Wrapping up February

Dear Loved Ones,

As February comes to a close, I thought I'd send everyone a note and fill you in on the latest news.  I figure if I write a little more frequently, it will be a little less cumbersome.

On Monday, February 15, we braved the slush and ice storm and headed out to a restaurant in Arlington, where our friend Sabrina Campbell was hosting a viewing party for her appearance on Food Network's Cake Wars.  We were on the edge of seats and were thrilled to learn that SHE WON.  It was very exciting, her cake was gorgeous, and she treated everyone to a slice of the prize-winning flavor.  Yum!

John enjoyed drinking root beer and making new friends. 
Lyn was there, too, but we didn't end up with a picture of her!

On Thursday, February 18, Margie's friend Alison came for a visit from Luray.  Alison runs the hostel there, Open Arms at the Edge of Town, so she doesn't get much time away, and this was the first time she was able to see the new house.  Margie had fun showing her around and telling her all about the remodel.  Afterwards, Margie took Alison to her favorite grocery store, Fresh World, to help Alison find some specialty ingredients for a Mongolian Hot Pot party Alison was hosting the next day. 

That night, John and Margie attended a portion of the Fairfax County School Board meeting.  As part of his Communications merit badge, John had a requirement to attend some sort of a public meeting where an issue would be debated, so he could listen to and record both sides.  It just so happened that the School Board was debating that night whether or not to close school for the Primary election on March 1.  John thought the meeting was pretty boring, but Margie was grateful he had the opportunity to see our community in action.  And by the way, the motion passed in the affirmative.  No school!

On Friday, February 19, the family helped put on the annual Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet.  John is no longer in Cub Scouts, so let's just say that we were helping a friend who was out of town.  It was a bit chaotic, but everyone seemed to have a great time.

The next day, Lyn and John attended the annual "mini-MTC" (Missionary Training Center), which allowed them to get a feel for what it would be like to serve a mission for our church.  They had a great time and learned a lot.

Last week, Margie had an interesting experience--her first paid acting job, serving as a "victim" for a disaster training drill for the National Guard.  On Monday, she went to training.  On Tuesday, she went on her first assignment.  You can see her instructions in the picture below.  It was a LOT to remember, and she was so nervous!!  Unfortunately, the weather was so bad that they had to alter the drill to only include the hospital visit, and cut a few of us who were categorized as "Non-Ambulatory" (NA), as well.  So, she ended up spending 8 hours wet and freezing in a drizzling tent.  It was a rough, but exciting day!

The next day went much better.  This time, the drill was held at RFK Stadium (the day before we were on a fire department training campus), and instead of waiting in a tent, we actually got to hang out INDOORS, where there was HEAT.  Margie's acting instructions were also much shorter and easier to remember.  Whew!  Unfortunately, there was a thunderstorm (and tornado warning) coming that afternoon, so they had to pull out sooner than they had planned, and Margie only got to participate in one drill.  Still, it was a great experience, and unexpectedly emotional, as it seemed so real that Margie began feeling genuinely worried about her family and what would happen to them in such a horrible disaster (the drill was an IED in the stadium).

That night, Dan, Margie, and John attended a meeting to go over plans for John's first High Adventure Camp Out for the Boy Scouts.  This summer they will be heading to the Finger Lakes Region of New York, and it sounds like they are going to have a great time!

Thursday morning, Margie attended the Honor Roll Assembly for John's school.  Technically, she is the Honor Roll Assembly Chair (her fourth year in the position), so she is supposed to be in charge of it, but she thought she wasn't going to be able to be there due to the National Guard Training, so she had turned it over to the person she has been training to take over next year.  It turned out Margie could make it after all, and while it was great to come and support John, it was a little weird to see someone else doing her job without her!

Friday morning, Dan and Margie headed to Lyn's school early in the morning to continue the clean out of the scene shop.  We were able to organize and label all of the small parts, so hopefully as parents and students begin building in a few weeks, it will be much easier for them to work. 

That night, Lyn and Margie had a little girls night as we went to see some friends perform in a local high school production of The Little Mermaid.  It was a cute show, and they did a great job!

The next night, Margie went on a "big girls" night out for dinner with some theatre friends.  They had great food and conversation!  Meanwhile, Lyn went to a church dance.  She almost got John to join her, but he opted out at the last minute.  Maybe next time!
 In other news, Dan continues with work and sets--he attended the first read-thru of To Kill a Mockingbird, and it looks like it's going to be a great show.  This past week he also attended a meeting for West Side Story, where he got asked to design A Winter's Tale, this time at TAP (the Arlington Players), which has a HUGE stage.  That will be a challenge! 

In addition to her acting adventures, Margie continues working steadily as a professional organizer.  Lyn has had a little bit of a break since the One Acts closed, but is gearing up to costume Once on this Island, which is coming up soon, and John continues to practice the piano and work on Odyssey of the Mind--both of which have big competitions coming up in a couple weeks.

