This, That and the Other

To continue with my updates from earlier in the week...

Last weekend I met up with some high school pals.  As I was getting ready to go, Ella asked me where I was going.
"I'm going to go hang out with some high school girls."
To which Ella exclaims  "oh, oh, I want to go too! I want to hang out with high school girls!"
I had to grudgingly admit - "honey, it's 40 year old high school girls...not girls in high school now."
"oh, never mind then" she said all bummed out.
Do you remember being young enough that you thought 40 was pretty much synonymous with the early bird special and hip fractures? 

What was fun about this group is that (with the exception of Sherry), I didn't hang out with these girls in school.  Our paths crossed in various activities and because of other friends but we wouldn't have just called each other up or gone to the mall together.  With the advent of Facebook, we all connected on there and keep in touch.  Rhea (bottom left), who I cheered with in middle school and some of high school, has had a lot of health issues since we graduated and she wanted to get together and see us - so here we are!  We had so much fun and it was so funny to get all our different perspectives on high school and who remembered what. I'd never want to go back to high school but the memories are fun :)

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Last week, I attended Famous American Night in Ella's classroom.  All of the 2nd graders had written a report and designed a slide show (on a Mac none-the-less) and we got to view all of the slide shows, plus a few skits that involved the kids reading from scripts.  They all did a wonderful job.  God love these teachers, I don't see how they do it. Kids + other kids = chaos!!
Ella's famous person was Amelia Earhart and as she was doing her research, there was a lot of new information about her possibly having been found after all these years. Pretty cool.

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We've had some funky weather here this winter.  Snow, rain, ice out the ying-yang, and then hail and terrible thunderstorms and tornado watches (in February!) last Sunday. They woke Justin and me up many times throughout the night - our bedroom has a skylight and it's like the Flashdance strobe light scene in there when the lightening gets bad.  Silas was the first to come in our room, about 5 minutes after we put him to bed. Ella came in around 2:30am. Zoe came upstairs at some point and peed in the floor, she was so scared. Even Cleo came  up and slept with us. I thought that Mason was being brave but when I asked him the next morning...he hadn't heard a thing all night. He slept right through the storms.

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I plan to post an end of Feb YOSP update this weekend, but one related goal is my running. I can't remember ever feeling this happy and excited about physical activity. I've been one to make myself exercise but I've never been this excited about strapping on running shoes and my iPod and just go. It's been 2 months and 2 days and I feel SO much healthier and still in shock that I actually can run. I started logging my runs soon after I started and put a widget at the bottom of the blog - if you notice me slacking, call me on it :) So far, last week is the only week that I missed some running days. I was sick and only got 2 days in what should have been a 4 day running week.

Part of me wishes I had started running a long time ago but most of me is really just happy to have something new to get me motivated right now.  It's fun to start something new - especially something new that is good for you too. 

First Week Down - 40 to Go!

The first week of school was a big success! Everyone got to school on time, no missed buses, no screaming or crying (except me...) and everyone was happy to have "lazy days" over the weekend!

Friday night, Justin, Mason and friends decided to go to the first Bradley football game. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and we had severe storms all evening, so they didn't get to play.

While the guys were getting rained out at the game - Ella, Silas and I were at home all cozy in pj's and having movie night. I knew they would be exhausted after their first week at school and decided taking them out late to a football game would result in major meltdowns.


On Saturday, the kids and I headed to the mall to get Ella new earrings! She has had her ears pierced now for 6 weeks and can change her earrings as she wants now. We got her 3 new sets of earrings (9 pair). The first pair that she decided to wear were cute polka dot buttons.

Saturday night, Justin, Mason, Ella and friends went to the rescheduled Bradley game (Jags won 19-18!!) and Silas and I went to the school to play. It was a beautiful evening - definitely felt more like a late-September or October night!

Silas had fun running, sliding, racing his cars down the slide and having the park all to himself.

Sunday was full of cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, bike riding and my divine book group. And now we're off to Week 2 of school - hopefully it goes as well as the first...

Wasn't Me!

Whoops!!!
I had nothing to do with this...but I sat in my front room off and on all morning and watched everyone slipping and sliding around on the road and sidewalks. There was a bus stuck for about 20 minutes, the mail lady got stuck for about 30-40 minutes and then some poor guy came around the corner and ended up taking out the neighbor's mailbox.
The schools had a 2-hour delay this morning so Ella didn't have kindergarten. I saw the older kids walking and falling all over the place.
After seeing the mailbox destruction, I decided there was no way in heck that I was going out and so the kids and I stayed in all day. Them in their pj's - - I, at least, got dressed.
We'd best have some awfully NICE weather in February...winter's getting old already and it's not even officially here yet!