Dan's Lexus blew its head gasket, and has been staggering along with a lot of prayers and daily TLC. He had to refill the coolant every day and could only drive 20 miles at a time before it overheated. He looked into replacing the entire engine, but the cost was so high he decided it wasn't worth keeping it. He got a great offer from Carmax and decided to sell his car as-is.
Dan spent months looking for a replacement SUV, but couldn't find one he liked at a reasonable price. We finally decided that since our minivan has over 200,000 miles on it, it would be best to invest in a replacement minivan before our old one dies.
So we're proud new owners of a second Honda Odyssey! The girls love having two vans with DVD players, and so far our 2005 Odyssey is still running like a champ. We hope our new van ages just as well.
We enjoyed a quieter Easter than expected, since all of Dan's family had a variety of sicknesses.
The girls enjoyed dying and decorating eggs
They received Eggmazing Egg Decorators, which spins your egg so you can color it with markers.
Their eggs turned out beautifully!
Both girls created their traditional cute egg characters, and named each one.
They're too adorable to eat! (But I still make the girls eat them)
Dan played bass during the Easter church service, and Hallie, Emma, and I helped in the 1-year-old nursery.
My parents joined us for lunch after church. We absolutely love getting to see them every week!
The girls took elegant Easter photos. Heh!
So pretty!
It was a beautiful Easter Sunday.
We had a make-up Easter dinner with Dan's family the following weekend, and we also celebrated Dan's mom's birthday.
On April 8th, we saw a partial eclipse in Virginia, which was such a cool natural event! One of the parents (an ophthalmologist) at StoneBridge School donated enough eclipse glasses for all the students and staff. They took everyone out to the soccer field that afternoon to see the eclipse.
I had also purchased eclipse glasses for the girls, and we saw it progress further by the time we arrived home from school. I vividly recall a solar eclipse from my childhood, and I hope Emma and Hallie remember this one!
StoneBridge had their annual STEM (Science Technology Engineering & Math) day.
Hallie and her classmates created racetracks using a variety of materials, then they got to race cars to see how well the racetracks worked.
Another science event for our family was Emma's 5th grade science fair project. She used a homemade catapult to propel objects of various weights.
It was a family affair, with Emma operating the catapult, Dan carefully watching where the objects first hit the ground so we could record the distance, me taking notes and photos, and Hallie retrieving any runaway objects.
She created a posterboard, and did an excellent job. One of the objects she catapulted in her experiment was a cute animal eraser, and she decided to give away little erasers to all the students who came to the fair.
Speaking of science experiments, Dan's been going through the medical wringer this month. He's had some troublesome symptoms for a while now, like muscle cramps and twitches, toe numbness, and a left drop foot, which has severely limited his activity level. He's assumed all this time that the problems were stemming from his back injuries and compression, but his doctor recently referred him to neurological specialists to see if they could get to the bottom of it all. He experienced his first MRIs as well as a spinal tap, which resulted in him getting such severe migraines and dizziness afterwards, he had to return to the ER to get a "blood patch" to help the puncture site close more rapidly. The test results ruled out many possibilities, but some neurological conditions are diagnosed on a "let's wait and see how this progresses" basis.
So in the meantime, we're praying for his healing and he's carrying on with being amazing at so many things - like torturing his children. Haha!
They actually begged him to spray them, but they forgot that Dan doesn't do anything halfway!
Days after Dan's medical tests and appointments, my mom got the results of her own scans and spinal tap to discover the cause of her memory loss over the past few years. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, which officially made it the Most Stressful Week of 2024.
My brother, Steve, came for a visit to spend time with Mom and Dad following the news of her diagnosis. We love this wise, kind woman with all our hearts, and we pray for her daily!
Emma turned 11 years old in April, which seems impossible. She's grown in many different ways this year and she's an amazing kid - so creative and imaginative. Her favorite things are reading animal xenofiction (written from the animals' points of view), watching funny shows and movies, eating pasta and chocolate ice cream, and spending time with animals, her family, and her friends (possibly in that order).
She had her traditional birthday pancake
Emma's class writes encouraging descriptions on the board for each student.
Since her birthday was on a Sunday, we had her party on her actual birthday! She opted for a Dunkin' Donuts cake and decorated it with characters from her favorite book series, "Wings of Fire."
She enjoyed playing games with her cousins all day long.
She also received some great gifts, like this giant "Stitch" blanket
And a toy science kit with a frog skeleton that she dissected out of a slime mold. Eeeww.
We love you so much, Emma, and we pray that God will guide and bless you all throughout your life!
We also celebrated my dad's 80th birthday in April! He's the best Dad and Papa in the world!
We took him to lunch at Mission BBQ, without knowing that they blast the National Anthem at noon every day, and the entire restaurant comes to halt to salute and sing together. The restaurant owner noticed that we were celebrating my dad's birthday, and brought us a tray of free desserts.
I attended Hallie's big field trip to Jamestown Settlement
Her class in front of the replica of the Susan Constant
The kids loved exploring the ship and seeing what it looked like below deck.
They also worked together to trim a sail
We walked through the Powhatan Indian village
Each child got to use a natural tool, like a seashell, to remove fur from an animal hide.
Shockingly, Hallie and her friends, Sophia and Fiona, loved shopping at the gift shop best of all.
We were invited to a roller skating party for Emma's classmates, and had a great time!
And at long last - Dan and I got to go on a date at the end of April! We've been on an unintentional no-date streak for months now, because every single time we scheduled a babysitter and planned to go out alone, someone has gotten sick or injured and we've had to cancel. We had signed up to attend StoneBridge's Chrysalis event, which is their high school prom. True to form, Hallie got sick and started throwing up at school just hours before the event! By the time we notified Dan's parents, they were already on their way from Williamsburg to watch the girls and they decided to come despite the sickness.
Chrysalis was held on the Spirit of Norfolk harbor cruise, which included a very nice buffet dinner, music, and dancing. It was great to chat with Dan's coworkers and see all the students looking beautiful and having a fantastic time with each other.
We enjoyed the lovely views of Norfolk from the bay.
We're very thankful we were able to go!
