Weekly Wrap UP 6/25/21 -- odds and ends

A couple of weeks  ago my husband and I visited a local winery.  My husband guitar instructor was playing there.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day.  

Music was good

the scenery was great and the weather was perfect.  

To be able to sit out in a a crowd and not worry was wonderful.  I forgot how much I enjoyed people watching.  We were there about four hours and really had a nice visit.

I have been enjoying my time in my glass studio!  I have been busy working on a few projects.

I made a simple piece to hold my air plant for my kitchen window.  

Still working on my dogwood lamp.  All the piece cut and fitted now to copper foil them all and start soldering.

I was super excited as I have another commission piece requested.  This time by a local music store.  They wanted a guitar lamp completed.  They gave me an old 12 string guitar and after a couple weeks of consulting on patterns and price I am working on getting it done.  

Initials are for the store -- an idea of what it will look like with light behind it

almost all cut out and ready to assemble

Over the summer I will be blogging a bit sporadically as I plan on doing my stain glass hobby, visiting my mother (helping her move into her new home) as well as just spending time with my family.  I will be back to regular blogging for Mariofan's Senior year sometime in Aug/Sept.  

Hope you have a fabulous summer!

Weekly Wrap up 6/18/21-- 11th grade completed and other news

 MarioFan completed 11th grade, actually he finished a few weeks ago but I just got around to writing about it.  MarioFan took 3 online classes and received an A in all his classes and I was very proud of him as I was really hands off, but available if he asked for help, but most of the time he did everything just fine.  He showed up on time and completed most of his work on or before the class deadline with minimal assistance from me. 

MarioFan completed his last 2 project for electronics which was to assemble the circuit and box for a useless machine and counter.  I must admit I wasn't around much for this build as I was pretty much checked out of schooling by this point.  Luckily he did it on his own.  If you are looking for electronic soldering builds I highly recommend Spikenzeilab. We have used several different companies for projects with varying success.  This is our favorite company as they had clear, concise and easy to understand instructions and videos.  

I did catch the testing phase and saw in in action 

Assembling the box to surround the electronics

Useless machine in action, when you turn the switch on a lever comes up 

and turns the switch off:). Pretty useless LOL

The plans for the summer for MarioFan will be to continue private tutor for piano and Spanish tutoring weekly and to attend 3 different summer camps, 2 are being done virtually and 1 is a sleep away camp.  He also wants to start studying for his driving permit in order to take the test by the end of the summer.  We  have plans to get together weekly with one of his friends so they can socialize since there hasn't been much of that this past year.  Everyone has been vaccinated so we are safe to get together!

I am planning to take a break from most school related activities and work on my stain glass hobby for a bit.  I have a rough outline of courses for next year classes and a very brief outline of lessons for some of the classes.  I will work on those a little later in the summer. 

Firedrake has been home for a month and did well with her first year at college, although she ran out of steam by the end of the second semester.  I think everyone was feeling this way, it has been a hard year for everyone!   She was a bit worn out by the end of the spring semester and was actually ready to come home.  She took about a week off to relax and get a few things done, like going to the dentist and cutting her hair!

I will admit I was not enthusiastic about her cutting her hair short as she has such gorgeous long red hair.  However once it was done it look good!!!

She was quite happy with the new do and it will be cooler for the summer months.

side view

Firedrake has also found a summer job! She is now working at Walgreens for the summer and they said she can transfer her job to her college town when she returns to school if she likes.  We think it may be a good idea to maybe have one or two shifts a week during the school year so she can transfer back to the Walgreens in town when out of school over the Christmas holidays or summer break and not have to keep looking for summer jobs.  However that is still up in the air as studying for college is her priority.

Kids have already gone to six flags three times this summer and have plans for many more trips since we live so close by.  It feels like things are slowly returning to normal and that is a huge relief for us all! 

Weekly wrap Up 6/11/21 What's Happening

 We had a pretty full week. MarioFan had a week of activities for his birthday.  But we also had a very worrying week as MarioFan's best friend was in the hospital and we could not visit due to covid rules.  Luckily MarioFan was able to talk to his friend almost daily.  HIs friend is home now but still not completely out of the woods.  We are scheduled to visit with him soon. 

He had a night out at the baseball stadium.  First game in will over a year.

Unfortunately the home team lost.  This is the last week of limited capacity so they had plenty of space around them to be safe.

We spent the day at six flags on his actual birthday which made him very happy.  

He was even considerate and went on a few rides that I enjoy like the Ferris wheel:) 

As a family we went to our favorite but expensive restaurants the Melting pot!  

This week was also the week his virtual camp delivered the company swag and snack for next weeks Career camp.  The camp is introducing Tech jobs to the kids and all the swag is related to what they will be learning.  The red hat is from a video gaming company.  

Normally he is happy to take pictures but not on this day 

I haven't mentioned Firedrake as her schedule is sort of crazy.  She works usually from 4 to 10:30 and then stays up till late talking to her friends on the computer.  She gets up somewhere around noon and I may get a few minutes with her before I need to go somewhere. 

However I was able to sneak in a dinner for just the two of us on one of her nights off. 

We went to the local Italian restaurant she likes and had some quality time together.  I am trying to squeeze in as much time as I can before she flies the coop:) 

Weekly Wrap UP 6/04/21-- Happy 17th birthday to MarioFan

 This very Tall and handsome boy is 17 years old today!  I can't believe how fast time has flown by.  My husband and I were very lucky to be his parents and so proud of who he has become.  We can't wait to see where his future leads him.  Due to covid last year we weren't able to really celebrate his 16th birthday in style like we usually do so this year we went all out. 

He wanted to spend the day at Six flags amusement park and tomorrow we are going to the Melting Pot which is the kids favorite restaurant!  My husband also bought Baseball tickets for next week for a boys night out.  MarioFan loves going to baseball games and since we couldn't go to any last year we bought tickets for his birthday.  

We only have one more year of homeschooling and then he will be off to college.  We are planning a couple of college tours soon, yes I know we are a bit behind (I am blaming the covid pandemic on that) I have very mixed feelings on this as then my role as a home school mom is over and I still need to figure out what my next stage in life will be!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARIOFAN!  WE LOVE YOU LOADS!  WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU!!