January 31 ~ On the drive home

It's a horse, of course.  Two of them.  We call them Wilma and Fred.  They could be two boys.  Or they could be two girls.  Either way, they are always a source of great conversation.

January 30 ~ Focusing

Another snow-less Snow Day for us.  But no complaints from me.  It was like having a weekend in the middle of the week.

I'm caught up on laundry.  I went for a 5 mile run.  We went to eat Thai food for lunch.  And I cut several inches off my hair.

It was a great day.

January 29 ~ Lively

We were home for a snow day and the snow didn't happen.  Sleet and rain and then more sleet was the order of the day.

Oh well.  It could have been worse.  We could have been stuck in the worst traffic jam in Atlanta's history.

Since there is ice on the roadways (or at least that is what they are saying), and the temperatures will be below freezing through the night, WE GET ANOTHER SNOW DAY!

In the past, we've gotten Hurricane Days (we are right on the Florida border), Rain Days (floods are no fun), and Smoke Days (when the Okefenokee Swamp was burning) but this is the first time in my life I've ever gotten snow days.  Perhaps I should call them Ice Days.

Julia and I lounged about in pajamas.  She wore her happy and energetic bunny slippers with the ears that pop up when she walks.  Yeah... the dogs love them.  And I finished reading one book and made significant progress in two others.

I'm so excited about another day of being trapped at home.  I do hope all the people stuck in their cars and on the road north of us get somewhere safe and warm.

January 28 ~ Note to self: Return library books

If we'd known then what we know now, we would have returned those books to the library to get some others.  

Guess what?! Tomorrow is a SNOW DAY for us!  

This is a really big deal since the last time my town saw snow it was 1989. Julia and I have made plans to stay in our pajamas all. day. long.  We'll just wear jackets over our pjs when we go play in the snow.  

This year, Julia has really improved in her reading.  One of those books is a book of poetry that she has been reading to me on the way home from school.  She makes me swoon!  The other one is Anne from Avonlea -- a bit too hard for her right now but one that she is interested in me reading to her later on.  

Stay warm!

January 27 ~ Secure

Julia has made several comments about being nervous about her upcoming ballet, jazz and tap recital -- which is in April.  Despite the reassurances and the extra lessons to catch her up with her classmates who have been dancing together since they were 3 or 4, she has continued to express worry over remembering the routine... the steps... the turns...

Today, the class invited the parents in to watch the jazz routine.  Julia was so focused on her routine that she seemed to barely notice all the adults in the room.  The girls did great but I don't think any were as excited while simultaneously being relieved as Julia was.

She looked as if she had been dancing with these girls all along.  The look of satisfaction in her face lets me know that she is secure in at least one of the dance routines coming up in April.  We have plenty of time to practice and learn the others.

January 26 ~ Graduation

Clementine graduated from her first training class.  While she has made great improvement, we still have a ways to go... so, I signed her up for the next round of classes.

January 25 ~ Caring

"I love my life," said the girl.  She had a birthday party to go to followed by a play date.

Homemade pizza and chocolate chips cookies.

She deserves a happy life.

January 24 ~ Fresh Air

Clementine and her boundless energy can be a breath of fresh air... that is, until she barges out the carport door and runs around the neighborhood barking at old ladies and rolling in gardens.  Not that it ever happened to us.  But if it did, it would be annoying.

January 23 ~ With an umbrella

Lots of things in life are better with a rainbow umbrella.  Julia happily agreed.

Until it was time to put the umbrella away and it pinched her finger.  She got a kiss and a hug and all was right with the world again.

January 22 ~ Eight

Eight dots on the domino with eight dominoes falling behind it.

Julia gets credit for the dominoes idea.  Jeff gets credit for thinking of knocking them over.

After a power outage last night, our wireless router died (again).  So, tonight I felt like Al Gore because I fixed the internet.  My husband is thankful.  And Julia, too.

We forget how much we depend on technology.  We were all worried that we might have to start talking to each other.

Kidding.  About the talking bit.  We've got that stuff down.  

