Wowzers! How did the end of January come so quickly? This past week flew, which I knew was going to happen because I FINALLY went back to work. Well at least that what Jeremy tells me. Of course we all had Monday off because of MLK day, so we started back up at ONU on Tuesday. I had such a fabulous day, I took my normal Wednesday off (worked from home) and Thursday came and mother nature did us dirty. She struck lightening, which took out all internet power in Dicke College of Business. I still held classes, much to the students despise, but we still didn't have it on Friday so I got another 'work from home' day. My 13th year at ONU as a professor has lived up to its unlucky number. A global pandemic and lots of adjusting. I'm hoping my 14th year here will be much more calm and collected.
Speaking of school, another member of our family started back to school as well. Jeremy started his first class at NCU for his doctorate! Yep folks, you read that right. The guy who hated reading and writing in undergrad has now completed a masters thesis, graduated last spring and now has begun the doctorate journey. It's only week one and I've already spent a few nights helping proofreading his paper and correcting all his citations. Good thing I enjoy those 'academic weenie' things.
We love playing board games with the kiddos. This week they picked a few that we haven't had out in awhile. As you can see from the pictures, we had some wild games of Jenga. We thought for sure Isaac was going to be the one to take the fall, but Olivia got it this round and she wasn't happy about it. I think the falling of the pieces actually scares her and makes her more upset than losing the game.
We had a busy Saturday. Isaac had a basketball game in Spencerville the same time as the swim meet started. Jeremy coaches his team, so they took off for the game and I took Olivia to her swim meet. Sorry, apparently it's too hard to coach and take pictures of your kids (LOL) so I don't have any pictures of Isaac playing basketball. However, Olivia crushed it again this week at the swim meet. She PR'ed in every single one of her individual swims. Picture of her and coach April who put her in the 12 & U open IM. She crushed it for being the youngest in the fastest heat. Check out the screenshot of her times.
Sunday we decided to watch church online while traveling to Cincinnati for Top Golf. We have so many bonus cards that need to be used before the end of March and we know that dance competitions will start up soon (along with spring sports), so holding out for an open weekend is impossible. So we just loaded up the kiddos and didn't say where we were going and headed south. They were so excited to see it when we arrived. I played one game out of my mind (scored 115 which is unheard of for me) so we took a picture. Isaac was excited to win a game too. I think we even got all four seasons when we were there. It was snowing when we started and then moved to rain. About halfway through it stopped and was just chilly before the sun peaked threw the clouds for a few minutes. We played for 2 hours and then headed to the outlets for a little retail therapy before heading back to Lima to get Olivia to dance practice.
Week 3 already? How did that happen? We kicked off the week with a NCAA National Championship for football between Alabama and our OSU Buckeyes. We invited Phil and Deb to come over and Sheri was visiting as well so she was able to come cheer on the team as well. Even though the outcome wasn't what we wanted, we were still super proud to play in the game! 52-24 was a butt kickin, but we got to hang out in the basement with family, which was our win of the night.
Well the only thing that really stinks this last week off of school is this nasty shaker jar. Yep, for this entire week, three meals a day are replaced with toxin absorber drink with apple juice. It smells as awful as it looks. I have to choke it down. Good news is I'm starting the year off right by cleaning out my insides. I'm losing a few pounds with it too, bonus!
The oddest thing that happened this week was Wednesday at the YMCA we lost power during my morning core class. Luckily the sun was shining through the windows, so we finished in the sunshine. While it ended up staying off for around 3 hours, those who were already at the Y were allowed to stay and finish their workouts. I found the one Elliptical that was still powered up, so I stayed and did my workout by myself. It was kinda cool to have the entire place to myself!
Isaac had some downtime this weekend while his sister was at dance and asked me to play Monopoly. This is the Incredibles Jr. edition, but I still agreed to take him on. I loved Monopoly as a kid and could play it for hours on end. Well, it didn't take but 20 minutes in this version for me to lose all my money. LOL. Isaac loved beating my butt in the game- I kept saying, "Can you give your mom a loan?" He wouldn't. He wouldn't even let me free-load on his properties. He's ruthless!
We finished out the weekend with another swim meet. Both kids did amazing again. Isaac got DQ'ed in the breaststroke...again. I think we should throw in the towel on that event. Seems he' can't get the hang of it. Oh well. They both took off times in their other events which makes both them and momma and dad smile. We have a bit over a month until swim championships. Olivia is way more excited than Isaac, but I think both might qualify and swim! Looking forward to seeing what competition in person looks like!
We survived an entire week of 2021. I mean as the Agozzino family- we were flawless! The country, well...that's another issue.
Monday was the last day of the kiddos break. We ended up grocery shopping and stopping by my favorite store. Don't let the picture fool you. While they hate thrift shopping, they both walked out with something they wanted!
Isaac also wrote a play and Olivia worked on the scenery with leftover cardboard from Christmas boxes. She colored it in with chalk though. Wouldn't recommend chalk on cardboard. It's everywhere! Here are some fun pics of Maw and Paw helping them act out the play. Too funny!
Tuesday the kiddos went back to school and all the regular running to sports practices, tumbling, classes, etc. has kicked in. We certainly welcome it, as the alternative is sitting at home quarantined. Yuck.
Our world continues to get more politicalized, which I hate all things that go with politics, but I know that I have to at least know they exist. Wednesday Jan. 6, our U.S. Capitol was taken over, leaving four people are dead after President Trump supporters breached one of the most iconic American buildings. More history in the making I guess... all after Trump urged his supporters to fight against the ceremonial counting of the electoral votes that will confirm president-elect Joe Biden's win, which continued anyways later that evening. Oh, and Friday Twitter banned Trump's account, which also made national news.
