Stamped With A Guarantee To Be Busy In 2023: February

Well there you have it. With some modification and input from my readers, we have settled upon the theme of the blogs this year: 

Stamped With A Guarantee To Be Busy In 2023

Thank you to all who sent notes of encouragement and actually read the monthly update. It reminds me of writing a Christmas card. Trying to recall all the highlights, and maybe a few of the things we'd like to forget. Anyone who knows the Agozzinos knows we are BUSY, yes all caps. This theme seems poetic. 

The month kicked off with Isaac's bi-annual orthodontist  appointment. He's had a built in retainer on the top of his mouth for around a year now to help with the spacing since he had six teeth removed in June. I was anxious to hear when we would start discussing braces. Turns out, not this appointment. But instead in July when we go back, his mouth would have time to adjust to the spacer and we'll proceed from there. Isaac was relieved. 

Swim Review for February 

🐠Feb. 4- USA meet at St. Xavier🐠

Olivia and I headed south on I-75 since the boys had a basketball game. Because she swam in the afternoon we got to make our way down in the morning. She continued to amaze me in the pool.  AMAZING competition, with potentially the best 10 year IM swimmer in the nation, Adayaleise Trumpower (1:07.88), Olivia came determined to drop time and improve upon her existing times and maybe break into a legit Zone time in back and fly. I'll just put the picture from Meet Mobile up here so you can see how she dropped time in nearly every event (fly she added +0.01 so do you even count that?) and qualified for Zones in the back!

🐠Feb. 18- YMCA meet at Putnum 🐠

Isaac had Annie practice at one, but we made him go and swim in a relay and the 200 free before leaving. He had an amazing meet and I was angry that we had to leave. Not because I don't want him to go to Annie practice (he LOVES the theatre and those are his people!), but because he was doing so well. 

Isaac:

200 Free: 2:33.29 | 1st place | dropped 6.58 seconds!

200 Medley Relay | 3rd place 

Olivia:

200 Medley Relay | 1st place | 2:57.91

100 IM  | 1st place |  1:21.54

50 Fly |  1st place | 39.10

50 Back | 1st place | 38.60

50 Breaststroke | 1st place | 42.97

Basketball

Because I'm always needing to take Olivia somewhere and Jeremy coaches Isaac's basketball team, I never got to watch my baller all season. On Feb. 4 (while I was at St. X with Olivia) they had their last regular season game. Then Feb. 7 they got to play at the halftime of the varsity basketball game. It wasn't a regular game, but they loved it. Then Feb. 11 (at dance comp) the BYAA tournament action began. They beat their first opponent and got to play again that same day, but unfortunately against another Elida team. Isaac's team was the team who was defeated and his tournament run was over. I know Jeremy was probably super bummed, but when twice-a-week practices came around the next week and they were done, I think he got over it quickly! 

SODC

Dance comp season has begun! Between tumbling, swim and dance prep for this first dance competition at Dance ID in Covington, KY Feb. 11/12, Olivia has lived up to the BUSY theme. She went nearly every night the week prior to work on team dances or her solo. Again, because the boys had b-ball tournament, we had to travel just us girls. If you’re unfamiliar with dance competitions, you typically don't know the schedule until the week before. The competitions typically run Friday night- Sunday. So it's a toss up when you'll be slotted. Luckily for us, Olivia's solo was at 10 a.m. and group dances were at 7 p.m. and thank goodness ALL on Saturday.  Since we were so close to my college friend Sandy's house, I called her up and asked if she'd adopt us for the night. Olivia had to be at the convention center at 8 a.m. so we needed to be close enough that we wouldn't be dead tired from the drive. It was also an amazing excuse to visit and catch up! Olivia and her teammates did great. I must admit, the practice videos had me on edge, but they pulled it off like old pro's. SO FUN. First was her solo, and she admitted that she forgot a tiny part at the beginning (only her, I and the teacher would notice though) but improved until she caught up with her moves. She got iconic platinum, which for this dance comp there is only ultra iconic as a greater level. She walked away with a trophy and was thrilled. Her team dances consist of jazz, hip-hop, lyrical and acro. Here is how they finished, with the ID iconic buzzer (which was freaking amazing as the last dance of the evening!). 

Jazz- iconic platinum, fourth place overall

Hip Hop- iconic platinum, fifth place overall

Lyrical- iconic platinum 

Acro- iconic platinum, ID Icon Buzzer, 🥇first place, trendsetter award

The worst part was the drive home. We left the convention center at 11 p.m. after awards and headed to the parking garage where there was ONE gate to get out. We were on the 2nd floor and it took us 45 minutes to get out of the garage. We tried stopping two places to get something to drink- first one had a line wrapped around the gas station and Taco Bell was closed. OMG.  I called my mom and she talked me home and we pulled into our driveway at 1:50 a.m. 

