New Year Off and Running!

Well, all I can say is Thank God a new year is now officially underway! Can I get an "AMEN"? It has been a hectic first few weeks here at the start which is not unusual. Here's an entertaining slice-of-life look into our world over the last few weeks of January. To kick off 2014, my mother visited from Texas for four days for my 41st birthday. We were also happy to welcome Downton Abbey back to our Sunday night TV line-up and Justified on Tuesday night...I know...we're lame but hey, the shows are a nice escape! John has also been a devoted Broncos fan and is thrilled they are now going to the SuperBowl (I better stock up on cheese dip). And despite serious consideration of keeping Christmas up for 12 months to streamline the 2014 holiday season, we finally packed up all the endless decorations (well correction...we stacked them in the basement and then came back a week later to actual PACK them away). Things feel refreshed but the house looks barren! What's funny is that we are still trying to find all our regular decorative do-dads that we stashed away before Christmas to make room for all the oodles of holiday stuff. Anyway, we also proudly managed to write and mail all our thank you notes (whew!) and deal with some holiday returns! Only today did we post our New Year's Resolutions inside the pantry door after brainstorming them on NY's Eve. Additionally on the docket was to get a handle on our new 2014 expenses (prep for tax season a little) and lament over the "damage" of end of year purchases and holiday "fa, la, la" must-haves! LOL! What else? Oh yes...the gym! Well, I proudly went with my girlfriend  Traci on day one...January 1, to a spinning class no less...for the first time! Whoop...whoop! I've been back to the gym a few times since then and started trying to follow a new 5K app on my IPhone for motivation (although two treadmills I tried to use last week broke on the same night...yikes...hopefully this week will be better).  We also finally brought John into the modern age and got him his first Smartphone however as luck would have it, two weeks after purchasing it the stupid thing malfunctioned and broke! After multiple trips over to the Verizon store for help and John threatening to go back to his old-style flip phone, the store manager gave up trying to figure out why the phone kept freaking out for no reason and replaced the entire unit. Crisis averted! Other than that...the new year is off to a bang. Work has been typical...crazy and demanding. So, now the daunting task at hand...what to plan for Valentine's??!! LOL! Well, as a start...lots of chocolate and wine...past that is gravy right?! ;-) Happy 2014!