January 21 ~ In the bowl

Clementine was using her super powers to persuade me to put more food in the bowl.  It worked.

Before she ate, we went on our longest run together.  We've worked hard to overcome her fear of cars. Today, she discovered other evils in the world -- SQUIRRELS and BARKING DOGS.  It ended up being a good run and a great upper body workout.  In her attempts to rid the world of such evils, my arms got put to good use pulling her along.  

January 19 ~ Abandoned

This old bus from Canada (eh?) was covered in loonies.  Or are they toonies?  I really wish I could have gotten the story as to how this bus came to Florida to sit on the outskirts of a parking lot in St. Augustine, Florida.

January 18 ~ Pose

The man and I went to St. Augustine this past weekend with one of my favorite couples -- Glenn and Becky -- in the world.  We spent the day walking around Old Town St. Augustine and all around the fort.
 
We talked.  We laughed.  We ate.  We took pictures.

Becky is as much a shutterbug as I am.  It is always fun when I am not the only one smitten with photography.

January 17 ~ Knobby

Jeff has been fixing Julia's doorknob for the past couple of months.  Today, he replaced the shaft inside.  Maybe now it will work better.

I love being married to a Mr. Fixit!

January 16 ~ Reserved

That parking space allows me to be a part of a lot of exciting things each and every day.  On Thursday, I got to do the following:

- Talk to two boys about why you shouldn't wipe boogers on each other.  It doesn't matter who did it first.
- Help the school nurse with some lice screenings.  Unfortunately, a few kids had to be sent home.
- Convince one kid who had shut down to get up off the playground and come inside with me (his class had already gone inside).
- Talk with a student about why we don't slide down the hall on our knees.  And when the teacher tells us not to do it, we don't do it again.
- Have a student clean up his mess when he had a tantrum and pulled all the books off the bookshelf in the class.
- Talk with an angry parent about an incident on the bus.
- Talk with an angry bus driver about an incident on the bus.

That isn't all that happened on Thursday but merely the highlights.  Life in the assistant principal's office is never dull.

January 15 ~ In the air

Five miles around the park were noted in the running log all while Julia played on the playground.  The weather was perfect though the wind was bringing in a chill.

January 14 ~ Yum

I like to eat.  Today, I ate the following:

Breakfast - Oatmeal with dried cranberries and walnuts
Lunch - Peanut butter and strawberry jam with orange and corn chips
Dinner - Panang curry with brown rice and roasted broccoli

Not pictured was my snack of almonds this afternoon and ginger snaps this evening.

A fairly typical day of noshing.

January 13 ~ Patience

Something I was seriously lacking by the end of the day.  Between busyness at work and Julia testing some limits and Clementine chewing up another pair of glasses and the pharmacy lines (yes, plural) and the visit from the social worker that I rushed home for that didn't happen...  It was just a frustrating afternoon.

January 12 ~ After the rain

We waded through puddles.  Julia loves the rainbow umbrella so she pretended it was still raining.  She wore my rubber boots even though they are way too big for her.  All throughout, she dropped some not-so-subtle hints about the kind of "rain boots" she would like.  She would want them to be pink, just in case you were wondering.

January 11 ~ My dad's hands

Today, my step-dad turned 81.  My grandmother will be 90 in a few days -- so we celebrated both birthdays at lunch.

My step-dad has always been the most wonderful dad and grandaddy.  He never tried to take my real dad's place (who died when I was 12) but has treated my sister and I as if we were always his kids.

He is the man who set the standard for how I measure the goodness in men.  With him in my life, I've always been in good hands.

January 10 ~ Coming home

Clementine greeted me at the door today when I got home.  Clementine and Mili greet me on most days.  Today, Mili was cuddling with the boy and could only muster up some enthusiastic yapping at my arrival.

Tomorrow, the boy goes back to college for his last semester before graduation.  It has been great having him home -- but it always ends too soon.

January 9 ~ From where I stand

Curses.  I wanted to take a picture of the cool teal corduroys and boots and scarf I wore to work today.  But I never slowed down at work.  And I changed into running clothes right after I got home.

