Anna is 15!

Our beautiful, smart, funny, caring Anna is 15! She is such a wonderful person, inside and out. This has been a big year for her, leaving the school that she attended for 9 years and joining a much larger class of kids at a big, new high school. She has met many great new friends, kept some old friends, and has transitioned into high school very well. She has risen to the academic expectations and challenges, and has learned to manage her studying independently and budget her time with a new class schedule (A/B days). She has joined a couple of clubs and has been accepted to be an Admissions Ambassador next year, helping to introduce prospective and accepted rising freshmen to Gibbons. While her official sports career is over (or paused), she has stayed active in her all-girls' PE class, and I would say that she considers babysitting to be a workout, as well. She's taken it upon herself to apply to a few jobs and hasn't had much luck yet (most places won't hire kids younger than 16), but she is quite busy with petsitting and babysitting.  She has many regular clients around the neighborhood and does a great job caring for dogs, cats, and kids! 

What amazes me about Anna is her awareness and care for others. She somehow seems to know all of the 400 freshmen at Gibbons and something about them. I get a kick out of pointing out a kid at carpool and she will say "oh yeah, that's XYZ and he is friends with Stella's sister's friend's brother", etc. She is friendly without being loud, with a large social circle that somehow still feels intimate because she values each friendship individually. She is a loving and true friend, often supporting her friends and family when they are struggling with something. She really values relationships, which I think is not easy at her age and in the social climate today. Additionally, she is respectful and cooperative and is great at offering perspective in a gentle and thoughtful way. She also keeps her sister humble ;)

What else? At this moment, she is saying that she's interested in becoming a psychologist. She plans to take the AP Psychology class junior or senior year to test the waters. I think she would be great at that because she's very good at building trust, listening, and noticing details and trends in people. She was ok with biology this year, despite a heavy workload and demanding teacher. She did not, however, enjoy the frog dissection lab!

Her interests include: beauty, fashion, music, and friends. Nearly every weekend, she has at least one outing or hangout planned with friends. She is very excited about learning to drive and becoming independent in that way. She loves to be entertained and also likes to make other people smile. She feels deeply, and that is a wonderful quality. She is truly a delight, and we love having a front seat in watching her grow up! This is going to be another big year for her, culminating in her Sweet 16th birthday. We love her so very much.

May

May flew by! It was busy with lots of celebrations and special events. We started out the month with Erin's final two dance shows for school - possibly her last-ever dance shows! There were two shows on Thursday and two on Friday. She had an audience at each show, thanks to Anna and friends, Olivia's family, and Bob and me! The theme was "Music Through the Ages". Her class dance was "Under Pressure" by Queen, and her small group choreography project piece was to "Mambo Italiano". 

After a very busy week of rehearsals and shows, Erin kept going that weekend to her piano musicians' meet-up on Saturday, then straight to work for 6 hours! While she was working, Anna went to swim at Juliet's neighborhood pool and Bob worked at Peakfest. Meanwhile, I washed the porch windows and was Anna's chauffeur and emergency change-deliverer to the Knights' tent at Peakfest. Sunday the 4th, Erin was back to work for an early shift. Bob and I enjoyed lunch at Doc B's in Fenton with Liz and David, and we all went to the final 6pm youth mass of the year that evening.

Finley was back to the vet on Monday the 5th for a recheck of his liver enzymes, which were still elevated, so he is continuing two more months of ursodiol and the liver supplement and will be checked again in July. He is ok with taking the meds, but doesn't really like the supplement tablet. It seems to be really hard and difficult to chew. I think that is less critical than the ursodiol, which he takes easily in a pill pocket (it's a small tablet). 

After school on Monday was the small group choreography dance performances, where again Erin had a nice audience of Anna, a few of her friends, and me. Tuesday, we had a nice mass for Grandma Harvey. Wednesday, Bob headed to the Bay Area for a few days. Sadly, he had to be gone on his birthday, but we celebrated the night before with presents and blondies! 

