This Week at The Remmers

Well, it was a busy week and weekend here at the Remmers' house again. Here's the scoop:

On Monday we had our ducts cleaned--yeah! Less dust for Margie to clean and for John to sneeze at. Monday night Margie also had rehearsal for the One Acts.

On Tuesday, we had our first contractor come to do a walk through so he can prepare an estimate for our home remodeling--very exciting! Also on Tuesday, the whole family went to see the dentist. It was the first real "exam" that the kids had had and guess what? No cavities! The dentist said, "Whatever you're doing--keep doing it!"

Unfortunately, the grown ups weren't as lucky. Both Dan and Margie have cavities that they need to have filled.

Also on Tuesday, Lyn had piano and Margie had rehearsal.

On Wednesday, Lyn had ballet and Margie had a Board meeting for The Little Theatre of Alexandria.

On Thursday, Margie found out that she was cast in Oliver! as Mrs. Shrewsberry, the undertaker's wife. This is not one of the roles she wanted and was disappointed because she thought there was no song. However, a friend informed her that a very funny song was added to the revival of the musical, "That's Your Funeral." So it might not be too bad. Margie's mom said, "I don't think much of [the song] but I know you will make it memorable and a hit." We'll see! :o)

Also on Thursday we had two of our carpets cleaned. We took the opportunity to rearrange some furniture. We're still getting used to it, but we like it so far!

On Friday, the second remodeling contrator stopped by--this is getting so exciting. That night, we all went to Spring Basket Bingo at the kid's school. John got Bingo on one of the rounds and won a basket full of legos! He was soooo excited--we wished we had a brought our camera so we could have filmed him jumping up and down! As it was, we had to wait and take pictures when we got home.




By the way, if you are looking at the picture of the Bingo card and thinking to yourself, "Hey, that's not a bingo!," let me explain.

Every other round was a "special" round--you had to make a special design on your card in order to win. John won the "diamond" round.

On Saturday, Margie decided to go for a bike ride at Burke Lake. It was so beautiful (Lyn says, "Hot!"), that she suggested that Dan and the kids come play at the park at the same time. Though Burke Lake is lovely, Margie did not enjoy the ride--too many people, too many potholes and tree roots. And as Lyn said, it was hot!

Still, it was fun to get out together as a family.

Saturday night, Margie went to dinner and a birthday party with a friend.

On Sunday, Dan competed in the first race of the Washington DC region autocross series. He won first place! And last place, too...you see, he was the only one in his class.

Margie headed to LTA for the annual budget meeting, and here we are.

We hope you had a great week and are enjoying the spring sunshine!

This Week at The Remmers

Well, we're back from Spring Break and back into the swing of things.

Margie is back at rehearsals for the One Act festival, which she is producing.

Lyn had piano on Tuesday as usual, plus ballet and Activity Day on Wednesday.

The members of the chess club that are going to the tournament are still meeting on Thursdays, but since John is only an alternate, he won't be joining them yet.

Friday was pajama day at school--the kids had fun getting up and going straight to school without even putting any clothes on!

After the kids left for school, Margie headed down to the river for a 10 mile bike ride--the weather was beautiful, and the scenery was gorgeous.

Now heading into the weekend...

Some time ago, Margie was asked to put together a musical number for a women's conference at church. She and a friend chose to sing the duet "For Good" from the musical Wicked.

Friday night they got together to practice, and Saturday morning they performed as part of the program and luncheon. People later told them they had gotten "chills" from the performance. It was fun to get to sing a secular song at a church event!

The conference also included a showing of the following very funny and poignant movie about Visiting Teaching. Visiting Teaching is a program in our church that provides for "every woman to be visited in her home and to receive instruction, fellowship, and needed assistance from fellow sisters." As you'll see from the video, we don't always take it as seriously as we should--the movie was a good reminder!


Saturday night, Dan and Margie went to opening night of Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde at LTA. It was VERY good, but very deep and intense--not light entertainment! We HIGHLY recommend it, though, especially if you have a passion for civil rights.

The opening night party was sold out, so we didn't get to attend and headed instead to Applebee's after the show for a little snack. Dan ordered a coconut milkshake, which was surprisingly amazing. If you like coconut, be sure to get one the next time you are there.

Special thanks to Gene and Cecile (Dan's dad and his wife) for babysitting so that we could spend a little time away together! The kids had fun with Opa and Grandma Ceci making crafts and feasting on a "midnight" snack of bread and apricot jam (which, John says, "Tasted surprisingly like cake!").

This morning we accidentally slept in and missed church--oops! Well, we had fun hanging out in our pajamas.

Lyn has spent most of the weekend working hard on her monthly school project--this time she was learning about rivers around world. For her special focus, she picked the Yellow River in China--known as "China's Pride" (because it was the birthplace of chinese civilization) and "China's Sorrow" (because of its frequent flooding).

Margie headed out to McLean this afternoon to audition for Oliver. She sang a portion of "Goodbye, Emil" from Romance/Romance and it went very well. In fact, since due to the One Acts she is unable to attend the callbacks this week, they had her stay and sing and read for "The Widow Corney," which is exactly the part she was trying out for. We should have the results in our post next week!

Well, that's it for us. We hope you are doing well!

Happy Easter!

We hope all is well with everyone! We had an exciting week--Spring Break in Florida and a sunny Easter in Virginia! Here's the scoop:

We headed to Florida last Sunday. We hoped to leave at 6am, but left around 8 instead. Consequently, we didn't arrive in Florida until around 10pm. The drive down was uneventful, but we were pooped!

