End of December and early January

 We made the trek up to North Carolina and New Jersey over the Christmas Break.

We had a smooth trip up, thankfully - no traffic / no issues.  We hung out at my mom's house for a couple of days -- doing some stuff around her house and (I was) making / printing Christmas cards.  We played a board game one night.  We opened gifts one night.

The board game was called Hues and Cues - a color game that is harder than it looks -- you have to describe colors without using the name of the color.  Mom's clues were hard to guess.  "Shirt"  haha!  (um... there are hundreds of colors of shirts!)

We also passed back through North Carolina on our way back through after our trek to NJ.  (That trip wasn't as smooth, but... we made it safely)   she made LOTS and LOTS of waffles to eat chicken with!   mmm mmm.

We were surprised to see that my great-granny Moore's house (which had long been sold) was decorated with Christmas lights.   

We made it to NJ on Christmas Eve.  We hung out with the family that was there and the kids decorated cookies.  (whew - at least that got done!) but - wow - that's a LOT of icing!  

"Santa" came to the house that evening (after midnight - ugh)... and the festivities began of opening gifts.  More family members arrived on Christmas day.  

The day was filled with playing with (little) kids - for Mercer and hanging out in the barn to play with animals (for Isabella). 

We made a little bit of the food and hung out with Rose Marie. 

The best "toy" that made an appearance was a lighted loop toy - the older kids had a blast playing with them (that the little ones + our kids got)

Loved that cousin Nate asked him to play a game - where pigs are "dice" -- they played for quite awhile.

Isabella and I tried to make gingerbread (graham cracker) houses one day, but she walked away when hers collapsed and their dog, Beau, got it / pulled it off the table and ate it.... so.... that ended that.

Speaking of Beau, which one if the boy dressed in PJs... and which one is the dog?  ha!

One night, the 4 of us went to go watch a movie in the theater.  We also drove around a little historic town that was nearby to see some lights. 

More playing with kids time + more barn time. 

Then - games with the family.  (including the Hues and Cues game).  Tonia said "paint"  (um??)  and "room paint"  (um again!)  Kinda funny.

It is SO much driving.  But - we are always glad that we get to visit with all of the family - I know Todd enjoys seeing his brothers and sister.  Our kids like the craziness / the action of hanging out with the cousins too.

I can't remember if we documented these buildings before that always catch our eye on the drive to/ from Tonia's house. 

This is the ___ high school (great building!!)

And in a nearby town, an old bank building that turns the corner we've always liked.

Finally, this is an old ice cream factory that would make a great set for a zombie movie!)

We had 1 day to unpack (while Todd went to work). before ringing in the new year.  We were so low-key that night. We made it to midnight, but we didn't really do anything -- just played games (I bought the pig dice game) and we watched the ball drop in NYC.  There were fireworks all around us in the neighborhood so we could see some + hear them well into the night.

Out with 2024.  In with 2025!

Isabella got her hair cut (I was supposed to get mine cut too, but... I had a "staff meeting" to go to for a new teaching gig I was doing.  I had to cancel mine, but Todd took Isabella to her appointment.  I was surprised when I came home and it was so short... and she got bangs!   I am sad to see her long beautiful hair chopped off, but it is cute.

I went back to the retreat center (where I go hang out with the other adoptive moms).  Here's my room this time - This time, I did not meet my friends there - rather - I went to get away and focus on on-boarding for the new teaching gig + to "study" the material I was to teach. 

(I didn't get TOO far on it, as the ramping up of paperwork / online trainings was a lot..... still not finished with it (I technically only started a little over a week ago on January 2. I could have completed some of it before then if they had given access - but it unfortunately all gets compressed as to when your contract date is (which was only a few days before my 1st class on the 6th - yikes!)

One day, I snuck away to nearby Toccoa Falls.  (maybe gone a couple of hours total?)

The next day, I snuck away to go have brunch with the rest of the ladies - again - maybe a couple of hours? 

I did get to do yoga once too. How do I not make time for that when I'm here at home??!  I really enjoy it!  Oh well.

The rest of the time was reading up on my material.

Here are some of the "motivational" signs that are posted around the house.  

I came back and jumped into work at my "day job" and at the time of this writing, I've had 2 classes under my belt at the college - I'll be teaching there on Monday & Wednesday nights.   Here's my classroom - a lecture set-up.  And it's full of the 30 students that will fit there.

The classes so far went well.  The kids seem pretty good overall and interested (so far) and engaged / talkative when I ask questions. I just have a LOT of prep work to get materials made to teach... I mean to "profess."  haha

There are 2 big things that happened this week - one national / local and one local:

President Jimmy Carter passed away between Christmas and New Year's.  He was 100 years old.  His burial was on Thursday after almost a week of processions.  (Plains, GA --> Atlanta, GA --> Washington DC --> back to Georgia .... where he was finally laid to rest next to Rosalynn at their home in Plains)

I remember as a kid being proud that Carter was a president of the United States.... from Georgia!  I don't remember anything about his presidency, but I learned a lot when going to the Carter Center the summer before last.  I had taken Isabella to a day camp in Buckhead and then got to explore the museum at my pace / take in ALL the photos... read ALL the captions.  (I don't remember this picture, but saw it this week & thought it was funny - barefoot and bell-bottom jeans.  Just a regular guy!)

