Stamped With A Guarantee To Be Busy In 2023: March

The first Saturday of March was all Olivia at her second dance comp of the season- Energy in Fort Wayne. Jeremy, Isaac, Maw and Sheri came over for all the team dances before heading back home. Grandma Barb rode with Olivia and I and had to stay for the entire day. The best part is Olivia conquered her fear of finally doing the improv competition. There were over 50 girls and she made the top 12, and while she didn't make the top three cut, she sure was impressive. Here is how everything shook out throughout the day.

Jazz -Choreography Judges Award, Platinum, 1st in category, 1st place overall

Hip Hop- High Gold, 4th place overall

Lyrical - High Gold, 1st in category, 5th place overall large group

Acro -Triple E Judges Award, Platinum, 1st place overall

Solo- High Gold

Jeremy had to leave the dance comp early because he was headed to Columbus for the Arnold Pump & Run. The pump and run went great. He went from 203 pounds five weeks ago to 179. So happy he got in the 170’s. Benching he got 29 of 30 reps. Just died on the last one. He said he did as good as he could have ever imagined on the 5k going 26:13. His goal was to go under 30 minutes. Stretch and dream goal was 27 and hit low 26. Got 148th of 771! He loves how this event pushes him to his limits at 44 years old!

Saturday and Sunday Isaac and his Elida 6th Grade All-Star Team basketball tournament at Delphos. During the first day they went undefeated. However, when Sheri/Maw/Paw/Olivia and I got to come and watch, it was a quick defeat. We've decided that we might be bad luck! But we did get Creamery ice cream afterward, so the trip wasn't a total loss.

Next big thing on the docket was me! We scheduled our out-of-state PR industry tours in Charlotte. The companies did a great job showing the students the different opportunities in PR/SM/Marketing. We were able to visit Duke Energy, Lowe's, GlobalLogic, Wray Ward, Husqvarna, and Wells Fargo. We also loved visiting with our alumni students (Joe Clarkson, Blake Lundy, Candace Kaiser and Jeni Kmic) for a dinner on the one evening we were there at Midwood Smoke. It was great catching up with all of them! 

Preparing for our swim championship weekend kicked off with a foot bath and painted toes for Olivia.  Day 1 of Swim Champs at BGSU. The Agozzino’s had a very successful first day of championships!

Isaac:

200 medley relay- seeded 3 and finished 4 and dropped 2.39 seconds!

50 back- seeded 12 and finished 10! Dropped 3.43 seconds. Won his heat and picked out Hawaiian Lei

100 free- seeded 17 and finished 7! Dropped 10.61 seconds. Who is this kid? Won his heat and got those cool sunglasses

Olivia:

50 back- seeded 3 and placed 3. Bad flip turn but gave her motivational for IM. Already qualified for Zones

100 IM- seeded 3 and placed 2! Knocked 0.12 off her already qualified Zone time.

50 fly- seeded 6 and placed 3! Knocked off 1.62 seconds and qualified for Zones(finally!)

We may have left tracks leaving swim champs to drive to Upper Scioto Valley to have Isaac play in at least one game at his basketball tournament. We arrived about 2 minutes into the game, but we got to see Isaac continue his successful weekend from the pool to the court. They won big against Bath, so they got to continue on Sunday. He returned Sunday morning before heading to the pool.

In preparation for Zones, we were at the pool every night during the week with Olivia. I just move into this, even though it took place the following weekend in Geneva, Ohio at Spire Institute. We got to spend the night at Brittney's (first time I've got to see her house in PA) and it was white-out snow storm getting there. We tried eating at three different places before we ended at a Quality Inn hotel restaurant. LOL. Adventures!

Olivia first year at Great Lakes Zones. Zones is made up of 5 states where you have to meet a qualifying time to attend. It’s the best of the best of OH/MI/WV/KY/IN and adding any time to any race usually drops you places. It’s wild. Day 1 wasn’t her best. Didn’t PR in any events. Add 1 second to her IM time and went from being seeded 10 to finishing 18! She was disappointed (while she shouldn’t be- top 30 in 6 events in the Great Lakes region- actually qualified in 7 but can only do three a day). We have her a stuffed dog (she named Gino) to help cheer her up. But Day 2 she reset and came to swim! PR’ed in 50 breast and 50 free and that free… a 3rd place bronze place medal...what?! We are SO THANKFUL for our swimming family at Lima. This is her third year swimming and she has been so happy with how the LIMA YMCA team and coaches have taken her under their wings.

