A New School Year

Walking to the bus stop with Dad.

My 2nd grader and my 5th grader.

Can't believe the school year has begun again!

I'm not sure I'm ready this year.  We had a great summer, busier than I anticipated however.  I loved the last couple weeks that were full of picnics at the football field in the evenings while Clay practiced, later bedtimes, and late mornings.  

We finished off our summer with a day at Water Country USA, a LONG Saturday at the football field for Clay's first game.  We enjoyed Sweet Frog for lunch on Labor Day, and a last swim in the pool.  A pretty great weekend.

OK, fall, ready or not, here we come!

First Day of Summer

Friday was our first full day of summer vacation.  We had a pretty good day.  Got kind of a late start....which is a lovely way to start summer break, I do believe.  After a scattered breakfast, we walked to the park and spent a good hour plus there.  The weather was amazing.  Had a fairly awful storm the night before, but the aftermath was crisp, dry air with temps in the mid 70's.  It's funny to observe the kids.  Clayton took his basketball and played most of the time, breaking twice to swing.  Thomas swung almost the whole time we were there.  And the girls ran back and forth from the swings to the playground, but definitely spent more time running up the stairs and venturing down the slides.  I squeezed a little workout in while we were there.  No pictures.  The dog decided to knock my phone off the breakfast bar this week while I was taking Gaby to the bathroom and now my camera won't work.  I have no idea what would have been so intriguing about a phone to a dog....or even how he knew it was up there.  I guess it smelled like bacon.

Water Water Everywhere!

Friday night at the pool!  So fun!  We took dinner: sandwiches, watermelon, and chips, and swam, swam, swam.  Great fun and an awesome perk of living in our neighborhood.

This kid is a fish!  He's kinda hard to supervise in the pool because you can hardly ever find him underwater!

Big bro and littlest sis.  Love how much fun they have together.

This girl LOVED her pink "babing" suit and the pool even had pink noodles.  She coulda died and gone to heaven.

New flip flops.  Same cute toes. :)

The very next day, they enjoyed the water again.  Sprinkler fun!

Seriously, she is too cute.

 All the water play really got me excited that summer is here.

Month 1, 2013

February 1st is here.  January is gone.  Lots of highs and lows (for me).  Mostly, it was full and busy.   We didn't spend much time relishing in a new month and year.  Ronnie left on January 2nd for a two-week TDY to Vegas.  It feels weird that he's gone back to our former home twice already in the two months he's lived here.  And sometimes, I feel a little jealous.  There are still so many things I miss about our life there, that I don't have here.  So along with single-parenting, it's emotionally challenging to have my husband in the place I still want to be.  (I NEVER thought I'd say that about Vegas!)  

Anyway, we got to business right away, just the kids and me.  First thing up, Clayton's first basketball game....ever.  While he was warming up, I took the littles out to the playground to burn off some energy.

Elena's so adventurous!  

LOVE Gaby's smile here.

Big sis was having no part of the bridge....until lil sis crossed it multiple times!  Oh the things they coax each other into.

Love him.  He's so handsome and fun.

Heading in to the gym after warm-ups.  He looks SO grown-up to me in this shot.

It's been fun to watch him learn and play and progress.  Lots of lessons, some about sports, some about life.  

Two cute spectators.

Another sweet onlooker.  Snacks kept everyone happy.

Love.

I think she thinks she was born in the 80's. ;)

One of two school projects we completed without Dad.  This was my favorite.  It was about the Appalachian Plateau region of VA.  Poster board turned into the shape of a coal car to represent the main industry of the region.  (His teacher's idea, but I loved it and it was super easy!)

Wink, wink!

Always cute!  She loves hats (and I love her in hats!)

More b-ball.  He's a little tall, eh?

Lunch time posing.  :)  (Elena just looks ready for a nap!)

And....SNOW!!  We didn't get much, maybe an inch and a half, but man, did we all have fun playing in it!  Thomas, always on a mission!  He was determined to shovel enough snow to build a snowman.  (It didn't happen.)

He still makes angels!

The big and the little.

Cheese!

Our house with snow.  Love it.

And our newest family member, sweet Bear.  Adopted with love from a rescue group on January 26th.  He's the perfect mix of loving and playful, super smart and so responsive to training.  Puppyhood has been remarkably easy so far.  We've been very diligent with his training.  He's only had one accident in the house in a week, is already crate -trained, and sits on command as of this evening.  So impressed.  

