Laughter is the Best Medicine!

 

We have always enjoyed laughter at the Arc of Abilities, but this week we made a new friend who takes it to a new level, and plans to teach us how good it is for us!   Check out our visit with Laura Beach in the Wednesday summary, and while you're here, go ahead and check out the rest of our enjoyable week that included finishing our "mer-mazing" merpeople with Jeff, volunteering at Grove, and working at Pet Supplies Plus...for starters!

Tuesday

We didn't know we were going to need a Plan B when we headed to Ft. Eustis to visit the Army Transportation Museum, but that's what happened.  We stopped at the Visitor Center to get a pass to enter the base, but it was packed with so many people that we knew it would take a while.  So, we "pivoted" and ended up at Newport News Park...with two goals:  get a good walk and find a perfect spot for a group picture because all 17 of us were here for the first time in months!  👏👏

Our first attempt wasn't too bad, but there are some shadows...

This was our second effort.  It's a little better!

 This was our 3rd group photo and there aren't any shadows, but the sun was in everyone's eyes so the smiles are kind of wonky!  We still look great, though!

This seemed like a nice spot, but we were getting a little weary of Lisa stopping us to take pictures.  After we humored her, this one turned out to have too many shadowy faces.  We needed to get to the bridge and check out the turtles!

One more she said!  It's not bad, but we should have let her arrange us better!  (Carol tried!)  If you zoom in, and have great eyesight, you can spot 17 faces!  Oh well, at least we documented that one day when all of us were here at the same time!!  Hopefully it will last for the entire week... UPDATE:  Drew missed Wednesday due to an appointment, which is rare for him, but we had PERFECT ATTENDANCE the other three days of the week!  👏👏

Most of the turtles were swimming, and there were hundreds of them!  But these fellas wanted to be in the blog, so they lined up on a log and waved at us!

We returned to the AFCC for lunch since we thought it would be too warm and muggy to eat outside, so we didn't bring our lunches.  It was actually nice at the park and we could have had a comfortable lunch there at one of the shelters.  We'll make a note to always be prepared and have lunches with us in the future!

After Choice Time, we checked last week's blog and then had some travel updates!  Adia' parents were in northern California last week, and they visited Alcatraz Prision.  Adia told us about some of the weird things that took place there!

Adia's parents also got to see giant redwood trees, which excited Adia because the read-aloud we just finished last week took place among the redwood trees of northern California!  Adia's mom, Stacey, shared some photos with us and we were able to picture the story more vividly.  Thanks, Stacey!

Michelle spent time last week with her family in the Washington, DC and Baltimore area.  She visited The National Aquarium and got this really cool shark's tooth necklace as a souvenir!

Kevin's adventure with his family last week was to Maine where they hiked at Acadia National Park!  Kevin brought a postcard for our travel album, and also colorful stickers from Acadia for each of us.  Thanks, Kevin and Family.  That was very thoughtful of you and we had fun choosing from all of the different ones!

After checking the blog and sharing travel stories, we didn't have enough time for Dollar Day activities, so we will move them to next week when we set up a thrift store activity.  With a few extra minutes at the end of the day, we cranked up some tunes and sang and danced!

Wednesday

Only one group volunteered at Grove Christian Outreach Center today because they had an event planned and couldn't fit us for both hours.  Dev B, Laura, Liz, Kevin, Adia, Xavier, Kate, Tessa, and Erik got right to work with Peggy and Joel to bag canned goods.  They got to meet and work with Jonathan, minister of Day Break Church, who was volunteering today, too!

Another task this group handled was sorting the variety of products that come in Feeding America donation boxes, and repacking them so like products are together.  GCOC has a large pantry that is set up like a grocery store, and our sorting and repacking items saves them a lot of time when organizing everything!

It turned out to be a silver lining that both groups weren't needed at GCOC.  We had plans to make a colorful welcome board for today's guest, and we didn't get started on it yesterday like we should have.  The extra time was a gift, and Annmarie, Sam, Patrick, Alexis, Abraham, Sweet T, Nan, and Michelle did a great job!  

Don't you agree?!  We were welcoming Laura Beach, who is a Certified Laughter Coach.  She is spreading laughter, light, love, and joy in Williamsburg through laughter yoga workshops that focus on laughing, breathing, and other mindfulness strategies.  It's simple, yet powerful!

We invited Laura for a lunchtime meet and greet today, and as soon as she entered the room, the vibe was joyful and relaxed.  The gang took to her immediately!  Our friend from the therapy dog group, Caroline, hooked us up after she participated in one of Laura's workshops.  Caroline thought Laura would be a great fit for us, and she was right!  Thanks, Caroline!!

Everyone was all ears as Laura told us a little bit about herself.  She used to work as a fundraiser for organizations like the United Way and the law school at W&M.  She's married and has two grown children.  Her husband is a geologist and they love Williamsburg, where they have lived for 25 years!

