Rough

Things have been rough around here.  Really rough.  Last Thursday was lovely.  A purely lovely day.  Then, Friday hit....bad.  Then, Saturday....worse.  Then, Sunday....oh.my.gosh!!  Think we're all feeling the stress and strain of moving, living in a new city, being apart from someone we dearly love.  It's felt like A LOT all of a sudden....just kind of snuck up and hit me/us.  I lost it on Sunday.  Turned into that mom that no one wants to be.  Spent the rest of the day making amends, seeking forgiveness.  Thank goodness for grace and new days.

They Have My Heart

I love her.  I just do.  Can't help it.

And her.

And those two boys who walked to the bus stop all on their own this morning cuz their little sisters were still sleeping.  (It's only a block away.  I'm not that negligent!)  And I wish I had my camera as I watched them disappear behind the trees across the street because I loved the big bro's arm around the little bro's shoulders.  The look...."I totally got this, Mom."  Maybe no photo.  But I got the picture on my heart.

First Day of School

My 1st grader and my 4th grader.

Heading to a new school and lookin' excited and confident.  Those seemed to be the predominant feelings the night before.  Did my heart good.  Felt like all the sacrifices and hardships of the past few weeks and the coming few were well worth it.  Praise God for wisdom and discernment.

And they did have a great first day.  Only positive reports.  Again, praise God.

Sidenote:  big bro was SO PROUD to be have little bro join him at the same school....finally.  They even sat together on the bus and smiled like crazy driving away.  (I only say "even sat together" because they both already have friends in the neighborhood who ride the bus as well.  Love that they still chose each other.)

  

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.

Tahoe--Day 2

After breakfast on Day 2, posing next to their favorite koi pond.  You would not believe how many times we visited those fish each day.  The boys (mostly Thomas) even named several of them.  Gaby was into it too because she's into everything her big bros are. :)

We then headed down the street to the lake.  We weren't quite sure what the set up was, so we just headed down in our street clothes to scope it out.  Oh my goodness....the beauty....it was truly breathtaking.  I don't think the photos do it even a little justice.

Un.be.liev.ably clear.  Amazing.  Beautiful.  Felt like I could "see" God in this setting.  I mean, who else suspends this huge, crystal clear lake like 6,000 feet above sea level?  It's super deep too and almost 100% pure.  Amazing. 

They couldn't resist "getting in."  I love this photo.  Can still see the little boys in them even though they're most definitely growing up.

A Daddy and his babe.  Love.

After a bit, we headed back up the hill to our hotel.  I stayed at the hotel with the napping girls, and the boys took off for Carson City.  They went to the state capitol building and the Governor's mansion (and Walmart for the many things we forgot!)

We were all pretty tired at this point (already).  I was just realizing how emotionally and physically exhausted I was from the week prior with losing my pup.  

But this MADE THE DAY....!!!

She had taken her first steps about a week and a half prior, but hadn't walked since.  At this juncture, it was apparent she had cracked the code!  Love my wobbly walker.

A Week Away--Day 1

We spent all of last week in South Lake Tahoe, CA.  The trip was a lot of work.  Even Ronnie said that about half way through the week.  (I thought it was just me!  Ronnie's so much more laid back than me.)  Elena cut a couple teeth during the week, the girls seemed like they were always tired  (even though they slept well), long lines at the hotel breakfast every morning, the boys wanting to do stuff that the girls are too little for, so lots of Ronnie and I splitting up to divide and conquer....blah, blah, blah.  But....it was also full of wonderful memories.  And much like labor, the difficulties will fade away, and we'll just be left with the gift of this week away in a truly heavenly location.

It was about an eight-hour drive for us.  By far, the longest road trip we've ever attempted with kiddos.  Tahoe was always on our bucket list of things to do before we left Vegas.  It took seven years for us to get there, but it did not disappoint.  The kids all did pretty darn well on the way up (the drive back may have been a different story!)  

We passed this lake, Walker Lake, on the drive.  I thought it was so pretty.  I had no idea what was waiting for us in Lake Tahoe!  It's still pretty, but....

Our traveling compadres.  All relatively happy at this point.

Silly girl!  She was determined to use that neck pillow even if it didn't work well with her car seat.

We didn't plan anything but the drive last Sunday.  (I really thought I went into the trip with low expectations.)  When we got to the hotel just after dinner time, we ordered pizza and ate before bedding down.  While waiting for the pizza, Ronnie and I are scurrying around trying to get everything situated for the night.  One of the boys announces, "There's poop on the couch!"  

Screech!!  "What?!?"

Oh yeah.  Somehow Gaby went that much that the pull-up held no chance.  Oh boy.  So a shower for her by Mom and couch cleaning by Ronnie.  The pizza arrived.  We ate and watched some Olympics.  And waited and waited and waited and called again and again and again to finally get Elena's pack 'n play.  Oy vey.

With very different details, this first evening was pretty much a taste of our trip.  But I'm going to focus my posts on the lovely memories, the gems that we all hold in our hearts, 24 hours after returning home.  It was so good for my heart to hear Thomas asking each of us over and over (and over!) today what our favorite part of the trip was.  So good.  Clayton wrote a postcard to some friends the day before we left too and started it with, "I have had the time of my life...."  SO good.  (A, that's coming in your mailbox!)