As you can tell by below we did our family trips in February to Ireland and then visited our friends the Walls in Texas in April, then Costa Rica in June (below), and then to New Orleans for a day trip to help my friend Carol Ammons film her hometown for a siteseer video for delta.com. We went a couple of times over the summer to Stuart to see Keith’s side of the family and then to Melbourne to see my side of the family and then in November we went to Branson, MO to see the leaves change colors.
Katelyn started school this year and is attending Stockbridge United Methodist Church. She is in the 4 year old pre-K program and loves her teacher Ms. Christy. They have a set schedule on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and have concentrations on the alphabet, story time, and then also art time and play time. The only time I hear that Katelyn gets mad at school is when she doesn’t get playground time. She has her own little social network. I think her best friend at school is Anna and she has a couple little boys in her class too that she has fun with as well.
Katelyn was a hoot at Halloween. She didn’t get to dress up at school, but they did have a Harvest Festival and received some pumpkins. She carved pumpkins with Daddy and picked up a couple of small pumpkins at her schools pumpkin patch. She did visit a farm during the fall and we were suppose to visit another Henry County festival during the fall weekend, but mommy messed up the dates and ended up missing it. But at the farm she saw pigs race and played in corn and there are some really cute pictures on my phone so hopefully I will be able to get them off of there one day. If not, they should be on one of the many rolls of film that I have yet to have developed. On Halloween night, she decided that she wanted to do Trick or Treating instead of Trunk or Treating, so we began to head around our neighborhood. She only got down one street until she decided she had enough. We were just about to head home and then Joshua and Sadie showed up with some of our neighbors at a house we were trick or treating at and then she decided that she wanted to trick or treat with them. She didn’t want to stop then and finally we were out in the cul-de-sac passing out candy until about 10pm. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for passing out candy at our house while mommy and daddy got to take Katelyn trick or treating!
November has been just as busy. We have done some things with her girl scout troop and then went to Branson, MO and then about to celebrate Thanksgiving. Yesterday, Mommy and Daddy volunteered at Katelyn’s school to assist with Thanksgiving Dinner and Today, as I am writing this she went to a Santa’s Magical Workshop at the mall and got to listen to stories, and do arts and crafts, saw a magician and then helped to lead Santa to the middle of the mall area where it snowed on them. The mall did a great job in getting us in the Christmas mood! Later at night we had a girl scout movie night at Nash Battlefield and we took the Girl Scouts to see Shrek the Third. December 8, she will get to have breakfast with Santa and some of her Girl Scouts will be participating and then later we will have a Christmas Party for her Scout troop and a Christmas play at her school and hopefully will get to see the Nutcracker too. No time for the weak and the weary at the Minnihan household. At the Minnihan household, you are lucky to sleep!
As I go through my calendar, I wanted to highlight some other events that we did throughout the year.
In April, I got my first chance to serve on Jury Duty. All I can say for that is they really need to work on scheduling and weeding out folks early on. Hello, most people watch certain TV shows (CSI, Law and Order, etc). I love them, so why do I have to be chosen for Jury Duty. It was the biggest waste of my time.
Keith also started working for Milton Fire Department in June. He ended up leaving it after a while as it just got to be too much. It was a great fire department, but he didn’t get paid as much and probably wouldn’t use his skills as much and wouldn’t get his time there and it was very hard to give up 10 years at College Park when he had worked there so long.
In May, it was celebration for Carolyn at work as Delta finally exited bankruptcy. We celebrated Cinco De Mayo with Maryann and her gang. Katelyn also got a chance to be in a fishing tournament with Ansley. It was the cutest thing. Ansley actually got a fish and Katelyn caught a baby fish. I think Katelyn’s fish might have weighed an ounce. I also got to visit the new World of Coke, and Katelyn was able to participate in a Princess Tea Party with the Chrétien’s as they celebrated the girls birthday.
In June, we went to a Pool Party at Kelly’s house and celebrated all things Fondue. I had a birthday party with my family at The Melting Pot where we also celebrated my parent’s anniversary and Robin’s birthday as well. Later that month, I tried to make my own Fondue too. I like it, but only every once in a while.
In July, we went to see this house on the north side. It was near Lake Lanier, it had 2 acres. It was an older home with a pool. It was nice, but Keith didn’t like it because of the roof and the boat wouldn’t fit in the garage. We look every once in a while and get the itch to move, but if we move, we will have to do it up right and actually get on the lake as I don’t think I ever want to move this stuff out of the house. When we moved in here, we only had 2 lawn chairs and now it is out of control. I helped the Chrétien’s move to Wyoming and get some of their stuff out of their house and that really killed my moving bug! But we miss them!
Also, in July, we went to Melbourne and met up with Kelly and Emily. It turns out that our family’s don’t live too far apart from each other. Also, we met up with Laron as he was also visiting his girlfriend down there and we ended up getting stuck in the airport in the evening at Melbourne as it rained and then flights were delayed and a guy got too drunk so he had to be kicked off the plane… all in all, we could have driven back to Atlanta faster, but time flew by, especially when Laron’s girlfriend came and got us to take us back to her house to kill a few hours. We had a great time though!
In August, we celebrated the coming of Katelyn’s new cousin Login by attending a baby shower for Robin. She got so many nice things! I was also lucky enough to go to Paris, France for work. It was nice and cool over there and August is definitely the time to non-rev over there as the French people don’t work the whole month of August so you are almost guaranteed a business class seat. I also attended a seminar on how to become a pilot and Katelyn had 4 teeth filled. The dentist had to do it in 2 sessions and Katelyn was a good sport about it.
In September, we celebrated Katelyn’s 4th birthday at her house. She got so many nice gifts and so many kids were in attendance. We had a butterfly themed party where everyone colored their own butterflies and then played pin the butterfly on the flower and then had arts and crafts and then a few games and then traditional birthday cake and ice cream and opening of presents. It was a simple party, but lots of kids. I think that was another night that Katelyn went to bed early.
Also, in September, Katelyn, Nana and Grandma celebrated Grandparent’s Day at Katelyn’s school and she welcomed her new baby cousin / Logan into the world. Katelyn also attended Japan Fest and got pictures with Ronald McDonald.
Also in October, we went to the Greek Festival and welcomed Brodie Jones into the world as well as celebrated Ansley’s birthday. At the beginning of October is when we finally got the Daisy Girl Scout troop going where I am the troop leader. We have so many cool things planned throughout the year next year and just hope that we can accomplish all of them.
After Thanksgiving, we plan on heading to Gatlinburg, TN for some fall fun and then December is busy for us as well. With Girl Scouts, we have a Parade planned as well as Caroling at the Senior Center and have a Christmas Party planned for Girl Scouts, as well as Mom’s work. We also want to go Ice Skating and in January Bowling. We have so many fun events and can’t wait to see what next year will bring.
We hope that you and your family are having a happy, healthy, safe and wonderful Christmas holiday season!
Thanks for reading about what we were doing. We want to hear what you are up to! Keep in touch! We love seeing everyone!
