No Sports

In a strange sports-free weekend we did some volunteer work ... 

Setting up to prepare 28,000 meals at St. Agnes

RJ working in the meal prep line

KOC pancake breakfast at St. Luke - RJ biked to church, Julia had food in her mouth

Doug made chocolate chip pancakes at the empty workstation near the electrical hazard :-)

... and we treated ourselves to a nice dinner as Sakura.

Kids were mesmerized by the chef ... RJ said to mention he was 3 for 3 catching food in his mouth

Big Sleep

Somebody stole our 11 year old and gave us a teenager ... 

Yes, it's 11:52am and Julia is still sleeping

Julia requested this clarification: The night before she watched "Clifford the Big Red Dog" then read a book until 11:10pm. She needed the sleep.

Power Lunch

Turns out that Halloween candy can make a delicious and healthy lunch. 

RJ's typical post-Halloween lunch

So how is this healthy?

... turns out that you can trade this stuff for things like sandwiches and sodas. It's a lot easier than packing lunch ... like Doug is forced to do except for free-lunch Wednesdays.

Gardening 2025

This year we split the garden into 4 quadrants. Each member of the family got their own quadrant to name, plan, plant, weed, and harvest.

• Doug: Cash is Clay (the crummiest soil with a big path running through it)
• Sara: Make Gardening Great Again (a decent plot with an ever growing mint patch)
• Julia: Worms Welcome (some super soil with some annoying roots from the maple tree)
• RJ: Who 'dat Seed (some good parts, bad parts, and weedy parts)

RJ's section featured an mis-mash of unlabeled seeds. His plan was to plant anything he could put in a salad. After a super fast start ... Who 'dat Seed turned into Who 'dat Weed.

March 16: RJ plans some of his science experiments (beans, lettuce, radishes)

The 4 quadrants (Ginger was not allowed in)

March 23: Tilled and ready to go ... RJ's early plants didn't make it

May 11: Crops starting to come in, RJ getting radishes, lettuce

July 11: garden producing cucumbers (a lot!), cherry tomatoes, squash (yellow and zucchini)

Aug 23: garden producing cantaloupe, lots of cucumbers, very large zucchini, and gross beans

Sept 4: Doug was eating a lot of cantaloupe, Julia got her first (and only) watermelon

Oct 26: patience pays off, Cash-is-Clay hauled in ~10-15 peppers and some large tomatoes

Nov 11: a couple more peppers and some carrots are all that remain

Lessons Learned:

• People work harder when they 'own' their land
• Starting the garden on March 9 is too early
• Cramming 20 cantaloupe plants into a small area results in a lot of small vines and little fruit
• Granddad was right about planting watermelon (again)
• RJ started on fire with lots of lettuce and radishes, but lost focus
• If you want awesome peppers ... get started early and make sure the plants get lots of sun
• Nothing except some random kale grows in the back garden by the new shed
• The plan to take pictures every month didn't pan out

Hockey - weekend games

After cross country, Julia had 2 soccer games, and RJ had a hockey game. On Sunday we took it easy (only one hockey game).

The results of sports after cross country could be described as 'sleepy.'

Nov 8: Team ready to take on Montgomery County (0-1 loss, sleepy)

The hockey game on Nov 9 went a lot better, highlights below.

Cross Country Wrap Up

St. Agnes had a super strong showing in the Championship meet. Of 6 categories St. Agnes won 4 - including the first ever 7-8th grade win for St. Agnes.

Both kids made big improvements over their last times (but tough to compare because they were different courses.

Who	Race 1	Race 2	Championship
Julia (3km)	18:18	15:05	13:18
RJ (4km)	hockey	17:51 (ankle)	16:37

5th-6th grade girls - and a dog that assisted with getting everyone to smile

Julia and Nora D. race down the final stretch

RJ ran with his buddies Samuel and Devon. None of them won the race, but as a team the 3 of them won first place of the 21 schools in the competition.

Great Day for a Hike

Sara took Julia and Amelia for a hike. Beautiful weather, beautiful pics.

Scenic

Wet shoes? Of course!

Julia Wraps up Soccer

Julia's ADP and Rec soccer teams ended the year on a high note. ADP team seemed to get much better as the year went along. The Rec team was easily the best team in the league.

ADP team finished with a 6-1 win

Later that day the rec team won 6-3 (they went up 5-0 and eased up)

Halloween - 2025

The scariest thing about this Halloween was the amount of candy that the kids accumulated. Poor Zara (not pictured) joined RJ, Brady, and Julia for trick-o-treating this year. At first she fell behind, but by the end she was running with the rest of them. Including a 'short cut' through a dark abandoned lot.

Kids carved their own pumpkins this year (cute bat and Happy Halloween)

 

The crew was super impatient at the neighborhood party ... but at 5:30pm they started trick-or-treating.