While he was gone, our long-awaited kitchen remodeling project began! A crew came on Thursday afternoon to remove the cabinet and drawer fronts for painting and assembled the new island cabinets. Friday, some tile guys came and removed all of the backsplash, and the countertop people came to do final measurements. Thursday evening, Erin and I enjoyed attending Olivia's last-ever band concert, where she was in a small group flute piece and did wonderfully! Anna babysat for the Lemons family on Friday evening, and Bob returned from California.

Saturday the 10th, Anna enjoyed lunch and a nail appointment with Lyla, Erin worked in the afternoon/evening, and Bob and I had a nice afternoon on the lake. Sunday was a rainy but very nice Mother's Day, including visiting Erin at work, getting Krispy Kreme, and having a delicious dinner of pork tenderloin, pasta salad, and cake by the girls! 

We all went to the NCSU campus mass at the cathedral that evening since Erin was working in the morning, and enjoyed it very much. Monday, the real work began on the kitchen, which took five days and went very smoothly. We were most impressed at how clean, organized, and thorough all of the crews were! The designer, Bekah, would stop by every day to check on things, and her husband, Jerry, acted as the GC, being there most of the time and supervising/coordinating all of the work. We were even able to use the kitchen most of the evenings (though we did take advantage of the opportunity for lots of takeout!). What we really missed was the laundry room for the week, and the kitchen sink for two nights. Thanks to neighbor Karen for sharing her washer and dryer with us many times!

Bob and Tom enjoyed attending a Carolina Hurricanes playoff game on Monday evening as a part of Bob's birthday gift. The Canes won that game and ended up winning the series, but are proving to be having more difficulty in the eastern conference round (down 3-1 to Florida). 

Erin visited the Cathedral School on Wednesday with Service Beakers, and Anna stayed after school for the final Cooking Club meeting of the year. Most of that week, my job during the day was watching Finley, which ended up being intensive because he was so upset about the workers that he needed some anti-diarrheal medicine. We are happy to report that he has made a full recovery, with the help of some (more) meds.

Other than the kitchen project, that week was pretty calm. Erin had her final piano club for the year on Tuesday. She did a great job driving herself to/from her lessons the last couple of months this year. The kids had an early release on Friday, and Anna hit the pool for the first time this season that afternoon. The water has been cold, but the air temps have been nice! Saturday was one of the best days of the year: piano recital day! Erin did a wonderful job, as did the Tierneys and other music friends who we got to see. 

That evening was Anna's friend birthday dinner at Colletta in Cary/Fenton which went very well. Erin and I dined at Superica nearby as well as served as the photography crew and gift carriers (Bob was cooking at a BBQ at church). It was a lot of fun! 

Sunday was Anna's actual birthday, which was a nice and calm day. She and I got to go shopping in the afternoon and enjoyed that. Erin worked in the afternoon/evening. 

The week of the 19th was pretty normal; it was the kids' last week of classes. Anna had her first-ever DMV experience on the 20th and passed her written and signs tests to get her permit! 

She's already driven 1.5 hours and is doing well so far. Erin worked the afternoons on both Saturday and Sunday. Anna and I hung at the pool with some neighbor friends on Saturday, and Anna went back to Juliet's pool on Sunday while Bob, Finley, and I enjoyed a great afternoon at the lake. We will get the whole family out there together soon! 

We had a fun evening with the McGee ladies on Monday, cooking together for Memorial Day. Olivia gave us some great pointers on making homemade pasta, and Dawn whipped up a delicious pork sauce. Josie decorated a cookie cake with fruit in the shape of a flag, and then we all feasted! The kids have exams this week; Anna has one or two each day Tuesday-Friday, and Erin has two each day but is off on Friday.  So far, so good! I'm looking forward to book club tonight and neighborhood bunco on Thursday.

Friday will be a big day for Anna and Bob: going to Australia! He has go to for work, and Anna ended up being available and willing to tag along! They'll be in Sydney for the first four days while he works, and then they're heading up to Port Douglas to check out the Great Barrier Reef and rainforest! They're so excited and are going to have a wonderful time. Meanwhile, the other three of us will be here working (Erin), getting a haircut (Erin), going to a 50th birthday party (me), and heading back to the DMV for Erin's Level 3 appointment.

May was lots of fun and busy, too! We are looking forward to some relaxation in June, as well as a visit to the Catholic University of America on the 10th!