This week we finally got to celebrate our friend Devin's birthday! Due to a series of delays, we had to wait until he was 28 years, 1 month, and 19 days old to celebrate, but it was worth it! We enjoyed a fabulous pizza and corn hole party after our visit to the JCC Police Department on Tuesday. We also had a rare day off for a federal holiday on Wednesday, when we closed to observe Juneteenth. We were back to it on Thursday in our relocated space in a classroom at JRES, but we took time to visit with some of our therapy dog friends during a meetup at Freedom Park. Our week wrapped up on Friday with a work day at Pet Supplies Plus, and other activities at the school. We will be in the classroom space for one more week, and then we'll close for Summer Break from July 2-5. More on that next week. Meanwhile, check out this week!
Tuesday, June 18
This morning we began a two-week relocation to Room 141 at James River Elementary School while our usual space at AFCC is closed for maintenance. We were busy helping everyone find the room so we didn't get any photos before we had to rush off at 9:00 to make it to our tour at the JCC Police Department. We will get room pictures later this week! Our new friend, Jerry White, was waiting for us!
Jerry is with the Community Services Unit at the police department, and he greeted us at the front door with a friendly welcome!
Our tour with Jerry lasted about two hours and he took us into just about every nook and cranny of the huge police department building. We saw where officers and investigators do a variety of things such as pick up uniforms and supplies, receive ongoing training, work out, interview people and give polygraph tests, and even relax!
This is where officers charge the batteries for their body cameras. Jerry told us that it is also where information is downloaded and that someone monitors the footage captured on the cameras all the time.
Roll call takes place in this room before each shift. Someone asked if it is very serious all the time, and Jerry said it is actually like what is seen on tv - some joking around and light-spirited moments and then the serious stuff. He told us that the officers are tight-knit and make it a point to get to know about each other's lives and families, and that they always have each other's backs.
These are lockers where evidence is stored. Just as we arrived at this part of the tour, the officer in the background was processing some evidence, so we learned about how important it is that it is handled carefully and "packed" properly in case it needs to be further examined by the forensics lab, or used in a future court case.
Part of the tour involved taking a walk to visit the garage behind the main building. On the way over, Beka asked how to tell if a vehicle is an "unmarked" police car! Jerry showed us how they usually have lights in a few different places, but mentioned that they are supposed to be hard to detect!
Once inside the garage, we saw vehicles including motorcycles and boats. We were most interested in the SWAT truck, which Jerry described for us and also told us a few stories about when it might be used. We were able to climb up on it and look inside!
This is the marine patrol boat which Jerry said is often used in teamwork with other "jurisdictions" (word of the day!) to perform search and rescue operations. Sometimes it can be used to help sneak SWAT officers up on unsuspecting criminal activity taking place in our area's waterways! Yikes!
We got quite a few steps on our tour of the top and bottom floors of the building, plus the outside area! It was a bit warm, so when we got back inside Jerry had us take a break at the "cafe" area of the station while he told us the story of how police officers became associated with eating donuts! He said it originated in the UK when "bobbies" would be working odd shifts and not much food was available late at night or early in the morning except at bake shops where the bobbies were given pastries.
We're looking forward to making a thank you poster for Jerry and the JCC Police Department and hope it will end up with these great examples from other groups!
Thank you so much for taking us on this fun and informative tour, Jerry! We really enjoyed all of your stories and getting to check out the different areas of the station. It's a beautiful facility!
All of that learning and walking at the police department helped us work up an appetite! We were thrilled to meet Devin's dad, Scott, his mom, Roxanne, and his sister, Hailey at the Warhill picnic area for Devin's Birthday Celebration! They provided pizzas from Harris-Teeter, and they were nice and hot! What a treat!
After pizza, we played a great game of Birthday Corn Hole! Scott was on one team, and Devin was on the other. They were matched up to throw against each other, and the competition was stiff! Scott is pretty good...most of the time.
Devin is pretty good all of the time! In fact, he scored 11 of his team's 29 points today! WOW, Devin! You're not letting "old age" affect your game one bit!
Kevin scored points for his team today, too!
After a bit of coaching from Scott, Laura scored points, too!
After 3 fun rounds, we had a tie, so Devin and Scott had a toss off, which Devin won, 2-0. Congratulations to Devin's "Birthday Team" on their 29-27 win today!
Thank you for this great birthday party, Scott and Roxanne! The fresh, hot pizza really hit the spot, and you know we loved the cupcakes and sparkling flavored water! More than all that, we truly enjoyed hanging out with you and getting to see Hailey, too. We also can't thank you enough for providing enough pizza for us to have an "encore" pizza party one day next week! That will give us something to look forward to in our relocated space, where we can't cook! (Also, thanks to Nan for having room to keep it in her freezer until next week!)
Happy Birthday, Devin! We hope all your wishes come true, and you don't have to wait 1 month and 19 extra days for next year's celebration!
Wednesday, June 19
Today we paused to celebrate the Juneteenth holiday. Lisa got this photo from Sam, who is enjoying "Beach Week" with his family in the Outer Banks. He was marking the holiday with red foods, which are customary on Juneteenth to symbolize the bloodshed and sacrifice of the enslaved people. Your red beans, rice, watermelon, and cornbread look very tasty, Sam!
Thursday, June 20
We returned from our midweek holiday ready to meet the therapy dogs at the park, but first we had to check our herb garden. The herbs looked great, and we noticed the soil around them was wet! Since we were pretty sure it hasn't rained, we guessed another garden visitor had watered them for us! Maybe it was Terry Lynn, the garden's executive director, who told Lisa last week that she wanted to stop by and see our raised bed! Whoever it was, we thank them. We emptied the big jugs of water we brought out into one of the watering/rain barrels for someone else to use.
