The first week of 2019 has come and gone, and since the last time I wrote a blog, so has my mom! She arrived here for her 7th trip to Florida this year a week ago on Friday.
While she gets us Disney passes for Christmas, she always has a few gifts for us to open. One of Asa's was years old, too. She found it while cleaning out the back bedroom, it was already wrapped with his name on it- so she decided to keep it wrapped and bring it down. Everyone had heard about it and was quite invested in the 'mystery gift'. Turns out it's a lego calendar that you build differently every month. We guessed it was from 2010 when mom and I went to New York together, since it had a Macy's sticker on it, and that's pretty much the only time we shopped at Macy's.
My mom also gave the boys their quarter books. My dad had made these a long time ago for each of the grandkids, but wanted to give them to the boys when they would appreciate it and not just see it for all the quarters. I think it was pretty fitting Peyton got his this year, after all the change he dealt with in Ohio. Since my dad died when Garrett was just a few months old, we made Garrett a book from all of my grandma's quarters so he would have one too.
And of course there were some other goodies too, we're fully stocked on Tony Packo's sauce again!
I also had something for my mom, as I made her quilt out of my grandma's clothes. We actually made these for all of her sisters back in September for the party, but we waited on hers- so I surprised her with it.
Here's the pictures from when I was working on it. My favorite square on her's is the 'proud grandma' bouquet from one of my grandma's old sweatshirts. My mom actually embroidered all of my cousins names on it.
Mom also got us a couple of games, and we added them to the 2018 stack. Here it is in total.
I really like my 'don't break the ice' penguin game.
Etta's present was delivered a little late- but she got a HUGE rope, so not only could she play with it, but it's big enough for her and Ellie to play with it together!
Mom brought with her our box of cookies. Asa sent our requests to Gwen to manage our cookie box on cookie day. She did a pretty good job. She tricked us though and only put ONE Buckeye in our box. We were not pleased.... but then mom gave us a little Tupperware container with lots more in it. Well played, Gwen, well played.
Since mom was here, Calib was displaced out of his room. Sure we have a nice pull out couch, but it's so much nicer for her to stay in Calib's room. So, we pulled out the trundle bed for Calib. Calib then complained there wouldn't be enough room for the dogs, because Etta has been sleeping with him now, too. (He now sleeps with Etta, Ellie and Porkchop). So, I also moved Peyton and Hayden's dressers (thank goodness they're on wheels!) and brought in the chair bed.
Basically the whole room was a mess of pillows, blankets, and kids and dogs. Calib even let the dogs have the real bed on the trundle and slept on the chair bed. He has to do it all over again when mom is back in a month, and maybe in a couple weeks when Jake comes to visit too.
Usually mom is here for New Years Eve and we go to Venice, a small town about an hour and a half south of here where my Sattler grandparents lived for years. I spent most of my New Year's Eve here as a child, even. But, last year we couldn't go- because there was the whole new dog not getting along with other dogs situation. This year we were all able to go, though not quite on New Years Eve, since Asa had to work. Instead we went the Saturday before. We got Ice Cream at the usual place..
...and nosed around at Sea Pleasure's and Treasures in downtown.
Before hitting up the beach. It was a warm day, and it was PACKED. Peyton lasted all of two minutes and ended up in the shade at a picnic table by the bathrooms and read his book there for a couple of hours (he was playing the part of grandpa, for sure.)
While the rest of us enjoyed the water. It was COLD, but we survived.
And we brought my inflatable frog. That thing is the best $10 I ever spent. It's so much fun!
We took turns riding it into the waves.
Calib kept a handle on it while I was in it, but I sure did get drenched.
After enough time in the water, we headed up to Sharky's for dinner.
I was a little bummed they got rid of the Coconut Shrimp on their menu, but the regular shrimp were yummy.
Mom got the good old standby of the crab au gratin, Calib got some fish tacos he really enjoyed, Hayden downed a burger, and Peyton was spoiled with his one and only filet mignon of the year.
It was a bit overcast so not the perfect sunset, but still pretty none the less.
We took a stroll out on the pier before heading home.
Always a nice day in Venice!
Of course Sunday was the last taco bar of the season, and Hayden got to test out his new taco holder he won during the Christmas bucks auction. The Bucs lost, but that's kind of the way we wanted it. And I hear now we're getting Bruce Arians, so that could be cool.
Monday, New Years Eve, Asa had to work, and I had lots of soups and leftovers from Christmas still, so I put that out for people to snack on all day, and decided I would just refresh it in the evening.
During his lunch break we played what I hope will become a new Waterstraut tradition with New Years Eve Jeopardy.
