February 2022

Early February brought us a last minute trip to Illinois to check on Roy (Carl’s dad) who’s been having a lot of health issues. We flew in on a Friday and out on a Sunday and tried to knockout some productive things regarding finding Roy a new place to live in addition to spending time with him and my family. Time with Roy consisted of watching a lot of tv and movies (as usual). We got to see my parents and Amanda for a while at my Mom’s and Facetimed with Chris and Maya so it felt like more of us were together. We also got to stop by Ryan’s apartment in the city on our way to the airport on Sunday so glad I got to see my IL fam (missing Trev and Al) for even just a little bit.

In preparation for Peyton’s Wild & Wacky 10x5K race, my friend Helen and I started meeting up weekly in Hampton Park to run together which is always lovely.

Coming at a much-needed time was a trip to New Orleans with our fantastic friends, Melissa & Will. We’ve know them since I was in grad school at U of I (2007) and even though we’ve lived in different states ever since, we’ve done a pretty good job of seeing each other over the years. This was our first opportunity to go on a trip together and it was as glorious as I expected. It was early in Mardi Gras season so we got see see a parade (WOW) as well as check-out the WWII Museum (so much to see, almost too much to see) and just wander around. I love any time we get to spend with them.

Early in February we also found out that our lease is not being renewed this year as our landlords are going to be redoing the house and moving into it themselves. This unfortunately means we’ll be moving off of IOP as everything has just gotten too expensive. We started looking into other long-term rental options in both Mt. Pleasant as well as downtown, but struck out so the housing search continues.

The end of February is my birthday and worked out pretty cool this year as Chris and Maya had a wedding to attend in Kiawah the weekend before my birthday. They flew in the Thursday before the wedding so we could do dinner together and they could spend a night with us before the wedding festivities. We did dinner at R Kitchen because Chris had been eyeing that place for a while and then had drinks at The Royal American because I pass it all the time on the way into the office and was intrigued. The rest of the weekend included watching dachshund races (yes, that’s right, it was amazing) which were the cutest thing ever, trying some beer and chili at Holy City Brewing, and spending the entire day on Sunday just lounging at the house. Iris didn’t get to participate in the races because we couldn’t make the original date and didn’t sign her up, but I’m looking forward to getting her involved in the future because OMG will that be the best thing ever.