March is the New January

In my line of work, January is notoriously a busy month…so much so that I start hating the month of January beginning in November… and the past few years February is starting to get on my nerves too. Thus the reason my blog posts have been few and far between. When you’re knee deep in payroll returns and journal entries, really nothing your kids do can give you enough momentum to actually take the memory card out of the camera and plug it into the computer…oh, the tremendous labor that takes. So I thought I should recap our big moments in January and February for the books.

I flew to Nashville for business meetings in the middle of the month, and this was the only actual proof that I got on a plane.

I take that command very seriously.

The day after I returned, the boys were in their school's annual talent show. This year Caleb danced with 4 other boys to Stayin' Alive...and it was sooo cute. We finally got to see Caleb do his sweet dance moves (he's the one on the far right in every picture)...

...and what he would look like if I had married a black man.


Cody performed with the same group he was with last year and they danced to "Bad" with a West Side Story/street gang vibe. Totally awesome...and Cody (he's the one in the white t-shirt up front) also showed us his sweet dance moves...

...and what he would like like if I had married Michael Jackson.

Then in February, like everyone else in this flu city, our house spent the last half of one week and the first half of the next week like this...

which caused me to break into an early Valentines gift...

The boys got over the flu just in time to celebrate Valentine's Day.

Normally if our boys got clothes for Valentines they would have totally booed me...but these aren't just any clothes...they're bicycling shorts with a thick layer of padding on the booty. Nothing says love like...well you can probably finish that line.

They obviously think they are "all that" while wearing padded undies.

On Valentine's Eve, Mr. McRomance had arranged for us to go on a date... securing child care (Thanks Tam!) and picking a secret place for us to go. He took me to the Italian Inn, and we sat in one of their private booths... evidently a much sought after treasure. The booths have doors on them so you are literally sitting where no one can see you...oh, but they can hear you because we heard the juiciest things coming from the booth next to us. Not really...they were pretty boring in fact, but just think of how much more exciting this story would be if we would have overheard a marriage proposal, or a lover's quarrel...or a planned bomb attack. Okay, I'm sick...I know this.

Anywho, this restaurant has been around since the 60's, and they have singing waiters and great food. The other cool thing...which I'm sure is a little less cool now to the owners of the establishment, is that they let you write on the walls and doors. So we claimed our spot of history in the first private booth on the east wall...or was it west? I know Mr. McSmartypants will let me know which is correct...and also the exact time we were there...in military time language.

Mr. McRomance had also planned ahead and arranged for the waitress to bring flowers to my table and the gift he had purchased me. Which brings me to a point of annoyance in my marriage...there is no way I can out-romance this guy. I have tried to think of ways to be more romantic than him...because it is a competition...but he is so good at it, the things I do seriously look like a bad attempt at a first date. Thank you babe for all the thought that goes into nights like this.

The rest of the month has been fairly uneventful except for Upwards Basketball...for which I will devote an entire blog posting when it's over so I can document which awards my sons will most assuredly earn...but likely not for Bible memory. Is there an award for hiding your uniform in the bottom of the dirty clothes hamper until midnight the night before games? Because if there is...both my children will win this trophy hands down.