Our lunch today was one of our faves - Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad with Carol's famous grilled veggies.  We harvested the squash and zucchini at the garden last week and Carol added red peppers and onions.  Soooo good!  Thanks for bringing your grill from home, Carol, and cooking them for us!

The socializing continued after lunch, with Laura learning all about us as we learned more about her.  Here, we were telling her about it being National Book Lovers Day, and showing her the books we brought to share.  Were weren't surprised to learn that Laura enjoys reading, too!

Laura will visit us again in two weeks for an official session of laughter yoga.   Before leaving today, she gave us a preview of what to expect.  We think it's going to be a lot of fun!  Thanks, Laura.  We enjoyed meeting you and look forward to our laughter yoga session with you!!

Laughter Laura told us her daughter is a baker at Emily's Donuts, so we were a little nervous for her to try our baking, especially since we tried a new recipe (peanut butter frosting) for our cupcakes today.  They were very tasty, though, and Laura approved!

National Book Lovers Day is a fun celebration.  Everyone enjoyed hearing about their friends' favorite books, some from now and some from childhood.  We're glad we have lifelong readers!

We ended the day with a game of Book Jeopardy.  Our guys knew a lot of answers in categories like Chapter Books, Picture Books, and Parts of Books!  

Thursday

Today began with two of our best helpers, Xavier and Dev B, moving some custodial supplies from our storage closet to Heike's!  She really appreciated them doing that for her, and we appreciated them getting the supplies out of our way!

Next, we had a lesson to mark World Lion Day.  We learned that lions are not endangered, but they are vulnerable.  There are estimated to be less than 30,000 in the wild in Africa!  We also learned that a lion's roar is deafening, and can be heard for a distance of up to 5 miles.  WOW!  Of course, we had to dance, as well!

Since a lion's roar may be heard for 5 miles, it made us curious as to if it's the loudest animal on the planet, and we found out, it's not!  There are many louder animals including hyenas, blue whales, and even a tiny shrimp called the "pistol shrimp."  When it clicks its claw, it shoots water with such velocity that it creates an air bubble, and when the bubble implodes it creates a shock wave even louder than a gunshot or a whale's call!  This really amazed us!  More amazing than that, was that Michelle already knew this amazing fact about the pistol shrimp!

By mid-morning Jeff and his daughter Allison had arrived for the grand finale of our merpeople project:  adding facial features and other details!  Jeff brought foam "hands" for us to add, too.  He showed us how to apply them so they would stick to our sculptures.

Kevin, Michelle, and Abraham missed last week's painting session at Jeff's studio, so they had to catch up today!  They had the help of a few friends and in the end, their merpeople were complete!

This is Kate carefully applying brown paint for hair on her merman's head.  She was creating it to resemble a character from a show she likes, so she pulled his picture up on her phone for reference!

Erik was a master at applying crinkly paper to be hair on his merman, and when he finished, he was available to help others.  Alexis was also working on hair for her mermaid, but she was using yarn.  Drew was about to get some help to put hair on his project!

Laura enjoyed tying pieces of yarn around her mermaid's arms and tail for a unique effect, because the glue was too messy.  Annmarie wanted a lot of hair (yarn) on her mermaid.  Jeff explained that too much yarn was heavier than the glue could hold, so they gave the mermaid a little trim!

We worked for quite a while on our merpeople, and enjoyed Jeff's background music very much!

When they were finished, both Jeff's daugther, Allison, and Annmarie were happy with their mermaids' hair styles!  So cute!

We celebrated the completion of our merpeople with a Sloppy Joe luncheon that included S'mores no bake cookies to celebrate our great work AND it being National S'mores Day.  Jeff and Allison joined us, and a good time was had by all!!  We put our merpeople on the table to dry, and took two pictures to capture them all!  All 17 of our AoA members were back today, so everyone had a finished masterpiece!

These merpeople are incredible.  From beautiful hair, bracelets, and necklaces to belly buttons, chest hair, and six-pack abs, our guys were very creative!  Jeff, you outdid yourself with this art lesson.  We had no idea when we started it 3 weeks ago that we would end up with such works of art.  Our guys not only had fun, but they reveled in the pride of a job well-done.  It was great to see them inspiring and helping each other and complimenting each other's work!  We loved meeting Allison and working with her, too.  She's a sweetheart!  Thank you so much for doing this with us. 💖💖💖

Before Jeff could get out the door, we snapped a picture after he and Sam had gone through many rounds of "You're the man...No, you're the man!"

What could we do after a morning like we had, but kick back and celebrate National Lazy Day after lunch?!  These friends are such hams!

More Lazy Day celebrating over on this side of the room!

