woah.

it's been waaaay too long. i had all these grand plans for our christmas break with zane home. we were going to paint the sunroom. go on a date. i was going to use a free gym pass for a day. we were going to go to the childrens museum. zane was going to varnish our dining room table. none of those things happened. unless you count our date as going out to celebrate our friend james' birthday (i kind of count it since we were out past 7pm, but we weren't alone so that kind of doesn't count. but who's counting?)

anyway, we did have one heck of a vacation, and by vacation i mean "go go go go go go, sleep a bit, go go go a bit more, and on the last 2 days do everything that you can think of to cram into your time off!" it was awesome and exhausting and i plan to blog about all our happenings, but for now, some highlights in the last few days.

we rang in the new year. with chinese food, slippers, some dice, and the morettis who left at 11:15 :) it's a tradition that we get together (they usually come to us) and whine about feeling old and tired and not liking to play games but we do anyway. i think we outlasted some other years, so that was a plus!

i hosted a little playdate here yesterday. it was the best one in a loooong time. the kids are getting old enough to know good and bad behavior and for the most part, everyone brought awesome behavior!

nola's using the potty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this one is HUGE, because it happened so suddenly and without our prompting. avery carried the little potty upstairs from the basement last week and ever since, nola's gone to the bathroom whenever avery does. SO PROUD. this morning she was in a pullup at school, stayed dry the entire time and came home to run to the bathroom! i'm still a bit in shock, it's awesome. when they're ready, they're ready i guess :) i'm glad we didn't push her and let her be her own guide.

this is a drawing avery did on one of her christmas presents. this is a sketch of a smiling house. with legs. i was afraid to ask what the circles on the belly were, but it turns out they're bones. and the circles on the legs are knees, of course :) i love her drawings.

on new years day, we took the girls to the park and i went running on the track. it was in the 40s and i was sweating in capris, a tank top and long sleeved t-shirt. 2 days later it plummeted into the 20's for highs, but should be back to the 40's by the weekend. it coincides nicely with my return to running :)

in the upcoming weeks i'm planning on soaking up as much downtime as i can muster. i'm actually dreading my classes starting at the end of the month, but it's fun to think that i'm passing the halfway point and next year will just be practicum and (hopefully, if i can get 2 classes in this summer) no class. i have a paper (front and back) with a list of things to do while i have the time (ie organize and purge pictures on my laptop to clear some space, copy all random recipes onto cards, etc) so i can truly focus when i'm back in school. hopefully i can fit blogging in there too :)