COTTONWOOD PUBLIC HOUSE

Jay and I attended the Cottonwood Public House soft opening tonight as Lori's dates (she works in PR at Ameristar and is invited to all the things). We loved it! (Though we'd had a sneak peak earlier in the month at a Delta Brews meeting - not open yet, but we were able to take a tour.) Cool and comfortable interior, great menu, and good selection of beer and cocktails. The prices aren't our favorite yet, and some of the food is probably a little too California hippy to survive the 'Burg, but we'll see how things evolve as they get to know their local crowd.

FLYING HEARTS

Cora received a tabletop easel for Christmas from Uncle Davey and Auntie Taryn, and she was very excited to put it to good use. We now own 2 beautiful "flying hearts" paintings (and Ms. Judy, one of our Girl Scout leaders, had a couple more, after she commented that this one was pretty and she wanted one of her very own):

JAMES' FIRST PIANO RECITAL

He cleans up so nice! The bag was a gift from his piano teacher in which to keep his piano books and binder, his weekly assignment book, and a pencil to do his homework with.

James was SO nervous when we first got there (notice his tense fingers - he was gripping air and practicing his moves and chewing his nails, poor guy)!

And poor Jay - we dragged him out of bed for the show (he'd been sick with the flu for 5 straight days and today was the worst of it - we sent him right back to the car after the 30 minute recital while we visited and snacked on Ms. Ruth's homemade cookies).

His second song was too long to post here, but here's his first! He did so well with both his songs (he'd been practicing them for a little over a month)!

This is the full group of Ms. Ruth's students this year:

He was so pleased with the certificate and pin that his teacher gave him!

Ms. Ruth is truly a blessing in his life. He really looks forward to his lessons each week and the one-on-one attention is something he doesn't get anywhere else (dance and soccer and Scouts are group sports/programs, though we do try at home as often as we can to split he and Cora up for some mama/daddy time!) He is always proud to show her when he knows he's done well practicing a particular song and she's very patient with his love of jokes and puns during lessons when he should be playing with his mouth closed. I hope he sticks with piano for at least a few years!

IF I ALMOST FITS, I SITS

CLOSET KINDLE

Give them an hour of Kindle time and you can bet they'll find a dark, quiet spot to play in the hopes that you'll forget about them and they can get more game time!

MS BLUES REDO

Last year The Mississippi Blues Marathon got cancelled due to an ice storm, which ended up being ok with me since I'd been out for 5 weeks due to a hip injury/issue. The race directors kindly gave us free registration to any nearby(ish) Rock N' Roll marathon over the next few months, so we signed up for Nashville in April, thinking we'd either push our mileage back up to do the full or just go do the half for fun, and make a girls weekend of it either way... but then I tore my meniscus and ran zero miles for 5 months (overlapping the Nashville half)... so when registration for The Blues opened this year, with a big discount for runners that registered last year, Christina and I signed up for the half and crossed our fingers we'd get there!

And we got there! Miles accumulated, comfort with running again returned, and we showed up in the rain to go the distance!

I had planned to take some fun photos along the course (since we planned to run it at an easy, conversational pace), but it rained literally the entire 2 hours and 22 minutes that we were on the course, so the phone stayed tucked away. The last few miles were hard (as they always are), but we really had a good time out there and were kinda sad when it was over...

(some of our Vicksburg running friends)

(the galaxy skirt girls)

We downed a ton of water and Gatorade, took some photos, and schlepped our way indoors (the finish line is at the Art Museum), not so much to dry off, but to stand in a dry place (we were pretty cold at this point, since we were soaking wet AND sweaty). A lady walked by us after a bit advertising free sports massages, something I don't normally do after a race because the line is usually long, but she promised us half the massage therapists were open, so we took advantage. Twenty minutes later we felt better, but were colder than before, so we high-tailed it to the car to change into dry clothes, then enjoyed a leisurely (early) lunch. It was such a fun morning and it really made me miss running with Christina regularly!!

PINEWOOD DERBY 2018

I missed out on the Pinewood Derby this year because it overlapped with my half marathon (which was planned much further in advance), but Jay helped the kids design their cars and they spent a fun morning racing (and winning!)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (James) and The White Tiger (Cora)

The Wolf Den boys!

The siblings!

PATRICK THE PYGMY GOAT

Jay got the flu and he's been so pitiful this week that I caved and got him a goat:

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

Almost caught up to big brother (this was #7 for her and he's lost 8)

JANUARY RANDOMS

We didn't take enough photos while my parents were here! We took a few more after dad had to go home though - these are the ones we grabbed that didn't make their own solo post:

Literally babying their kittens... 

Laser tag outside despite the cold

Taking down the Christmas decor and a Dazzling Jay! 

This never gets old (to her) 

Zy came to visit and Buster was a happy boy

Starfire learned to participate in tea parties...

Claw'dia learned to snuggle with Buster to stay warm on extra cold days

James (and I) got flu A (it wasn't terrible, but we didn't move much for a few days)

Cora hid far away from us in her room, where she was allowed to break all sorts of rules by watching movies and eating popcorn in bed (she may have been a little disappointed when we started getting better on day four...)

When half the family is sick, there is a lot of television (and movies)

Claw'dia still wins for cutest cat in my book 

I don't understand why she likes (not just tolerates) being driven around the house in the baby doll stroller (sometimes for a half hour or more at a time) 

Sometimes Starfire is pretty adorable though (when it's cold and she wants to snuggle)

Kittens so cute they even make mom (the highly allergic one) smile and pet them (but just with one finger, and then she must scrub their cat cooties off!)

They built some tiny snowmen out of weird foamy dough (and James made a face to match the crazy snowman face he created)

Cora loves her new window clings creation set from Uncle Davey and Autie Taryn. Her sticky creations are now in most rooms of the house...