And that wraps up February.  A big shot out to Margie's Uncle John, who has a birthday tomorrow--one he only gets to celebrate every four years.  It's how he stays so young!

Catching up on 2016

Dear Loved Ones,

I hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day.  Things were quiet around here, though there was definitely chocolate involved!

This morning we are greeted by another winter storm, which has derailed our plans for the President's Day holiday, so I thought I would use my newfound time to send an update with what's been going on in our family so far this year.  It's been a rough one!

Over the Christmas break, Margie got sick with bronchitis, and she still wasn't recovered by New Year's Eve, so she and Dan spent the holiday apart.  Dan took John to our friends' New Year's Eve party, while Lyn attended a church dance.

Then, on New Year's Day, Margie hurt her back and couldn't move.  This lasted several weeks, exacerbated by the lingering cough from her bronchitis.


On January 4, the kids went back to school, and, with the exception of Margie being flat on her back, everything seemed to be roughly back to normal for awhile.

On January 16, the family gathered to celebrate John's 14th birthday, as well as exchange some post-Christmas presents, since we had spent the holiday apart.  It was fun to see everyone and gather in our new family room.

John is growing like a weed.  His 14th birthday, and he's almost as tall as Opa!

On January 17, we attended a Youth fireside introducing the 2016 Theme for the church teens, "Press Forward with a Steadfastness in Christ."  You can find out more here.

Around this time, Lyn got sick as well.  She missed school on Wednesday, January 20, which turned out to be the only day of school for two weeks!  On Monday, January 18, Dan and the kids had the day off due to Martin Luther King Day, and on Tuesday, there was a pre-scheduled teacher work day.  On Thursday, the storm hit, which would leave everyone home bound for quite awhile--school was canceled for an entire week!

In all, we got about 30 inches.  We were grateful to have our new windows and doors, which allowed us to stay comfy and cozy. We were also grateful for the snow blower that Dan's mom gave us before she moved to Florida many years ago.  Dan used it to shovel our driveway over and over and over!!

This snow drift outside our sliding glass door is much more impressive when you realize the ground is about 2 feet below the bottom of the door.

Poor Dan.  He kept shoveling and shoveling that walkway, and the storm kept right on covering it up!

It turned out that the snow storm was a huge blessing in many ways, however.

First, Lyn was scheduled to perform in the One Act Festival, but she since she was so sick, she would not have been able to attend rehearsals, and perhaps even the performance.  As it was, however, the performances were rescheduled for a week later and all went well.  She played "The Innocent" in a student-written play called "Another Stereotype," and she was in the ensemble of a kabuki-style performance of  "Urashima, the Fisherman."  She did a great job in both!

Second, Margie and the kids made great use of being at home by cleaning out and organizing the pantry.  It had been bugging Margie for awhile, and it looks so good now!  Not to mention things are easy to find, store, and keep track of.

Margie later added some labels and some better containers for a few items.

 John also used the time to knock out some merit badge requirements for Boy Scouts.  One of them was to work on a project that would benefit the family.  To Margie's delight, he chose to clean up and reorganize the family recipe book, dividing it into individual binders for each type of recipe, and reprinting and hole-punching those recipes that were well-used and falling out.

Also during this time, Margie picked up a new client.  A family she went to church with years ago moved from Woodbridge to Arlington and needed to some help unpacking, decluttering, and organizing.  Since school was out due to the snow, she was able to bring John along to help.  He earned a nice chunk of change (his first real "job"), and we were able to get unpacked much quicker with his help.


Since we can't seem to get enough of cleaning and organizing around here, Dan and Margie volunteered to help clean out the scene shop at the high school.  Dan had worked on the set for the fall production and had offered recommendations on how the parent boosters could help improve this area.  In the meantime, the drama department received and failed a safety inspection in there, so the drama teacher was eager to accept our help.  So on February 6, Dan and Margie spent the day with a few other parents and students cleaning out the shop (Lyn was in rehearsal all day, while John was home sick (his turn!)).  It was a LOT of work, but we really made a dramatic improvement.  I wish I had remembered to take before and after pictures!

Since then, things have calmed down and continue to roll along. Everyone is now well, and the kids are back in school.  Dan is back at work and continues working on a couple sets for LTA.  To Kill a Mockingbird is up next--he designed the set, but doesn't have to build it, which is nice.  His sister is going to be doing set decoration for the first time.  It will be an adventure!  John's English class will be reading the book this quarter, and we're hoping it works out that we can host a group to come see it and perhaps have a talk back with the actors and/or production staff afterward.

While the inside still has a handful of things that are not quite finished, on February 11, we met with the landscape designer we hired to come up with a plan for outside.  It's going to be expensive, and we're now out of money, but now that Margie's business has picked up, and we're getting fairly steady income from our listing on AirBnB, we plan to start working on it piece by piece.

The first step will be the driveway and car pad.

Next, we'll start working on the patio, fire pit, and, of course, pool.

