Spring Break Staycation...Rahn Style!

What do you do when you aren't traveling for spring break and you are trying to save money for big summer adventures?  You have a pile of "staycations" and lots of at home fun. And you might just get a lot accomplished.....Read on for some ideas that we tried this past week:

• You can make homemade "pull apart" cinnamon rolls (from scratch)....

• You can send your kids to Rocky and Rina's house for two nights.  They will make their own fun without you...

• You can finally use a gift card you've had for a while and GO BOWLING! A family first for the Rahns....and LOTS of fun!!

Some other ideas might include:

• A date night with your husband - dinner and a movie
• Sprain your ankle at the beginning of the week, and then you don't have to do all that heavy cleaning you were planning on
• Lunch out with your husband
• Make homemade chocolate chip cookies with your kids (for the first time ever)
• Plan extensively for those summer vactions (which is the reason you are home anyway)
• Lay out in the sun (in the 55-60 degree weather) on your back deck, so that you will have a tan and look like you went somewhere warm and exotic - ignore the goosebumps!
• clean out closets
• read a book
• catch up on DVR TV
• watch a movie or two with your husband
• play board games with your kids
• sell things on Ebay - to make money for that summer fun

So, yes we stayed home...but we had fun and I did actually read a whole novel! I had some quality time with Don (without the girls) and then we had some quality family time (with the girls).

Vacation planning is in full swing! We have just added another 4 day trip in between Florida and Alaska.  We will be flying to Seattle for 3 nights (without the girls). The next post will be details on our summer plans and how to take a 61 day summer and spend 30 days of it traveling!

Stay tuned.....

Silly String....on you....for your birthday?

We've finally been able to settle down a bit from February.  March was relatively calm, though a bit cold for our tastes.

A highlight of this past month was another family birthday.  Carleigh turned 11 on March 22 and we had yet another crazy, family party.  Don prides himself on setting up the perfect photo op for our family get togethers...so, he plotted and planned and kept it secret until all were assembled.

Carleigh's family party was a lunch picnic with close by relatives.

   It was a fun time...especially when Don brought out the Silly String! :)

The object of "the game" was to knock down the characters that had been set up on the table in front of the "players."

Well...the result was achieved, but....the birthday girl got stuck in the middle of it!

I think she enjoyed it!!

Then the leftovers were aimed at my sister, Patty.....

Luckily, it was a nice day outside and the cleanup wasn't horrible.  Don was a good husband, and did most of the cleanup so that the dogs wouldn't enjoy the silly string too much.

I headed in to prepare the birthday cake for my BIG GIRL!!

Carleigh's birthday extravaganza continued with a "Mystery Party" with her friends later that evening.  Each girl came as a scripted character that was invited to Dame Sarah's Mansion to solve the mystery of her missing diamond ring.  It was a fun time.  My mom played the role of Dame Sarah.

Then Rina brought out the wigs that she had in her car for a class that she was teaching...the girls loved those!

And...one more birthday cake!

Happy Birthday Carleigh!!!!!

The February Blur and....now what?

    February is over and I don't even remember all of it...where did the month go?  It's all in a month's work....and wow did this month go fast! I knew it would, but some of the events of this month came as a surprise, and some had been planned since last year..... Let's reflect back and see if I can make some sense of what made this month seem like a blur:

The events:

Carleigh gets braces 
Katie gets braces
Carleigh gets 4 teeth pulled
Don passes out, transported in an ambulance, then hospitalized
70 degree weather, then freak snow day 
Talent Show
Basketball playoffs


The details of the events:

Luckily I thrive on being busy and enjoy trying to multitask, but I could have done without some of the excitement of this past month.

The month started with Katie recovering from having her two teeth pulled.  They were huge!!! Her 6 year molars on the top were coming in very crooked and also unhealthy, so the best bet was to remove them and make room for the rest of her giant teeth to come in.

Yep...huge and unhealthy! The tooth fairy was very nice and gave her $5 for each tooth.  Watching your child go to sleep with IV anesthesia is not fun, but she came out of it fine.


Next...


Carleigh gets her "big girl" braces.  Carleigh has been in orthodontics since July after Kindergarten.  She has had expanders, about 6 different retainers, a set of "little girl" braces for about 8 months, and now..... Finally, she gets her final set of braces - she will wear them for the next  27 months and then enter into 8th grade with a beautiful mouth and no orthodontics (we hope).


