Is January Almost Over?

I need to post some recent events in the lives of this family, and unfortunately, tonight my mind is tired and my foot is wrapped in an ice pack, so I'm gonna post a few different things tonight for the sake of time. (I'll explain the ice pack in a minute.) :-)

Let me take this back to the START of this lovely month we call January...New Year's Eve was spent with some of our dear friends, the Whites and the Cranfords. We kept it simple, but fun, and I think the kids enjoyed every minute of ringing in the New Year! They LOVED the hats and noisemakers!!
Here's some pictures from our New Year's Eve "party".

As you can see, Jan is quite the "bearded one" these days. He says it's gonna stay until the grass is green. :-)We'll see about that.

Ah, yes! Upward Basketball is in full swing. Our family in spending every Sat. morning from now until the end of Feb. "camped out" at Oak Grove. I can say I have seen some improvements in the boys' "game" since last year. Especially, Jonah...People are no longer coming up to me and suggesting he try out for football since last year he thought the objective of the game was to "tuck and run" with the ball down the court. hehe I love this child!

I managed to get a still picture of Jonah in his uniform, but not John Owen. (I have lots of video, I promise.) Not sure what the "L" is for...I certainly hope he's not implying anything about the photographer.

 And who celebrates Christmas in January?! We do, that's who! We gathered at Aunt Dinah's house in Somerville on January 8th for our last Christmas celebration. My grandmother, who is 92 years old, is seen here telling the great-grandchildren seated on the floor about her favorite things in the Bible. She is the BEST storyteller, and even still, she captivates her audience. (She told them all she was going to ask questions at the end to see if they were listening, and they all did a wonderful job.) Christmas with these folks is one of the things I look forward to the most.

Here the great-grandchildren showered Jenny with her Christmas gifts!

One last shot...everybody smile!

O.K., so here's some other things that have happened in January. John Owen and Jonah both did wonderful on their recent report cards...2nd time to make principal's list (all A's) for John Owen and all +'s for my man, Jonah! Way to go, boys! Mary Claire has started back into dance and is loving it! We have decided to wait until summer to continue with music lessons. Mama's daily planner screams "busy", and something had to "give" for the sake of some family time. But, the boys do want to try some gymnastics right after school, so we are going to give that a shot this week. It's close, it's convenient...
Jan is seriously improving in his running! I don't know if I mentioned this, but he decided to take up running after I did, and I think he is bound and determined to beat me! Well, honestly, he did beat me on our first Winter Cross Country Series race. It was 1.8 miles through the woods, and I made the mistake of trying to run TOO FAST at the start. Stupid strategy, I know. He passed me towards the end, and I just didn't have the "gas" to catch him. Last Saturday, he put in 11 miles in a single run, thus marking the farthest distance he has run and I am SUPER proud of him! He has signed up to do a half-marathon with me, maybe even 2 half-marathons this spring.
With that being said, let me explain the ice pack on my foot (which I have now removed as I finish this post). Last week, I ran 6.35 miles on Sunday afternoon, then turned around and ran 6.0 more miles the next morning. After the second run, I felt a pain in my right foot that I had never felt before. I kind of ignored it, and kept going. That night, I took Ibuprofen and when the pain didn't let up the next day, or the next, I decided maybe I should ask the professional opinion of someone. :) I made a last minute appt. with a foot specialist who did an xray and informed me that I have arthritis in my BIG TOE JOINT! The first question he asked me was if I had played sports most of my life. Well, yes, I'd say that's true. This, according to the doc, is fairly normal for someone who has spent years playing sports. But, not to worry. I have researched some exercises for my hallus limitus and I will try to "ice down" after my runs (which, oh my goodness, is probably more painful than the arthritis itself) and take my prescribed medicine so that I may continue to run. Heck, I've got a race this weekend and 2 half-marathons to train for. I can't let this big toe slow me down:) There's always hope that this might only be aggravated by colder months, right? Can you believe January almost over? :)