Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts

Friday, July 3, 2015

Going to Minnesota is NOT relaxing!

My family just returned from an 11 day road trip to Minnesota the other night.  That trip is approximately 2800 miles round trip on top of the more than 300 additional miles driving around while we were there.  Why would did we do that?  My children have asked us that question many times.  The answer is simple:


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He graduated, and we took his party on the road!


Why did we take his party on the road?  Because all of our family members live in Minnesota with the exception of my husband’s niece who came back from Nashville to celebrate with us.  We figured it was easier to get four of us to Minnesota rather than bringing so many people to Virginia.


[I told my children taking a long road trip like that gives them stories to talk about at future gatherings.  “Do you remember when mom and dad made us drive to Minnesota?”  J was writing during the trip because there were some very funny moments to be written down.]


We crammed a lot into our trip.  We took 3 days to get to Minnesota.
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Pastries from our friend's bakery in Ohio.


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My husband celebrating Father's Day in Iowa after two days of traveling.  


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We toured the University of Iowa….
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and I fell walking during the tour.


Made it to Minnesota!
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Minneapolis skyline
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We toured the University of Minnesota


We attended a Twins baseball game.


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We went to the lake for a day of fun.


We attended a family reunion for my mother-in-law’s family.  It was for her siblings and their families.  There were approximately 100 people there. My husband hadn’t seen some of his cousins in 27 years since we had our wedding.  It was fun to visit with everyone.  The next day was….


The reason for the trip:  The Party








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J had a creative moment with crayons and Goldfish crackers.


We drove home in two days...two very LONG days!


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West Virginia
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The western part of Virginia.  We live on the other side of the state.  We were getting closer!


For the Fourth of July weekend, we are doing nothing.  The boys want to stay home and not get in the van.  You will find me on the couch with chocolate or in the pool, depends what the weather is like.

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Wednesday, July 1, 2015

I think we should take my Bulgarian flag.

My son recently graduated from high school, and we decided to have his graduation party in Minnesota where all of our family lives (we live in Virginia).  Everything we needed for the party needed to be transported, so we had to be very organized and creative in our planning.

I spent hours going through pictures trying to find ones to display on the photo boards.  J put them together.  My husband spent hours some time going through pictures to create a slideshow before J took that task over on our drive to Minnesota.  There is plenty of time to do that when you drive 1400 miles.


The challenge we had for the photo boards which were displayed in chronological order (like a timeline for my son who is passionate about history) was how to handle the first 4 years of his life.  My son is very open about the fact that he was adopted from Bulgaria at the age of 4. Although he is very open about that fact, he doesn’t want to make any connection to Bulgaria. “That is in the past.  I live here.  I am American.”

We talked about the fact that he can’t ignore the first 4 years of his life.  We discussed ways to display that time.  We had a header for the far left side of the board, “Bulgaria”, and it listed the dates from his birth until his Gotcha Day.  We included a few pictures because that is all we had. He gave us the okay on the pictures we used.  We also included a map of Bulgaria showing where he lived and a map of Europe showing where Bulgaria is located.

The day before we left, this was a quick conversation that we had:

S:  "I think we should take my Bulgarian flag for the party.”
Me (astonished):  “I think that is a great idea!”

This was huge!  He even knew exactly where it was in his room which was also a big deal.

The Bulgarian flag stood next to his Bulgarian passport near the left side of the boards.  The far right side of the boards shows all the places he has been.  The pictures in between tell his story up to this point.  

It was so fun to hear everyone’s recollections at the party as they looked at the pictures. “Do you remember when….?”  

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First day of PreK
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Graduation

You will find me on the couch with chocolate enjoying life.


Friday, May 29, 2015

Not quite finished...

The Senior
Life is pretty chill for S at this point in his life.  He is working on finishing up German IV, and he will then be finished with his high school career.  Fourteen years of school (7 1/2 years being homeschooled) will be wrapped up when that course is finished!  [I am just now realizing that he has been homeschooled longer than he attended public school.  Wow!]


The fact that he is graduating has become real to him.  He is accepting this reality (especially since graduation cards and gifts are starting to arrive in the mail).


Things are falling into place for him.  We are getting answers about his transportation dilemma - not necessarily helpful answers to fix the issue but answers nonetheless.  These answers along with some additional information allow us to contact other agencies to try to work out transportation.  We have a friend who has offered to drive S to school one day/week next year if need be.