A week later...


Katie gets her "little girl" braces.  Upon removal of the teeth, it was time to start to work on straightening the top teeth to make room for the rest to come in.  She will be in braces for about 8 months and then a retainer until it is time for her to get "big girl" braces.


A week later....


Carleigh's turn to get 4 teeth pulled. The orthodontist has been trying for a year to move her top teeth with retainers and make room for her last two teeth to drop down...no luck.  So, easiest answer?  Take out the four pre-molars and make room.  Ironically, the teeth that Carleigh got pulled are the same 4 permanent teeth that I had pulled in 7th grade before I got my braces.  She's my little mini-me.  Her IV anesthesia experience was not as much fun as Katie's.  Carleigh agreed that being  "drugged" was not very fun, and she had a hard time waking up from the surgery.  We finally got her home, and she rested and recovered well.  The tooth fairy came through and she received the same as Katie for a total of $20.

2 days later....


Don decides to turn the world upside down for a few days.   He had bronchitis, got tested for pneumonia (was negative) and was coughing a WHOLE lot.  While he as coughing, he couldn't get enough air in and suffered from "cough syncope" ...passing out from coughing too hard.  It had happened at home and there was a nice soft carpet, or a bed and he always recovered quickly with no side effects.


This time...not so much..a classroom, a coughing spell, a fall to the ground, a big bump on the head, a class full of fourth graders and an RN in the clinic...equals -  when Don goes down, this time he goes to the emergency room! 


Upon reaching the emergency room, a head injury means CT scans and lots of tests, then they asked about the cough.  As his blood pressure came down, and they started sharing some of the results...an abnormal CT scan with an unknown "artifact." - could have been there since birth, but have to check it out.  So....the facility we were at didn't have the resources to read the scans and make decisions.  Time to transport him.  He was a "fall risk," and must be transported by ambulance to the much larger, teaching hospital - Fairfax Hospital - over an hour away in rush hour traffic.  Off we went, I followed the ambulance and we were off.  We reached Fairfax ER and more tests and analyzing of the results from the first ER.  Definitely an artifact that needs to be looked at further, he is now admitted for overnight observation and more tests and another CT scan in the morning.  I finally make it home at about midnight - only leaving after being reassured that it was probably nothing and my husband would still be there in the morning when I returned.  He was admitted to the Neurological Ward...very scary/interesting floor of the hospital. He was a "fall risk and not allowed out of bed.  Nope...not even to go to the bathroom...he wasn't thrilled about that.  These were the signs that adorned his room door and wall by his bed:

The next day I awoke to try and piece together the day to keep it as normal as possible for the girls.  I got a sub at school and spent the morning trying to fix our schedules for the girls to not have to come to the hospital with me and still have all of their afternoon activities.  When all was in place, I left and headed to the hospital...got there just as Don finished his redo CT scan and we waited.....he was finally released at 5:30, and we were back in Purcellville before 7:00.  Doctor's release orders included no driving, and follow up with PCP and a neurologist.


He's not done yet - about two weeks after his fall and he has one more Dr's appt - has been cleared to drive, has had a follow up MRI, EEG and a few other letters.  Luckily, insurance seems to be cooperating and no big hospital bills have showed up....yet!


I realized through this adventure, how LUCKY I am to have such a great family and group of friends around me.  My parents met us at the first ER and took the girls home to have a normal evening.  My sister drove - after work - in rush hour - to our house in Purcellville, got things for Don and then drove the next hour to the 2nd ER to sit with me and be there to keep me calm until Don was admitted.  The next day friends were more than willing to take the girls after school and drive them to their activities and keep them indefinitely - feed them dinner and entertain them until Don and I got back from the hospital. Another teacher at school stepped up to take over the practice that I had scheduled for afterschool (on a Friday). We had meals provided for us, so that we wouldn't have to deal with trying to cook for two days. I truly felt so lucky to be surrounded by all of these caring people. I only hope that I am able to repay the generosity and thoughtfulness that I was surrounded with during those crazy 3 days.

Two days later....


During that crazy adventure, Don totally missed the beautiful 70 degree and sunny weather that we had for 2 days.  Luckily he didn't miss the craziness that Mother Nature threw at us two days later when she decided to forecast 4-8 inches of snow.  That accumulation didn't materialize, but we did get enough to cancel school. 


Three days later....