Margie also continues to be busy with her volunteer job as treasurer for the high school drama boosters.  At the end of January, she was finally released from her calling as secretary of the children's organization at church.  After about a week of break, she was assigned a new calling.  Since she hasn't yet been sustained by the congregation, she can't reveal what it is, but it is HUGE--far more work than she was doing in Primary.  It is also overwhelming and scary, but we believe that church assignments like these are designed to push us past our comfort zone so that we can learn and grow.  It also teaches us humility and provides opportunities to rely on a strength beyond our own.  She will be spending lots of time on her knees, and that's the point.

In other news, John is preparing for Piano Festival, which coming up March 11.  He is also getting ready for the Odyssey of the Mind tournament that same weekend.  This past week, he met with his counselor and registered for HIGH SCHOOL.  Ack!!!  Not sure Dan and Margie are prepared to have two kids in high school.  How did we get so old????

On February 1, Lyn qualified to take the test for her driver's permit.  She is doesn't seem to be in a hurry to take it, however.  Margie spent every day for a week asking her about it and finally told her that she would just wait for Lyn to tell her when she is ready.  Who knows when that will be, though Dan is very anxious to get started with the driving lessons!

Well, that's all our news.  The snow is falling now, but the temperature is expected to be the 50s tomorrow.  Crazy!

October 2015

My goodness it has been a long time since I updated this blog.  I better get to work!!  I'll start with October and see how well I do going backwards...

As usual, things have been bustling around the Remmers house.

Lyn continues to attend early morning Seminary--the religious education class for high schoolers.  This year it's a little later, though, 6:45am, rather than last year's 6am, because school is now an hour later.  Lyn has enjoyed walking to Seminary, but as it got darker, Margie started to worry, and so she has been driving her these last few weeks.  We'll see what happens with the time change, but I expect that with winter weather fast approaching, they might continue the arrangement.

On October 2, our long-awaited furniture arrived.  Finally!  We ordered it this summer, before Dan's birthday in August.  It's for the room off the kitchen that we previously referred to has "the red couch room."

The room is starting to come together, but still pretty bare...

On October 3, Dan and Margie attended the annual awards ceremony for The Little Theatre of Alexandria (LTA).  Dan was up for two awards--both set design and set construction for The Rocky Horror Show.  He won for construction. Yay, Dan!  Also, this year, Margie was honored to have been asked to perform a solo in the show.  She sang "On a Clear Day," and it was a big hit.  It gave her a taste of being on stage again!  Unfortunately, she wasn't cast in either of the shows she auditioned for this month.

Also on Awards Night, John helped cater the reception.  This is the first time he has done it without Mom and Dad!  This year, part of his Civics grade includes serving in the community.  He was supposed to help out at a food bank, but the event was canceled to due a hurricane that was headed our way.  We were grateful this other opportunity came up!  He worked hard and did a great job.

Dan continues to build and design sets.  His latest work is for Tale of the Allergist's Wife, now showing at LTA.

And speaking of plays, we are happy to announce that Lyn got cast in Edison High School's production of Inherit the Wind.  She plays Melinda Loomis and has the very first word of the play!  Come see her November 12, 13, or 14.  You'll also be able to see some of Dan's handiwork, as he has been helping out with the set.

John has been busy after school with News Crew.  He enjoys editing videos and coming up with fun skits for the morning news show at school.

On October 7, Margie had a chance to work at Finance Park, her favorite place to be in all the world.  You will remember that this is like a life-size game of Life for all 8th graders in the county.  She is excited to be working with John's class in November!

On Columbus Day, October 12, we enjoyed an AMAZING treat.   The week previous, we had gone to our favorite Indian/Pakistani restaurant.  Let me just say that this is one of those authentic restaurants where, since we were the only white people there, you know it has to be good.  Anyway, Margie said, "I wish I knew someone who was native and could teach us all about this food."  A few days later her wish came true when a Pakistani woman from church came up to her and said, "I saw you at Niralla!"  She then proceeded to tell Margie how Niralla has really great brunch.  Margie practically begged her to go with us and show us the ropes.  She did, and it was fantastic!!!  She ordered it all in Urdu--things not on the menu that you just have to know to get.  She got a kick out of seeing us so excited about it.  Ha ha!

On the menu were Chana (chick peas) with Halwa (sweet pudding made with farina), mango pickle, and Puri (puffy bread, kind of like a large sopapilla), as well as fried eggs with Paratha (flat bread, kind of like a thick tortilla).  Thank you Rabia Abbas!  Yum!!

On October 14, Lyn took the PSAT.  (Not sure when she'll get her results.) Ack!  We can't believe that college is just around the corner!!

