Here we are in St. Louis snowed in again. I think we got five or six inches, but it was through the night so there wasn't time to clean the streets. There were 840 school closings this morning. Wayne was bummed out because his history class was supposed to be at 10 today and he loves the class. This is his fifth history class he's taken at Meramec, and he's running out of choices.
I went out to Meramec yesterday to visit, and it was fun seeing all of my old work friends. My replacement seems to be doing fine. Then I picked up Abbey and Erin at noon because their school closed early due to the weather forecast. They are nice kids, and really pretty easy. They play really well together; they'll go up in the playroom for a couple of hours and we don't hear a thing.
We've had two birthdays in the past couple of weeks, my son-in-law Dave's, and my grand daughter Abbey's.
It's finally the last day of January, and only 55 days until spring. I don't feel like I've accomplished much this month, except playing on the computer, reading Goldfinch, watching Girls, Downton Abbey, True Detective, HG TV, and going to doctors. It has been so cold and snowy here, so I don't even like going out much. We do go out to eat a couple of times a week but I haven't even gone to thrift stores much. The one in our neighborhood closed a few weeks ago, and I used to go there every week when I went grocery shopping. I like one in South County which takes about 25 minutes to get to, so I only go there every couple of weeks.
I also have been doing some sewing and embroidering. I am so anxious, though, to get outside and work in the yard. We'll need to landscape the front yard since everything was torn up with our addition. We'll probably just move some of the stuff we have in back, some hydrangeas and astilbe. We did plant a couple hundred tulip bulbs this fall; that should be so pretty in front of the new porch. I also want to rearrange some of the flowers that I'll be able to see out of my new kitchen window. I haven't had a kitchen window since we moved here, and now we have a nice big one so I can look out over the back yard.
Oh yeah, I also got finished cleaning out the basement. It is so nice being able to walk around down there. Next is the attic. Ugh! I guess I did something in January, but it was really my first month since retirement and I've never not worked, gone to school or raised kids. I feel really unproductive. Wayne is taking a history class three mornings a week, and I might do that in the fall. I also might teach a class a couple of days a week. I'll see how I feel once I get to work outside and don't feel so confined.
Tomorrow night we have an engagement party for my niece, and Sunday is grand daughter Abbey's tenth birthday. I got her a new Kindle because hers quit working. Then next weekend we are going to Cincinnati to celebrate Stephanie's birthday and for Julia's christening. My birthday is that Monday, and one of my sisters is having a Fancy Aunt Lunch the next weekend for me, my youngest sister (who was born on Valentine's Day and a niece who's birthday is the day after mine. February should be a bit more interesting.
I'm not real good at keeping New Year's resolutions, so I usually don't tell many people what they are. The past two years my resolution has been to lose weight, and I've lost 25 lbs in the past year. Not because of the resolution, just because I don't like my doctor writing "obesity" on my list of ailments. I went for a checkup last week and he did not put "obesity" as one of my ailments, so that felt good. I still want to lose 15 more lbs., which I can probably do.
This year my resolutions is to get rid of stuff. We could barely walk in our basement, and our attic is piled three feet high with stuff. Every closet door upstairs can barely be closed because of all of the clothes and junk in them. I started on the basement last week, as I was putting away Christmas decorations, and I got rid of about 15 trash bags of stuff. Now we can walk in our basement again. Next I will tackle either the closets upstairs or the attic. I need to stop saving stuff in case someone needs it some day. I could probably be a candidate for the TV show Hoarders.
We celebrated grand daughter Katie's birthday on the 21st. She's the one who made us grandparents.
Well, Christmas has come and gone and I just finally got all of our decorations put away. We had a good Christmas; Patrick was here from New York and John and Chellie and the babies came from Cincinnati. My daughter who lives in town had the family Christmas Eve, and Christmas day we went to one of my sister's houses for brunch. We ended up having the family come to our house Christmas night. There were probably about thirty people, but with the addition it didn't seem that crowded.
John and Chellie got up very early the next morning and went to Tampa, and Wayne and I watched the babies. It was a lot of fun but kind of tiring. I'm not as young as I used to be, haha. They are having Julia Christened Feb. 9th, so we will go to Cincinnati for that and they will celebrate Stephanie's second birthday on Sat., Feb. 8th. Her birthday is actually next week, the 23rd of January, but she is little enough that she won't really know the difference.
The day after Thanksgiving we had family pictures taken. We used one with Wayne and I for our cards, but above is one of just the grand kids. I've spent the past two weeks decorating for Christmas. It's nice being retired and having time to do it the way I want. I don't know how I ever had time to work. After decorating I had the Fancy Aunt Lunch this past Sunday. My sisters, sister in laws, daughter and nieces celebrate birthdays, usually combining two or three at a time. This time it was for my s.i.l. Didi, and two of my sisters who have birthdays this week.
I've ordered some Christmas presents on-line, half which have not come yet. The seven older grand kids want gift cards. I hate not buying presents for them, so I got the gift cards and a gift for each to open. I had fun buying toys for the two babies. Yesterday I went to the post office to mail our cards, to Shop n Save to buy gift cards, to Old Navy to return a sweater, to Pet Smart, Hobby Lobby and Abercrombie & Fitch to buy gift cards. Then I went by Meramec to register Wayne for a class this spring and visit my old office. I was tired by the time I got home, but glad I got so much done.
Here are some pictures of our house and the luncheon:
We had a nice Thanksgiving with all of our family except Patrick. There were 17 of us, a manageable number. It was really nice with the new kitchen. I just put all of the dishes on the island and people just filled their plates in there. After dinner we all went to my sister Libby's for dessert. I forgot to take any pictures, but below are some from our house.
Then Friday was Wayne's birthday, and Amy had us all over there for Imo's pizza.
Early Saturday morning we had a photographer come to the house and take pictures of all of the grand kids on our front porch. I wanted to get a good picture for our Christmas card, and Wayne and I were in a few. The kids behaved better than I expected. I'm anxious to get the CD of the pictures.
Kate, her two, Abbey and I went to visit my mother-in-law at Friendship Village in the afternoon. It is pretty depressing, but we don't know how much longer she will be around, so we visit when we can. John and Chellie had taken the two babies to see her Friday afternoon, and though she couldn't remember who they were, she kept telling us some relative brought the two cutest babies to see her. She doesn't remember much and repeats herself every five minutes, but she is thrilled to see her great grand children. We all met at a restaurant in Kirkwood for dinner, and John and Chellie left this morning. Kate and Corinne and Jack will leave tomorrow afternoon. They will not be back for Christmas, but John and Chellie will.
