Busy, Busy, Busy

Greetings everyone!
You may have noticed a time lapse since the last entry.  It's all good, though...I took the kids to visit my parents in Arizona and then when we got back, my husband and I closed on a new house.

Since then, we have been packing and moving slowly into the new place.  How exciting for us.  It's so beautiful and new.  :)

Let me rewind a bit though.  Not sure if I have mentioned this before, but my kids go to a year-round school.  Basically they have 9 weeks on, 3 weeks off.  Give or take.  Their school year goes from July through to the end of May.  So, every once in a while we get to take vacations on off times.  March happened to be really busy for the hubby at work, so I took the kids to AZ for a week.  My parents live there, along with my younger sister and her family.  I haven't been to visit in a really long time, and I forgot how beautiful it is.  It was so wonderful being there again, and relaxing with my family.

We didn't do much, but that ended up being just perfect.  I really just wanted to see my parents and for my kids to enjoy some time with their grandparents and cousin.  My daughter had been there, but she was 1.5 the last time we went.  My son has never been there before and he had a grand old time.  My niece is 9, just one year younger than my daughter, so they had the longest play-date ever.  While my son sat around talking Nonnie & Poppy's ears' off, my daughter and my niece got along so well.  They played, watched TV and played on their tablets together.  Who knows what they were actually doing, but they kept giggling and showing one another their electronics, so at least they were interacting.

We went from a Wednesday to Wednesday and it was bittersweet leaving.  I know that it is good to get back home and into the swing of normal routine, but leaving family is always hard.  Luckily though, the next day we closed on a new house, and have been busy ever since.

That brings me to Our New Home!  This is so exciting.  We sold our house last May and decided to rent while we looked for what we wanted.  Our lease ends this May, so we have plenty of time to move in on our own pace.

We bought the kids some bedroom furniture and they were super excited.  Picking out a refrigerator was fun for us because in the rental we have the smallest fridge ever.  We call it our son's personal fridge, lol.  We got the biggest one that would fit in the spot that we could afford.  It looks good, now I can't wait to fill it up.
Right now, we're just using our minivan to make runs back and forth, moving in as we pack.  We are going to need movers for the big stuff, but we can wait a bit longer.  I can't wait to be in the new place fully, but everything worth waiting for always takes a little time, right?

Next up, I am hoping that once I get a chance to sort all my personal boxes and go through my writing notes, I can re-organize my stories and get something up on this blog.  Fingers crossed it doesn't take me too long to unpack.  Until then my friends, sending much love and happy thoughts!

2014-15 school year!

This is a school year we have been waiting for.  As my kids are 5 years apart this is the only time they will ever be in the same school together.

My daughter is in 5th grade and my son is in Kindergarten.  For the last 7 school years (pre-k-5th) all fundraisers, fun runs, jump-a-thons, etc have been totally geared for my little girl - ONLY.  Imagine my surprise when I realized 'oh gee, my son is going to do all this now, too.'  My solution?  As the parents, my husband and I supported whatever school function was going on, but that was it.  No asking relatives and friends.  No social media saying 'hey y'all, my beautiful daughter is doing (insert activity) let me know if you can support her.'

Needless to say, the girl was not happy!  LOL.  She had been getting  prizes and attention galore all these years.  Now she has to share support with her brother.  It was not all about her and what she can do.

It's not only the fundraisers I'm talking about either.  Let's not forget all the school functions, parties, meetings and projects.  So when it is Dr. Seuss' birthday week, it is not just about what she needs to dress up at school; hello, my son needs a costume, too!  Oh boy!  And let me tell you, it is not that easy to just throw something together for a boy.  My daughter has clothes and dress up clothes; my son is lucky if he has two weeks worth of school outfits.  (not really, but you know what I mean, he definitely does not have the same amount of clothes as his sister)

So when its celebrating reading week at school it is now time to send two kids to school all dressed up in characters.  It was a little chaotic the beginning of this week, trying to figure out what they wanted to do.  The kindergartners had to dress up as letterland characters and the 5th graders needed to dress as their favorite character from a book.

(Letterland characters are the characters used to teach children the sounds for each letter.  http://www.letterland.com/parent-guide/alphabet-sounds)

Well it all worked out.  My son was Fix-it Max (X) and my daughter was her version of Hermoine Granger (Harry Potter).  And they left the house happy as clams.

In the end, that is really what it is all about.  Who cares about the stress from figuring out who is going to wear what or will I get to see both kids at the school function; will they both know that I am there.  When they get on the bus or off the bus with smiles on their faces and both talking over each about their day  -  that's my happy mom moment!