I learned that he did a BUNCH of really great things in office (even though he bucked the system and there were not a lot of fans of his administration??) .... and he did a bunch of really great things out of office.  (I was there on 7/7 (of the summer of 2023) which happened to be their 77th wedding anniversary!!  I know I blogged / posted about that almost a year and a half ago.

I suppose one thing that really dawned on me especially this last week hearing the efforts that he and Rosalynn did across oceans in impoverished countries.  I knew (and participated) in Habitat for Humanity which was / is pretty spectacular too.  But - I learned more about his peace-making this past week... and just what a down-to-earth human being he was.  He wanted to talk to the servers and cook staff at dinner parties -- not just the esteemed guests.  It really says a lot about a person. I wish that more of our politicians were like this. 

They played Georgia on my Mind at the funeral.  His heart was really in his community -- instead of being buried in one of the most honorable cemeteries as past president, he always knew he wanted to be back in the south.  Hopefully he's dancing in heaven with his wife.

What a life well-lived.  Thank you for your service to this country and to the world.

We were watching the funeral processions AND the weather report.  It's been a good 7 - 8 years since we've had a memorable snow event in Georgia... and we were got another one on Friday.   (here's a shot out of our front door looking at our neighbor's house as the sun was coming up.)

and - here's a photo a neighbor sent to me of our house from about an hour later!  :) 

I talked to our superintendent (he was in our building on Wednesday ahead of the storm) - he did not want another "snowmageddon" (the winter storm that hit Atlanta in January 2014 - 11 years ago). He said he was a principal at a local school and he got STUCK for 36 hours at his school until the last student could be picked up!   Thankfully, school was cancelled ahead of time!   

(I remember vividly that Isabella was not yet 2 months old. A sweet neighbor "demanded" that I stay home / not try to drive my car up to get Mercer at the school - he was in Kinder.  She walked her children and him back to our neighborhood.... and I remember when I met him at the door he was crying - they said he was a trooper / stoic while walking 'til he saw me, then let loose because his little feet and hands were frozen solid.)  sigh. I will always remember that... poor kid!

Above are photos of Mercer's car's "1st snow" and my car's "1st snow" - yes - I read up that you could charge it in the snow!  

The kids and the dogs had fun!  Here's what the day consisted of:

- snow ball fights

- watching the kids play in the back yard - wanting to go out

- letting Hip Hop go off-leash in our back yard to run around in the snow

- watching Saffy EAT the snow and ice (she has always loved ice cubes from the freezer, so, I guess it's not that different!)

- making snowballs & throwing into the pond to watch them float!

- building a "snow thing" (not really a snowman??)

- and watching (some of it) from the warmth of indoors with some cocoa bombs and hot milk.

- also, there was some snuggling with the dogs.

Todd went to work -- he walked to his office, but his boss drove him back home, as it was raining a little bit at the end of the day.  

The snow was not very long-lived, but it was a good morning & afternoon enjoying the powdery white stuff.

Yesterday, Mercer had his dual-enrollment college orientation (virtual instead of in-person at the campus nearly an hour away) I guess he's officially a college student!  (he can get a college ID if we go to the office in person... he can go to their gym... use their library... park on their campus!)

He's taking his 1st college course starting Monday - but online while he's in a "digital learning lab" at our school!  He will get BOTH high school credit and college credit for this.  He's starting with a history course.  And he's already talking about taking some classes this summer... and more next fall...  I think he realizes the benefit now of these FREE classes that will transfer to any GA state-funded college!  yippee!

And- last night we had a soup night for my "Valley Girls" book club.  (There's another neighborhood book club that I go to sometimes + the teacher book club where we don't read books any more.... I can only participate in any of these if I can listen to the book online.)  At any rate, it was my turn to host (this one ASSIGNS hosting on a rotation!  My turn was 2nd Thursday in December.  I said NOPE.  I have absolutely no bandwidth in December!  So, the 2nd Saturday in January it was.  whew.  It went well.  We deep cleaned our front few rooms -- which it really needed... and contained the dogs / kids / husband behind the baby gate in the lower part of the house.   

The ladies walked over / said the sidewalks were clear.  It went well.  I won't be on rotation again for at least another year!  whew.

These 2 photos are of the textures that the frozen rain made on Mercer's & Todd's windshields.  Pretty cool and why would they be different?!  Nature / science is amazing.

Mercer said last night that Hip Hop barked at the snow thing (snow man).  This morning, um, he "disrespected it"  haha

(At this writing - Sunday).... it is melting & dripping.  Fingers crossed all of the ice that was on the trees evaporates into the sun and limbs don't start falling onto power lines!  

Looks like we're back at school on Monday!