Quote of the Day

This is kind of how I feel every time I get ready to leave the house.

“That’s three hours of boredom, followed by seven seconds of sheer terror.” Tom Hanks as Jim Lovell in Apollo 13

Quote of the Day

This pretty much sums up how I feel as high school for Moose is “getting big in the window.” This transition was never going to be easy, but between not having the preparation at the end of 8th grade (including at least one trip with his class to visit the high school during a school day), that he was supposed to, and not being able to visit the high school multiple times over the summer like we had planned, I feel like we need something, anything, at this point, other than a vague, “We’re planning on face-to-face instruction as scheduled, maybe with masks required, but we’ll let you know later.”

Uh, Houston, we… we… we just can’t just throw this together at the last minute. So here’s what you’re gonna do. You’re gonna get the procedure up to us, whatever it is, and we’re gonna go over it step by step so that there’s no foul-ups. I don’t have to tell you we’re all a little tired up here. The world’s getting awfully big in the window. Tom Hanks as Jim Lovell in Apollo 13

Quote of the Day

“Let’s work the problem people. Let’s not make things worse by guessing.” Ed Harris as Gene Kranz in Apollo 13

Quote of the Day

This broken ankle is quite an adventure. Obviously, the ankle hurts. But I was not anticipating all the other aches that would come along with it. My hands (not to mention my armpits!) hurt from using the crutches. My right leg is sore from being the only weight-bearing leg I have at the moment. My tailbone is sore, from doing nothing but sitting around all day. Even my hip and my abs hurt! I seriously had no idea how painful a broken ankle would be…for the whole body. Frankly, this quote from Apollo 13 pretty much sums up how I feel about myself right now!

“Let’s look at this thing from a… um, from a standpoint of status. What do we got on the spacecraft that’s good?” Ed Harris as Gene Kranz in Apollo 13

A Markel Family New Year

New Year’s is not one of our family’s favorite holidays. Even so, I try to make it special, since it is the end of one year and the beginning of a new one. This year was especially nice because we got to start New Year’s Eve morning at church (and got to see the Advent wreath all lit up one more time!):

We always enjoy our New Year’s Eve hot chocolate bar. This year we had five flavors of hot chocolate to choose from: dark and milk chocolate, French vanilla, salted caramel, and mint. We also had three kinds of mini marshmallows…regular, mint, and vanilla snowmen. Unfortunately this year, I could not find chocolate whipped cream, so we only had regular to go with our other toppings and add-ons:

Ryan and I enjoyed a toast to the new year, but we didn’t wait until midnight. While we were awake to ring in the new year, I wasn’t sure I would make it, so we had our toast a few hours early, while we watched our traditional New Year’s Eve movie…Apollo 13.

We didn’t have any big plans for today. Originally, we were going to have a nice stay at home day, followed by our first family feast of the new year, but we ended up driving into West County to do a little shopping…I find it very hard to do nothing all day! When we got home, I started on our dinner…Cornish hens roasted with lemon, garlic, and rosemary in a white wine sauce, mashed potatoes (with homemade gravy!), roasted red potatoes, carrots and Brussel sprouts, cherry Jell-O, and dinner rolls. It was a little different from our standard New Year’s Day dinner (although, I used to make Cornish hens for New Year’s when Ryan and I were first married), and very delicious!