February!

February usually goes by pretty quickly, and this one was no exception!  We started out the month in the midst of Catholic Schools Week, which meant some fun things were happening at school.  Erin had her last social skills group on the 1st, and we are all enjoying having our Wednesday afternoons free now.  For some reason, two activities (piano on Tuesdays and Anna's ballet on Thursdays) a week is fine, but three wears us all out.  She has been doing really well playing with neighbor kids and with school friends, so maybe she's trying to buy herself a pass from the next session.  We will see.  She had her reconciliation retreat on Saturday the 4th, and I went to volunteer too.  It was lots of fun and the kids seemed to enjoy the activities.  After that, Erin went to play at her friend Beau's (a girl) house while Anna and I did some shopping near their house.

The following week, Bob spent some time in Las Vegas, and we ladies stayed busy with the usual events.  I managed to get through "Doctor Thorne" for my book club on the 6th, but it was not easy.  Readers who enjoy Jane Eyre-type books might like it, but not me!  Luckily, next month is "Tom Sawyer", which is much more up my alley.  Erin made her first reconciliation on Thursday, February 9th.  They did it during the school day, so parents weren't there, but her teachers made it a special day with a prayer service and fun activities.  She was very proud of herself, as she should be!



Anna was home sick with a mystery fever on Friday the 10th, but was better by the afternoon so (possibly a bad parenting decision) we let her go to the Daddy-Daughter dance at school that night with Bob and Erin.  They had a great time, though Erin and her friend Olivia didn't really include the dads in their dancing!



Saturday the 11th was my (and birthday twin Angie's) big birthday surprise outing that Bob arranged with the neighbors - we went on the Trolley Pub in Raleigh, then dinner at Jimmy V.'s and dessert at Bittersweet!  It was lots of fun and really great to get out in the "big city".  I thought we were going to be able to recover from all of that fun on the 12th since we just had church and Jimmy's super fun birthday party at BounceU, but when we got home from the party, all of the Concord/Charlotte family was at our house for birthday surprise #2!  We had a Mexican fiesta in the warm weather.  So much fun!

Erin took a turn for a sick day on the 13th, but that was just fine with me to take it easy at home with her.  Bob also worked from home so she didn't have to ride along to carpool for Anna.  She was better by the afternoon (thankfully, since she had a pile of make-up school work that Anna brought home), so we had a fun birthday dance party and leftover cupcakes from Sunday.  The girls had fun Valentine's Day activities at school on the 14th, and they showed lots of love for their teachers that week for teacher appreciation week.  I maintain that these teachers have the cushiest teacher jobs ever - no wonder none of them ever leave or retire!  Anna's friend Sarah came over to play after school on the 17th, which was lots of fun!  Bob was busy the weekend of the 18th-19th with a "virtual open house" for the new church and giving presentations at each Mass.  We ladies got to visit with Erin's friend Alyssa from kindergarten on the 19th and catch up, which was great!  We then had Little Flowers that afternoon as well, and then a small cupcake party with Nina and Lily later on that afternoon, topping it all off with Anna having an ear infection and calling in the virtual doctor.  What a day!

The girls were off on the 20th and 21st for "winter break", but we just had a quiet girls' day on Monday and a wild friends' day on Tuesday with Sawyer and Olivia here, plus Grandma and Grandpa came to visit for the day, which was so nice!  They have another long weekend in March, so I'm trying to figure out some kind of fun mini-trip we could take then.  We had a fun weekend at the end of the week with two first grade birthday parties (Anna goes to more birthday parties than the other 3 of us combined).  That about rounds out the month for us!  I was sad to not have had any more winter weather in February, and I'm about to give up hope with all of these 60-70 degree days that we've had.  Oh well, what can we do?!  We're looking forward to March, Lent, and Easter ahead of us.  Happy Mardi Gras!

January

Well, here we are a week into February already!  January was a good month, other than the sad news of saying goodbye to our Bella on the 27th.  She was about 14 (we had had her for 12 years in November), had been having health problems, and was declining in a few ways, and we knew it was time to let her go.  It was very sad, but the process went well.  We miss her so much, and the house feels empty without her!  I also feel like I am missing out on some exercise from not carrying her up and down the stairs several times a day, and we are happy to be sleeping through the night and not cleaning up accidents everywhere...but we do miss all the fun times we had with her.  She was my first roommate in the old house, even before Bob and I got married!  She was around for both girls being born, moving to this house, and everything in between.  She was a fantastic dog, was very affectionate, loved being with us, and was full of personality.  I always felt that she was grateful that we rescued her and she was thankful to be a part of our family.  We felt likewise!


Bella and me the day I got her, 11/6/04

Let's see...we started out the month with New Years Day (just church and playing at home), then had friends Chris, Jenny, Emma, and James over for lunch on the 2nd.  It was great to catch up with them!  Erin's friend Olivia came over for the day on the 3rd and the girls had a blast with her and neighbor friends before returning to school on the 4th.  Sawyer's mom was tracked out for a few weeks, so we didn't have him for the first part of the month.  I really enjoyed having extra time to volunteer at school and do a few other things.  Anna's teaching assistant had foot surgery over the Christmas break and was not able to manage the lunchroom with her crutches.  Fortunately, I was available and got to have lots of fun lunch time with the first graders!  They are a really sweet group and are so full of energy.

The rest of that week was just adjusting back to the routine of school.  Erin started another round of social skills group that week, much to her frustration.  She completed the 5 weeks and has earned herself a break for this session.  On Friday the 6th began the Big Snowstorm of 2017, which ended up only being a few inches at most for us.  It was enough, and there was a small amount of ice, so we were able to sled in the neighborhood.  The girls also had a snow day on Monday the 9th and a delay on the 10th.  Wake County schools were closed through Wednesday, so we felt lucky to have gone back on Tuesday!  The remainder of that week was the usual routine, and Bob spent some time on Saturday the 15th tearing down the nativity at church.  Anna had a fun tae kwon do birthday party for friend Gerald on Sunday the 16th, and we also had our Little Flowers meeting for January - postponed from the week before due to the snow.

The girls were off school on Monday the 17th for MLK Day, and we didn't do a whole lot.  We had the usual routine the rest of that week, and Sawyer came back on Thursday the 20th.  After gymnastics, we went to Concord on Saturday the 22nd for Ansley's super fun birthday party!  We spent that night and came back on Sunday for the first full week of school since before Christmas.  That Friday was our last day with Bella.  Anna went to a fun American Girl doll tea party with her friend Natalie on Saturday the 28th!  That was about it for January - Bob had two trips to Boston thrown in there and we all stayed busy as usual with school, work, Sawyer, piano, speech, social skills, church, ballet, and gymnastics...not to mention the social calendars!