We let Choice Time / Lazy Day last a little longer than we should have, but we wrapped up the day by delving into our new read-aloud called A Corner of the Universe by Ann M. Martin.  It is about a family in 1960 who had sent their now adult son with developmental disabilities to live in an institution, but when it closes, he comes back "home."  We expect some good discussions with this one...but then, we always have good discussions when we read together!

Friday

Carol remembered she had a postcard from her recent trip to Norway, so she brought it today and we added it to our postcard album!  Carol wrote about the highlights of her trip on the back of the postcard, and dated it.  Our postcard album has 3 cards in it already!!

One of today's tasks for the crew that wasn't working at Pet Supplies Plus was assembling The Arc's September mailing.  It was Tessa's first time helping, and we had her stuffing the letters into envelopes.  She did an excellent job.  Tessa, you're hired!  👏👏

Dev B had the job of putting stamps on the envelopes after Alexis applied address labels.  They were focused and efficient.  Kevin's specialty is removing the strip on the envelope flap so he can seal the envelopes, and he did a great job, too!  Be sure to check the calendar and get your sign up sheet returned on time.  September's events include a baseball clinic with W&M's baseball team and a W&M soccer game!

Patrick ran a Bingo game for this group while the others worked on the mailing.  They had fun playing as a smaller group, and Pat was an excellent facilitator!

This group had time for a corn hole game, too!

Meanwhile, our work crew went to PSP this morning and helped with many jobs.  Sam and Erik checked that products were "front-facing" and if not, they had to turn them around.  After this, they helped Scott remove old signs from the doors and made a dumpster run, too!

Liz and Michelle worked together to stock pet toys!  Wonder if they squeaked any of them...just for fun?!  😁

A delivery truck had come yesterday, so there was a lot of product to put on the shelves.  Adia, Michelle, Liz, and Kate were able to make a big dent in emptying the boxes!

PSP partners with Heritage Humane Society to provide cat adoptions.  There are 3 sweet, cuddly kittens available now!  Anyone looking for a cozy kitten?!

This week's featured product is the Pet Deli!  It's loaded with treats for your favorite pets!!   

Ms. Vallone (assistant principal at JRES) stopped by to say "hello" and we congratulated her on her recent marriage!  She also told us that her daughter Ashley, who is one of our friends, recently got not 1, but 2 new Cane Corso dogs.  We looked them up and you can see from the picture on the screen that they are huge!!  We were happy to learn that Ashley buys food for them at Pet Supplies Plus!

We had the best lunch today, and dug in so quickly we forgot to take a picture.  We apologize to Kate's mom, Elizabeth, for not photographing our delicious meal.  We think she knows how much we all loved it!  By the time we realized we forgot to take pictures, Elizabeth and Kate had left to start their weekend early.  So, here we are with an empty Chick-fil-A bag, but full tummies!  The sandwiches (and sodas!) were very tasty.  Thanks for your gracious treat today, Elizabeth.  We enjoyed having lunch with you and truly appreciate your thoughtfulness!

Our delicious lunch had digested a bit by the time we enjoyed a relaxing yoga session.  This is a fun stretch Jaime calls "Washing Machine" pose because we twist from side to side once we put our hands behind our heads.  After this, it was time for the weekend!!

We're looking forward to next week.  Here's a look at our plans:

Tuesday:  We're going to see our friends at The Mariners' Museum today and we're taking a tour of the Monitor Center and Clean Conservation Lab.  That sounds exciting!  We're planning to return to AFCC for lunch, but bring a bagged lunch just in case the weather is surprisingly nice, like it was last Tuesday!   We'll also have a lesson for National Aviation Day.  Please wear Arc shirts today.

Wednesday:  Our therapy dog friends visit today, and it's the 1 year anniversary of our partnership!!  We'll celebrate with cookies and lemonade, and next month we'll have a special luncheon.  (There are renovations being made in the office area at AFCC so our access to the kitchen area is limited for now.)  We're also celebrating National Tell a Joke Day and with a new game called Science Joke Bingo!  Lunch on your own.  Microwave is available.

Thursday:  Our friend Sandra is returning today for a fun dance party followed by her famous Colombian pork and rice for lunch!  She's such a good cook, and we love when she visits...it's always a party!  Thanks, Sandra.  We can't wait to see you again!  In other activities, today is National Thrift Store Day, so we're going to set up our own thrift store.  Everyone is invited to bring a few items they no longer want, and we'll set up a store and go shopping with our friends!

Friday:  We have a work day at Eaton planned, so please wear Eaton shirts and bring a bagged lunch.  There should be time for yoga when we return to the center, so dress to stretch, too!

  Registration for the 5k is open and the rate is only $35 through August 20th.  That includes this year's beautiful t-shirt!  ***NOTE - Arc Clients can use code Client23 for a reduced registration fee of $20.***  

We hope to have a great showing from the AoA, so click Drew's handsome mug and you can sign up today!

Enjoy the weekend!  Stay cool!

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang