My chosen sister/ friend, Molly, and I are on our annual EPIC trip. Yesterday’s adventure took us to Reston, VA which by the way is the most expensive town/ city in VA to live in. We went to a small zoo there and then tried to find a LOVE sculpture. We ended up at the Reston Square which is where one of the Google offices is located.
We were having difficulty finding the sculpture because it was the one place we hadn’t looked. We asked a security guard where it was located. He gave us the deets and we were on our merry way.
A few moments after finding the sculpture, he walked around the building to make sure we found it. Not only that, he offered to take our photo next to it. We were afraid he was going to get hit because he was on the curb on a very busy street.
He took our photo from different angles, so that we could have the best photo of the both of us.
Even though, it’s not what someone said, it’s what someone did for us on our adventure.
After our photo shoot, we rode on the Metro to Arlington and back. However, that’s a story for another day.
Good morning! I hope all is well for y’all. I’m planning for the next school year. Yes, I know it’s my summer break. However, I need to have a few items in place before school begins.
So I created a list of writing prompts for the month of August. I have planned to make them into Google forms, so that it is easier to track their final writing. They will need to do some sort of prewriting/ brainstorming, first draft and many other drafts, editing, and revising before typing it into the Google Form. I’m thinking Google Docs will be utilized during the other steps of the writing process.
Here are the prompts I created for the month of August. Some of them can be used in other months, not just in August.
Fear and discouragement was sounded throughout this account.
The tribal representation did not include the tribe of Levi’s. (Le-Vee)
The Levi’s were the priests.
Instead it included Joseph’s tribe being divided into 2 for his sons Ephraim and Manasseh.
In Numbers 13:16 – Jesus is Greek for Joshua.
They had set up camp in the wilderness of Paran in Kadesh Barnea – 50 miles south of the Promised Land.
12 men sent into the Promised land – spent 40 days gathering samples of local crops.
Both good and bad news reported which divides the people
Spying was a popular military tactic of the day.
The spies traveled 275 miles north to the territory west of the Jordan River.
The first area they explored was Negev – Very dry
Further north was Canaan – Much more fertile – Ideal for milk producing sheep and goats. The flowers and plants produced pollen for the bees to turn into honey.
This was 2 years after leaving Egypt. They had found the Promised Land but continued to be fearful. Lack of faith.
For their lack of faith, they had to wander one year for each day they had gone on the mission. 40 years.
They didn’t believe they could go against the giants.
The Nephilim were mentioned one other time in the Bible. Genesis 6:4 – Those Nephilim died during the Great Flood.
We need to have Caleb’s faith. (Numbers 13:30)
30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.”
The 90’s . . . Teenaged me and then young adult me . . . A time where I began to know the real me. The fashions of the 90s . . . Some need to stay while others just need to go.
There used to be this one clothing store in the middle of downtown Dayton that I used to go and explore. I think I bought a piece or two from that store. So what was I looking for when I shopped at that store? Stirrup pants and body suits. Yes, you read that right pants with a strap at the bottom of your foot which is a disaster waiting to happen. You could have been de-pantsed just by bending down incorrectly. And I bought pants that would do that naturally for me. What was I thinking?
Then there was the body suit. So not only did I have a piece of fabric under my foot, I also buttoned up my shirt in an unmentionable area. This time wedgies were enviable. So I could lose my pants bending over and I would have a wedgie. And I chose to wear these outfits. Twenty year old Traci, what were you thinking?
I also wore overalls. My aunt sent me this cute overall shorts that I wore while on the Disney College Program. To this day, I don’t know what happened to them after I got home. I probably wore them but when I moved away from home, they got lost. Even if I found them, I could only get my big toe into them. I was much smaller then.
The last piece of 90s trend that I wore was the choker. Why did we think we needed to put this piece of jewelry on our neck to emphasize an area that is not always flattering. Think double chin anyone. Okay, to be truthful, some chokers can be cute, so I would wear them now if I had a choker to wear.
Wearing those dreaded stirrup pants and an ex boyfriend’s jacket. Don’t ask why I had a pen in my mouth.
I labeled myself in this photo. I’m wearing one of those body suits. This is actually one of my favorite pictures of me from the College Program.16 year old me up to no good. I’m not wearing anything fashionable here. However, my sons tell me that I look like a typical 90s teenager in this photo.
A year ago yesterday, we drove down to the New River Gorge area. Hubby, my sons, my niece and nephew, and a few of their friends were going white water rafting. I was just there because my niece was going.
I took over cooking for the group of kids. We had a small fridge, a microwave, toaster, and coffee maker. That’s it. No sink, so everything needed to be disposable if we had any dinner.
There was a sink in the bathroom of our cabin, but it was so small that it was hard to clean anything there.
I brought my Instant Pot to cook the dinners while my nephew brought something to cook pancakes on for one of the breakfasts.
So what did we eat during the 2.5 days we were there. I had 2 dinners and breakfast to consider. Lunch was on the river when they went white water rafting.
The two dinners we had were spaghetti and hot dogs with Mac and cheese.The hot dogs were frozen before we left for the trip. Even driving the 4 to 5 hours to New River Gorge did not defrost the hot dogs. They tried roasting them over the fire, but they remained cold inside. Ugh!
