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!