As I was getting into my car after running with a friend, I stopped to take a picture in the last light of the day.

January 8 ~ Blue

Who needs the standard lined up crayons picture when you can have the crayons and the scribble representations from Julia?  She gave me detailed descriptions of what she would color with each of the blues and even came up with some different names for the colors.  My favorite was "gluten gut blue."

When I asked where she came up with that name, she just smiled and said that she learned about gluten from a commercial on the Disney channel.  According to her, "the Disney channel can be rather learningful."

Her creative words and expressions crack me up!

January 7 ~ Hard Freeze

The camellias are a little bruised but hanging on in the frozen weather.

The kids return to school tomorrow.  I hope they all have their coats!

January 6 ~ Unique

This past year, I was a part of the most wonderful group of beautiful and unique ladies in the Now You group.  I don't know what I would have done without the support and inspiration from these ladies throughout 2013.  From emails to postcards to pictures to special trinkets in the mail -- this has been the best group ever.  I received a sweet note and these awesome buttons yesterday and I love them!

I still keep my fingers crossed for a Now You gathering one day.  I would gladly sell my belongings for the chance to go.

January 5 ~ Stick a fork in it

Leftover olives from dinner last night -- they made the perfect snack while I cooked another round of meals.

Winter break is officially over.  Tomorrow morning, I head to school for an in-service day.  I'm not gonna lie.  All these mornings of sleeping until 8 a.m. have been rather awesome!

So stick a fork into the winter break, too.  She is done.

January 4 ~ A little bit

The sun was shining and the weather was wonderful.  After watching the weather reports, I almost feel guilty for saying that -- but living in the south has to have some perks.  Winter is just one perk.

For a while today, I couldn't find my sunglasses.  I think I might be going a little bit senile.  They were on top of my head the whole time.

January 3 ~ Snowbunny

Yesterday, we were wearing flip flops.  Today, it was cold and windy.


There was even snow.

Actually, that snow was chipped up ice on the lawn of our library.  It really was cold but not cold enough for it to snow.

Julia built a snowbunny -- the best snowbunny on the ice patch.

January 2 ~ Goals

Today begins the work on my running goal for the year.  It is raining but not cold -- and that is one of my favorite ways to run.

January 1 ~ Celebrate

Julia welcomed in the new year with a drawing on her bedroom mirror.  Happy New Year from Julia, me, and the world's largest bee.

Here is my progress on 2013's goals:

*Another 365 project - Done!

*Run 1000 miles - I ran 664 miles.  I told myself I'd be ok with less than 1000 so I didn't truly push myself on this one.

*Read 60 books - Done!  I read 100.

*Learn how to use Photoshop - Done!  I use Photoshop.  Maybe not well and I still have a lot to learn but I do use it.

*Write - Kind of.  I did write more but not to my satisfaction.

*Start a book club.  Fail.  I texted out the idea to some.  Then tried to start an online group with some high school and college friends.  We never got past the first decision of choosing what book to read.

*Clean out the clutter. Kind of.  A lot of clutter has been cleaned out.  There is still more to tackle.

*Learn sign language.  Kind of.  I learned quite a few signs initially but then the students who were teaching me moved and I haven't had much of a reason to learn more.

So, not a bust of a year but still room to improve, right?  There is always room to improve.

Here are the goals, in no particular order, for 2014:

*Another 365.  I just like this habit.

*Run 1000 miles.  And really do it this time.

*Read 70 books.  I love to read.  This year, I'm tackling the Newberry Award list.

*Save all my beer bottle caps for the year.  Just for the heck of it.  I already have one in the jar.

*Write in my journal at least four days a week,

*Learn more Photoshop.  I just don't find this program to be intuitive but I love it's power.

*Train Clementine.  She has learned sit, down, and how to walk on a leash.  She has a lot more to learn.

Not stretching myself on the learning end this upcoming year.  I suspect that both Julia and Clementine will teach me plenty to make up for my lack of ambition in the goal setting department.

Happy New Year!  I have a feeling 2014 is going to be awesome!