We all adore him....well, maybe not the girls yet.  Six months without a dog is a lifetime in Elena years and I think, a grandma's dog may have traumatized her a bit. :)  

Bear filled a hole in my heart that I didn't realize stayed after Boomer died six months ago.  I guess I'm a girl who needs a dog.  

Pressing Onward and Upward

From Friday....

After the last seven days of UGH, I was NERVOUS heading into the weekend this morning.  God gave me this, "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with.... you forever--the spirit of truth.  The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you."  John 14: 16-18.

I read those words, "But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you," like it was a totally new concept for me.  What?  Why is it so hard for His truth to reach us?  Am I that stubborn?  Is it this hard for everyone?  I'm fully aware that I am merely a sinner saved by grace, but this is like so crucial....to always be mindful that the Holy Spirit resides in me.  I am not alone.  I am NOT doing this alone.  Why did I think I was alone?  Why was I trying to do all this alone?

So after being reminded that I have a very real and present helper, we (magically) had a much better day.  Got the boys off to school.  Sidebar....I'm still in disbelief  at how easy it is to get them to and from school everyday.  This is the first time in six years, since Clayton started preschool, that I haven't had to wake someone, keep someone up, drive all over kingdom come, often three times a day, to get someone(s) to and from school.  It is SO nice.  Amazing really.

We did (what seems to be) Chick Fil A Friday.  I let them (the boys) pick where they want to get dinner from on Friday nights.  Two for two....Chick Fil A!  I'm not complaining!  Seven years without it is a long time! :)  They played at the play place (I confess, I hate all fast food play areas), then we drove out to the base just to make sure we could find it (and I didn't feel like going back home yet), and then I accidentally took a wrong turn and we just happened to end up next to a Sonic, so maybe root beer floats were consumed. :)

Clay seemed surprised that we had fun when we got home.  He has such a hard time away from Ronnie.  I think sometimes he thinks/feels that there's no way we can have fun without him.  Maybe he even thinks he's not supposed to??  We've had a lot of good conversations about his feelings, his prayers....lots of spiritual development stuff here....we're working through it all.  Truly blessed to guide him through all this, but I confess, it's exhausting at times.

And today, Sunday, we were able to watch our church service online LIVE from our church in Vegas.  They just started streaming yesterday and it so blessed me to "be there" this morning.  We tried a church last weekend that was a great fit for the kids, not me, and haven't decided where to turn next.  I know we need to find a church home here, but it really blessed me and met me where I'm at to be able to worship "at home" today.  I love that church.  Always feels like being at home, even if it's from 2500 miles away.  And Pastor Kevin just happened to be teaching on perseverance and cultivating joy.  Clayton and I were listening real close.

We Made It

We made it.  Yorktown, Virginia is now home.  I have no pictures.  Don't think I've taken a single one since we arrived here on Wednesday, so just words.

It's been a journey since leaving Vegas.  Just for my memory's sake, here's how our trek went.  We all drove out of our home of seven years on the evening of Sunday, August 19th.  Stopped just a couple hours down the road in St. George, Utah.  Packed up again the next morning and traveled to Grand Junction, Colorado.  Enjoyed a late afternoon swim in the pool and pizza dinner in the hotel room.  Super easy.  (All had gone too well up to this point!)

Monday/Tuesday morning was horrible.  Gaby's problem tummy wreaked havoc on her and all three of us were up pretty much all night.  At about 4:30 am, I also noticed she had a fever which didn't let up for over 24 hours.  The drive to Colorado Springs was full of tired, sick girls and lots of crying.  Did I say "lots"?  Sorry, I meant, LOTS! :)  It was my birthday too.  Ronnie kept apologizing for having to spend my birthday in the car with all the crying....  Really and truly, I was happy.  It was a hard day, but I was with my crew, so all was well (and I never lost my patience!  God is good!)

Wednesday morning, we had breakfast with friends of Ronnie's family who knew him from about age 13 on. They also cared for us so well while Ronnie was at the Air Force Academy.  I almost always stayed with them when I came to visit him and they were always most gracious hosts.  We'd never been out to Colorado with any of the kids, so they got to meet our foursome.  I was amazed at how much Mrs. H. knows about each one....just from Christmas letters mostly.  We felt loved on by them again and they seemed touched that we stopped in the Springs just to share our family with them.  Really special.