On October 17, we held our semi-annual Pumpkin Party.  This party, which Margie has been hosting for about 20 years, is an opportunity for her to show off her love of all things pumpkin.  On the menu this year were Pumpkin Crackers with Cream Cheese and Pumpkin Marmalade, Pumpkin Oranges,
Chipotle-Pumpkin Deviled Eggs, Pumpkin Waldorf Salad (with Cranberries and Pumpkin Seeds), Great Harvest bread served with a trio of butters: Pumpkin Butter, Pumpkin Honey Butter, and Plain Butter, "Beefy" Pumpkin Stew, Creamy Pumpkin Collards, Pumpkin Chocolate Eclairs, Chocolate-Dipped Pumpkin Oreos, and Pumpkin-Spiced Cider to drink.  We also prepare cute little bags with a take-home treat.  This year they were filled with Pumpkin Chex Mix.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pictures!  Lyn snapped this one of the Orange Pumpkins.  Aren't they cute?

We were sad that so many of our regulars were unable to make it, but we enjoyed spending time with new friends!

Prior to the party, we worked with our landscape designer to get the front of the house looking presentable.  We think they did a great job!

Before

After

Also before the Pumpkin Party, the main contractor finally came to install the new stair rail.  This is the last piece of the major inside work.  Now all that's left is some painting touch ups and a final walk through.

No picture of the final product yet, as it's (still) not final!

This month, we also got a coffee table and rug for the former "red couch room."

It's starting to come together!

In addition to the play, Lyn is also busy serving as Mia Maid President.  That's her age group of the Young Women at church (Pronounced "my-uh", MIA stands for "Mutual Improvement Association").  And as if she wasn't busy enough, she signed up to be an Electoral Page for the coming election.  She went to training on October 19 and will be working an EIGHT HOUR shift next Tuesday. Unfortunately, her only pay will be the satisfaction of a job well done. (Though of course there are always bragging rights and something great to put on her resume, as well.)

Both Lyn and John went on hiking trips on October 24.  Lyn went with some of her Girls Camp friends to Lewis Falls in Shenandoah National Park.

Lyn and her friend Rebekah at an overlook.

Girls on the trail.  (That's Lyn in the back with the EFY knapsack.)

John went with his boy scout troop, also to Shenandoah, but to climb "Old Rag."  His trip also included an overnight camping stay nearby.

John only managed to snap one picture before his battery died.  It's a good thing he managed to hold up this tree!

Margie continues to be busy, as well, with all of her various endeavors.

Besides her work as a professional organizer and time management coach, she has been serving as the Inventory Coordinator for LTA's Front of House.  This entails organizing, purchasing, and keeping on top of supplies for intermission, opening night parties, etc.  She really enjoys some aspects of it, but the lugging around of huge cases of bottled water and soda was getting to be too much for her, so she decided to step down.  They were sad to see her go (or they couldn't find anyone else), and as a compromise, she agreed to continue to purchase the light weight items, while her supervisor will do the larger ones.  We'll see how that goes.

She is also serving as the Treasurer of the Drama Parents Booster Club at Lyn's high school.  It's something she enjoys, but at the moment it's more time consuming than she would like.  Once some automation is in place, things should run a bit more smoothly.

She also recently started a Coupon Club.  They meet every Tuesday, and from 9:30am-10am, Margie teaches the fine art of couponing--a skill she learned a few years ago when Dan was victim of the federal furlough.  She managed to slash their grocery bill by $500 each month, and learning this skill is a big reason why they were able to afford all the house renovations.  She is delighted to be able to teach it to others.  From 10-11am, others join us and we just "clip and gab".

Margie is also managing our AirBnB rental.  That started in September, and things have been going remarkable well!

Finally, of course, October would not be complete without Halloween festivities.

First, Lyn attended a Halloween dance.  As usual, she designed and created her own costume.  This year, she was Aranea Serket, a character from her favorite web comic, Homestuck.

The costume.

The original.  I'd say she did a pretty good job!

Then on October 30, there was a chili cook off and trunk or treat in the parking lot of our church.

After many many MANY years as Mario, John finally decided to change direction and go as The Doctor (#11).

There must have been some kind of gap in the fabric of time, because he ran into himself twice:

Another #11.

And with #10.

For actual Halloween, both kids went their separate ways to trick or treat with friends.  They're getting old, though, so it seems it's about time for them to leave the candy for the next generation.  Sniff sniff.

We hope you are enjoying your Fall!

Happy Easter from The Remmers Family!

Happy Easter

from The Remmers Family!!

March 2015

As usual, the Remmers family were busy bees in March.  This may turn out to be the longest newsletter yet!

The month started off on an unfortunate note.  On Sunday, March 1, John performed in a Pre-Festival recital.  At this event, all the students of our piano teacher have an opportunity to play their pieces in front of a group, before they have to play in front of the judges at Festival the following weekend.

John was second, and though he knew his pieces well and was prepared, he got to the piano and completely blanked out.  He could hardly remember a note!  He was devastated.  Even though it has happened to all of us at some point in our lives, it is simply excruciating to watch it happen your son.  Argh!  We worked with him throughout the following week to help encourage him to press on and to develop better memory techniques.

Thankfully, his hard work paid off when he played flawlessly at the actual performance and got a SUPERIOR (the highest mark) from the judges.  Some of the comments from the judges were, "You have a nice touch, which made the piece sing out beautifully" and "You are a very careful player--that makes it nice to hear you play."  Woo hoo!  Go John!

