Abby's Visit and a Day in Tallahassee with Connor

This past weekend Abby came in town to visit and we also made a trip to Tallahassee on Saturday to visit Connor. 

The drive to Tallahassee is not too long, but a bit painful to go both ways on the same day. Paige needs highway driving experience, so we took the opportunity to have her practice and she drove the entire way to Tallahassee without stopping. Nobody honked at her once and we survived, which was nice for everyone.

 

When we arrived, we met Connor at McAlister's Deli and enjoyed the nice weather outside so Millie Mae could join us as well.

After lunch, we went back to Connor's dorm room and the quick visit turned in to a huge project to clean his living conditions. Some notable moments were when we found that he still has dozens of eggs in the fridge, which are all likely rotten. They're being saved for a frat activity and we would rather not know anything else about it.

We spent a while organizing, cleaning, changing air filters, and throwing away things like a ruined comforter that hadn't been dried properly.

Connor doesn't really use dishes, but someone opened the dishwasher at one point and it was filled with water and smelled awful. It started gushing the filthy water on the floor and the entire roll of paper towels we brought him had to be used to deal with it. A repair request was put in for the dishwasher and also Connor's bedroom door which had come off the hinges. 

No dogs are allowed in the dorm and Millie had to wait patiently outside. 

When we finished with the dorm project, we walked to the Student Union to do some FSU shopping in the bookstore.

Our final stop was at Target, where we picked up a number of things for Connor, including many more paper towels. 

We would have liked to possibly hang out longer, but Connor had a Valentine's Day event to go to in the evening and we decided that we should start on our drive home so we gave him big hugs and kisses before we left.

It was great to see our boy and see that he's surviving and thriving at college. It was a beautiful day for the visit and it was extra fun with Abby and Millie Mae with us as well.

Paige and Sadie - Doubles at Bolles

 
Paige is not high enough in the lineup this year to travel with the team to all the matches, but this past week she was able to go to Bolles to participate. It was also the day that Aunt Abby flew in to visit, so she got to come along and watch our girl play. 

Paige played a doubles match with Sadie and it was a pretty cold evening. They both played well together and won their match. 

H3 Invitational - Pre-Season Tennis Tournament in Orlando

Paige and her Varsity Tennis Team participated in a Tournament in Orlando over two days on January 30th and 31st. She left school early on Friday with her team and they all drove together to Orlando for the first games late that afternoon. 

Paige played in a doubles match with Mason and a singles match as well on Friday. In the evening they all attended a dinner with speakers. The speakers made it interactives and the team had a lot of fun yelling out answers and being silly together. 

Saturday was surprisingly cold, even when we were expecting it to get colder. We brought some warm blankets and even with that, the girls were freezing when they were not playing. 

On Saturday, Paige played more singles and doubles again with Mason and she was victorious again.

The PV team overall did amazingly well and their school won the inaugural tournament and were presented with a trophy and medals. It was a great team bonding experience and a good way to kick off the season.

Paige's UTR Tennis Tournament

 

On Saturday, Paige competed in a tennis tournament near her high school. The day was a bit cool, but it was nice tennis weather, especially compared to the weather elsewhere in the US this weekend.

Paige played three matches and she lost the first match but won the second two. It was good practice for her to get back in to the groove of things, especially as her school's tennis team is ramping up and she needs to get comfortable again with match play.

Paige's California Adventure with Keira

 

Paige's friend Keira was going to California with her family for her brother's lacrosse tournament and they invited Paige to come along. It was quite a journey, especially so soon after our Asia adventure, but Paige is always game for travel and she had a great time with them. 

Kitchen Design Session with Donna

Andrea and I met with Donna this past week to work on the design of the kitchen. Progress on the house continues, although we have yet to complete the purchase for the lot or finalize the contract with the builder. Nevertheless, we are continuing to work on picking out the different things necessary, and hopefully someday soon the actual construction will commence. 

Paige's Sculpture Project - The Cassowary Bird

 

Paige has been working on her latest sculpture project for some time and brought it home to finish it up so it would be done by the deadline. We got her some black pipe cleaners, pencils, clay, and a few other things so she would have what she needed, and she constructed quite a bit at home independently. 

At the very end, Paige had some problems connecting the legs to the bird, so Shawn had to step in and invent a way to make that work. The night before she turned in her sculpture, I was up late for a few hours tinkering with the legs. I spent hours gluing them back together when they fell apart, drilling holes and using various materials, until I finally found a way to attach everything with black duct tape and cardboard. 

Surprisingly, although the bird was 100% photorealistic, Paige's teacher only gave her a 90% for the assignment. It seems unfair, but perhaps her teacher was fooled in to thinking that Paige just captured and brought in a real bird.