We drove to Denver that evening so we'd be close to the airport.  We had a major hotel snafu and ending up having to find another hotel.  I was maybe not a fan of it.at.all. and at this point, was pretty dang tired and emotionally spent.  I also maybe had my first breakdown and maybe considered running myself over with the U-haul trailer.  Remember, this is all just hypothetical. :)

The next morning, the girls and I flew out of Denver to DC where we were met by Ronnie's parents.  The flight was fairly uneventful sans the first 10 minutes when Elena decided to have the biggest meltdown of her life.  Everyone keeps saying it was the air pressure, but we hadn't left the ground when it started! :0  It was violent, but thankfully, short lived.  She worked herself into a tizzy and passed out on my shoulder for the next 20ish minutes.  Oh boy.

Got to Ronnie's parents.  The overwhelming feeling was pure and utter joy to not be in a hotel anymore.  The second overwhelming feeling came just after I got the girls in bed and realized it had been five solid days of 24/7 kids.  Love my babes to pieces, but afternoon nap/quiet time is also sacred to me!  It is preserved at all cost!  Without it, or even five minutes to myself  in five days....whoa.  It was a good, really good, few days with Ronnie's parents and just the girlies.  The boys finished the drive in just three (long) days and arrived on Saturday evening.  We all enjoyed Grandma and Grandpa for a few more days and headed down here on Wednesday, August 29th.  (I forgot to mention that Ronnie and I left the kids with Grandma on Monday and drove down to Yorktown to register the boys in school and pick up the keys to our house in their Mercedes!  Sweet!  I'm not a "car girl," but that's nice ridin'!  And it was quiet!  Very lovely.)

I'll detail the saga that has been our moving into this house soon.  Let's just say, it's been a lot more work than we bargained for (and was advertised).  But....there have been some amazing blessings to us being here as well.  I'll let you know soon, but I/we are tired.  Been working our backsides off since we got here and desperately need some rest.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you who have prayed us through this move.  We felt your covering all along....except maybe that Tuesday in the van!  Just kidding!  Seriously, bunches of thanks.

Wrapping Up

This is our house right now.  Looked this way since about 4:00 yesterday.  

Feels kinda strange when a house you've lived in for seven years is just a collection of boxes and furniture.  The "home" feeling that makes life there special....gone.  Tomorrow they will load the truck and Sunday, we will embark on a new adventure on the other side of the country.  I'll have to write some other time about my feelings on all this.  Feeling a little detached from it all right now.  Have felt grief in the past weeks.  Mostly now, feel like I'm ready, but I'm also thinking there's probably a bit of denial in there.  Tomorrow night,I hang with my best friend from here and Saturday, we'll hang with our small group for the last time.  Oh, and Sunday morning, we'll worship for the last time with our church family that we have dearly loved for almost seven years.  We'll see how I'm doing after those good-byes.  So far, I've seen everyone I wanted to or will in these next few days.  Written cards to lots who have impacted me/us.  Feeling good about healthy good-byes which is what I prayed for as soon as we knew we were really leaving.

The packers were still supposed to be packing today.  But they brought a crew of six yesterday and made fast work of our belongings.  (Maybe we need more stuff....just kidding!)  Anyway, since we didn't have to be home all day with them, we were able to do a few other things that we had planned for later in the week.  Instead, we got to do them today, with much less rush.  First up, we headed out to Red Rock Canyon to spread Boomer's ashes.  We hiked to the particular stream bed that he loved to play in.  There was no water  at all, but it still had special meaning for us, remembering how much that pup loved to play in the water.  We found a shady spot and sat down.  Ronnie said a prayer.  Then, he and the three big kids took to spreading the ashes.  Elena and I sat peacefully in the shade.  Thomas brought me a handful at one point and I scattered them close by.  I shed a few tears, but mostly it was just peaceful, special, and just right.  

After we were done, I loaded Gab back up in the Ergo and we were set to head back.  Just as we were about to leave our little site, Thomas said, "Look!  Look at this rock!"  

"There's a heart rock right here!"

Sure enough.  There was.  

Sometimes I just love knowing how close He really is.