This year for the first time, John also served as a page at the Festival.  That meant that he sat outside the door of one of the performance rooms directing parents and making sure no one entered while someone was playing.  He was also responsible for delivering the judging sheets to the calculation room at the end of the session.  It was a great experience for him, and next year, when he is in 8th grade, he will be able to get school credit for volunteering.

It was a big month for John, as the following weekend he and his team competed in Odyssey of the Mind.  Unfortunately, one of John's teammates, who was planning on playing the part of the narrator for the performance, had to leave town unexpectedly for his grandparent's funeral.  John stepped up at the last minute to fill in and did an amazing job.  In further bad news, however, another teammate was unable to get her device to work and spent a very uncomfortable FOUR MINUTES (out of the allotted 8 they had for their skit) trying to get it going.  John did some great improv to fill the time, which the judges complimented him on, but it meant that they were unable to complete the skit and demonstrate the devices they had worked so hard to build.

They were crushed.

Margie suggested that they get together another time to perform the skit for the parents, with the missing team member this time, since none of us got to see it from start to finish nor saw any of the devices except the ones our own children had made.  Everyone thought that was a great idea, but the coach wanted to do it after Spring Break.  Hopefully it will still happen.  We would love to see it!

John and his Odyssey of the Mind team.

John also attended a sound meeting for his upcoming production, Alice in Wonderland, and began track season.  As I said, it was a busy month for him!

Lyn was busy this month, too, but not quite as much.  She was also supposed to play for judges with the band in the percussion ensemble, but it got snowed out.  She did, however, finish up her swing dancing lessons (though we have already signed up for the next round) and continued to rehearse for Annie Get Your Gun.

Both kids attended a day of workshops and a concert with Fading Point, the a cappella vocal ensemble from Southern Virginia University.  Lyn got to stay for the dance afterwards, but John is not yet old enough, so he came home.

Another thing the kids did together was build storage boxes for Margie's closet.  At her sister-in-law's suggestion, Margie had looked into getting her closet professionally organized, but in the end she decided she didn't want to spend the money ("I would rather have a pool," is now her mantra every time she considers buying something!).  But when she was cleared to put everything back in her closet, it just looked so ugly compared to the beautiful new bathroom!  So Margie had an idea--she went to Target and bought all the supplies to build storage boxes.  She had the kids help her assemble the first one, then Margie had to leave the room, and when she came back, the kids were doing the second one all by themselves!  Wow.  What amazing children we have.

John and Lyn assembling the storage unit.

The finished product!

Speaking of the house, I know you're on the edge of your seat, so here's the scoop:

The master bathroom is still not completely done.  There are some finishing touches that they won't do until they are doing the finishing touches everywhere--such as retouching the paint that got scratched when the new windows were installed, or fixing small dents in the wall.  For some reason, which is unclear to the contractor, the sub-contractor doing the heating and ventilation never finished in there either, but since they have to come back to work on venting the hall bath, they will do all of it at once.

Speaking of the hall bath, it has now been completely demolished, and it is about ready for rough-in inspection, I think, before they start rebuilding it.  Dan is in charge of the design, and he seems to really be enjoying the process.

We can see the kitchen from the bathroom!

We now have the beginnings of a portico, which is really nice when it rains, and all new windows throughout the house, which Margie can't wait to clean when the renovation is complete!

The beginning of the portico.

The kitchen has also been completely demolished, as well as the living room with the sliding glass door.  Everything is down to the studs, and we are living in the front living room and dining room, along with all our stuff piled around us.  It's pretty squished and uncomfortable, but we'll survive.  We are making good use of our microwave, electric skillet, and rice cooker!

Bye bye kitchen!

They have completed the bump out into the back yard, and during this process, we had a bit of excitement as one of the construction workers fell through the floor, bursting through the ceiling of the basement and landing in the living space downstairs (Margie was not down there in her office at the time, thank heavens!).  Luckily, he only broke his finger.  This means, however, that the crew will have to fix and clean up downstairs at their expense.  And we thought we weren't getting any work done in the basement!  It's now official--every single room in our house will be touched by this remodel.

For awhile we could see the family room from our backyard!

The worker (not the one in the picture) fell through a hole similar to this one.

Anyway, after the inspection, they'll put up the drywall, and it will start looking like a house again.  The kitchen cabinets are in our garage, and we are excited to see them installed!

In addition to all the house stuff, Margie also had a big month.  She finished up the last part of her couponing class, continued to do "homework coaching" for a neighbor's 8th grader, made breakfast for Lyn's Seminary class, learned how to do online family history research (those of you who are family members may receive a call about this!), attended two different funerals for women who died way too young, attended a baptism, attended a legacy planning seminar, worked three days at Finance Park (her favorite place in all the world), and taught a time management class to the recovering warriors at Ft. Belvoir.  Whew!