The Mountain View Talent Show - 3 months of planning, 40 student acts, 70 students ranging in age from 6 - 11 years old, 3 awesome adult co-hosts, a huge multi-purpose room with standing room only (about 600 in attendance) and a clock that read 2 hours and 45 minutes from start to finish.....


I was in charge of this event with a team of volunteer moms and dads, and teachers.   What a great night, but wow...a lot of work.  You may think - elementary school talent and almost three hours - where's the gun?  It could have turned out that way if not for the 3 teacher co-hosts including my dear husband, Mr. Rahn.  Yep, less than a week after being hospitalized...he is up on stage co-hosting the school talent show.  The PG adult humor supplied by the hosts in skits and jokes between acts kept the audience from rioting and leaving before the end.


Carleigh has been performing in the school talent show since Kindergarten and Katie made her first appearance as a "future Mountain View Moose" when she was 4.  Both girls did solo acts this year - Carleigh...her last as a fifth grader heading to Middle School  - did a dance choreographed by my sister, Patty.  Katie - as a third grader - sang a song - Wishes - from the Magic Kingdom fireworks show in Disney World.

 

 

 

 

 

 Carleigh ended the show with 7 of her friends doing a "Glee" style song and dance to So Long, Farewell from the Sound of Music.  The words were changed to show them leaving and going to Middle School.  It brought a tear to many eyes as they said "farewell" to elementary school.

 

The evening was a huge success and a great big sigh of relief was said by all as we fell into bed that night. Would I do it again...you betcha!!! Will Don do it again? Absolutely not.  He is officially retired as a MTV Talent Show Co-host.  The next MTV Talent Show is tentatively scheduled for February, 2013.  Wanna come? :)



The next day....


Basketball playoffs start for both girls....


Katie had a great season and ended the season after losing her first playoff game.  She was disappointed, but is looking forward to next year and improving and learning some more.


Carleigh's team won their first game, and advanced to the semi-finals.  They won that game - which was a huge win, as they were definitely the underdog.  They advanced to the championship game - with a season of 4 wins, 6 losses.  The final game was crazy!! Both teams played incredible basketball and ended up tied at the final buzzer.  After a 2 minute overtime, the game was still tied, then on to sudden death.....both teams attempt to score and a final foul shot is scored by the other team to end the game.  Carleigh was upset, but also knows she should be very proud of how her team and how she (individually) played.  She's looking forward to trying out for a travel team and again playing with her friends.

It was a busy month, but we survived.  Now, please let us have a peaceful March and time to rest and recuperate from the craziness of February.  And again, many thanks to all of our friends and family who were there to help us out during the various adventures of February!! We appreciated all of your kind words and thoughts as we made it through the month.


And now, it's March!


March means spring, relaxing, normal 5 day weeks and looking ahead to summer!!


Looking ahead to summer means VACATIONS!


Vacations mean planning.....and...


....that is what I am going to be doing for the next 3 months as we look ahead to our summer adventures!!


Stay tuned for the latest in the Rahn adventures and YES, I THINK we are heading back to Disney World after all this summer!! Details to follow.....

A Snow Day Means.......

....time to do the things that you don't always have time for!

And that means a new post to let you know what the Rahns have been up to and are planning!

In the Rahn house January is typically a month to get back into the groove, watch football, track winter storms, hibernate and look ahead to our summer vacations!!  And that is exactly what we have been busily doing for the past few weeks.

I tend to be more productive when I am overscheduled and very busy!  That is proving true this month.
For starters:

• I am busily planning our 2 hour school talent show which will be happening at the end of February.  It involves over 80 students, 39 "wonderful" elementary school talent acts and convincing my wonderful, awesome, loving husband that this is fun and Yes...he is a great co-host and will thoroughly enjoy emceeing this event with two other fabulous teachers from school! Both girls are performing solo acts this year.  Katie is singing "Wishes," the theme song from the Magic Kingdom Fireworks Show at Disney World - I know I'll get teary eyed when she performs it...and Carleigh has worked with my sister, Patty, to choreograph a fantastic dance to "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz. (I didn't know who he was either, until she introduced me to the song.)
• I am also co-directing our Fourth Grade musical (the acting part) with another teacher at school. 1607 - Disappearance at Jamestown will be performed on February 10 (2 weeks before the talent show).  It involves two afterschool practice a week with about 20 kids.  I am thoroughly enjoying that also!
• Throw in 4 basketball practices, 2 dance classes, 1 piano lesson, Girl Scout activities, and Sunday School every week and I guess the word hibernation doesn't really fit!

