A Ton of Fun in 2021: Week 46 Recap

This week was exciting as my bestie from high school came back into town and asked if she could spend some time at my house during her stay. I learned that she appreciates the morning WAY more than I.  Her bedtime is also before I get home with the kids from their fifty million activities! But it was sure great to see her and catch up on life. She even came to ONU to my classes and interacted with my SM strategies class who got to hear her story and ask questions. I wish I had pictures of her and the kids playing some mad games of UNO in the evening. 

On Wednesday I was up early and off to the Toledo with PRSSA students to industry tours that had been schedule. Our stops included Toledo Metro Parks, Hart, Imagination Station and Owens Corning. We had lunch downtown and alumni Emma Prusha was able to take a break from her graduate classes at Toledo and join us.  I was upset with how many students bailed day before/day of and didn't attend, but the students who did got so much out of these visits. So informative and so fun to hear all the different journeys that led the professionals to their current positions.

Thursday was Veteran's Day and Kel was being honored at our high school as the Hometown Hero. Complete with a brunch and a ceremony, I had been invited back to attend. Yet, Thursday is my teaching day so I told Kel there was a REALLY good chance I wouldn't be coming back.  But that morning as I was getting ready, I taught my 9:30 class from Zoom as I headed back to Attica. I decided I'd never regret cancelling two classes to head back and join in honoring Kel. Best decision ever, as not only did I get to hear her talk about her experience, but I also was asked by our HS basketball coach to actually present her with the medal. WOW, I was moved to tears of how amazing she truly is and always has been. It was also really nice to see high school teachers and classmates who I haven't seen in years. 

This weekend found us all finally at home swim meet--The Lima Fall Fiesta. A huge invitational, the kids were excited to swim a regular meet at home, and maw was excited to finally attend a regular swim meet. Last year all our meets were live streamed and posted to YouTube. No one else does this, but because it was home and we still have the capability, Poppy and Grandma Julie were finally able to watch a meet online too! The kiddos did pretty good at the meet too. Isaac got 4th in the 200 free, 10th in the 100 free, 13th in both the 50 free and back, and 3rd in his relay, Olivia got 3rd in the IM and breast, 2nd in the fly, and her relays won both the 200 free and 200 IM (which means she came home with 5 medals!), not bad for the 9 year old in the 9-10 year old category!  Stay hungry, stay humble.

A Ton of Fun in 2021: Week 38 Recap

I am always on Pinterest looking up a recipe to throw in the instapot or cook up for the evening. Recently I found a new love that I can't get enough of -Zucchini boats. No one else in my household will touch them, but they're missing out.  I've made them for lunch like three times in the last two weeks.  

We have a killer line up of PRSSA Meeting's this fall. This week was no exception. Micheala Long came in this week to speak to the group. She works for Cooper Tire in Findlay, but they just got absorbed by Goodyear Tire recently. She talked about all the change that has happened recently. I was just happy we could grab dinner and catch up. 

Today's volleyball game was at 9 a.m. at Waynesfield. We played Cory Rawson today.Missed 20 serves overall.  😢10-25, 16-25, and 18-25.  As Olivia said after the game, "we are undefeated in being defeated". LOL. Well that's one way to look at it. Plenty of room for growth throughout the season!

It's time to decorate for Fall! We headed to Amhurst after the volleyball game in Waynesfield and picked up some mums and pumpkins to sit around. It was also Elida's Laural Oaks craft show outside. I've never been, but decided to go over and walk through. I found a sign to put on my porch that says welcome and was so excited to bring it home and put everything together.  Below is the final look. I'm loving it.  

Cleaning Olivia's Room. No one wants to do it- she certainly doesn't ever want ever pick it up. It looks like a tornado went through most days and I can't handle it anymore.  I made her carry everything out of her room. I mean the only thing that remained was the bed frame and her dresser without the drawers. Everything got wiped down and sorted through.  The closet was emptied as well.  I wished I would have taken before pictures. Nearly 5 hours it took to go through everything. We moved the bed a couple of different ways and ended up back to the original space. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought her a little night stand to put her elephant lamp on and she's made a deal with me if she can keep it clean for a month, I'll give her $20 to get something new to put in there. I am trying to get her to make it a habit.  Time will tell. 

A Ton of Fun in 2021: Week 37 Recap

How many people get to spend their Labor Day celebrating one of their most favorite people in the world turning 88?! This girl! Sylvia (my mom's mom) AKA Granny has circled the sun 88 times in her life and she's still living on her own, gardening and feeding the cats. I simply adore her and don't get to see her as much as I'd like and I should because she's one of my biggest fans. As the first grandchild on that side, it's no secret I'm the favorite (LOL- sorry to bust your bubble Megan!). There are plenty of girl grandchildren - actually 5 of us and then my brother. So us girls always joke we're all the favorite. At any rate, for Granny's birthday we all met at Sue's to celebrate. We sat around talking while our kids swam (or those who weren't old enough crawled around) and we just enjoyed each other's company.  It was amazingly perfect in every way. Oh, and Tom's sweet corn is AMAZING! Olivia and I had at least three ears each!

I could have stayed at Aunt Sue's for days, but my kiddos had their first day of school Tuesday, Sept. 7.  Isaac is entering 5th grade and Olivia 4th.  Both were so excited to get going, as they did have four months off and all the area schools have been back for several weeks.  In our typical traditional style, we got first day pictures of both kids before seeing them off. I'm so happy that Jeremy goes into work late in order to see them off too.  Maw also comes over wish them well!  

Ok, so we are trying out a new gym this fall for tumbling. Infinity Gym in Ottawa is where Olivia will now be taking tumbling. Our old gym seemed to not be helping her progress as quickly as we'd hoped. In fact, she was doing back handsprings and still in with other girls who couldn't do cartwheels. It was time to either quit the gym or get somewhere where instructors would push her and have her progress. This week was our first night. Olivia said they did lots of things to see where their skill levels were so next week they could appropriately place them.  

Monday and Wednesdays every week we have volleyball.  This week practice was moved due to team/individual pictures. Oh my goodness this group is a hoot! I grabbed my phone and snapped a few of the 4th graders who are on my team. Brandy, Sophia, Lia and Olivia!

Thursday is always a crazy day of teaching and then PRSSA in the evening. But this week was pretty anticipated as Chris Nelson was coming to speak. Chris worked at Ketchum when I interned there and he had Steve Iseman (my prof and late in life colleague) as a professor at Ohio State. At any rate, he's one of the best in the field concerning crisis PR and always still makes the trip to ONU to speak to the group.  Steve was able to come enjoy the evening with us too, so all and all it was outstanding reunion!

This last picture is just the kids getting on the bus on Friday.  I think it's funny that they alway open up the back hatch of the vehicle and sit in there waiting for the bus. I've really never thought too much about it, but wanted to capture this moment as it's just something they do throughout the year and wanted to be sure to include it in the blog!