Feb. 28: Month in summary

Here’s my review of February 2013.

Special days I celebrated this month and how:

• Katie turned 13 this month. I can’t believe it. She’s mostly still a sweetie, but every once in a while we see the signs of ATTITUDE creeping up… Yikes. To celebrate her big day, she had a couple friends over; they went to the mall, saw a movie, and had a “sleep”-over, which involved very little “sleep” and grouchy girls in the morning.
• Our 16th anniversary was last weekend. We spent the day preparing for the school carnival—always going for the romance! Last night we went out for dinner at our special occasion place, Morton’s Steakhouse. Best. Steak. Ever.

Gifts I gave and/or received this month:

• Katie got a desk for her birthday from Grandpa & Grandma, and my mom and the rest of us contributed to the setup—chair, lamp, contents, décor, etc. It was fun helping her get everything organized. She is sooo like me when it comes to that stuff.
• The kids made us some fun ceramics as anniversary gifts. Katie’s were thoughtful, sweet and hearts-y. Jack’s was all-football-all-the-time. Shocking.

Books I read this month:

• I read some travel books… because we’re finally, finally going on a vacation.
• My concentration was very SQUIRREL!! while preparing for the school carnival, and I read pretty much nothing else.

Movies and TV shows worth mentioning:

TV is exactly the kind of thing my brain can focus on—for 22 minutes at a time, anyway—so I’ve watched a lot.

• So glad Community is back on.
• Sherilee and I agree that we’re not feeling the love for Smash so far. They better get Jesse L. Martin on there soon, or I will completely lose interest. I will.
• Still enjoying the charming fun that is Go On (looooved the Sixteen Candles references this week!) and The Mindy Project.
• That new Kevin Bacon show, The Following? It scares the livin’ crap outta me, but I can’t look away.
• Loveliest Lori live-Facebooked the Oscars and I missed the entire thing. Stoopid other things I was doing…

Special or unusual purchases I made:

• Music! I got the soundtrack to Bombshell; the new release from my nephew’s band, The Rouge; and Josh Groban’s latest album.
• Those aforementioned travel guides, as well as airline tickets, Disney passes, and more fun stuff to use during spring vacation.
• We got the kids memory foam mattress toppers and BOY, do they smell weird! Hopefully the odor will dissipate so they can actually put them on their beds someday. Right now they’re spread out in my office, giving me a headache (the mattress toppers, not the kids).

This month’s disappointments:

• I’ve been super-sick for the past week. I had a broken filling repaired last week, and a root canal on the same tooth this week. The tooth pain was pretty unbearable for a while, but it’s the antibiotics they have me on that are REALLY kicking my ass now. If they make me get that infection where they have to put someone else’s poop in my intestines, I will NOT be happy.
• We didn’t win anything big at the school carnival. Last year we won two of the huge auction items, so it was a bummer to go home empty-handed. Still, I did most of the drawings and it was so much fun seeing the winners’ faces when their names were called!
• Downton Abbey’s finale. It was disappointing because it’ll be many months until the next season begins, and also because the season sucked for two big reasons and several small ones.
• Nobody bought me a pony.

My accomplishments:

• The carnival was a big hit. This wasn’t my accomplishment alone, of course; there are seven other people who deserve credit too.
• I slept 11 hours last night and it was awesome.
• I’m actually writing this post. I barely got it in before March.

Anything else noteworthy:

• The kids both took Red Cross classes this month; Katie is now babysitter certified, and Jack did a “When I’m in Charge” thing wherein he got to role play throwing a tantrum. He was a little out of practice, since his last tantrum was about seven years ago, but he was proud of his performance nonetheless. The class was supposed to teach him how to handle emergencies when a grown-up isn’t around, and I don’t know if he learned anything new but he sure did enjoy the snack.
• Isn’t it nice when people surprise you with their generosity and kindness? I’ve run into three or four occasions lately that just warm my tiny little black heart. It’s a lovely thing.
• Today a photo popped up in my Yahoo news feed and I thought, “Hm, that building looks familiar.” And then I read the text below it and knew immediately, embarrassingly, that it was about Walla Walla College (University), my alma mater. (Here’s the article it linked to.)

That’s about it, doods.