We settled in at Dan's grandparent's former home in Palm Coast and met up with Nancy (Dan's mom) on Monday. She moved there two years ago and this was the first time we'd been able to come and see her and her new house.

After a tour of her lovely, well-designed abode, we headed to the beach. It was the only day that it was going to be hot, so it was the best choice for our beach day.

Even though it was windy, we had a great time.


We went home, swam a little in Baba's (that's Nancy's Ukrainian nickname) pool, then got cleaned up and headed out for dinner. Our first plan was to eat at a little vegan cafe that Nancy had discovered, but they were closed. Next, we tried a Japanese restaurant that Nancy had suggested, but they were closed, too! We ended up at Thai by Thai, which was delicious--we weren't the slightest bit disappointed that it was our third choice!

On Tuesday, we decided to just relax and hang out around the house. Though it was a little chilly, Lyn and Margie still braved the pool, and Lyn and John had fun in Baba's play room watching videos. John also discovered the joys of some classic card games--War, Old Maid, and Crazy Eights! For dinner, Nancy prepared an interesting mix of Italian and Asian cuisine--a tortellini stir fry. It was yummy! After dinner Nancy treated us to ice cream at Bruster's. Double yum!

On Wednesday, it was still chilly, so we decided to find another indoor activity--this time we headed to the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona. Our first stop was, of course, the cars (it was Daytona, after all). From there we moved to the Coca-Cola exhibit (the maker of the famous Coca-Cola bottle was a famous racecar owner), then a teddy bear exhibit popped into view. We even saw a teddy bear worth a quarter of a million dollars! Next was the train exhibit and we got to see inside a few luxury train cars--now that's riding in style. That was followed by an old time drug store and soda fountain. FINALLY, we headed to the hands on children's science museum.

The kids had fun playing a laser harp, building gravity tubes, turning gears, pulling a rope to demonstrate air pressure...


making pretend pizza, building electric circuits, building a race car, and pulling themselves up on a pulley system...






Dan even got into the act and built a huge tower of blocks.

Here's a picture with Nancy, who's only 5'1", just to show how tall it really is!


We were so engrossed that we almost missed lunch! We had intended to eat at the Museum Cafe, but found to our dismay that the "cafe" was just a vending machine! I guess we're spoiled by the Smithsonian... :o)

Instead, we left the grounds and stopped in at Steak and Shake, which was really good. Never doubt that a family of vegetarians can eat a place with the word "steak" in it! The kids enjoyed macaroni and cheese, Margie had a mushroom sandwich, and we all had yummy half-price shakes!

At the restaurant we ran into another family that had been at the museum and they told us that the planetarium show was starting 3 o'clock. We RUSHED back, but we were too late. Oh, well. Maybe next time.

Outside the museum was a little nature walk which we enjoyed before heading home for more time in the pool and a yummy dinner of spaghetti and Crazy Bread. Instead of coming back to the other house with us, Lyn stayed the night with Baba--it was a fun girl's night out (or in...)!

On Thursday, we had intended to have lunch with Dan's cousins in Gainesville, but that didn't work out, so, since we didn't have anywhere to go, Nancy made everyone a pancake brunch. (Lyn wants to make sure you know she watched Robin Hood in the morning before we got there and loved it!). After brunch, everyone but Dan went over to Beall's to do some shopping. John has outgrown all his pants, and we were in search of some more. Margie, who usually hates shopping, found that she loves Beall's! Not only did we find pants for John, but Margie also bought 4 dresses, one skirt, one pair of pants and a hat for herself! Lyn was also treated to a new outfit from Beall's that she loves and can't wait to wear to school tomorrow.

After our shopping expedition, Margie went on a beautiful 18 mile bike ride with Nancy's neighbor, Roger. Dan spent the day fixing things around the house, and Lyn and John spent the day hanging out with Baba. We finished off the evening with a pot pourri dinner--leftovers from everything we had had all week. Everyone got to choose their favorite!

We said goodbye and headed home Friday morning about 8:30am. Though on our side it was pretty smooth riding, there was a lot of traffic heading south--we were glad we were going the opposite direction!

Saturday we slept in and got things ready for Easter--including attending a choir practice with a potluck dinner--and here we are!

John, Margie, and Lyn got up early for choir. We discovered that the Easter Bunny had come and brought us lots of fun gifts in our easter baskets. John's favorite were the soft air darts. Lyn's favorite was the same thing. Margie loved her vegetarian Pop Tarts, and Dan will be enjoying his chocolate.

After church, we headed home for an Easter Egg hunt in the back yard! Since we don't really eat eggs, the kids leave empty plastic eggs for the Easter Bunny to fill and hide. Once they find them, we have double the fun opening them up to see what's inside.

This year, John got a DS cartridge in one of the eggs! Lyn's favorite was the Silly Putty.

Our Easter dinner was quick and easy, but it was delicious, too: Breaded "chicken" with gruyere and cranberries, rice pilaf, asparagus with dijon sauce, orange rolls, and pina colada to drink.

As soon as we finish this, we are going to have some yummy strawberry shortcake.

We hope your week and your Easter was as fun as ours!

Margie's Bicycle Crash

So many things to be grateful for in this world! I am still alive, I'm only slightly injured, my bike is fine, I made it home OK, I landed on the grass, I was wearing my helmet, I had my cell phone, I was going up hill not down, the weather was beautiful...and on and on and on. Thank you thank you thank you!!!

Click here for the complete story.