A Birthday, Surprises, and Good Deeds

Friday marked day 42 of our home quarantine but we were not to be deterred.  Instead, we found joy in this week's days as we celebrated Kate's birthday and Earth Day.  We were excited to receive special surprises from Sam and Coach Teri, AND we got to perform good deeds!  Plus, we got lots of pictures of our friends continuing to make the most of our unprecedented time away from the AoA, as they didn't let the pandemic keep them down.  How could our week have been any better?!

Before we get to the social pictures, here's one of Alexis modeling a mask that Annmarie's mom, Teresa, made.  She wants us to pass along that she made these using a pattern that allows full coverage, and the lining is an interface that is a good filter.  Alexis and I can report that they are comfortable and breathable.  If you need masks, Teresa has offered to make them for you.  She won't be able to get more of the special interface fabric until May, but let her know if you're interested.  She also said she can use your own fabric if you have a special piece you'd like converted to a mask.  Thank you, Teresa!  This is a thoughtful gesture, and another example of how we are all in this together!

We hope everyone is getting outside on the pretty days we have (in between the rainy ones).  It's Spring and the weather has been nice, with low humidity, so we need to take advantage! 

Drew and his dad, Andy, took a ride on a bicycle built for two!  That looks like so much fun, Drew!

Looks like Drew and Andy weren't the only ones enjoying a fun ride!  Look at Devin and his brother Christian taking their family's 1970s bike for a spin.  That took some brotherly teamwork, and these two seem to have it down pat!

Cameron and his family have enjoyed the beautiful weather by taking walks together.

His mom Stacey said it's just like Cameron to be a "mile ahead" of her and his dad.  Can you see him way up there?  We can relate.  He takes the lead on AoA walks, too!

Lisa and Alexis got in a walk around the WISC complex.  They miss walking with their AoA friends.  And don't even ask that playground how much it misses our visits!

Here's Liz with Annabelle and Rose, walking the big loop from the Rec Center, past Kiwanis Park, around to the baseball field and back to the Rec.  That's quite a hike, Liz!

Sam and his family took a stroll around the W&M campus, and ended up at the "echo wall" which is also known as the Tyler Family Garden.  If you stand at precisely the spot where Sam is, face Blair Hall, and speak, there will be an echo.  It's pretty cool!  When we get back to "normal" we'll bring the AoA here and let Sam show us how it's done. 😎

Sam and his family also enjoyed a "car picnic" with burgers from Five Guys!  Yum!!

It doesn't look like burgers, but we're sure whatever Chef Annmarie had going on the stove was going to be delicious!  Is that mac n cheese?!  It's great to see her putting those cooking skills we work on to use.  We bet your family loved it, Annmarie!

Meanwhile, Baker Liz was busy at her house whipping up sugar cookies from scratch!  

We're glad to see you keeping your baking skills sharp, Liz.  We will need them once we return to the center!  Your cookies look delicious!

Xavier spent part of his week making a special puzzle for the birthday girl, Kate.  That's such a creative idea, and very thoughtful, Xavier!  (It's a surprise for next week, so shhhh...but Xavier also made a birthday puzzle for Devin. 🧡)

Here we are on Thursday when we celebrated Kate's birthday during our Zoom session.  This was us singing "Happy Birthday" to her!

On Wednesday, Carol delivered birthday cards to Kate that her friends had sent earlier.  Wednesday was Kate's actual birthday!

During our Zoom, Kate thanked us for thinking of her and showed us the lovely cards!

Kate also wanted us to see the pretty balloons and flowers her brother got her!  We hope your day was special, Kate.  

 

                                 

Alexis and Kevin joined Scott for another fun Zoom-ercise session on Thursday.  

Scott had us use TP rolls during this workout!  That was fun!  Great stretch, Alexis!

Kevin's mom snuck up behind him and got this picture.  It's hard to tell, but Kevin was throwing boxing punches as he followed along with Scott on his computer screen.  

Kevin helped his dad fill jugs with water that his dad would use when working with his physical therapy patients.

Kevin's workouts pay off.  Check out this video of him carrying a crate of heavy water jugs.  Way to go, Kevin!   

