Turning 12

The girls will be turning 12 in a couple of weeks.  12.  Gah!  It kills me.

They went to an amazing elementary school for the past two years in Athens, but we moved them back to our district for middle school (a long story for another day) and since then, they have missed their Chase Street friends like crazy.

I can't say enough about how much I love these girls.  Seriously.  So I invited 6 of them for a surprise sleep over (5 could make it).  The girls had absolutely NO IDEA. 

Chris took them shopping and to run errands for the afternoon while Q and I took Ike to be boarded and to get a birthday cake.

And then there was this...

 

 And just as the girls were sitting down to eat pizza their sweet, sweet teachers from last year and their favorite librarian (not me) surprised all of them!  It was fabulous!

I am hoping that this little party will help make February better for us.  I feel silly that I haven't taken advantage of the long MLK weekend before.  Silly me.

Full Steam Ahead.

Amen for a 3 day weekend.

So much in front of us - a HUGE surprise weekend (nope, not Disney...or Great Wolf...I can't say because I have these middle school age children that have middle school age friends that are all snoopy into the blog and my instagram...snoops!)

But I'm excited and feeling very pleased with myself.

Here's an update on our year...

1.  I did AWESOME last week with taking my lunch, getting in some treadmill time, and I did a Daily Burn work out (kind of cheesy, kind of fun)...but then

2.  I went to the Google Summit at the Lovett School last weekend (I love the people I work with.  If you don't have a librarian friend, go make on...we're fun people.) and fell behind in EVERY aspect of my life...

3.  I started the week with no clean laundry, no grocery shopping done, behind on shop stuff, etc. etc. etc.

4.  AWESOME.

5.  I ate a lot this week.  But some of it was really good AND good for me.  (Do you follow me on instagram?  I posted some pics there.)  Tuesday night we had chicken over a warm kale, asparagus, shallot, grape tomato salad and you would have thought that we all died and went to Heaven.  And then on Wednesday we have quinoa and mushroom stuffed green peppers.  (de-lish!) Tonight - spaghetti squash with sausage and marina sauce.  (I think I was the only one who liked it.  I could eat spaghetti squash everyday.  It reminds me of my childhood.)

6.  February is right around the corner and once it starts I will be holding my breath until March.  Just so you know.

Hi. Good Evening.

We got to stay home today.  All of us.  After being back at work for 2 days after Christmas break.  Home.

It was below 0 this morning.  I have lived in Georgia since 1986 and I don't even remember it being below 0.  I know that many Northerners think that the South is silly when they close school for things like icy roads, an inch of snow, cold weather....  But we're just not equipped for this sort of weather. 

I've continued to run on the treadmill for the last few days and Chris signed us up for The Daily Burn.  So we'll see about that.

We ate spaghetti squash and meatballs in the crock pot the other night for dinner.   No joke, I loved it.  No joke, everyone else in my family hated it.  I can't stop thinking about the squash and wishing we had a bowl of leftovers of it.

Chris also made chicken stir fry and Sunday night to eat on Monday and it worked like a dream.  {in case you were wondering}

And, if you don't already follow me on IG, you'll want to.  I'm giving away a week's worth of IKE & CO earrings.  (follow @ikeandco)

A New Year

I'm not sure what the new year holds for this blog, but I renewed my domain this morning and so that makes me feel like I should put my money to good use.  :) 

I stopped running in October.  We traveled to Texas for my brother's wedding and then the time changed and well, one thing led to another and here we are, over two months have passed.  I've also gained 8lbs since the start of the school year (yay!  go me!) (and I didn't know the actual number until all of these neurologist appointments...gah!).

So I started running again over the break.  I hate that I was on a good track and now it's like starting all over.  Big sigh.  Such is life though, right?

Neurologist update:  I had the MRI, I had the post MRI consultation and the big news is that there is a "near complete absence of the septum pellucidum."  Supposedly, that's somewhat rare and a complete chance finding.  And it has nothing to do with my migraines.  Awesome.

But here's the big news!  {nope, not pregnant}

The Pendley's are CHOOSING JOY this year!

It's January 4th and I can already tell you that it was much easier to choose joy when I thought I was just redoing our living room mantel.  Now that I'm living it, I can tell you...it's hard.  We have 2 middle school age DAUGHTERS in our house (oh the drama, oh the mood swings) and a very needy, very charming, very talkative kindergartener.  We have a lot going on in our lives and sometimes we get in a slump where it is easier to give into a black cloud than it is to count our blessing and find JOY in things.  To choose joy over anything else.

But we're going to do this - choose joy - in 2014.  All of us.

But there's more that we're doing in 2014 too {nope, still not having a baby!}.  We're losing weight and refocusing our evenings.  Evenings are by far the worst for us because at 9pm (faithfully) Chris and I fix grown up drinks, plates (or bowls) of snack foods and sit on the couch and watch 2 hours of TV.  I am not kidding.  (Remember...8lbs since August!)

I have looked at advocare and the T-25 workout but they're both kind of pricey and that makes me kind of nervous.  (Anyone tried either of these things?)

But, in looking at these things, I stumbled upon this blog and I'm SUPER excited about her menus and meals and grocery shopping lists and general awesomeness.

So, 2014.  Here we go.

And as a PS - one of my bridesmaids was a dear friend named Joy...and choosing Joy makes me think of her...and she's in Korea...but every time I think JOY I am thankful for her.