The calendar is full, but it hasn't prevented us from finding ways to have fun!

Here are some basketball pics - Katie's first time playing and Carleigh's second season:

Since I have so much time on my hands right now (and have nothing else to worry about) :) , I have been doing some serious vacation planning! Here are the updates:

• Our Florida vacation in June has been canceled! Very sad about that, but also very excited about the reasons behind our canceling.  Once we started thinking about what we could do in Alaska with more $$, we decided to save our return to Disney World and the Florida National Parks for another year.  Hopefully 2012!
• Vancouver and Alaska planning is in full swing.  Here are some of the details that we have been working on so far:
• We are going to spend a full day at Whistler Resort outside Vancouver.  I'm having a lot of fun exploring the activities and fun that we could have there including mountain climbing, gondala rides, bungee trampoline for the girls, Alpine slides, nature walks, snow capped mountains, etc.
• Another day in Vancouver with ziplining (for all 4 of us this time) at Grouse Mountain and a cheesy Lumberjack show (Don will probably sit this one out) 
• Then we will embark on our 7 night cruise through the Inside Passage of Alaska which we are planning to include:
• a private 3 hour whale watching adventure in Juneau - already tentatively booked the reservation for the 11 people in our party
• a helicopter ride to the top of a glacier and then 2 hours in a sled dog camp in Skagway
• and I am working on a private 5 hour grizzly bear adventure for just Don in Ketchikan.  The girls and I will go shopping and sightseeing that day.
• The above adventures are the reason that we decided to cancel our June Florida adventure.  One thing that I hold true to with my vacation planning is that I refuse to go into debt to pay for these vacations.  All vacations are budgeted and all money is saved and available for the trip before we leave.
• I'll miss walking down Main Street in Disney World and feeling the magic...but whale watching and sled dog riding will probably make up for it. :)
• So...since Florida is canceled, I've got to find a way to occupy my Wanderlust until mid July when we head to Emerald Isle with the family.....Don says no vacations, but that's because he is excited about Alaska, and still fresh from our almost 9 hour road trip home from Erie (which should have taken 6 hours) at Christmas with traffic jams and stress.  Maybe things will change, he wants me to be spontaneous right?  So in the back of my mind.....I'm still planning....
• maybe 2 nights in Williamsburg over spring break to explore the colonial area with the girls?
• maybe another NYC adventure with mom and my sister over spring break?
• That came about because one of mom's friends/connections is opening on Broadway in "Wonderland" in March.  He plays the Cheshire Cat in this new adaptation of Alice in Wonderland at the Marquis Theater and we would be able to go backstage and meet him.  Mom really wants to go and maybe Patty would join us this time.  
• or maybe just staying home, enjoying the quiet and relax!  Yeah, right.........

Since Alaska is pretty much planned, except for the fine tuning....I needed another mission, so I am now focusing (sort of) on Summer 2012 and our return to the Wild West.  We will be returning to Don's new favorite place in the world - Jackson Hole, Wyoming for 4-5 nights and extend the adventure to 2 weeks.  We are playing around with ideas of where to venture out to.....some of the ideas include:

• Big Sky, Montana
• Old Faithful Inn, Yellowstone
• driving the long trip to Mount Rushmore - staying for 2 nights and flying home to Dulles from there
• Driving through Driggs, Idaho and the Targhee National Forest

I love the planning/exploring WAY in advance part because there is no pressure to find the perfect hotel/resort/location yet....just hours of reading on Tripadvisor and looking at maps to estimate distances, find surprise places to visit and then of course doing pretend budgets to see if it is feasible.  We will need to make some of the hotel reservations this June (to get the exact dates and location that we want for next June), so planning and perusing right now is sort of necessary. :)  Well, maybe not really...but it is a lot of fun!

Haven't thought about Summer, 2013 yet...any ideas?  :)

Oh, forgot about our canine friends....Jack and Lily are settling down and Jack might actually be starting to enjoy having Lily around...as evidenced by allowing her to share his bed.....

So, that's where we are....not a lot of pictures to share, but lots going on!  Enjoy the winter and...

....Stay tuned to see how the Rahns do Hibernation and Winter Boredom!! :)