THE STROM LIFE: June 2026

Tuesday, June 23, 2026

Metal Mouth

Before.....

During....

And After!

Our caboose is in braces!

LAX for the cure!

One of the biggest lax tournaments of the year is LAX for the Cure in New Jersey. All the teams deck out in pink as the tournament is also a fundraiser for breast cancer.

Team dinner Saturday night at the team hotel.

There were sixty 2031 teams that competed from all over the East Coast and beyond. The girls played hard all weekend and made it to playoffs! They won their first play-off game and advanced. They won their next play-off game (the quarterfinals) too and advanced to the semifinals! Unfortunately, they lost to M&D black 0-2 in the Semifinals, but so proud of these girls to make it to the top four!

Birthday Buddies: 18 and 50!

I was dreading this birthday for all the obvious reasons. BUT, it ended up being a great day!!

Ella made me a delicious smoothie for breakfast.

Lacey surprised Tanner with streamers over his doorway.

And the siblings took Tanner out to a yummy breakfast at the Breakfast Shoppe 🥞

Meanwhile, Dave whisked me off to a spa in Annapolis and dropped me off for a spa day! I was treated to a full body massage, an hour-long facial and a blow-out. It was heavenly!

Then he came and picked me up and took me out to lunch at the Boatyard Grill in Annapolis.

My post-facial no-make up glow!

Then he drove me to a nail salon..... he walked me in and there were my girls waiting for me! Dave treated us to all to mani/pedi's!

Perfect timing for our upcoming Mexico trip!

That evening we opened some gifts and cards.

My greatest birthday gift of all.

18 years ago today, I held you in my arms for the first time and now have officially raised you to adulthood. Love you so much, buddy.

Dave and the girls surprised us with an Aldi-themed party.

Ice cream cake from Aldi's.

Happy Birthday to us!

And finally, the icing on the cake was that Dave surprised me with birthday video messages from many family and friends near and far. It had me laughing and crying and feeling very nostalgic!

As much as I'm in denial about getting old(er), truly I'm grateful for another trip around the sun and for all my family and friends who helped to make it a special day/week! I'm so blessed!

Happy 21st!

Dave and I celebrated our 21st anniversary last Thursday June 11th. We went to Park Tavern and had Lacey as our waitress 😁. Heidi was working too, so we had great service 😋

The following night, we headed out on our friends' boat.

There's a restaurant called The Point where you can get to by boat, dock and then have dinner. It's so fun!

The ladies.

Since I don't have a pic of the two of us from the night of our anniversary, I'm posting this one from our Norway trip last year. I sure do love my guy and am so grateful for 21 years of marriage and memories 💗

I Hope You All Have a Veronica

I've been dreading this week. Turning the big 5-0. I just can't believe I'm that old!! I met Veronica in High School and we have maintained a close friendship ever since. We visited each other in college, we wrote letters before there was email, then we emailed before there were cell phones. We went to each other's weddings. We have talked multiple times a week for years via Voxer. But we rarely get to see each other, since she still lives in Chicago and I'm here in Annapolis. BUT, she showed up on my doorstep last Monday to surprise me for my birthday!!!!!! Can you believe that! I love surprises and this is hand down, one of the most awesome surprises I've ever had!! I just couldn't believe my eyes - that Veronica was on my front doorstep!

It was a gorgeous day, so did my "four mile loop" together around my neighborhood, then headed to Annapolis! We spent the whole afternoon there, touring the State House, walking around downtown, having lunch and walking all over the Naval Academy.

Then we came home and played some ping pong.

That's Veronica's game face.

Then we headed back to Annapolis with Dave for a nice dinner by the water at Chop Tank.

Modeling with my bag that she gave me for my birthday 🤣

Breakfast together before heading back to the airport.

I was so touched by this amazing gesture of love and friendship. I just can't believe she pulled this off - contacted Dave, arranged a time that could work, coordinated time away from her own life and family, bought a plane ticket, and on and on..... just to show up and surprise me for a birthday she knew I was dreading. I'm the luckiest. I'm so glad I have my Veronica. And I hope you all have a Veronica in your lives too!

Wrapping Up With Liverpool and a Silver Medal

Riley wrapped up with two soccer teams last week.

Just for fun, she played with her friends in a local rec team and had a great time! Instead of playing goalie the whole time, like she normally does for her club team, she only played goalie for half of each game and played on the field the other half, which was fun for her. In their last game of the season, they lost 1-2, but Riley was the one that scored their lone goal, so that was pretty awesome!

Life of a goalie - sacrificing your body for diving saves.

Riley's club (Liverpool) team had a tournament in Hershey, PA last weekend. They made it all the way to the semifinals in the National League playing against top level teams from all over the East Coast. And they won! So, then they advanced to the finals.

They were up 1-0 at halftime.

A few minutes into the second half, we scored a second goal putting us up 2-0 and we were feeling pretty good! Unfortunately, the other team scored a goal with 18 minutes left from a kick resulting from a foul/yellow card. Thankfully, we still had a cushion goal. However, with only 4 minutes left, they scored again tying it up 2-2 and sending us into PKs.

It was tied 2-2 when Riley had this amazing save! We went nuts knowing that as long as our remaining players made their kicks, we were golden! But our next two players both missed their kicks and we ended up losing the championship game. It was painful!!! It hurt so bad seeing that championship game slip through our fingers. It would have been such a great way to end the season, especially since a lot of changes are happening and a lot of people (including Riley) are leaving to other clubs.

Riley getting her silver medal from her Coach.

With Head Coach Cary

With former coach Chris

The OG's!

These 8 players and two coaches have been playing soccer together for I don't even know how many years! Probably at least seven!

Final team pic with Liverpool.

I know all these girls wanted that gold medal so bad and felt they had it, but they made it all the way to the Finals and lost by the skin of their teeth in PK's so they should be proud of themselves! They're a great group of girls and soccer players! ⚽

Saturday, June 6, 2026

Senior Superlatives and Hanging up the Cleats

A few more "lasts" and Senior Moments....

Tanner and fellow Senior Koby Bragg voted "Most Likely to Go off the Grid"

And crowned!

And on Thursday, we went to his very last soccer game. Couldn't help but wonder if this is the last time he plays an official game on the pitch. I can always easily spot him.... I just look for the bright orange shoes!

Glad he's had so much fun playing soccer on the Green Hornets team with all his buddies. ⚽

Tanner Graduated!

Tanner's last day of school was May 22nd and then his graduation was 10 days later on June 1st.

Here he is the day before graduation decked out in his robes in front of Severna Park High School, where he has spent the past four years of his life.