January

Table all set.

Elaine put together a little scavenger hunt around the house wherein they ultimately found keys to open little mystery chests.

Opening the chests which had a bunch of neat charms in them.

Grandma and Grandpa's gifts for the kids while Russ and Saray wait in the background.

Russ and Saray always bring these beautifully wrapped presents.  Nope, that will never be me.

Tried out a new place called "Defy Orlando" which has a bunch of trampolines and obstacle courses.  We met Jennifer, Vasti, and kids there and the kids really loved it.  We did this on a Friday which "normally" I'd be doing yard sales but January is so slow.

Adventurer Sabbath on January 5.

Brady expressed interest in a Bible and since he's learning to read, we couldn't deny him his own Bible!

My friend, Ashley, opened her own dance studio so we showed our support by coming out for her grand opening celebration.  No, my kids will probably never be dancers but we are really happy for Ashley's endeavor.

Her girlie girls and my non-girlie girls.

My girlie boy, for a few minutes at least.

Found Brady and Aubree just enjoying a beautiful winter day on January 7.

Aubree reading her "Would You Rather" book she got for Christmas.

Impromptu mini-golf outing on a random weeknight, January 7.

Calleigh somehow got really good and only lost by a couple strokes to Duncan (I just kept score since it's too much for six to golf at once).

I am so happy that Colby decided to take skating lessons again after about a ten month hiatus. The girls are on the last level of the "Learn to Skate" program.  Once they finish it, they will move on to the Academy which is on Thursday nights so I may be at RDV potentially two nights a week.  Hmmm.

Tooth update...not sure how much I've talked about it on here.  In September 2017, I got braces with the goal of adjusting the bone where my permanent crown would go so that my gum line would be even.  What was supposed to be 6-8 months of braces ended up being 16 months instead! The reason was that when I got my implant in June 2018, the braces kept my temporary crown in place so I didn't have to wear a retainer.  Fast forward to January 9, 2019 and the braces finally came off! My implant had finally "implanted" sufficiently.  That same day, I had a mold made for my permanent crown but then had to wait several weeks to January 31 to have it fitted.  They had to make one more adjustment and then finally, FINALLY, on Monday, February 4, my tooth saga came to a merciful end.  My permanent crown was put in and I am as good as new! I can now eat a whole apple if I wanted.  I haven't been able to do that in probably 15 years at least.

There were a few freaky times between January 9 and February 4, though. After I got the braces off, I did have a retainer of sorts which my fake tooth sat in.  I took the retainer out, of course, to clean it and such. Well, not once, but twice, I had the tooth fall out and go down my bathroom sink drain.  All I can say is, thank goodness I have long hair which clogs up the drain because that's what saved it! I was able to retrieve it both times with tweezers.  One of the times was even on the morning of my birthday. Can you say nightmare?? I am SO HAPPY to be done with all that.

I found it so hilarious that this is what the DENTIST gave me as a gift upon getting my braces off!

Can you tell which one it is?

Doing a unit on worms for Science and I made the kids a "worm" snack which was chocolate pudding, crumbled up Oreos, and gummy worms.

Calleigh and Colby made a worm diorama.

As did Aubree and Brady

Worms, in fact, have no noses but can smell using their whole body which we proved by putting a Q-tip with nail polish remover next to each end and seeing the worm squirm both times.

Fell asleep during "Tablet Time"

Aubree and Brady continue with their art class on Fridays.

Saturday night, January 12, the four of us went to the Magic/Celtics game.  We got to sit in the really fancy executive suite seats with a bunch of free food. It was quite something.  The Celtics led most of the game but then blew it at the end and lost by 1.  Fortunately, we were more concerned about the big Patriots playoff game against the Chargers the next day to care too much about the loss.

Note the "AdventHealth" logo

The food and drink area.  This doesn't do it justice.

David and Yully and girls came over to watch the Pats/Chargers game with us.  The Patriots creamed them and poor Natalie got upset listening to us yell and scream in excitement!

Since we got new flooring in November, the boys have had to start playing their sports elsewhere. They figured out that the master bedroom makes a good hockey arena. So this is what I come across all the time when I go into my room.

Brady is always trying to get me to play with him so it's usually Colby and I against him.  If nobody will play with him, he just plays by himself but he does the play-by-play like he's the announcer.  He changes his voice and everything.

Watched the Bergherm kids one day and London helped me make a lasagna.

She left her bow behind though!

Sunday, January 20, we watched the Patriots beat the Chiefs to go to the Super Bowl.  We stayed up so late watching the coverage and then I eventually found Colby at about 11;15 pm just randomly lying in Calleigh's room on the floor.  Too tired to stay awake another minute.

Brady watching highlights the next (chilly) morning.

A big part of our history this year is American History from 1400's to 1850. For art, we all drew George Washington following a YouTube tutorial. I guess you'll just have to guess whose is whose.

On Thursday and Friday, January 24 and 25 we had a couple adventures with some random animals.  On the Thursday, we found a small dog wandering around in our yard.  He was evidently lost and it took us quite a while to finally capture him as he ran through other yards and into the street. After posting lost dog on several FB pages to no avail, we ended up taking him into the vet to get scanned.  Fortunately he did have a chip. As it turned out, Buddy was our neighbor's dog from about five or six houses down. We brought him back and the babysitter who was there, didn't even know he had gotten out.

Buddy

The next afternoon, Brady found a strange creature while they were playing out back. We realized it was a newborn baby squirrel that had evidently fallen out of its nest. Again, I turned to FB to get advice on what to do. After a lot of legwork, I ended up driving it to an animal hospital up in Deland (about a 50 minute drive) at about 9:00 pm.  I was very glad Duncan's car had heated seats!

So tiny. We found out it was a girl and that she did survive the night after I dropped her off.

We tried giving her some Pedialyte because she was so dehydrated. You can tell because her nails were so black.

That pretty much wraps up the month of January.  Apparently nothing much happened after the 25th other than my birthday on the 26th.  Ron and Elaine babysit that evening while Duncan and I had dinner out and then went to a movie (which we ended up walking out of).

Have a Happy Sabbath!