Our therapy dog friends were meeting us at Freedom Park for this month's session, since we are relocated to a small classroom this week. We were thrilled that Laura's parents and her 7 month old niece, Charlotte, could join us! We all had a great visit!
The cucumbers that were no bigger than our thumbs last Tuesday were ready to be harvested today! Yum! We'll enjoy them with lunch tomorrow!
Pip was checking out our freshly harvested cucumbers. Caroline told Alexis that Pip likes her veggies!
Aubree is always up for cuddles as Kate and Devin found out while they chatted with her and Vicky.
This is kind of gross, but we were engrossed by the sight of this dung beetle moving a pretty good-sized "meal" across our path!
Kent suggested we take a left turn at this trail which would take us to the parking lot. It was warm for today's outing, but not as humid as we expected, and there was an occasional breeze. We were pleasantly surprised!
Here we are settled in Room 141 at JRES, our home for this week and next. We don't have the space we are used to for spreading out, but with our plans to be on the go most days, it will be manageable. We are thankful to the school for providing us a space to use while the AFCC is undergoing maintenance and cleaning.
Kevin showed off the cucumbers we harvested from the garden this morning! Nan is going to slice 'em up and make her "famous" cucumbers in sweet vinegar salad for tomorrow's lunch. Thanks, Nan!
We wrapped up our day with a short, but not too heavy, lesson about the history of Juneteenth since we ran out of time on Tuesday. It's important for us to understand what June 19, 1865 meant to enslaved people, and to raise our awareness about a complicated and tragic time in our country's history.
Friday, June 21
With the Wednesday holiday this week, it seemed Friday arrived a lot quicker! We sent a crew to work at Pet Supplies Plus this morning, while the others stayed in Room 141 to make thank you cards for Devin's family for Tuesday's birthday/pizza party. We also enjoyed one of our favorite lunch meals, chicken and pasta Caesar salad with a side of fruity JELL-O salad. Thanks to Lisa, Carol, and Nan for preparing it at home and brining it to us today. What teamwork! It came together deliciously! Our afternoon was spent with board games and Bingo. It was a fun ending to our first week of relocation, 2024!
Xavier and Bryan made sure the birds won't go hungry this weekend!
Patrick and Alexis watered the tomato plant and spotted flowers! Hopefully we'll have tomatoes soon!
We are sad that our sunflower plant has been eaten! Maybe a deer?
Beka, Erik, and Laura stocked a lot of items on the fish aisle at the pet store.
Bryan enjoys stocking the reptile products.
Devin's sister, Hailey, joined Liz and her brother to stock pet toys! (The girls look pleased with this arrangement...😜)
Oops, when pets visit there is sometimes a need for clean-up on Aisle 7! Thanks, Hannah and Brittany!
When you just have to have a chat with the boss!
Charlie, black and white, and Chappy, the tabby, are looking for "furever" homes! Come to PSP and check them out!
Thanks, Hailey, for all your help. You've really got this!
Today everyone wanted to showcase summer dog clothing!! Such a great selection at Pet Supplies Plus!
One of our favorite lunches, made better today with a side of cucumbers from the garden!
Hungry Turtle game between Drew and Laura made plenty of noise!
Jenga on the rug meant Bryan and Erik were not making plenty of noise!
Shrek matching game, with a lot of pairs left to match, for Xavier and Patrick!
So, with Alexis, Beka, Laura, Erik, and Devin "playing," why aren't there more matches in this game?! 😃
Nan got in on the Hungry Turtle game with Annmarie and Drew. She's kind of competitive!
Our last picture of the week was during our Bingo game. Whenever someone called "BINGO" their prize was to have Siri tell us a joke on Lisa's phone!
Week 1 of Relocation was a breeze! We'll be back for Week 2 on Tuesday. We have a busy week planned that includes a special experience at the Virginia Living Museum on Thursday. Here are all of our plans:
Tuesday: Today we will have our final spring/summer session with the Master Gardeners. We'll check our crops, and maybe harvest potatoes if they are ready. We'll also celebrate another great season with a game of herb bingo and refreshments. It's looking like a warm day, so we will plan to return to JRES for lunch and inside activities for the afternoon. Arc shirts optional. Please bring a bagged lunch.
Wednesday: We will volunteer at GCOC this morning and also have a lesson to prepare for tomorrow's field trip to the Virginia Living Museum. We will have pizza and watermelon for lunch, with thanks to the Bobowicz family for giving us all the leftover pizza from Dev's party (a lot!) and to Nan for keeping it in her freezer for us! It's National Chocolate Pudding Day so we will celebrate with chocolate pudding (and a few add-ins!) as we enjoy a movie afternoon! Arc shirts are optional today because we need to wear them tomorrow!
Thursday: Today we are visiting the Virginia Living Museum and enjoying lunch at Angelo's Steakhouse (for burgers and fries) thanks to a very generous donation from our friends Peggy and Joel and a scholarship from the Living Museum. Peggy and Joel work with us at Grove Christian Outreach Center and their recent gift will make it possible for us to enjoy lunch at the restaurant! They asked that we "do something fun" and we're pretty excited about this! Please wear Arc shirts!
Friday: We'll bring June to a close with a work day at Eaton, so please wear Eaton shirts and bring a bagged lunch. We don't have space for yoga, and it will likely be too warm to walk at the park, so we will plan to return to the school after work to "chill" and hang out with our friends.
Families - Just a reminder that the Arc of Abilities will be closed the week of July 2-5 for Summer Break. We will reopen on Tuesday, July 9, back in the multipurpose room at the AFCC.
Enjoy the weekend and stay hydrated!
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
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