All right, back to sunshine and rainbows...Saturday brought about swim meets and basketball games. Kids are doing great at swim. Both improved their times in all their events, but Isaac did get DQ'ed in the breast stroke because his goggles fell off when he dove in and he grabbed the side to put them back on. Can't do that.
Another fun thing Jerm and I started as a couple was a colon cleanse. Yep, you read that right. Nothing like cleaning out your system and doing it as a couple for a memorable romantic moment. lol. The drinks you take for a WEEK are disgusting. But Jerm does it every year and I thought I’d join him this year so I don’t have to cook for us this week. Well, so far, I’m not a fan. Where is the sugar?!
Sunday ended with the Browns win in playing in their first playoff game against the Steelers. This made for a happy husband, so I’m including it!
I've finally decided what I want to do in 2021. It's simply too much to expect I'll actually post daily. So instead, I'll make it a weekly goal to blog about our 2021~ Here we go with Week 1. Maybe at the end of 2021, I'll have a virtual scrapbook of the year.
I will dip into the end of 2020 with this first post about meeting the newest to the 'extended cousin' family. Since we typically spend NYE with our friends who have kiddos (who frankly look like cousins) who are our kiddos ages, we decided to visit a few days earlier to make up for our broken tradition this year. Madelyn Grace was born while we were in Disney, so we didn't want to bring any crud back to her, so after quarantine of at least 14 days, we finally got to meet the newest baby doll. Such a precious bundle and loved all three hours of snuggles I was able to get while visiting.
Jeremy had to work Monday-Wednesday to close out the year. Greatest news was that he was promoted and got a raise. We were super appreciative since he was seen as an essential worker this past year and only gets 7 paid holiday days off. He decided (on his own) that he would do something extra special for the kiddos with the few extra dollars he earned. After work on Wednesday, we rewarded the kiddos with a hover board and electric scooter for their all A's grade cards. While this wasn't atypical for Olivia, it certainly was an accomplishment for Isaac who has been working his butt off! Now, this was all Jeremy and neither were approved prior to arriving on my front door step this afternoon. UGH. I really, really don't feel comfortable with the hover board. But Olivia started asking for it the day before Christmas, so Jeremy knew Santa couldn't get that gift delivered under that quick of a turn-around, so he decided to do this instead. Both were super excited and decided to load them up and take them with us to the lake with lots of open land! Olivia ended up falling and having road rash all over her hip and down her leg. UGH. Can we box it up and send it back yet?!
Next up was New Year's Eve 2020. Yep, after this year of a global pandemic that is still lingering, most are ready to bid it farewell. Since we are celebrating Christmas with my parents on New Year's Day, we were surrounded with family this year for NYE. All four kids were up the entire night. We took shots of Crown Royal XR to toast to the new year. Dad said he had been saving this special drink for a special occasion. Making it to 2021 was certainly a special occasion! We also played the game "It's all Relative." Pretty funny and lots of laughs until the wee hours of the morning.
Next morning was New Year's day... or Christmas in our case. We let the kids unwrap their gifts first so they could go play while we unwrapped our gifts too. Here are just a few of pictures of the many surprised faces that happened. Olivia got two Harry Potter Lego sets she was over the moon about and a tie-dying kit 🙄(I said should stay at the lake, but somehow made it's way back here to our home.) 🤣 Isaac's favorite gifts were his Top Golf gift card and a cruise ship. We were suppose to be on a cruise ship this coming week with all these people in the pictures, but COVID had other plans.
Another tradition that we would like to keep up is taking a picture with the grandkids and grandparents. For the first time EVER, they were old enough to follow commands and I think we finally got a good one in like 3 minutes. No shenanigans were needed. So their reward for doing this so quickly and easily was to do a funny picture as well. Sometimes I think the funny pictures are a truer representation of the circus that our family truly portrays. Love this people to pieces and so happy they're are my monkeys in my circus! 🐒
If you are still reading, I'm not sure why? This is turning into a novel. But after a magical day of Christmas, we made prime rib, mashed potatoes, asparagus, corn, rolls, fried rice and shrimp to ring in the new year and lots of goodies to snack on for the big night. Ohio State Buckeyes played the Clemson Tigers in the Sugar Bowl to determine who would go on to play for the national championship. OSU was the underdog, but the Clemson coach had given some motivation by publicly declaring he would rank them 11th in the country and certainly not third. Well OSU came out with a 49-28 win and we all got to celebrate the victory together! I don't have many pictures, because honestly I was nervous and didn't want anyone to think I jinxed us by snapping a picture. Jeremy is psycho about these things.
The next morning we all slept in. Since we had been up past midnight the past two nights, peeps were tired. Mom and I had made coco bombs for the kids for Christmas. She had bought the molds and we tried our hand at it. They're not as easy as they look, but we eventuality figured it out. I think all the kids but Olivia tired them out and they all approved.
In all this madness of this week, Olivia lost TWO molars! Yes, the first one was on Monday when she bit into something and said it became loose. She worked at it for hours. Look at how deep the root was 😳and full of blood. YUCK. The second molar was loose before and she had auntie Amanda pull it out on Friday night. Tooth fairy brought her $3.25 for each molar under her pillow even though she wasn't even home. She said they must have a tracking device on those teeth!
Saturday afternoon we headed back to the homestead. We tried to put things away. I did capture this video of Isaac playing Township. He's had this app for around 4 years now and has built himself quite the township. He was so concerned when he got a new iPad for his birthday that the app wouldn't transfer and all would be lost. But, thankfully he's still going strong. Watching Garfield and playing Township. Life is good.
