January 2023

I've sat around WAY too long trying to come up with the perfect phrase to kick of the blog this year. I Googled what rhymed with three. I scoured the internet for clever titles. I even asked my social media class for ideas. Here are a few ideas I'd still chewing on...

"Carefree in 2023"

"All about me in 2023"

"Long time no see...Let's get together in 2023"

"Stamped with a guarantee for 2023"

Do any of these tickle your fancy? Would love to hear your feedback if anyone is even reading this, which would be your favorite. Next month I'll pick one, but if I keep waiting to decide on the perfect title/phrase, another year will go by with no blog.  Can't have that happening! So here we go. It's like having a baby and leaving the hospital without a name. Just keep moving forward...the name will come with what feels right. 

Welcome to 2023. Those who know me well, know that 2022 was bound to be amazing since #22 has been my favorite number for like, well forever. It was a fabulous year, but I didn't document any on the blog.  Facebook will have memories, but no blog posts to boost those memories. 

We kicked off 2023 at the lake house at the Dentinger Christmas! Mom got us all matching "Cheers" shirts since we were going to celebrate Christmas on New Years Day. One of the best parts is that no one had to go to school Monday so we got to ease back into normal structure of life. Isaac and Olivia had to go back to school Tuesday, but Jeremy and I still have 3 more weeks off until we needed to return to ONU. So we had planned for so many 'wants' on our things-to-do list, we knew if we got half of them done, we'd be in good shape. 

The first thing we kicked off the new year with is picking out new furniture and paint and redoing our living room area. Jeremy and I headed over to Lehmans in Delphos to take a look at their selection. Two hours later, we came home with a new cavas print, couch, love seat and a swivel chair. Jeremy dropped me off at Lowes to get paint. There was so much to paint and we needed to head out the next morning early for a swim meet in Elkhart, Indiana. 

Sports are a huge part of every weekend! I'm just going to do a summary of what the month brought for sports each month or the entire paragraph. 

Basketball

Isaac (and Jeremy the coach) had basketball games on every Saturday this month. They are having a pretty good season. While they did lose a few games, overall they have a great team and seem to be getting along great. Unfortunately because of the vacation we already had booked, they missed two Saturdays in a row. 

Swim

Jan. 7- USA Mako Invite, Elkhart: GIRLS only weekend

I should have looked before the night before how far from home this was...but wow, how much fun. We signed up for this meet to see competition outside of Ohio as this was a huge Midwest meet (yet drivable!) with amazing facilities and phenomenal swimmers (is it OK to get a 10-year old swimmer signature now so when we see them at the Olympics in eight years I can say she swam against them? )

Anyhow, Olivia has #goals. One of the only thing she asked for for Christmas was a speed suit. She got a black and a green one. We joked that it’s the Slytherin colors and also the same colors as her dance studio that she also loves so much. not sure it was a speed suit or the placebo effect, but will take it! She was hoping to make it to zones in at least two events. Right now she is up to 4 and looking for at least two more by season’s end.

Day 1:

IM: 6/57 Qualified for Zones

50 breaststroke: 6/78 dropped time /already qualified for Zones

50 fly: 12/71 and but guessing a tad tired

Day2:

100 breaststroke: 6/57 added time but already qualified for Zones in this event

100 fly (grueling as you can see by how many people did it) 5/23 and 1 second from qualifying from Zones

50 free: 4/100 - heat winner- qualified for Zones seeded 12 and came to swim!!!

Jan. 28- YMCA Findlay

I had to work in the morning at the Dicke Scholarship Day, so I was a bit late getting there, but eventually made it to see both kiddos swim like champions!

Isaac swam 

200 freestyle: Finished 3rd/ dropped time/ 2:39.87
200 IM Relay: Finished 2nd/2:35.16
50 freestyle: Finished 3rd/30:59
50 backstroke: Finished 3rd/dropped time/ 38.75

Olivia swam

IM: Finished 1st/dropped time/ 1:20.25
50 freestyle: Finished 1st/31.62
50 fly: Finished 1st/39.13
50 backstroke: Finished 1st/dropped time 37.79

Tumbling 

Olivia starting tumbling this fall at the Flip Training Center at the mall. They changed their classes for the new year. Olivia has been placed in the intermediate plus class. This class is working on roundoffs and back tucks on a spring floor. By the end of the month, the teachers approached me and asked to move her up to the advanced class in February. She will continue to work on back tucks on a hard floor and also start working on full layouts. Here is a video of how she is progressing. 

J-term also began Jan. 5-20. Sounded like a great idea when I signed up to teach both Principles of Social Media and Principles of Public Relations. Every day we had class online. While there wasn't a particular time they had to log on, there was something due everyday since essentially this is a 16-week class condensed to 20 days. Overall it wasn't bad until I got on the cruise ship. I spent some of my days on islands finding coffee shops with internet to make sure I could keep up at all hours of the day.  I also spend many hours at night burning up all 250 minutes of internet I bought for the ship so I could grade assignments and get them up in a timely manner. 

The highlight of the month was certainly the family Eastern Caribbean cruise on the NCL Encore. We planned this out with the kiddos and maw and paw. It was the kiddos third cruise and they couldn't wait to go since the ship was so amazing. It had a waterslides, a rope course, and a putt putt course. We got to visit Dominican Republic, Tortola, St. Thomas, and NCL's private island Great Stirrup Cay. We had beautiful weather and perfect days at Sea. When we got home we were lucky enough to fly standby and get home from the trip by the time we would have been taking off from Orlando to come home. Because it was a Saturday to Saturday cruise it was nice to have Sunday to do all the laundry and get back in the groove of things before starting the spring semester at ONU Monday, January 23.  