The favorite meal was the spaghetti. There was nothing left after the meal. I believe we had some sort of bread with it.
Breakfast was pancakes and cereal. They had milk and juice to go with their breakfast. We forgot to bring a spatula, so that was interesting using my wooden spoon to flip the pancakes.
We also had lots of snacks for the boys. Plus the boys brought their own food. One brought MREs to share with their friends.
Hubby and I were able to sneak away for a while. Since the teens we took were older teens except for Youngest, we didn’t need to watch them constantly. We went to Sheetz for coffee and their snack packs. We ate it while walking to the overlook.
After walking under the New River Gorge, we left. We needed to get food before leaving. Our original plan was to go to Sheetz for cheap eats. Instead we went to the Secret Sandwich Society for good burgers and pimento fries.
Five months after to visiting the Secret Sandwich Society, it burned to the ground.😭 I can just picture us sitting there on the patio waiting for the food. The teens just talking about whatever popped into their head. We were saddened to hear of it’s demise.
So why am I sharing this menu with you? This started a trend for me. I went on a few pandemic trips where I needed to plan out the meals for the trip. In a week and a half, I’m leaving once again for a trip. I planned out the food for that trip. I’ll share it with you once we get closer to the trip happening.
I’ll also share the menu from my Epic trip with my friend Molly last July and our menu from our beach trip last December. I can plan meals like nobody’s business but can’t keep a meal plan to save my life.
Menu:
Breakfasts: Cereal, French toast muffins, cheese, applesauce, or fruit cup – Juice and milk
Lunches: On the river and at Sandwich Society
Dinners: Hot dogs with Mac and cheese Spaghetti with Hawaiian rolls (favorite meal)
Dessert: S’Mores on the campfire
My coffee that I got at Sheetz on the way down to the campsite. Meals that were eaten on our trip.
I planned out the meal for Memorial Day. Then Oldest needed to make sure it was an American meal. I don’t know what an unAmerican meal would look like according to him.
Here is our menu for the week. As you can see most of it is easy meals to put together. I think Friday’s is going to be the hardest meal because I’ve got to make the crust. I have a pizza crust kit, so that shouldn’t be too hard.
Monday – Memorial Day
Burgers (Impossible burger for me), Corn on the Cob, Chips, Baked Beans, Cucumbers
Tuesday
Rice and Beans, Roasted Cauliflower & Broccoli
Wednesday
Tacos, Roasted veggies
Thursday
Shrimp scampi on gluten free pasta, chicken from freezer for the family
Friday
Pizza and cheese bread
Breakfasts for this week keep changing. I ordered Kodiak’s gluten free protein pancake mix which came yesterday. So that is going to be some of my breakfasts. Another breakfast idea is to have smoothies with chia seeds and hemp hearts, if I can find them. They were not at Aldi’s when I checked the other day.
Lunches are often difficult for me. I’ve been on a grilled cheese kick lately since I have some gluten free sour dough bread. I’ll eat the grilled cheese with either a salad or a veggie. Another lunch idea is a snack plate of cheese, olives, nuts, maybe a hard boiled egg, and crackers. I may add some tuna to it. I eat a mostly vegetarian diet with the exception of seafood.
If you would like some other breakfast ideas, please click on this link. Here are some lunch ideas. And dinner ideas
Gaston, our puppy, and I had gone to drop off Oldest at school yesterday morning. When we dropped off Youngest an hour prior, it had been super foggy. So foggy that Oldest, who was in the car, told me that it reminded him of a horror movie. He was expecting some tentacles to drop out of the sky.
Since the drive to Oldest’s school is country roads, we opted to wait a little bit before driving him to school. Once we got to his school, the sky had changed from super foggy to a glorious blue sky.
Gaston had seen a duck once before from a distance. However, this was the first time he saw one up close. He kept trying to get to the ducks.
He also enjoyed meeting a few other dogs.
Dobby, our previous dog, was adventurous. Fortunately Gaston is the same way. He is going to love exploring places around our area this summer.
While I was at the dietician’s office on Monday, Oldest called me. He had been in an accident. Even though his car had been hit, he was okay just shaken up.
He was getting ready to turn when a truck going straight through the light sped up. The driver of the truck clipped Oldest before hitting a pole. Since Nick had gone in the intersection, he was cited for failure to yield. As a result of the accident, the front driver’s side was demolished.
We are waiting on word from the juvenile court for when he is supposed to go to court. His license is probably suspended. However that doesn’t matter; because he doesn’t want to drive right now.
Now Hubby and I are driving him around. Luckily he is now on summer vacation, so I don’t have to drive the 20 minute commute back and forth to his school. However, he is working, so I have to drop him off and then pick him up. His job is only a 5 minute drive from our house which helps. The problem is he closes which means he is done at the earliest at 10:45 and at the latest 11:30. For a person who shuts down beginning at 9 pm, that is tough for me.
I’m leaving in a few weeks for my annual EPIC trip with my best friend/ chosen sister. He needs to get those rides lined up because I won’t be around to pick him up.
I drove him to school 2 times this week and then home 1 time. The only good thing about driving him was our puppy went with us. After dropping him off, we went for a walk in the town where his school is located. Gaston, our puppy, loved meeting ducks for the first time. That was fun to see him try to get at the ducks as they were swimming around. He didn’t get far because of the leash.