S is still waiting to hear from the community college about whether or not he needs to take the Math placement test. His transcript for College Algebra was sent to the school and the tracking number shows that it was delivered on May 11. He was told last week that they hadn't seen it. He emailed them with all of the details. Still waiting....


S is going to continue volunteering at the museum this summer.  He has the opportunity to job shadow the Historian there.  He has also contacted another museum about some learning opportunities there.  These items have been done by him - he took the initiative.


It will all work out!  We just keep reminding ourselves and S of  that.


Last weekend S ate his way through the Food and Wine Festival at Busch Gardens.  Oh my word! He didn't make it to a couple of food stands, so he knows we need to go back so he can finish up.


He volunteered for 6 hours on Memorial Day and said they were busy at the museum.  He has horseback riding this morning, and we are heading out of town this afternoon for a friend’s graduation.


The Sophomore
J has had a crazy week again.  Last Friday he had a nephrology appointment for his blood pressure.  Turns out he needed blood work for this appointment, and he needed to be fasting. We didn't know that prior to his appointment.  


Tuesday morning he was back at the lab for a blood draw prior to going to school.  The challenge for J to fast is that he is starving after practice, so he had to go in on a morning when he didn't have practice the day before.  


Tuesday afternoon J had an Orthodontics appointment.  It was his final check before he is scheduled to get his braces off June 1.  The orthodontist said words J did not want to hear, "We will see on Monday.  There is still a small gap here that should really be closed up first." We are praying that he can get them off on Monday.  He has had them on almost 3 years, and he has been diligent about doing everything the orthodontist has asked of him.


J has a Spanish project due next week, but he finished most of it last weekend.  He had to stay after yesterday to make up a Math test that he missed because he was attending the Magnet program awards ceremony on Tuesday when the test was given.


We are trying to coordinate J's behind the wheel instruction so he can get his license.  He is ready.  He went up to our vet clinic and told them he would like to volunteer up there this summer.  Hopefully, that will all work out.  Our neighbor boy did that when he was in high school, and he is now applying to vet school.


J had practice 10.5 hours this week (no practice on Memorial Day and he will be traveling tonight).


On the Homefront
Things are crazy at our house, and I don't think that is going to change until after graduation and  our trip to Minnesota.  We are leaving for South Carolina this afternoon to celebrate with a family friend as she graduates this weekend.  She texted us last month and said, "I need my peeps!"  It will be a quick trip, but it will be fun.


While S volunteered on Monday, my husband, J and I spent time at the beach.  Love going to the beach!  




My husband started working on S's slideshow for graduation.  We finalized S's food choices for his party.  We still need to buy plates, napkins, silverware, etc.  My sister-in-law has purchased 15 boxes of Cheesecake bites from Trader Joe's for one of the dessert choices. They are delicious!


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We finalized our trip plans last weekend and made hotel reservations.  We shifted a few things around.  We are visiting the University of Iowa on the front end of our trip rather than on the way home.  J is also going to visit the University of Minnesota.  It will be time for our trip before we know it.  Hopefully the drive will go by as quickly!  The last time we drove to Minnesota the boys were 4 and 2.  A parent at gymnastics practice the other night said, “The drive should be so much better now that they are older.”  One would think so…..


What did I write this week?
My son is not a quitter.

You will find me on the couch with chocolate after our trip to South Carolina.

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Friday, May 1, 2015

T Week: To do, Trip, Transition

The Senior
S has been busy working this week on his two remaining classes:  English and German IV. For English, he is still doing daily journaling and editing along with his To Kill a Mockingbird literature study.


S's inclination is to sleep in every morning, but that won't help him finish his work.  There is a balance there.  He was better about getting up once he looked at a calendar and realized he might not be finished by the target ending date.  “In order to get your work done, you must get up in the morning and work without distracting yourself.”  He has heard this a time or two thousand.


S took some time off Tuesday afternoon to watch some live stream sessions from a work conference that my husband was working/facilitating.  He enjoyed that.


S went to Youth group Wednesday night.  We are lucky that we have friends from church who live near us whose son also attends youth group.  They picked S up and brought him home. He had to wait to come home until their son was done with music practice after youth group. He didn't care as long as he could get to youth group.  