Mr. Mason made another trip to Eaton this week to pick up parts from James!

We also returned to James the pieces that Liz and Alexis put gaskets on last week.  He sends a big thank you to us for what we're able to get done!  And we send one right back to Eaton for being an awesome vocational partner!!

Mr. Mason dropped several tubs of mixed parts at Sam's house this week!

Sam sorted and packed them so nicely before sending them on to Alexis and Liz.  Thanks for your help, Sam.  We know you were happy to "get to work" again!

James sent a few of the aluminum plates for "Pink Lady" Laura to work on, too.  Oh, how we miss this face!

Silliness aside, Laura also did a great job and we're thankful for her help, too!

Alexis couldn't work this week because James ran out of rectangle gaskets and has to order more,  But Liz continued to apply gaskets to lids at her house.  Then, she continued the tradition of having a Frosty after a good day's worth of Eaton work!  That looks good, Liz, and we can't wait until we can all return to Wendy's for Frosties!  Hey, Nina...your legacy to the AoA lives on even in quarantine times!!! 😍🍦😍

Last but not least, we have lots of pictures from Friday's adventure of Sam, Teri, Alexis, and Lisa visiting everyone so Sam could gift his friends with a sweet surprise, and we could collect donations for the Food Drive.  To Sam and Teri, we send thanks for the mini-cake kits that are so much fun and will remind us that random acts of kindness bring a lot of joy.  🎂💙 🧡🎂   To everyone who contributed to the Food Drive, thank you for your generosity.  The AoA may be small, but our concern for others is huge!  💟

When we got to Devin's, the sky fell out!  That didn't stop him from being happy to see his friends! 

Due to prior commitments on their part, we couldn't see Xavier and Abraham, and we missed them! We still dropped off their surprises, though!  👍

We know our guys enjoyed decorating the cakes, and here's a picture of Patrick with his.  It's perfect!  We heard he couldn't wait to get it done!  😋

This is Carol's cake, which she said Matt decorated.  Please keep Cakes by Tawanda in mind for your future cake needs.  She does beautiful work!  The Arc of GW has enjoyed her cakes and cupcakes for past events and highly recommends them!

We forgot to take a picture of ALL the Food Drive donations once we had met Arc's Transportation Coordinator, Mr. Mason, and transferred them to the Arc van, but here is about half of them in the back of Lisa's car.  The bags were full and stacked one on top of another!  Mr. Mason and Arc driver Wayne Jackson will deliver them to Williamsburg House of Mercy, which will share with Grove Christian Outreach, on Monday.  Thanks Mr. Mason, and Wayne, for your part in this successful Food Drive!

Aww, your delivery and pick up crew looks great in their safety masks!

We'll end this week's "mega-blog" with a thought inspired by Cameron's parents, Brian and Stacey, who gave us this pretty gift:  Everyone, take time to stop and smell the roses!

Peace to all,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang

COVID-19 Week 5

This week we are marking 5 weeks of home-quarantine, and we thought a reminder about how awesome we all are would be appropriate!  In fact, we have a lot of awesome pictures to share this week because, despite the limitations placed on our movements, we have a lot going on.  Thanks for these pictures, and keep them coming!   It's uplifting to see a sense of normalcy, even if it's a "new normal."

One of the most exciting things to happen this week involved us resuming our Eaton work...on a very limited basis.  We worked with Jorie and James to arrange for some parts to be brought to a few of our guys so they could apply gaskets.  First, Mr. Mason, the Arc of GW's Transportation Coordinator, traveled to Eaton where James helped him load a few tubs onto the Arc bus!

Mr. Mason then delivered the tubs to Alexis, Liz, and Carol's houses.  Here are some of them in Carol's garage.

Carol, Liz, and Alexis got busy putting sticky gaskets on these parts.  Alexis worked on the floor in her living room while Liz preferred to work at a table.

Thanks, Carol, Alexis and Liz, for working on this for our team!  In fact, our Executive Director, Pam, calls all of us working at home a "Quaran-Team" and we like that!  That includes ALL of us...as everyone is working to stay safe and healthy!  Way to go, AoA!

