January has come and gone is a flurry...shower or wintry mix. Our schedules have been so thrown off course by all of the winter weather, at this point I am not sure what day it is. I don't really feel like revisiting this months past nightmare, but I am pretty sure we only made it to school about half of the month. Boy, am I glad to have that behind me! While the lack of routine and predictability has been a little on the non-existent side, January as a whole wasn't a bad month. After Sam's birthday, January was jam-packed with an eclectic mix of activities not recommended for the weak.
We got to see Lauren Hill in concert. This partially fulfilled a fantasy of mine. I have always wanted to go to a rap concert. While Ms. Hill isn't a self-proclaimed rap artist, but more so hip-hop/r&b, there was a DJ before the show that treated us to an array of 90's to present rap artists. And I will be the first to admit, I am a huge fan of the 90's which might explain why none of my students ever know any of my references. I guess in most of my attempts to relate to them, I date myself. Seeing Lauren Hill was a pretty monumental way to kick off the new year, but I will say I experienced an equally devastating experience. I learned that Janet Jackson, one of my favs, is coming to Atlanta, and I failed to get the memo about this. By the time I found out, most of her shows within range were sold out. However, there are VIP packages available, so if I have any rich great aunts or uncles out there reading this...they are ONLY $ 1000.00 per person! :) On the upside, Ms. Janet does have a book coming out next week.
We also took an escapade (one of my favorite Janet Jackson songs) up to Pennsylvania.
It was a really hard call to make. We had been planning on it for quiet some time....like when we had originally had a four day weekend before this snow made mincemeat of it. The original plan was to head out on Thursday night, travel halfway, get a hotel room, travel the rest of the way up on Friday, and then come back on Monday. What actually happened: the Friday teacher work day got absolved due to the pre-Christmas break snow, we missed 4 days that week due to snow, and it was really questionable as to whether or not we would make it up there to have some precious niece and big brother time. Not knowing whether or not we would have school Friday (we were banking on not) we headed up early Thursday morning. We arrived Thursday night, wound up having a 3 hour delay on Friday, and came back on Monday. The time we spent up there was fun. We went to Moonbounce (this indoor-inflatable playground world); went to the Philly Museum of Art which pleasantly surprised us by having some VERY nice/exciting pieces, and of course did all things Rocky-style; 
spent some time in a favorite little Philly suburb of mine called Manayunk where we got a parking ticket (shhhhh), and somehow managed to fit ice skating and a children's museum into the mix as well. Sam did not skate, but took some classy photos:
(From the above pictures you can see that Sam does not ice skate, but instead is a great photographer!)All in all- good wholesome fun. Sam engaged in countless hours of pretend play, and I got to see how much my nieces have grown and enjoy the ages and stages they are in right now. I definitely learned that when we have kids, I'm going to have to watch Sam because he doesn't know how to say no. I can also see myself saying, "Ok, dear sweet husband, you are going to have to stop playing, the kids have to go to bed now." The real kicker is that when we returned from PA, Sam really did get sick and had to take an actual-for-real-sick day that Tuesday. That is what you get when you try to flee town and play :cough:cough:sick for one day. He had a pretty nasty stomach bug that was pretty much a replay of what he had last year except Exorcist style with split pea soup
January was also filled with shaking my muffin maker. I vowed to make two types of muffins a week. Typically, I have been making a breakfast muffin and a dinner muffin. This has been quiet enjoyable. So far I have made berry jam muffins, salsa muffins, banana walnut muffins, cranberry orange muffins, rosemary corn muffins, regular corn muffins, wheat supper muffins, sweet potato muffins, fig walnut bread, and I am sure there are a few others. Needless to say, there is nuffin' like a good muffin. In the way of domestic duties, we also decided to repaint our indoor stairs and fireplaces one fateful snow day. I have to say that black paint is very messy and made me very nervous. It took some teamwork to paint the stairs as we both wouldn't fit on them side by side, and you can't really work on different steps because you will eventually be stepping on the other person's work. Don't worry we very civilly persevered. We also made it to game night at Beth and Freelin's house as well as a school/holiday party for Sam's school...and I feel like several other things happened...but is it February already?...the middle of the month? I so meant to get this blog out a few weeks ago. Stay tuned for a February update as we have had some exciting times here in the Summers' household.
Don't slack on your Summers reading.
A note from Sam:
Was sick in January. Got sick again in February. "Finished" genealogy for my side, for a while. Started genealogy for Kellie's side. Apparently, they're from Leicester. North Carolina. And have been for forever. A great mini-series is "Pillars of the Earth" about England in the 1100s. I'm getting ready to start some seeds for gardening time!