But it was less school activities and how much do you remember about the last year. (My favorite category was 'Winner Winner Chicken Dinner' where they had to name the winner of various things: March Madness, Survivor:Waterstraut Island, the Frozen T-shirt Contest, ect.
They took turns answering questions, but if someone got it wrong you could buzz in. I did it all by myself, so Asa could play (although he wasn't allowed to pick I heart my parents since it was all about us), and mom kept score.
Some questions for you...
And final Jeopardy.
Asa was the winner, and received the trophy.
Later that evening I replenished the food (note all the dogs watching Calib).
But you know, I don't even mind if he's feeding them all. At the end of 2017, I wrote: 'If Asa can just find a good job, and I can get all four dogs to be the same room together, 2018 will be a success."
So, you know what, success!
They're such a good pack.
Etta still has her quirks, and she REALLY freaked out about the fireworks on New Years Eve... going from cuddles to hiding under beds....
...to hiding in the bathroom.
But Asa and Hayden played games in there and kept her company.
Eventually she tired out and when to lay in bed.
She really settled in once Ellie showed up, but my goodness, the poor thing is TERRIFIED of Fireworks.
We spent the evening playing games and putting together lego sets.
And then just after midnight we all went to bed. The boys are not a super big fan of the new year, they think it's kind of ridiculous, but we all stay up to midnight anyway.
New Years Day we went to the movies. Mom and I went and saw Mary Poppins Returns, Peyton roamed the mall bookstores, and the rest of the boys went to see Bumblebee. Then we headed over to Top Golf for some golfing and some food.
We were even there into the evening so we got a bit of Top Golf at night, which is always fun.
Mom left on the 2nd, and then it was back to normal for all of us. Poor Asa had quite the pile up of tickets, since most people had taken off between Christmas and New Years. Ellie and Etta were not loving being shut out of the office while Asa worked.
Meanwhile I took down the tree and rounded up Christmas to pack it away. See you next year, decorations!
So, there's no big home school project for us this year. You see, I'm pretty much done schooling Calib. He just takes his college classes. This semester he has English Comp II, American History (which should be a cake walk for him), Some sort of Math I don't remember, and some Computer class. Peyton has moved on to studying for the PERT exam to take college classes, and studying for the SAT this Spring, and so it's just me and Hayden in the land of home school projects. I'm going to try and do some more hands on stuff with him.
But, the whole family is going to 'try something new' once a week for every week this year. So, some things will be week long experiments, some things we'll just do one day that week, and some things we'll be learning via some Youtube videos together. We have a list we're working off of, I pick three in various categories and then they vote on which ones they want to do in the month. I only vote in the event of a tie.
Our first weeks include spend no money week- which we're currently in, it's kind of lame, but I can see how it's helpful. So far we've concocted our own cleaning solution and made various dinner substitutes to avoid going to the store.
We're going to watch Casablanca later this week for our 'Classic Movie' we've never seen before. Later we'll be testing out eating six small meals a day, and trying to learn some basic sign language.
So far in 2019 we've hit a few milestones in the Waterstraut household. Asa is on to his VERY LAST CLASS for his Master's Degree, and he's ordered his cap and gown and is all set to walk at graduation in February.
We made Calib's last payment on his braces! We're all done paying for his chompers! Which means, he can take his driving test soon- because I told him I didn't want to pay for his car insurance AND his braces at the same time.
Speaking of driving tests, Peyton took his permit test and passed. Calib was so upset he got to take it online, from home, in his pajamas, when Calib was not afforded the same luxuries. Also, I feel like I know why Florida has such terrible drivers. You should have seen the questions. If Peyton didn't pass it, I would have really questioned his common sense.
We did also decide we need to go through the game closet. There are so many games in there that we haven't played in a long time. I have lots of stuff going to goodwill, as I've been doing a lot of sorting through and getting ride of clothes that don't fit the boys anymore, and Asa said I should get rid of some games too. But, I said we should play them ALL and then vote on what ones we like and the one's we think we should get rid of. Apparently there's something like 140 games in the game closet. So, it's going to take us awhile. Perhaps this is our year long project! To keep track of it all, Asa made a spreadsheet, because of course he did.
Other than that, we've been hanging out, and putting together legos. Hayden got a robot during the Christmas bucks auction.
And Calib got the Hogwarts Express for Christmas.
It was like 800 pieces and took him quite awhile to put it together, but he enjoyed it.
We've had some nice weather here as of late, so we took advantage and had a fire.
That's it from here. I just picked Peyton and Hayden up from their January Anime Club, and Asa is at the gym, so we're just hanging out.
Next Up: I hear we're getting a new screen on the back porch and I am excited about it!
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