Moran Family Fun

At the very end of April Madison, Abigail, and I set out in the middle of the night on a grand adventure - we took an overnight trip to London!  Our flight left Germany at 0630 so we had to be to the airport around 0500 which meant we were leaving our house at 0345.  This particular evening (morning?) we entered our destination in the GPS and set out.  I knew how to start getting there, but knew I would need the GPS' directions later in the drive.  After about fifteen minutes on the road I noticed that the stupid thing was still calculating and couldn't seem to find a route.  Thinking that perhaps it would catch onto a satellite and figure out a route for us if we stopped moving for a few minutes, we exited at the next opportunity and sat for a while.  Still nothing. So we headed back home where I knew we had a different GPS that I hoped would be more cooperative.  Now forty minutes behind schedule, but with a functioning GPS, we set out again. Jared...

The end of the school year is crazy - parties, field days, concerts, recitals, finals, field trips, awards presentations, and a billion other reasons why I end up being at my kids schools way more than usual.  Add on our regular daily routine, home life, and church responsibilities, and life seems to be moving faster than ever with barely enough time to sit down and catch my breath between activities. One thing that I do look forward to at the end of the school year is the spring band concerts mostly because I love seeing how much they have improved since the Christmas concerts in December! Abigail's concert was first and, seeing as it was beginning band, I didn't have very high expectations.  However, they really have made big strides since Christmas.  At the concert in December they were playing all of their songs in unison, so every instrument was playing the melody line.  Even if one kid was playing the flute and another the trumpet, they would both be playing...

Abigail started middle school this year with high expectations from her teachers because of the legacy left behind by her older sisters.  I think she's handled it fairly well and has done her part to uphold the good name the Moran family has at Landstuhl Middle School.  National Junior Honor Society (NJHS) is a big deal at the middle school and it was a big part of the middle school experience for both Madison and Emily.  One of Abigail's main goals for her sixth grade year was to be inducted into NJHS like her older sisters were.  The applications went out earlier this spring to all middle school students with a grade point average over 3.60 and Abby was excited just to receive an application.  She and Jared worked together to fill it out and answer the questions about her experiences in the areas of scholarship, service, leadership, and character.  Every time our girls have had to fill out something like this for school I am reminded how amazing the churc...

All birthdays are special, but some seem more special than others. Lucky Jared gets to be the one and only birthday boy in our house and this year he turned forty!  We just had a small family celebration on the actual day; one of his favorite dinners was followed by his absolute favorite dessert.   A few months before his birthday Jared mentioned wanting to have a party for this milestone birthday. I know myself and I know that whatever I planned would not be big enough for Jared.  I like things small and quiet because I don't feel comfortable with very many people.  Jared is my opposite. He loves people and talking and noise.  Everywhere we go he's got his head on a swivel looking for people he knows so he can say hello.  If I happen to see someone I know when I'm out I duck my head and hope they won't see me so I don't have to talk to them. So the plan was that I would throw the party but Jared would help me to plan the whole thing. At the beg...

This post is overdue and poorly titled; I guess it is a testament to how busy April was that it's taken me until May to write about things that happened in March.  Spring is volleyball season for the middle school girls in our house.  This was Emily's third year and Abigail's first and I think they both had a really good time.  Their team did well and since winning is fun that made for a great season.  Emily has improved every season and was happy that she was able to more consistently get her overhand serves over the net this year.  I think the biggest compliment she received this season was being told that she has "nice hands" which is a big deal in volleyball.  You need to have strong hands to set the ball but they can't be too rigid either. Apparently it's a fine line between too much and not enough and Emily has figured out how to strike the right balance. I think volleyball was a little less fun for Abigail just because it was...

Day six was our last full day in Ireland and it was definitely a bittersweet day.  Jared and I woke up a little early and went for breakfast at a little tea shop called The Copper Kettle.  I'd been wanting to go there all week, but they closed so early in the afternoon that it never worked out.  I had the best scone ever and a ginormous cup of hot chocolate and Jared had the Yankee Pankee - two pancakes and some bacon, both of which were very different from your traditional American versions of those foods. I love that Jared made sure I got to eat at The Copper Kettle; he would have been happy to sleep in and eat cereal for breakfast. He takes good care of me! We had been having such a great time with the Kennedys; sleeping in every morning, sightseeing in the afternoons, and playing games at night.  We had time in the morning to be together and take a quick picture, but we quickly said our goodbyes afterwards.  Say your goodbyes and move on - I think it's ...

Day five was our last full day in Ireland and it was definitely a bittersweet day.  We again slept in before heading out to see more sights.  Well, everyone else slept in but I was up early and wandering either the house or the countryside every day we were there. This was the first day that the weather wasn't sunny but the overcast, slightly drizzly skies were perfect for our activities that day.  We started with a visit to the Old Bushmills Whiskey Distillery.  It seemed kind of a strange place to visit since we don't drink alcohol at all, but it was still interesting to see how they've been making whiskey in Bushmills at the world's oldest licensed distillery for the last 406 years.   We arrived a little early for the tour so we hung out in the lobby and watched a video that was made for the Distillery's 400th anniversary in 2008.  It talked about the history of the whiskey made in Bushmills and the difference between Irish and Scottish ...