January where’d you go?!

 Honestly, for a fairly non eventful month, it flew by! Lots of change in the Loudamerican household!

Tracy ... Spent a TON of time onboarding my replacement, Danielle, and the new VP, Tina. I kept visualizing how I wanted to end my time at MORA and had a 2 visions, one of a marathon runner at the finish line, arms up and victorious. The other was the same visual but with someone laying on the ground and the crowd dragging them to the finish. I think I accomplished the former but...some days did feel like the later. I truly gave it my all, including 10 hours the last few days and even stayed on call in order to help out at our day program for a couple days after my official last day. There were lots of mini going away moments and I included a few photos of my favorite. SO weird to have this transition technically complete. BIG life change, from a  large leadership role to the next stage.  

Speaking of... karma is amazing, I've been talking forever that I want to work at Workabilities, walk to work, not be responsible and work with people with disabilities one on one. They almost never have job openings. However, 2 days before my last day at MORA, they called and said they have an opening. I start 2/5. $22/hr, 9-4, M-F and I get to walk to work, YEAH!

I spend the 2 weeks in between roles playing nurse maid to Kay - she got her tonsils out and while the 1st  5 days were painful but manageable, the last 3 days have been pure hell. I feel so bad for her. Her throat hurts, her neck hurts, her ears hurt, her stomach hurts (too many meds), nothing tastes good, its hard to swallow... not to mention, she doesn't do herself any favors and refuses to eat, drink and sometimes take meds. Ended up in the ER and they said she's healing really well. We had about 20 hours of pure mental health break down but are hopefully past that.  Fingers crossed, she's a trooper but its hard!

Tom is plugging away at work and we continue to try new recipes. We are doing dry january so, haven't had any alcohol since 1/9, also forcing us to get creative with virgin drinks. Its actually been pretty fun and we now have a new addiction. Sleepy time tea before bed with honey.  Yum...

Jimmy is living the life. Got a good scholarship from the U, a great scholarship from Madison and is still waiting to hear on the wait list for Notre Dame. He has a really hard decision in front of him but...there is NO bad decision - all are great schools.    He's also continued to do the sideline reporting for VMI basketball with ESPN+ (which is going to come in handy for this intro to public speaking grade) and was nominated to be the lone representative from VMI to attend a prestigious policy conference for undergrads at the Naval Academy in April. He's beyond the moon!

Billy (finally) signed a lease with Mark for an apartment next year.  He had a rough 1st semester (grade wise) along with lessons learned...ask for help earlier, ask for help from people who know the material, not people in your class, get involved with your advisor more, know your professors better. All these learnings came from  a 2.25 GPA 1st semester (3 A's, 1 C, 2 D's). because of the D's he needs to retake Calc and Chem this semester. Which puts his behind in his program and requires him to take Chem 2, Calc 2 and Physics 2 this coming summer in order to stay on track. URGH.... He's resigned and I'm frust  rated but... if there is anyone that will do it without complaint, its Billy. On a brighter note, he/his friends got $200 tickets to Seattle for spring break so ...he has that to look forward to.

The weather has been nuts!  10 days of bitter cold and -20+ wind chill and now its going to be a high of 52 and potentially a record. SO much for global warning.

Hoping February has less drama, more health, a new schedule and sunshine!

Love to you and yours! 

The ladies of Brendon Pond

It was his 73rd birthday!

My wonderful Board women

Bob is cutie

Adam is a stinker

Kathy is hysterical

Plymouth Rd guys rock

ADS gave me a painting with all their thumb prints 

A Rembrandt ...the dogs refusing to get up in -20  degree weather 

SO cold we had Sun Dogs! Love those!

He's something else

Chicken Thai

THE conference

Get well cards from Kays kindergarten, SOOOO cute

I bought my work car! 

Art Shanty, annual art show on Lake Harriet, always super fun, with Zoe and Wendy 

This was the COOLEST exhibit about balance holding conflicting emotions/experiences and our impact on each other 

Harissa chicken with honey

This guy

Oh yeah! We volunteered at the Science Museum with our favorite STEM geeks, Ang, Dan and Wyatt 

Vacation (& a few holiday clean up items)

 A few holiday clean up updates

Grandma and grandpa loved their Xmas gooders including the custom tiny ornament with photos of all the kids but mostly the brick at Lambeau - grandpa said he’s going to have his ashes scattered there

The Vikings neglected to win even a single game and Jimmy is now refusing to attend a Wi law school. Grandpa is bummed jimmy won’t be able to attend this scattering 😂

We have a super fun breakfast with Brigid and her family - pirate drinks for everyone! I love how the cousins just start chatting up a storm when they see each other 💕

We were supposed to have a Korean dinner with the Kim’s and pork chop dinner with the Fellows but both needed to move to post vacation due to winter colds - look for an upcoming blog on those

Roslyn Harmon was sworn in as Golden Valleys new mayor and it was really special to attend that - she had so many family and friends there cheering her on. She’s amazing- I’m aj ways shocked when she remembers our names! 

Our pre vacation dinner at BLVD was delicious and extravagant as always for 30% of the price, we always try to match it with a great tip.

Vacation was very Loudamericans … tons of fun, downtime, books, sun, volleyball, ping pong, food, drinks, waves, adventure, stories and meltdowns.

Day 1 an iguana fell out of a tree next to Jimmy and proceeded to do a mating dance behind our chairs for a female hiding in the bushes.

On the last day we went deep sea fishing - whales mahi mahi and sea turtles! It was so cool! Kay got the biggest fish -of course And is now getting a replica mounted. The resort even cooked us some for lunch. Definitely the highlight of the trip 

In between, I got food poisoning and couldn’t be further than 10 steps from the bathroom for 48 hours, didn’t make it once and needed to throw out those underpants- yikes, I also caught Tom’s cold - probably since my defenses were down. So much for ‘all you can…’ but it did kick of my healthy January I guess and am working hard on my mindset - being sick laying on the beach is better than being sick at home in January - they do have really good saltines

Kay went horseback riding and came back pissed … went off the deep end and started to pack and look to change her ticket to go home a day early. This is always risk with her - I gave her all the info and let her try and figure it out. She gave up at one point and resigned to stay. Didn’t talk to us until the day day deep sea fishing - once we got going she was all chatty Cathy with the captain- nothing like the roller coaster that is Kay. 

She also had a few binge drinking episodes that ended with ‘sleeping’ but by the end of the trip had reigned it in

She’s just such an extreme personality- too much energy and no where to go, either super happy and on top of the world or pissed at everyone. 

Billy is a Kay whisperer though and helped her through our last night, keeping it light and fun and even agreeing to have his 1st drink with her, her favorite- Miami vice 

It was definitely the nicest and pace we’ve ever stayed and I love having everyone together- they all get along so well, it’s fun to watch.

Next year is a full family (cousins and all) trip to Costa Rica for grandma and grandpa’s 60th anniversary- let’s hope we have all the same togetherness and a little less drama and illness.

Happy new year to you and yours!

T