Dan's big night was early in the month, on Sunday, March 8.  He had been nominated for two WATCH (Washington Area Theater Community Honors) awards for his set design and construction of the HOUSE that he built for LTA's Proof last year.  Sadly, he did not win either of them, but it was truly an honor to be nominated, especially considering he had been completely snubbed by the LTA awards for the same work.

In addition to the awards ceremony, Dan and Margie got to spend some time together, at the high school "touching bases" day, where we had a chance to meet briefly with each of Lyn's teachers.  It was great to hear that they all love her and love her enthusiasm for learning.  We also attended God of Carnage at LTA--a play about two couples who begin by meeting to civilly discuss a playground fight that their sons had gotten into and end up showing their true colors.  It featured some really strong acting.

As a family, we attended Twain Community Night at John's middle school.  John and Margie had attended this last year and had a BLAST, so we were really looking forward to it.  We were especially looking forward to the International Room, where we would get to sample yummy food from around the world provided by the families of the ESL (english as a second language) students.  We were especially looking forward to this since we are without a kitchen at home!  Unfortunately the evening wasn't quite as fun as last year.

By far the biggest, most exciting, and most fun event of the month, however, was EPIC PI DAY.

As some of you may know, on March 14 (3.14) each year, we host a "Pi Party".  It's very simple--people bring pie, and we all eat pie!  THIS year, however, was an "epic year"--that is, a day that will only happen once in our lifetimes.  Pi is 3.141592653..., which means that March 14, 2015 at 9:26:53, we got to celebrate PI MOMENT.

Of course, our house was completely under construction, so several months ago, Margie arranged to host the party at a friend's house.  It's a good thing we had it there, because their house is much bigger than ours, and we had a HUGE turn out.  Not only did we have all the pie (with numbers counting out the digits), but we set up a countdown clock on a computer in the kitchen, and we got to countdown to Pi Moment just like it was New Year's.  Margie provided noisemakers (which the kids loved a little more than the adults), and Margie's friend turned on their mirror ball.  What great fun!

Margie cleverly spelled out Pi across the desserts, but many people thought she was rating them!

John enjoyed Pi Moment!

The month finished out on a bit of a spiritual note as Margie and Lyn attended the bi-annual Women's Conference--a worldwide broadcast event hosted by the leaders of our church.  It included a lovely sit down dinner beforehand and inspiring messages from women around the world.

After that, spring break began.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to go anywhere or do anything fun due to the construction and the consequent money crunch, but the kids are enjoying sleeping in, watching TV, and since it is so noisy due to all the construction around here, I think they are secretly looking forward to going back to school.  Ha ha ha!

We hope you are doing well and enjoying the spring.  We'd love to hear from you!

February 2015

Back to some more recent stuff!

In February, Margie was super busy with her new clients, working almost full time.  She wondered how other people do it!

Much progress was made on the master bath, but it still didn't get finished.  I PROMISE I will post before and after pictures when it's all done!  We also had a sit-down meeting with the contractor about the kids' bath (which Dan is having fun designing) and had the people come out to measure the windows.  So things are moving along!

We attended the Edison High School One Act Festival, which was a series of 8 one-act plays (all student-directed, some student-written) shown over two nights.  Lyn had auditioned, and was even called back, but unfortunately didn't get in.  There were some good and some not so good plays.  Our favorite was called Check, Please!, which showed two people on a series of hilariously bad blind dates.

On February 8, Lyn started a weekly class in West Coast Swing Dancing.  She had a great time and is looking forward to continuing.

That same day, John started meeting with his Odyssey of the Mind (OOTM) team.  OOTM is an annual, nationwide problem-solving competition.  There are two aspects to the competition.  The first is a long term problem that they work on as a team for a couple of months.  They selected one titled "Experiencing Technical Difficulties".  Here is the description:  The problem is to design, build, and demonstrate various devices that complete specific tasks. The team will create a theme where technical failures must be resolved through completing the tasks. There will be a list of tasks to choose from including ring a bell, change the wording on something, sound an alarm, move an object, etc. There will also be a mysterious engineer character. Of course, there’s a twist — all of the devices must be powered by rubber bands!  They will present their solution on March 21.  It should be fun!

The second aspect is the spontaneous problem.  It requires you to think creatively on your feet, which John really excels at.  They'll participate in that on the same day they present their long term solution.

Finally, in the evening, Lyn had a babysitting job, while Dan, Margie, and John went to see LTA's latest comedy, The Games Afoot.  It was very fun and starred the grandmother of one of Lyn's good friends.

On February 9, we got our annual caricature done!  It turned out really well, and we'll be sending everyone copies very soon.  (Remember how we canceled Christmas?)

This year's musical at the high school is Annie Get Your Gun.  Lyn was excited to be cast as a townsperson!  It runs May 1 - May 9, so if you're local, mark your calendar.

On February 11, both kids participated in an improv night sponsored by the church Youth Group.  Dan and Margie weren't invited, but it sounds like a great time was had by all.  We hear that John even got on stage and participated!  We hope this is just the beginning of many more opportunities to showcase his quick wit.

