January 2014 Recap

January was a lot of fun for us.  We managed to get quite a bit of play time in through various activities and outings, which was a nice change after the hectic pace of the holidays.

On the first Saturday of the month, the four of us drove up to the Children's Museum INK and spent the morning there playing with the kids at all of the different exhibits.  They have little rooms set up as different real-life places and the kids can role play being a dentist at a dentist office, a waiter at a 50s diner, a beautician at a salon, a doctor at a hospital, a judge or lawyer in a courtroom, a shopper at a grocery store, etc.  They also have an indoor playground area, an old police car, and a huge old firetruck to climb all around.  It's a blast for them!  We packed our lunch and ate there before hitting the road.  It was a nice way to spend a Saturday doing something different as a family.

The next week Audrey started back to school, but before sending her we had a Mommy-Daughter date to conclude her winter break.  We went to the dentist (okay, that part wasn't as fun for me at least), then to lunch, and then I gave her a choice between painting pottery or getting a new stuffed animal at Build-a-Bear.  It took her .02 seconds to decide on Build-a-Bear and she ecstatically put together a new bunny she named Cutie Pie.

The following weekend we took a road trip to Lexington, South Carolina to visit our friends the Taylors who moved there about six months ago.  It was such a blast hanging out for two days and the kids enjoyed playing together nonstop.  Everyone got along very, very well and the only issue was Audrey having second thoughts about spending the night in the girls' room.  At 3am. When we were on the other end of the house and couldn't hear her. So, that meant waking poor Mrs. Kara who then had to come wake us. (It's not like she doesn't already have to get up to feed a baby.  What's one more time?)  David and Brian snuck away for a quick golf game on Sunday morning, which thrilled them to death.  We ate delicious food, played games, and talked nonstop about big issues, little topics, and everything in between.  Both Kara and I teared up when it was time to go on Sunday after lunch.  We miss them terribly and are looking forward to our next marathon catch-up session!

Of course we got some work done this month, too.  It can't all be fun and games (at least to this Type-A.)  We finally painted the guest room and worked hard cleaning out three closets in the basement.  We threw out 5-6 bags of trash and took a huge load to Goodwill.  I began consigning the kids' summer clothes from last year.  I also went through mine and David's old memorabilia, trashed stuff that neither of us had a clue about, and reorganized what was left.  We got a new roof put on, a new TV for the basement, a new TV table, and several other accessories/pieces of decor for the basement, which all required hanging/putting out/arranging.

The last weekend of the month, I got to cash in my Christmas gift.  I wrote about it in a previous TT post, but I'll give a brief overview again:  On Saturday the 25th, after the roofers woke us up bright and early putting on our new roof, David and I dropped the kids off at his parents' and drove downtown for the Hot Chocolate 5K/15K.  We went straight to the expo at the Georgia World Congress Center to get our race bibs then back to the hotel for naps and not naps.  ;)  We took a walk around Piedmont Park then through downtown before changing and going out to a delicious dinner at a local Italian spot called Pasta da Pulcinella.  We were in bed by 8:00 and after turning down a $17 in-room movie option, we snuggled and watched Modern Family reruns until turning out the lights around 9:30.  That next morning, we bundled up and drove as close as we could to Turner field and found a deck.  (Reminder:  Next time pay the stupid $10 for a parking pass in a lot there!)  We walked about 3/4 mile to the start line and jumped around in our corral trying to stay warm. I think it was about 25 degrees and David had the beginnings of a cold.  Nonetheless, we rocked it and crossed the finish line.  Maybe not super fast, but we did it.  They had our chocolate bowl "goodie bags" (fondue with various dipping foods plus hot chocolate) waiting for us after the race.  We walked back to the car, showered, and got ready to go get the kids.  It was a wonderful, much-needed break!