Speaking of dance, let's talk for a minute about how expensive solo's are. First there is the cost of the choreography and the costume. Then each time she jumps up on that stage for her 2-minute dance, it is roughly $150. There are four comps we will attend this year. If you do math like me, let me save you the time and just tell you that to do a solo is roughly (when all said and done) around $1000 extra dollars. Since we don't do too many fundraisers as a studio and this was all due around the same time, I talked with Olivia about what we could do. We came up with making our infamous cut-out cookies. A couple of things about cut-outs.  One, I know very few who actually enjoy doing them. Two, they take time- think refrigeration overnight and then to roll, cut, bake, frosting. With the Super Bowl and Valentine's Day within the week, I thought it might work to make up a few dozen and ask for a $20 donation in return. I was hoping to make at least 10 dozen to help cover the costs of ingredients and at least one solo fee. Well apparently I underestimated the deliciousness of our cut-outs! Wednesday and Friday I didn't go to work, and instead made cookies from the time Olivia got on the bus until she got home. She did help frosting (her favorite part is working with cake frosting bags), but we sold 29 dozen cut-outs. That's nearly 350 cut out cookies! Good thing we have a double oven. That's not counting the extra folks who just donated because or who donated extra. Olivia and I were THRILLED that she had covered over half of her dance comp solo fee's! Blessed to have such amazing family and friends who support Miss Sassy and her dance adventures. 

In the middle of the month of course we celebrated Valentine’s Day. In typical fashion, Jeremy and I exchanged the same card we have given back and forth to each other since 2006. We love looking back and reading what we've said over the years. Then Isaac got me, Maw and Grandma Barb all carnations with his own money. He could hardly wait to get home from school and give them to us all. 

Super Bowl Sunday. We love watching the last football game of the season, but enjoy the commercials even better. We didn't have a party to attend but our church actually had a party for the first half of the game. The rock wall and gym was also open for the kids to play, so we headed across the street to hang there this year. Brought our covered dish and enjoyed chatting with the new pastor Chip. Kids enjoyed climbing the wall, although Isaac was frustrated because he couldn't get to the top. Afraid of heights. 

 

The end of the month brought an activity-free weekend?! What?! That can't be correct.  Because we haven't been back to my parents for months, we decided to head to Attica and visit the parents, and my 89-year-old granny! Because we did it as surprise, mom already had plans to go visit my brother's family in Delaware on Sunday. So we got to ride along so we could visit. It was the first time Isaac had been to their new home. He got back in the car and said, 'what a great day mom!" My heart is full. After getting back to Lima, we headed over to Maw and Paw's for a birthday party. March 1 is Phil's birthday so they had the family in for dinner and to celebrate Paw's 74th birthday. 🥳 🎂 🎉 

A Ton of Fun in 2021: Week 7 Recap

 LOVE is in the air...

This is Valentine's Day Week! I have lots of loves who I got to see on the perfect week of love. We hit the ground running with my favorite dessert love. The best part is you can make it in the Instapot. Yes, I bought the 7 in. spring pan JUST for this dessert. It's delicious. I'm pretty sure I ate the entire thing myself with little help. No one else around here really likes to eat it. Too bad for them. Here is the recipe if you want to try it out for yourself! 

Siblings. I LOVE these two monkeys. They love each other two, but I find them arguing a lot. I came into the bedroom to find Isaac saying "mom!" not to get her off, just to prove that she was trying to fight with him before he retaliated and had her crying.  When he gets fed up with her and fights back, it eventually leads to her coming to me crying saying Isaac hurt her.

My next LOVE...one of my college roommates, bff's, and cruising buddy- Stephy.  As a polar bear alum, she was able to share her love with her students and now some of those students are getting ready to chose a college. Because she had one of those students who has a mom who was also a polar bear, Steph got to come back to her old stomping grounds. It was fantastic to reminisce and show her around the new business school (since Huber is where we took classes). 

And then these two loves. The only niece and nephew I have on my side. Adorable right?! So when you come to my house and want ice cream for a snack or for breakfast, who am I to say no?! They arrived earlier than when my own kiddos got off the bus, so we headed down to the basement/toy room to entertain. Hunter is totally into organizing (if I didn't know better, I'd think he was mine right?) so when he asked if we could clean up and organize I jumped on it. Now he thought we could finish before Isaac and Olivia got home, but I knew better. The pic of the art cart is just a small example of how much he helped. We organized the pens by color and the crayons too. Everything had it's place. It was beautiful. I asked him several times if he needed a break and wanted to go play for a while.  He said no....seriously, did God send me an angel or what?! He stuck it out for around 4.5 hours. What? We threw out 3 bags of trash and had a pile to go to Goodwill, but OMG where has he been all summer!  This was a pandemic project that never got finished. It took Hunter coming to make it happen. Thanks buddy!

The girls did a lot of things together. Secretly I think Olivia loved having a little girl around, although she'd never admit it. They had a spa day in the jet tub and made a fort in Olivia's bedroom. Another thing we did is break into the April box from last year's "year of experiences" board (thanks pandemic for ruining that!) and pulled out the glow golf tickets.  We have a cool place right inside the mall so decided to let the kiddos go have some Lima fun. Since the cousins live in a big city where everything is at their fingertips, wanted to be sure they didn't get bored. Well, since it only lasted about 20 minutes tops...not sure it was loads of fun, but definitely entertaining for a bit. 

Then Sunday was Valentines Day. Started off the day with church and then headed to lunch with maw and paw at Banditos. Jeremy and I are still exchanging the same card since 2005 Valentine's Day.  It's honestly the best idea ever and so much fun to read back through the last 16 years-worth of notes to each other. Jerm and I got Isaac a snoopy mug for his hot chocolate and a little car and Olivia got a water bottle for all her activities and a stuffed puppy because she's been begging for real one and that's 100% not happening.  LOL.  Stuffed one will have to do for now.  

We ended the day with skate party at Edgewood.  Our church sponsors family skate night.  Olivia couldn't go because she had dance and Jerm had school work to finish up, so I volunteered to take Issac.  I love roller skating. I'm just afraid I might break something now.  But I went and had so much fun.