The next day, Dan took off work due to some military operations that were going on on base.  It happened to be Thomas Edison's birthday, so he volunteered to pass out cupcakes during the lunches at school and surprise Lyn.  Unfortunately, he learned the sad truth that Margie had figured out at the beginning of the year--at this age, they aren't all that excited to see you!

On February 13, the kids joined the Youth again to attend the temple.  It required some carpooling orchestration due to a bit of a conflict with Lyn's Swing Dance rehearsal, but we're grateful it all worked out.

Dan and Margie celebrated Valentine's Day by attending a surprise 90th birthday party for a dear friend from LTA.  He has been at the theatre longer than anyone alive, having joined when he was in high school--before we even had a building!  We had a great time, though one wonders about the wisdom of surprising a 90 year old man!

When we got home, we were talking on the phone with Dan's mom, when we heard a large CRACK.  The next morning we found this:

Our tree had fallen directly in front of the neighbor's front door!  Six inches closer, and it would have take off the front of their house.  Yikes!  We called the insurance company, and they assured us that it was the neighbor's responsibility, though that didn't do much to assuage the guilt from it being OUR tree.  The rest of the trees in that area are also unstable, so it is likely that we will have to have them removed.  Margie is sad to lose them, but luckily landscaping is part of the grand remodeling plan anyway.

On February 15, John learned to iron!  Margie wanted to capture the moment.

This month, there were LOTS of snow days.  The school calendar was changed last year to allow for more missed school before having to make it up at the end of the year, but even so, we're getting awfully close!

Most of the family prefers to stay indoors in the cold and snow, but Lyn likes to be outside.  She enjoyed sledding with some friends from church on February 17.

School was canceled every day of that week except for Thursday, February 19, which happened to be the band's Pre-Assessment concert (Lyn plays percussion). Whew!  We were lucky we got to hear them--and they were lucky to have to practice before heading into the judging, which is how music programs are tested in the county.

The kids were also lucky that the weather held long enough for them to participate the Mini-MTC (Missionary Training Center) day, which is held annually for all area youth to help prepare them for what it would be like to serve a mission.

John is about a third in from the left, second row, wearing a dark suit jacket.  Lyn is about a third in from the right, second to last row, wearing a bright pink coat.

That same day, Dan and Margie attended the funeral mass for Dan's Great Aunt Edie (his mother's father's youngest sister), who had served in the Marine's during World War II.  Afterwards, we joined with family and friends for a nice luncheon.  For Margie, it was nice to meet so much of Dan's family whom she hadn't before, though it's always sad to do so under such difficult circumstances.

On Monday, Aunt Edie's ashes were buried at Arlington National Cemetery.  Although they never met her, we pulled the kids out of school, because we wanted them to see the pageantry that accompanies a military funeral, especially at Arlington.  Luckily, there happened to be a two-hour school delay due to the weather, so they did not miss much.

One of the casualties of all the snow days were missed honor roll assemblies for both John's and Lyn's schools.  In John's case, he had worked SO HARD to make the honor roll, and Margie is always in charge of the congratulatory donut reception.  In Lyn's case, Margie had just volunteered to pass out certificates during the lunch period.  When school finally reopened, both assemblies were scheduled for the same day!  Luckily, they were staggered, so Margie was able to attend both, and both kids received their rewards.

That afternoon, John attended a tech meeting for Alice in Wonderland, this year's drama production at his school.  He is excited to be working sound crew.  If you would like to see that show, mark your calendars for April 24 & 25.

In the evening, we all headed back to the high school to attend the Academy Open House.  The Academy is an amazing effort by the Fairfax County School System to provide technical training to students still in high school.  Dan and Margie are huge fans of the program and talk it up every chance they get.  They also like to support all their activities, including the Open House, which includes a free dinner provided by the Culinary Arts students.  It was delicious as always!

On February 26, Margie celebrated her last day with one of her clients, who is headed back to work after being on maternity leave.  It is so nice to have some free time back to focus on other things, but she will miss the paycheck!

Finally, on February 28, Margie auditioned for a Sondheim audition review at the The Workhouse--which you may recognize as the Arts Center where Dan's sister, Debbie, is an artist in residence.  It is the first time in a couple years that Margie has auditioned for anything, and frankly the only reason she did so was because it was a paying gig, and we thought it might help contribute to the house.  The audition went well except that she completely forgot the words to her first song!  She pulled it off like a professional, however, and when the directors chuckled, she wondered whether they may have thought she planned it and was just being funny.  Maybe not, though, since she did not get a callback.  Boo!

Well, I hate to leave things on a down note, but that was our February!  We are looking forward to finally seeing some sunshine and more progress on the house!

November 2014

Still working on finishing up 2014--here's what we did in November!

Early in November, John joined his scout troop in "Scouting for Food."  In this activity, the boys distribute shopping bags throughout the neighborhood (the easy part), and then come back a week later to pick up the groceries that people have donated (the tough part, because the bags are so heavy!), and deliver them to a local food bank.  We are grateful that John is developing such a great habit of service in his community.