The next week we had a snow and ice storm hit that crippled the city.  The problem was that instead of happening overnight, it began mid-morning.  Then everyone decided to leave work early and dismiss school early and DOT workers couldn't do anything to help the frozen roads because millions of cars were on them.  People were stuck in their cars for 6 plus hours and kids in several counties had to spend the night in schools.  It made national news, mostly as the butt of Northerner's jokes.  I made my feelings clear on that in an earlier post, so I'll choose to point out that we were incredibly blessed to be safe and together and that it was awesome to hear of all the ways people, restaurants, stores, etc. came together to help one another out.  I'm proud to be a Georgia Peach, even if it means we don't handle snow well!  We of course played outdoors in it (Audrey loved it, Luke kind of just tolerated it).  We made a snowman, we made snow angels, we had a snowball fight, we "sledded" in our laundry basket, and we tramped through the gorgeous and scenic woods.  Then, when we couldn't stand the cold anymore, we did play dough and bubble baths and movies indoors.  It was just enough to get it out of our system.

Hmmm...what else this month?  I got new glasses, David went to Ohio for business for two days, we had two great play dates with our friends the Eries, and I had a lovely girls' night out dinner with a friend that lasted 3.5 hours.  It's been a wonderful month, but we are still very much dying for routine.  Even in routine in a single area would be nice!  For instance, Audrey started back to school on the 8th, then had MLK day off then missed a day for snow.  Kind of a big deal when you only go to school three days a week anyway!  Several of my runs got cancelled or had to be done indoors on a treadmill (YUCK) due to the weather.  David traveled, the kids fought colds, etc. etc. etc.  Maybe by the end of my February update we'll be able to report some normalcy.  Nonetheless, the amount of fun stuff we got to do and the few important projects we tackled balanced out the unpredictability pretty well.

We hope your new year started off well, too!  Enjoy the pics:    January Picture Gallery

Thankful Thursday

I have finally started my January Recap and had really hoped to be finished by now, but it hasn't happened.  So, I am interrupting my work on that post to bring you this week's TT post, because I'm just that dedicated.  You're welcome. 

Beginning Tuesday morning and continuing through this morning, we've had snow and ice in metro Atlanta to the tune of 6" + in our area.  Yeah, yeah.  We know.  That's nothing compared to what Northerners have to deal with, especially this winter.  Welp, that's a huge reason we live where we do.  Because we aren't huge fans of this kind of weather and we don't know how to handle it!  As one blogger put it, I invite my Yankee friends to meet down here in July and discuss ways we can better prepare ourselves for the snowy weather.  We'll do it outside without the nonsense of shade and it'll be so hot that within 4 seconds you'll want to peel your own skin off.  High temps and humidity?  Yeah, we can handle those.  Tornadoes?  We know just what to do.  Snow?  Not so much.  And that's okay.  (Yes, I get defensive about my South.  And that's okay too.)

Still, we did much better this go-round than a few weeks ago when it started coming down mid-morning and millions of people left work at the exact same moment and schools let out early.  People were trapped for 6, 8, even 12 or more hours trying to get home.  Kids spent the night in schools (none in our county, but many elsewhere), loved ones were separated with dead cell phones, interstates and roads were covered with abandoned cars.  It was awful!  So you can imagine that when this forecast came out, people did all they could to hunker down and stay home.  David worked from home yesterday and today, thankfully.  Audrey was out Wednesday and will be out tomorrow and we've all got cabin fever creeping in.  Truthfully, it hasn't been as bad as I expected though.  We really have had a great time together and soaked up all of the normal "snow day things", which brings me to my list:

1.  S'mores.  Eewwwy-gooey and oh so yum!  Luke enjoyed his first this week.

2.  Long bubble baths.  Not just for me, but for the kids too!  When all else fails, throw them in the tub to play!  

3.  Getting in a run.  I missed Tuesday's run because of weather and thought I'd have to skip today's.  I am so used to running early in the morning that it didn't really dawn on me to go this afternoon until, well, this afternoon.  David finished up work around 4:15 and I hit the pavement.  It was really weird to go that time of day (and to be surrounded by snow!), but I'm glad I did.  Half Marathon #3 is just around the corner!

4.  Playtime.  We are on the go a lot. These last couple of days offered us some time to slow down and play together for hours on end.  We did science experiments, pretended our living room was the beach, made snow cream, drank hot chocolate, had a snowman-building contests, watched home movies, and read a lot of books.  There was a bunch of giggling and laughter and only a small amount of yelling.  It was fun!  

