January 2016

After the holiday hype cleared up, reality set in when we met with the college counselor at LNC to discuss what Jeremy needed to do in order to apply for colleges in the fall.  WOW!!  When did he grow up?  He is excited about college and a little scared at the same time.  I remember feeling the exact same thing about college.  WOW!!  

January 9th, Steve, Jeff Maughan and the boys went on a trip to Delks (army surplus store here in NC).  It was an all day thing.  After dropping Naomi off at her friend's birthday party I went to Kohls to use some of my Christmas money.  The Converse shoes I wanted (kind of like the ones I had in high school) were on sale!!!!  They are just as comfortable as I remember them being!.  I picked Naomi up and we headed home.  That night we all watched "The Wizard of Oz".  The kids had never seen it!!  WHAT!!???!!???!  Don't worry, we have taken care of this oversight.  

January 14th the Young Men and Young Women went to the Food Bank and sorted food for an activity.  They loved every minute of it.  It does my heart good to see the youth enjoying service.  

After a long week of subbing at LNC and doing church stuff I was sick and exhausted.  If this tells you anything, I crawled into bed at 8:30 on Friday night and didn't move until well after 7 the next morning.  I felt much better which is a good thing because I needed to grocery shop, cheer for the Young Women at their basketball game and then drive some of the Young Women to Winston Salem for a dance that night.  It was fun to listen to them talk the whole way up and back.  

January 17th, the Panthers beat Seattle 31-24!!!  Go Panthers!

Nick decided to play what he called "Pimp My Toys".  He gave his remote controlled car a lift package and new decals.  He is having so much fun with "his car".  I can't wait to see what he will do next  

Monday, January 18th, was a day off from school.  Steve spend the day helping Ezra V. get everything he needed for his Eagle project.  I took the kids to the mall to get new pants and shoes since they refuse to stop growing.  

January 21st finally arrived!!!!!  Naomi and I went to see Wicked.  It was A-MA-ZING!!   It was better than I thought it would be and that is saying a lot with all the hype I had heard and the building anticipation since I purchased the tickets three months earlier.  The last song before intermission was "Defying Gravity."  When it ended everyone was on their feet cheering.  Naomi clapped for a full minute then abruptly stopped, looked at me and said, "That was great!  Now I have to pee."  The people in front of us got a good laugh over that one.  

Naomi, me and Erica Weber at Wicked.  We went with a group from church.  In all, there were 20 of us.  

About 3 o'clock am on 1/22 it started to snow and snowed through noon.  School was cancelled.  Steve didn't have to go into work (which he didn't find out until he got to the office and no one was there.  The phone line said the office was open so he went in.)  Naomi was so excited about not having to go to school and then realized how lucky it was that the storm waited until after we saw Wicked.  The kids had a blast sledding all day on the golf course.  Joel Watanabe brought his camera over and took pictures of the kids.  He is good.  Below is a small sampling of his talent.  

Naomi with her boogie board turned snow sled.  

The kids built up the snow over a pampas grass plant and used it as a jump.  Nick got the best air of the day.  

More air. 

Oh boy!!  Just hold on.

The spectators at the top of the hill.  

Enjoying a nice, hot cup of chocolate after four hours of sledding.  

After taking a break in the middle of the day to refuel and warm up, all the kids were back outside for round 2.  Nick further pimped his remote control car by putting thumb tacks in the tires to make them into snow tires.  He spent hours driving his car all over the icy roads.

Sliding on the snow close to home with neighborhood friends.  

The ice that formed on the truck.  You can see the individual drops of water.  It was really cool.  

Nick helping shovel with the sand shovels.  We are definitely turning into a Southern family - Boogie boards for sleds and shoveling the driveway with beach/sand shovels.  I LOVE IT!!!

Sunday, January 24th, church was cancelled due to the fact that the church parking lot was one giant piece of ice.  The kids loved staying home another day.

Nick trying his car on the snow in the back yard.  

Yup, It works. 

Naomi gave herself a tatoo with colored pencils.  If you dip the tip in hot water it will act as a paint on your skin.  Cool.  

I think Nick has a little bit of  cabin fever.  Empty boxes are still the best way to entertain the kids, even when they are in their teens.  

By January 30th the temperature was 68 degrees and the snow/ice storm was just a distant memory.

On January 31st, the Panthers beat the Cardinals and they are going to the Superbowl!!!!!