After a couple of days, Carol visited Liz's house where a responsible and safe transfer of parts took place! 

Next week, Mr. Mason will pick up all the parts the girls and Carol finish, and return them to Eaton.  Thanks, Mr. Mason, for your help with this project!  

This is the beginning of what we hope will be continued " Eaton work from home" and we hope to include more of our guys in this effort.  We won't be able to have work for all of them, but we'll do our best to see what we can do, as a lot of them have expressed interest in helping.  👍  Many thanks to Jorie and James for working this out with us!

Speaking of Jorie, we celebrated her birthday on Thursday with a Zoom session!  She joined us with her daughter, Ellie, and we caught up on Eaton news, shared special posters with her that each of us made, and sang "Happy Birthday!"  

To further "celebrate" her, we played an oldie, but goodie, video clip of us working at Eaton!  Jorie loved it and we loved seeing her!  We hope your quarantine birthday was special, Jorie!

We ALSO celebrated Becky's birthday this week!  During our Tuesday Zoom session, we saluted her with a history lesson on her favorite president, and birthday-mate, Thomas Jefferson.  Nice job with your coloring, Drew!

Cameron combined listening to his favorite tunes with coloring a picture for Becky!  It also looks like Cameron worked on the wordsearch puzzle.  Nice system, Cam!

During Becky's Birthday Zoom, we also watched a short video about Thomas Jefferson from Homeschool POP, one of our favorite sites.  It's cool that Lisa has figured out (almost) how to share videos with everyone.  It felt like one of our "regular" lessons, especially when we aced the follow up quiz!  👏👏

Becky was so proud of us, and she loved our celebration of her and TJ!   Here's her birthday pic for this year...she's second from the left on the third row down.  She was thanking us for the thoughtful cards we sent her!  We also hope your birthday was special this year, Becky!  💜💛💜

During one of our Zoom times, we asked if anyone had news or anything else they wanted to share.  We all had a good laugh when Drew shared that his aunt had some toilet paper delivered to his house!  During this pandemic, there has been a shortage of this much needed item.  Yay for your aunt, Drew!  How thoughtful of her to send this to your family!

There is someone in Drew's family that we are missing during the quarantine.  It's Meemaw!  We know she would really like to be with us at Eaton working on PowerSlide Doors.  Hopefully in June, Meemaw!  Jorie said they will be getting about 1,500 doors then!  Meanwhile, here is a picture of Meemaw with Drew's sweet sister, Alex.  This was taken when Alex graduated from James Madison University in 2018, but Meemaw hasn't changed one bit!  We love seeing her smiling face, and Alex's, too!

Our friend Abraham got outside again this week.  Look at that happy smile!  

He was practicing his football moves and told his mom he was playing for the Redskins!  

You look great, Abraham, and the Redskins could certainly use you!  🏈🤣

Liz continued her walking routine with Annabelle and Rose, her yellow labs.  On this pretty day they were at Veterans Park, also known as Kidsburg.  She showed her mom the monument the AoA visited last year that honors Vietnam Veterans.

Patrick also enjoys spending time with his dogs, Zoe and Kona.   They are golden doodles and have kept Patrick company these past few weeks.  Here, they enjoy a sunny afternoon sitting on the porch of their new home!

Alexis had a fun outside adventure this week.  She and Lisa drove to Newport News to deliver Becky her birthday cards!  You can't tell, but she was wearing a mask.  Becky then invited them to sit (8 feet apart from her) on the porch, and they had a nice visit!

Sam had a similar adventure when he and his mom drove over to Carol's to deliver birthday cards for a couple of friends who have birthdays next week.  (Hint, hint:  Hope you sent Carol some cards!)  Sam was also wearing a mask and kept a safe distance.

Carol and Gene chatted with Sam from their front door, and Callie came out to see who the visitor was, too!

Coach Teri coordinates a lot of social activities for their neighborhood, and these days she is coming up with creative ways for them to have fun and keep physical distances from each other.  Sam helped her hang signs requesting volunteers to help with an upcoming game involving movie posters!   