That being said...

5.  That power stayed on.  Not only for heat and cooking and all that super important stuff, but also because...well, as I put it on FB:  Snow Days #1 & #2: "Let's play in it! Let's build a snowman! Let's make s'mores! Let's pretend we're at the beach! Let's have hot chocolate! Let's build a fort! Let's do some fun experiments!" Snow Day #3: "...Y'all wanna watch some more TV?"

Yeah, we're kinda done.  So long, snow!  You were beautiful, but we need to return to our regularly scheduled programming.  Try and make it back for Christmas, though!

Thankful Thursday

We're on the verge of wrapping up another busy week in the Sinyard household.  I had such high hopes of this one FINALLY being back to normal after the holidays.  It seems we haven't had a full week where Audrey has school on her usual days AND all my workouts get done AND David is in town and not working late AND things were just, well, normal since well before Christmas.  But alas, it wasn't meant to be yet.  Luke came down with a double ear infection on Wednesday and the poor baby is not feeling well.  He's had four doses of antibiotics, which is typically the magic turnaround for him, so pray he wakes up feeling much better and his appetite returns.  When his fever is gone (which still isn't happening without the aid of Motrin or Tylenol) he acts pretty normal, but I can tell he's zapped.  He's not sleeping well which means neither are we.  

The rest of us are hanging in there health-wise, though if AJ's cough doesn't hit the road soon, we'll be getting that checked out as well.  Ah, winter.  What a giant pain in the behind you are.  Aside from harboring germs, you are also absolutely ruining my early morning runs.  I truly have no use for you past December 25th.

But now to focus on the positive, here is this week's TT list:

1.  A surprise visitor!  My mom came out on Tuesday, which was very nice.  What was also super cool was that she brought my niece Annelise with her!  She and my SIL were in town for a few days, so my mom arranged to get Annelise and bring her to our house so Audrey and her could hang out for a bit.  It was such a treat and we loved seeing her.

2.  Preschool teachers.  Have I put them on this list before?  I can't remember because children ruin your sane mind, which is another reason I am so grateful for these sweet ladies who take a turn with my girl each week.  They do so many cool things with them to get them pumped up about learning.  Two weeks ago was Wild West Day and this week was Toastie Toes (pajama) Day.  Around here we usually just have Don't Kill Your Sibling Day and Laundry Day, so it's definitely a plus for her to get to be a part of such a neat program.

3.  My children's sense(s?) of humor.  I can tell already they are funny.  Audrey gets and uses sarcasm like a champ and Luke will do just about anything for a laugh.  His latest hilarious trick is to do the "sad trombone" noise that David sometimes makes when things go wrong.  His timing and use of it is right on.  For example, when he and I were loading the dishwasher the other night, we closed it up and then I said," Oh no, we forgot to put in Mommy and Daddy's plates."  He immediately responded with "Waaa, Waaa, Waaa, Waaaaaaa." Another night David flipped the switch on the nightlight and it didn't come on, so Luke piped up with his sound effect.  Hilarious.

4.  The one Wolf Camera in metro Atlanta.  If you've known me for any length of time, you know I used to single-handedly provide a paycheck to at least half of our local Wolf Camera's employees.  Sadly, my contributions were not enough and they closed it down along with every other store in Georgia.  Except one.  And I found it.  And I drove over an hour to get there and print some pictures to frame.  I realize there are services that do this online, but I wanted it done now and in person.  I'll be back, Wolf Camera.  I can't promise you the kind of faithfulness I gave before, but you'll see me a few times a year, I assure you.

5.  Deep conversations.  I know it's quite cliche to say so, but in this technologically-driven society our "conversations" can be brief, surface, and fake.  Lately I've had several real talks with real friends and it's been a breath of fresh air in my life.  The subject matter isn't really what has made the difference, it's just that there was a level of connection and understanding that fosters real relationships.  And with all of the Pinterest and Facebook facades, I'll take more real.  

Pray for health and a good weekend!  I'm dropping off all of my consignment stuff (YES!) and we're hosting our first small group this weekend (YIKES!), so we'll have a lot going on these next couple of days.  Happy Friday!