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 48 Recap

The playroom downstairs is a mess 90% of the time. It drives me mad. But it is moments like today that I capture them playing with their toys and it makes it all worth the mess. Olivia was down playing with her American Girl dolls and Isaac was working on rebuilding his wooden train set and then pulling busses up beside it.  

Right before Thanksgiving, we found ourselves in Ft. Wayne as Jeremy and I had appointments to renew our TSA pre-check. While we were so close, we decided to burn up the last of our our gift cards from the failed 'year of experiences' Christmas gift of 2020. We took the kids to SkyZone to burn off their energy. One of their favorites is the wall. The ninja warrior zone is cool, we like to watch them battle on the beam, and Olivia enjoys just jumping and trying tricks. Most of the time Jeremy and I join in the fun, but we were just there to watch today since we were burning up the gift cards. 

Thursday was Thanksgiving. I was in charge of the dressing, the pumpkin pies and of course, the cut out cookies. We attempt to always be over to Maw and Paws before 11 when Santa is on the Macy's Day Parade. I sent Jeremy and the kids this year since I was having a melt down with my new hair.  I'll eventually get this hair down right?! I hope so. We took pictures of our family and Jeremy and I cut the turkey as we always do. Tradition. Since Isaac and Olivia are the youngest and only little kids on this side, it was pretty quiet. We stayed all day this time since we weren't going to the Coder side until the next day. 

Olivia is totally into doing her American Girl doll's hair. She set up an entire beauty salon in the kids bathroom, complete with a sign up sheet and prices.  Not sure how they're paying, but I don't ask questions. I just snuck in to take some photos, but she caught me when the flash went off. 

We headed over to the Coders on Friday for Thanksgiving #2. Jeremy had to work, so it was just me and the kids. Arick was also home deer hunting, so we got to hang with him as well. Everyone but Brittney was home for the holiday. It was so nice to have everyone in one place again. The most interesting part was when Emelia asked Granny to tell her some facts about her for something she was writing for school. This led into her telling us about her jobs in high school which included working in a department store. She also said the first time she met grandpa was when her and friend were waiting in line for the ferris wheel at the fair and he and his friend ask if they could (cut in line- boys!) and ride with them. But that's where they met! 

I was trying so hard to go all of 2021 with under 40,000 miles on my SUV.  But I had to drive my SUV this weekend to Attica and it happened on the way home. So close! I was about half way between Upper Sandusky and Lima on 30 and so I took out my phone to capture the moment. Not too bad for having it for three years and only putting 22,000 miles on it. I know it's because I still drive the car to work most days and anytime we are traveling far.  

Finishing up the break found us on a spare of the moment trip to Cincinnati to Top Golf. Again, we have gift cards, but still we drove there just for TG. Olivia typically has dance on Sunday's, so when we found out that morning that dance had been cancelled, we decided to take off and do something fun. Our family LOVES Top Golf. Olivia had a great day and kicked some butt in the second game. I stink, but enjoy seeing how much fun all the rest of them have. Isaac continues to get stronger and better every time we go. It's fun to see him hit further and his excitement when he gets lots of points. Jeremy is the only one who plays the games correctly.  The rest of us just get up there, wack the ball, and hope for lots of points!