It's a New Day...

It seems a bit unreal that today is the first day of February. One out of only 12 months this year is already gone...?! As the month of January passed by, I saw lots of people all over the place set new years resolutions, and then lose momentum on their goal to keep them. It made me wonder - am I better or worse for not setting any resolutions? :) Truth be told, the main reason I didn't set one is because I didn't want to set myself up to fail...but now is that really a positive way of thinking? ;-) I have decided that I am going to start my fitness goals this month. Today, not so much. Although I am a girl that likes "first of the month" or "first of the week" beginnings, work is still too crazy to really do much of anything else. That, and home life is busy. We're working on a slew of home improvement projects, and we're hoping to make major headway over the next couple of weeks. So, perhaps next week I can start running. :)

Update on the kids:

> Rylie got a nasty stomach bug last week and I earned mother of the year award (I think I've actually earned it for this specific reason before, come to think of it!). She wasn't hungry Wednesday night, which isn't unusual for her. I struggle to get her to eat a decent dinner about 7 out of 7 nights a week. This night, I'd made meatloaf "cupcakes" with mashed potato "frosting" (side note - Zoe was very disappointed to find out that the cupcakes weren't real cupcakes). When Rylie started to throw her usual fit about eating, I decided she could just go to bed hungry (it was her choice - eat what I made or don't eat). So, when bedtime came around, she said her stomach hurt and when I asked her why, she said it was because she felt hungry and asked for medicine. Since she'd made the choice to not eat, I told her no medicine - I hoped that she would learn that it's better to eat dinner than not eat dinner, even if it's not something you like. About an hour after she went down, she got out of bed (which can also be an issue for her) and came into the room I was in and said she'd thrown up. As soon as I looked at her, I knew it was real - she was still half asleep and her hair was covered in ick (gross, I know...sorry). So, I spent the rest of the night (from about 9pm on) taking care of her - she threw up about every hour on the hour. I called into work about 3am. :- /

> Zoe had a gymnastics performance last week. We've known about it for several weeks now, and we'd been talking it up like CRAZY. So, I showed up along with several other parents. I went to her room first and took a few pictures "pre-performance" for Daddy. I got huge grins and excited yelling. A few minutes later, all the kids came in the room and one of the parents said "any guesses on who cries first?!". And yes, it was his kid who cried first...Zoe (along with one other kid) were the only ones who didn't burst into tears once they all started. So, the performance got underway and they started with a march around the whole room. Zoe did great while almost everyone cried. Then, the tables took an immediate turn and everyone else started to calm down/loosen up and MY daughter got stage fright...that stuck with her the.entire.time. Seriously, she didn't do ANYTHING. At the very end, I made her do a flip so I could get at least one picture, even if it was staged. Sheesh!

 Zoe, pre-performance

 Zoe, waiting in the hall for the performance to start

 Zoe, with her arms clenched around me...silly girl

Even Ms. Jennifer couldn't get her to smile and accept her gold medal!

> Josh is gearing up for 7th grade ALREADY. Somehow, that seems unreal. I've accepted the fact that he's in 6th grade (mostly) but 7th grade seems so old. Mike took him to an info meeting last night to learn about his elective choices for next year - he's considering band, athletics, some AP courses, conversational spanish, and a buddy program where he would help special needs kids. (awwwww). The forms are due Friday, so we'll see what he ends up choosing.

I guess that's all for now...I'm still learning how to use the new camera I got for Christmas, so more pics will be coming soon! Have a great rest-of-the-week everyone! :)