from this to this

in a week we went from this:

 buzz lightyear biking around our neighborhood skate park.

to this:

thanks to christmas break, snow cancellations and martin luther king holiday, the our district has been out of session for 26 of the last 31 days. AWESOME! the kids couldn't be happier, my naturally good attitude was strained and even thomas had to work from home two days this week. newsflash! there are NO snowplows in south carolina. or there may be A snowplow somewhere, but it was sure as heck nowhere near us. we just had to wait for the sun to melt our little region. just like the pioneers! and we were so depleted of groceries that i even resorted to MAKING my own syrup on the stove. you can start calling thomas, uncle jemima.

and the kids loved playing in the snow. it was baffling. i even threw snow in their mittens and at their necks so they would want to come inside and they still persisted in rolling around.

in other news:

my goal for the last couple of years is to always be ready to run a half-marathon. i told thomas about 2 weeks ago that i was interested in running a half-marathon. on january 8th. even though i had let my training was sketchy. but i persisted and tried to throw in a few long runs in that 2 week period. the most important part of my preparation or non-training was downloading a bunch of new music, none of which popped up on shuffle during the duration of the run. of course. my only goal was to finish and to never stop running. even if it got super ugly. and it did. frozen snot kind of ugly. 25 degrees at the start of the race. i had to run with a jacket on the whole time(which i really loathe) but i finished. and i finished strong. my time was 2:07 something. unfortunately, there was only lemon lime gatorade at the finish line. which is a slap in the face if you ask me. but i placed 3rd in my age group. and if i had stuck around for the awards ceremony, i would have gotten a little trophy. and if i had picked up that little trophy, i would have welded it to the hood of my car and driven around to everyone that i know and i would have parked in their driveways and laid on the horn until everyone would have noticed my little trophy. instead, the whole fam damily and i went to chipotle and got burrito bowls. with no cheese they are only 640 calories. which isn't that great, but i had just run a half-marathon.

i did get a medal. boom.