Day 1

100 IM 18/58

50 Fly 29/41

100 Breaststroke 26/52

Day 2

50 Breaststroke 11/70 *PR

50 Free 3/62 *PR

50 Backstroke 23/62

 

Spring break was also March 13-17 at ONU. I had plenty of grading to do, but I also did some things around the house. Deep cleaning and organizing and totally redoing our guest half-bath. There was plain walls in there, but had always been a Disney picture up on the wall since touch ups were desperately needed! I purchased some wallpaper that was peel and stick. I found it tricky to work with at first, but it took me about 8 hours to complete myself and cost about $120 to do the little space. Here are some before and after pictures. Love how it turned out.

Another MAJOR weekend activity this month was Isaac's part in the high school musical Annie! He has been going to rehearsals since January and was so excited to play Wacky the ventriloquist. So proud of Isaac and following his passion for being in the musical. The
name Isaac means “laughter,” and boy did he get to bring it in this part! Elida musicals are amazing! Annie didn’t disappoint. Jeremy and I got to go on Thursday and Friday before leaving with Olivia for Zones, so maw and paw took him Saturday and Sunday. He forgot to put his microphone on Friday night! He also said the prayer for the entire cast on the Friday night too, which he said he loved doing. He hung out with the only other middle school boy, Grant, throughout the rehearsals, and said he loved when they catered pizza in before the shows! I was able to help alter costumes and helped as stage mom on opening night, which meant I got help all the little orphans with their quick changes. It was fun, but didn't get to see the show until Friday night. I did sneak a couple of the photos from opening night from backstage with Isaac. Funniest part is my flash went off on the first one and Isaac was like what was that?! I quickly turned it off and snapped a few more, but he had everyone laughing and I loved it! Another highlight is they showed off the picture they'll be posting in the hallways leading into the theater and Isaac (and Wacky) made the poster. He was tickled pink.

I don't know if it's because February is so short, or because we pack SO much into March, but we are just approaching the half-way point and I have so much more to blog about! So many little things, that if it wasn't just a jammed packed month, I'd be writing more about. But here is a sentence or two about a few more highlights. Ordered a new faucet for the kitchen sink. It's been leaking since this summer, but called Delta and they said since we weren't the original owners, too bad so sad on a replacement. Cool, I'm buying something I like more. So I did. But then it came to the installation, and we all know about Jeremy's handyman skills. Dude, he killed this one! The only issue was the middle hole was half covered with sink underneath and the new one didn't fit in middle hole. So we moved it to the left side and put a spacer in the middle hole. The old set had a sprayer (which is now in the main hose) so we were going to have a spacer no matter what.... now it just sits in the middle instead of the side. No leaks!

The last weekend in March we were suppose to have a dance comp. It got cancelled. Which for our family was a blessing. For a whole bunch more of activities were already overlapping, so all good. Instead Olivia got to go to team bonding party at the dance studio and her swim banquet. This also gave me some recovery time after Friday, which is social media workshop and PR alumni dinner. We haven't had to have either since 2019, but since the world is finally returning to normal, we got to return to this as well. It takes MONTHS of planning for these two separate events. The workshop is a fundraiser for our PRSSA chapter. The alumni dinner is a chance to have many alumni return to campus, while recognizing our PRSSA Chapter members with their awards. This year keynote at both events was Steven Miller (1998 grad) from Disney. He was simply amazing on all accounts. I could write paragraphs about the events, but I just say a couple of things. The workshop was great. We ended up with 80+ attendees who came. All the speakers were fun and informative. The breakfast was catered by the school and cost double what lunch cost, which made me mad. The dinner was magical. Hosted at the Inn, I got to welcome 40 guests and got to see so many special alums who I have not seen in years. I cried at the end- I'm not sure if it was pure exhaustion or overjoy, or a combo of both, but it was incredible to visit with so many great folks. This is year 15 as a professor here at ONU. I've taught some terrific students and to give them a hug, see their face and hear how successful they are, well it makes my heart skip.

Swim banquet was on Sunday at 5:30 pm. We were tasked with bringing food depending on what practice you attended. Since we skipped around, I landed on bringing brownies- plain and buckeye. Since Olivia had dance like normal, we had to pick her up early before heading over. Both kids got certificates for participating in swim. Olivia got her bronze Zone medal and a ribbon for 11th place. Olivia also won the girls 9-10 highest point getter trophy for the team. Yep, I got a trophy from coach too....for helping out. LOL

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. 🥳 🎂 🎉 

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.