Bradley dressed as a climber ... and played the part by climbing a couple trees

RJ with 22 pounds of candy ... 20lbs of which he could not eat

Julia organized her candy ... and still looked a bit like a zombie the next day

RJ and Bradley before trick or trearting

RJ Loses Shoes

How does one lose a pair of shoes that you were wearing? We have looked everywhere in the house, the cars, the yard, friend's houses, the hockey rink, and more. If anybody has any idea where RJ's shoes are, please let us know!

June 6 photo

Trunk or Treat

While Doug was returning from a work trip to Seattle, Sara took the gang to Trunk or Treat at St. Agnes.

Julia and Nora D. prepare costumes for trunk or treat

Boys prepare to give out some potatoes

Several 8th graders attended (several got volunteer credits for cleaning up)

Julia and gang man their trunk (and eat some candy)

17th Anniversary

We celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary in Rochester, NY at a 13 year-old hockey game. For dinner we treated ourselves to the most expensive dinner we have ever eaten ... at Olive Garden ... and Julia didn't eat anything. Yes, it was a group dinner with a shared bill.

Back in McLean ... 

Julia was excited to be the photographer

RJ was still wearing his suit from church

Cross Country warm up meet

Both kids ran in a cross country developmental meet. 

• RJ twisted his ankle, but finished the race in 17:51 (4km)
• Julia ran hard and tried not to talk to Nora D. She finished in 15:05 (3km). A big improvement over 18:18 in her first race.

Sara has been helping with team organization (so she can wear her 'St. Agnes Coach' shirt

Girls hanging out after the race

Rochester weekend

Julia was excited about her 'vacation' to Rochester, NY. Oh ... and RJ had a hockey tourney there as well.

After a 6-hour drive and short nap, RJ as ready to play some hockey.

RJ had a good game on Friday night and got the 'hat' award

RJ was stellar in game 1. Tired muscles caught up with him by game 3 of 5.

Julia and Sara spent the entire day on Saturday at the The Strong National Museum of Play. As a result they missed a couple of hockey games but had loads of fun on Julia's vacation.

Julia and Sara in front of the Sesame Street house

Julia's first public piano concert

The ropes course was supposed to last 20-30 minutes. Julia spent about two hours on it.

Life size Simon would have been easier with more than one person

Julia scales wall (you were supposed to stand on the floor and look like you were flying over the city)

A short soccer game as a warm up to the final game

RJ and team at Olive Garden on Saturday night

After a frustrating final game (3-0 loss) we headed home. By the time we were 1 hour out of town, RJ was back to his old self.

On the way home we drove right past the Little League World Series venue in Williamsport

After dinner at Jersey Mike's Subs and a couple hours of rain, we pulled back into our driveway at 10:40pm. Whew. 

Mustang ABS Repair

When we obtained the Mustang, the ABS light was on. We needed to fix it to pass inspection. 

An auto shop pulled the codes and surprisingly it was the ABS Control module and not the wheel speed sensors. We decided to try to fix it ourselves.

Sara ordered a replacement part, Doug borrowed a jack and stands from Johns S. and the fun began ... 

Step 1: remove old ABS control module

Steps 2 & 3: uninstall the 'new' faulty control module and swap parts to make one working unit

Steps 4 & 5: reinstall rebuilt ABS module, fill brake fluid, bleed brakes

As with any project the predicted time was doubled and maybe tripled. The drama:

• Day 1 (hour 1): uninstall the broken control unit. Build DIY plugs to prevent brake fluid from leaking all over the place.
• Day 1 (hours 2-3): struggle to seat the brake line fitting. Connection didn't seem great. Turn on car, ABS light was no longer on, but brakes were out due to no brake fluid.
• Day 2 (11:00am): poured break fluid into reservoir, lifted back of car to bleed brakes. Nothing came out ... because all brake fluid leaked out of faulty connection.
• Day 2 (12:00pm): went to Advance Auto Parts to purchase brake line to test whether the brake line or the housing was to blame.
• Day 2 (1:00pm): uninstall 'new' ABS control unit
• Day 2 (2:00pm): remove electronics from new ABS unit and install in old unit
• Day 2 (3:00pm): reinstall old ABS control unit with new electronics, bleed rear breaks (RJ pushed the brake pedal while I controlled the bleeder valve), run out of brake fluid
• Day 2 (4:00pm): return to Advance Auto - return brake lines, purchase additional brake fluid, bleed front brakes.
• Day 2 (5:00pm): say a prayer ... turn the key ... no ABS light! No brake light! Whew!

Initial time estimate: 4 hours

Actual time: 9 hours (3 trips to Advance Auto Parts)

Whitetail gets new carpet

The first floor carpet at Whitetail was looking a little worn. We replaced solid tan with something a bit speckled and darker to hide rental trash.

Planning phase

Installation in progress

Job complete - it looks a lot better - picture doesn't really do it justice

Doug removed the AC window unit ... this sleeping bat was NOT HAPPY when I woke him and pushed him off the ledge

This annoying varmint was licking the cement between the bricks 

Room without furniture