Margie attended a couple interesting seminars this month.  The first was a presentation and luncheon at Fox Hill Luxury Retirement Center.  She was by far the youngest in attendance, but it was good to start getting a grasp on options for our aging parents, as well as ourselves in the not too distant future.  The second was a presentation on wealth planning.  I guess this means that Margie is actually an adult now, which she still sometimes finds hard to believe!

On November 5, Lyn took part in Young Women in Excellence, which is a formal evening celebrating the achievements of our young ladies at church.  Lyn's entry for the "Faith" value (one of eight values that they work on throughout the year) was a short story titled, The 10 Minutes in the Cabin.

The next day, Margie signed the contract for the new front walkway.  Woo hoo!  They were supposed to start before Thanksgiving, but didn't do so until the beginning of December.  More on that, as well as pictures, next month.  That night there was an AVID family night.  This is the organization and student success program that John participates in at school.  Parents had a chance to get a taste of what their school day is like, including taking notes in a specific way, asking questions, thinking about a problem, and presenting findings.  Unfortunately, John was sick, so Dan and Margie had to go without him.  Still, it was fun and we learned a lot!

On November 7, Lyn attended the 16th birthday party for a boy from church.  They had dancing and a live band at their house.  Wow.  I guess Lyn is officially a teenager now! 

The next day, Dan and Margie hosted the "Tech Saturday" luncheon for the cast and crew of Anne of Green Gables.  When Margie signed up, she thought it would be similar to LTA and that she would be buying and cooking all the food.  Instead, she just planned the menu and they received parent donations.  Easy peasy.  That night we all attended a friend's Pie Party.  This is similar to the party we host in March, where everyone brings a pie to share (Margie brought a pumpkin-brownie pie), but it doesn't have the math component (you know, "pi") like ours does.  Still, it was a lot of fun!

The next week, Margie spent every day at the high school supervising lunch time ticket sales for Anne of Green Gables.  It was a pretty slow week, since most just buy at the door.  Having the booth there primarily serves as just advertising.  Margie got a lot of knitting done that week!

Also that week, Margie attended a women's "Service Auction" at church.  This is just for fun, and didn't involve real money, as our church frowns on fundraising events.   The women earned dollars by taking a survey and counting up how many good deed-type things they had done in the last month or year, then "spent" that that money on items everyone had donated.  Some of the items were goods, such as knit hats or a cake, and some of them were services, such as a haircut or massage.  Margie donated couponing lessons as was delighted that there were a few people who were interested in learning this skill!

On November 13, we had a sit down meeting with the contractor we had selected for our remodel.  It had been nearly a year since Margie first contacted them about the job, and she was beyond frustrated with the lack of movement, or even communication, about getting started.  She didn't know whether to cry, scream, or punch someone!  The contractor was super nice and apologetic. He had been dealing with another client that was demanding more of his time than he would like.  He offered us a discount and promised to come back the following week, which he did, to poke holes in some of the walls so that he could better estimate and plan the kitchen portion of the project. We were hopeful that things would finally, actually get started.

That night was Anne of Green Gables opening night, but Dan and Margie didn't attend, because John was running sound at his school for Broadway Desserts, a music department fundraiser.  He is really enjoying theatre tech work!

The next night, Margie attended a local high school production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.  The kids did a really great job in this "reverse cast" production--the traditional male leads were played by girls, and the traditional female leads were played by boys.

On November 15, two shows closed:  Lyn's production of Anne of Green Gables at the high school, and Dan's production of Rocky Horror Show at LTA.  We finally got to see Lyn's show, and the kids did a great job.  Afterwards, Dan headed over to his closing night party.

The following week, Lyn auditioned for the One Acts--eight shows over two nights, all student directed.  She got called back, which was exciting, but did not get cast.  She was hoping to again work backstage, but it's such a barebones production that they really didn't need her.  Boo!

Also that week, Margie again got to substitute teach seminary, the before-school religious education class Lyn attends.   She brought in her most prized possession (a soccer ball--ask her the story sometime!) and talked about how the value of things in life is often based more on where it came from than the thing itself.  This related to the direction and revelation the early saints received from God via the Prophet Joseph Smith.  The value we place on this direction is not because of what they were told to do, but where it came from.

John had a lot of fun this week as he went on an AVID field trip to Northern Virginia Community College and got really excited about attending college (yay!).  He also attended Tiger Night, which is a kids-only evening of fun and games at the Middle School.  And a couple of days later he enjoyed playing games with his AVID Mentor on Mentor Day.

This year, we had a quiet Thanksgiving at Dan's sister, Debbie, and her husband Doug's house, as other family were out of town.  Still, we had fun eating all the traditional goodies, expressing gratitude for all the amazing things (and people) in our lives, and playing a fierce game of girls against boys charades.

The month wrapped up with John participating in another boy's Boy Scout Eagle project, doing some landscaping at the local Chamber of Commerce.  How nice that John was able to book end the month with service.

And that's it for November!