Finally, overall we have had a pretty typically January.  Snow and freezing temperatures. We didn't have school (Elida or ONU) Wednesday, Jan. 25 and no Elida Friday, Jan. 27 because we were cold and had snow and drifting. Olivia made a snowman and I thought I'd put the picture here to remember. 

A Ton of Fun in 2021: Week 17 Recap

Ohio thinks it's funny. It was 68 degrees on Monday. By Tuesday evening we had snow that was sticking on the ground.  See exhibit A picture. 🙈 What in the world? It's April 20 Ohio.  It's not time to think about planting a garden one day and the next, pulling out winter hats and mittens again.  UGH. Both kids had practices canceled and I had a track meet canceled. 

This week/weekend also brought about SODC dance recital. Olivia had practice on Thursday night and then had shows on both Friday and Saturday night. Friday night I had a track meet I signed up for over a year ago so I decided to keep my commitment and Grandma Barb came and attended the show on Friday night. Saturday our family and Phil and Deb went. They typically only have one show all day Saturday, but with the COVID restriction, they had to host four shows to be sure all who wanted to attend would have an opportunity to see their child dance. 

Jerm also started his 'journey' aka diet this week. He's complained about being hungry and not being able to work out (which he has totally broken the rules with already and went to the gym). 🙄I really hope he finds his abs again so he can participate in our popcorn nights and Kewpee drive-thru lines. We miss his participation of wanting to eat junk food with us.  That being said, he'll also be the one with the rockin summer body, especially with me standing beside him.  

Both kiddos also brought home papers that said their art from school was selected to be in the art show.  Here are pictures of what was selected to be in the show.  Olivia has the light house and Isaac has the hearts on the cloth.  We are always so impressed with their projects they bring home. This summer the school is having an Art Camp that we are going to sign the kids up for to have some more fun. 

A Ton of Fun in 2021: Week 6 Recap

 Let it SNOW!

Oh my goodness. February came in dumping snow and ice and more snow. This week my kids stayed home more than the went to school. Monday- went to college 🤓snow day! Tuesday- virtually went to school online while the Elida teachers got vaccinations. Wednesday went to school!  Thursday- Olivia went to school all day, Isaac had me pick him up at 1:30 with a belly ache.  Friday- snow day! What is a momma to do when you are trying to teach in person at the university but have a two-hour delay (then cancelled) on all these days?! Well, Monday they had to come with me. I don't teach and had already lined up maw (thankfully she lives close!) to watch them on Tuesday when I teach all day. They bring stuff to do- Isaac watched 5 hours worth of cartoons.  Olivia plays teacher and helped me grade a few papers that had one particular answer so she could while I was answering emails, using the scanner and sitting on Zoom calls from my office. I treated them to their favorite lunch on the way in exchange for good behavior! 

Tuesday they went to Maws and did homework online. Speaking of which, here's a picture I've never been able to take before and couldn't be prouder-thus refrigerator-worthy! Both kiddos made the honor roll.  For Olivia this is regular...but for Isaac it's monumental. He's obsessed with checking his grades online nightly now.  He was over the moon that he got all A's and one B and so were his parents.  These will remain on the fridge until the next report card-which Isaac reminds us daily is March 9. LOL

Wednesday is my work-from-home day.  I typically also do my grocery shopping on Wednesday and those who know me best, know I love me a list and shopping at Ruler or Aldi.  This week found me at Aldi.  Here's my cart bagged up. Four heaping bags will get us at least a good two weeks worth of planned out meals.  And the best part?  This cart-load of groceries was around $100. Yep. Aldi always cost a bit more than Ruler, but I also buy at lot more produce because I like Aldi's better than Ruler. There are always about three things (cheese pizza rolls for kids lunches, spaghetti o's, and Breyer's Lactose Free ice cream or Toft's ice cream) that are very specific I have to go get at Meijer afterward. Other than that, I can save a ton of money by sticking to the planned out meal list and shopping at my favorites. 

Thursday shortly before my noon class I got a call from Elida schools to say Isaac wasn't feeling well and asking me to pick him up.  Nurse Lauren was awesome enough to hang out with him for 1.5 hours because I had a test in my noon class and it still takes me about 35 minutes to drive from ONU back to Elida. I think it was something little man ate because he looked white as a ghost and said he had a tummy ache, but no temperature. He came home and I made him lay on the couch and watch HGTV 🤣 Sorry buddy, you don't get to come home and watch cartoons or you'd want to come home everyday! 

Friday it poured down snow in the early morning hours and school was cancelled. Because I don't teach on Fridays, I just sat up shop at the end of our kitchen table and told the kids to do their homework online and have me check it before submitting. Highlight of the day was Isaac asking if H-E-L-L was a bad word from the other room.  Me confused said yeah, why do you ask? He said it was on his homework 😳Yikes! I put it on FB initially (check out the screenshot) and within 45 minutes the poor teacher was calling me apologizing. I took down the FB post (no intensions to get her in trouble!), but it did give us a good chuckle for the day. 

Saturday= Swim Meets. Again the kids did a great job. Here are screenshots of their times. Isaac swam similar times as before. Olivia continued to take time off of her events. As the season is starting to peek, the first weekend in March will be the championships at BG.  Both kids have qualified and are excited to head north for the big event

These last pictures are just some fun ones. Jeremy continues to work on his PhD, so here's a picture of where we find him working on his classes.  Olivia was being a kid and decided to take the Jenga pieces and make dominoes throughout the dining room. All-in-all a pretty busy indoor week! ❄️