Sam's dad Tim does work for FEMA, and has been putting in a lot of hours lately helping with the federal government's response to the outbreak.  So, it was nice to get a picture of him having a little time off and taking Rusty and Bella for a walk with Sam.

Here's a fun video of Sam practicing with the nunchucks he got for his birthday.  We all know how much he loves ninjas and anything having to do with martial arts.  Just be careful with those things, Sam!

Here's one more from Sam's week, and it's an important one.  Sam wanted to tell Annmarie thanks and he loves the pizza keychain she made for his birthday!  😍

Look at Kevin taking his piano lesson virtually.  His mom said he enjoys all the virtual learning opportunities he's had lately.  It's good to see Kevin keeping up with his lessons!

Another virtual "lesson" Kevin participated in this week was Zoom-ercise with our friend Scott from APEX Physical Therapy!  This picture was taken during a nice, long round of "sit-down, stand-up" using your chair.  

  Kevin, Alexis, Lisa, Carol, Nan, and Abraham joined Scott on Thursday for a vigorous workout from his Rock Steady Boxing gym.  Thanks for inviting us, Scott!  It felt good to stretch and get our cardio in, too!

For Kevin, a moment of solitude brought quiet reflection.  His mom snapped this sweet picture of him remaining outside on a mild evening after the rest of the family had gone inside.  He was listening to music.  ♫

Kate practiced yoga this week!

Looking good in your Warrior 2 pose, Kate!  Keep up the good work!

Kacie is very good at crocheting AND knitting!  This is a scarf she is knitting for herself.  She told us during our Zoom meeting that she has used a couple of different stitches.  It is very pretty, Kacie!

Kacie was also busy in the kitchen on Easter.  She made this adorable bunny cake for her family!  We bet it tasted as good as it looks!!

Alexis and Haley were proud of the bunny cake they made for Easter, too.  What talented girls (and toddlers) we have in the AoA!

Lisa and Carol received a very nice email message from our master gardener friend, Linda, this week.  She said our MG friends would much rather be spending time with us instead of being in quarantine.  This week would have been the first of our Spring sessions with them.  Linda also said she had visited the Botanical Garden, and sent along a few pictures for us.

This was taken in mid-March when the Fairy Garden was full of mini-tulips!  Linda said she had forgotten that many bulbs had been planted there in the fall of 2018!

When Linda visited the garden this week, she said it was hard to find the fairies and their little house because the garden was overwhelmed with even more bulbs that had popped up along with the tulips.  The succulents we planted are growing like crazy, too.  Liz sent us a picture recently that showed that.  Linda said when all the bulbs have died completely, the MGs will cut them back and also thin the succulents.

The strawberries at the garden are starting to blossom.  Linda and her husband covered them with netting which will hopefully keep the squirrels from getting the berries.  Maybe in June, there will be berries to pick!

This is our garlic, which is doing very well!  It should be ready to harvest in June or July.  We will be happy to pick some and make a big pot of spaghetti sauce!  Linda said the onions are doing well, also.

This final picture from Linda is actually of Karen's bulb pot, which, like ours, is just lovely!  Karen wants us to know that she had started pea seeds back in early March that we were going to transfer to the garden this week.  Since we can't be with our MG friends, Karen planted them in her garden at home and they are starting to blossom.  We look forward to seeing our MG friends again, probably not until Fall, but it will be a joyful reunion when it comes!

This is a picture Lisa took on a recent visit to the garden.  She found three stones in the fairy garden in a shape that reminded her of a "Hidden Mickey," which is a representation of Mickey Mouse that is spotted somewhere unexpected!  Can you see it, too?!

We'll end this week's blog with picture of our beloved Heike!  Carol had to stop by AFCC this week and got to see her.  She works a few hours each day, at James River and other schools.  Heike sends her love and says it is SO lonely around there without us.  She can't wait for our return...and we would tell her, neither can we!  Can you tell from her eyes that she is smiling behind the mask?!  Good to "see" you, Heike!

We hope everyone has a great weekend.  Let's keep hanging in there as we head into Week 6...

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang