of dollars, especially as there still might not have been a cure. We've owned a total of five guinea pigs. We have one at the moment. Three of the other four passed away when they were three years old. Jenna lived five years. Peppa lived the second longest as she was just a few weeks shy of turning four years old. I hope that Lily lives at least until Nadia graduates from high school. I hope Milo lives for another ten years. The passing away of pets is my least favorite aspect of owning a pet. I retrieved the dead bodies from the cage the last two times. The first guinea pig who died was put to sleep at a vet. Ian did the yucky job for me this time of retrieving her body from the cage.