He had horseback riding this morning.  This weekend he isn't volunteering.  We are going to take some time and try to finish up some tasks on his to-do list which include contacting people and coordinating some appointments.


The Sophomore
J had kind of a crazy week.  I had to pull him out of school Tuesday for a couple of hours to go to the Orthodontist.  He had a bar put on his bottom teeth, and he finally heard the magic words, "We are almost done."  So almost done that we have scheduled the appointment for "debanding". Yeah!!!  


He came home from school Tuesday afternoon and the bar was already loose.  Back to the Orthodontist we went.  The staff member who needed to fix it wasn't there, so he had to go back Thursday morning.  He missed a little bit of school again.


He has been doing AP History review.  He had a math test, Chemistry test, and Spanish quiz this week.  He took his final test for Drivers Ed, so now we can look at scheduling his behind the wheel instruction once he gets his “green card”.  Unfortunately, I don't think he can do that until July.  It would have been nice for him to finish that before school was out.  


J had practice for 17.5 hours this week.  They are working skills and conditioning.


On the Homefront
Last weekend we sat down and planned a tentative route/timeline for our trip to Minnesota this summer.  We are driving.  We never drive there.  We fly.  The boys are NOT excited about the road trip.  They don't really believe us when we say it will be fun.  We are driving because we have to transport the items for S's graduation party.  Also, we are going to do some college visits for J on the way.  He is going to tour the University of Minnesota and possible the University of Iowa.  S may go visit another college too.


We also went to Busch Gardens on Sunday.  They have a new roller coaster, Tempesto, that opened last weekend, and the boys really wanted to go try it.  It was quite chilly and rainy here, but Sunday afternoon it cleared up and warmed up a little bit.  Off we went.  I did not ride it. Just watching it made me want to throw up.  My husband, J, and S rode it.  S has always been the daredevil and thrill seeker, but one time on this ride was enough for him.  It is, however, J's new favorite ride.  He and my husband rode again.  S and I bought popcorn and a pretzel and enjoyed that instead.  There are a couple of roller coasters I do ride there, so I had the opportunity for some fun also.  My husband told me he felt bad that I had to sit there while they rode.  I told him that was a much better option than me riding and throwing up (motion sickness).


After a fairly relaxing weekend, it was a busy week for us.  My husband was up in Washington DC for four days for a work conference.  He was quite busy.  I was busy since he was gone.  I had drop off/pick up for three days.  He was home in time Thursday night for pick up.


Because my husband was gone, I had a lot of time to spend at Starbucks this week since I stayed while J was at practice.  It gave me the opportunity to create a very detailed to-do list for everyone and for S's graduation party.


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J told me that he appreciates my very detailed to-do lists.  My husband said, “You know what S will say.”  Oh yes, I do.  Yesterday, he told me what we knew he would say.  “I think it’s funny that you get to sit and create to-do lists for everyone else, but where’s your to-do list?”  There is a story there that involves a broken arm, surgery, and an 8 month recovery.


I spent time getting needed addresses for invitations.  I also used this time to look up some information for myself about things I might want to do as I make my transition from a homeschooling mom to mom.


What did I write this week?

I will be on the couch with chocolate and my many lists.

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Saturday, April 11, 2015

Spring Break

Here is how we spent our Spring Break.


Stuffing Easter eggs for the Easter egg hunt at church.


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Decorating Easter eggs
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After attending our sunrise service which was held outside in a brisk 39 degrees, we headed to Starbucks before coming home for breakfast and Easter baskets.


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Then, we went to Busch Gardens.


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On our way home, we stopped for a treat.
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50 hours of Spring Break were spent
*Driving to Pennsylvania
*Attending the last gymnastics meet of the season
*Shopping
*Becoming favorite patients of our chiropractor because we are bringing treats from the Quakertown Farmer’s Market to her.
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Pickled Tomatoes
*Driving home from Pennsylvania


What else:
*J stuffed graduation announcements/invitations.
*We worked on picture boards/timeline for S’s graduation party
*Chiropractor appointment for S
*Orthopedics appointment for my husband
*10.5 hours of practice for J
*Preparing to wrap up Senior year in the next 6 weeks


What did I write this week:
Get Through the Wave

I will be on the couch with chocolate getting ready to wrap this year up!


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