To Summarize a Week (WARNING: there is one graphic photo in here)

Here for your reading pleasure:  the last few days of December and the first few of January

I impulsively chopped my hair off Sunday night, leaving behind about five inches for 2012 to keep (and more in some places).  I need to stop doing that. I always regret it and end up religiously wearing a ponytail for months afterward.

I decided that I would take advantage of Patrick's time off by getting a run in every day.  I love running out in the wide open air, but Winter is dark in both the morning and the evening and there are no street lights in the country, so I write off running in the Winter for the most part.  Last week, though, I wrote it in every day of the week.  The sun came up bright, but without any sign of warmth Monday morning. I donned my old sneakers to trudge througu the snow on our somewhat plowed roads.  And ran four miles.  I should have run half of that and I knew it, because I hadn't run anything since September, but my need to test my endurance won and I ran a country block.  I spent the next three days in recovery and never got out for a run after that due to more snow and other things.

one of the plowed roads from my run (two were plowed, two were only somewhat plowed)

The year 2012 came to a close.  We sledded at Rice Hill, then stayed up (late, late, late) playing spades and huggermugger with my brother, Jordan and his wife, Diana.  After they left, long past midnight, we joked around about feeling like high schoolers again.   

Gerret and Uncle Jordan.  He cried Tuesday morning when he realized Jordan and Diana were really gone.  They are favorites in our house.

The boys returned to school Wednesday. Neither was too ecstatic, but I honestly was quite ecstatic.  They enjoyed vacation, loved having Jordan and Diana visit, did a lot of playing, watching, and arguing, went sledding twice, and had a lot of late (but fun) nights.  Having accomplished a satisfying break, it was certainly time to return to some kind of sanity.

Auburn practiced walking a little more.  She's starting to gain confidence and courage.  She also added a seventh tooth.  

Auburn Ruth the silly head

We enjoyed the mostly finished product of our six month toil: an actual dining room, a new (cozy) living room, a third bedroom, and a much more spacious kitchen.  With some much appreciated help from my parents and a good friend, Patrick and I have worked tirelessly tearing down walls, building new ones, re-doing floors, putting up ceilings, replacing doors and windows, running wires, and spackling like there was no tomorrow.  Our sense of accomplishment is great.  The comfort of our home has increased enormously.  It's been a great way to begin a new year.

The new dining room which is where the old living room was.  When we bought our house, the kitchen was eat-in and there was not a dining room.  

Thursday, we helped decorate for a friend's wedding reception, which we then attended Friday night.

Before the reception Friday, we killed and butchered one of our chickens. And by "we", I mean PTB.  I helped a little, but nausea soon became my friend, so my help mostly consisted of instruction from the sidelines.  Down one, we now have fifteen chickens.  We'd really only like six or fewer, so there will be more of Friday's activities coming soon.

Thank you chicken, for your eggs and for your meat.

We hosted guests for dinner twice last week, a first (and second) since July. And it was so fun.  We served chicken one of those nights, but not THAT chicken (it's happily in ziplock bags in our freezer until further notice).

We also went on two dates, just PTB and me this past week!  Thanks to my sister, Olivia, my dad, and Alan Brown's help with our kiddies.  On one date we intended to watch Les Mis, but the theater was overpopulated, so we did some shopping.  On the second date, we attended the 10:20 showing of Les Mis successfully and arrived back home at 2 am (a very big thank you to Alan for that!).  We think we are crazy teenagers again.

Grainy, but that's the best I've got.  I love time spent with this boy.

And I decided somewhere in there that I would try to be more consistent about blogging, so here is my first effort.  Voila!  

(I'd like to give credit to my iPhone for the photos... I would never have pictures if it weren't for that lovely little device.)