Thursday, September 23, 2010

Life is good when...

...you train your boys to take out the trash and empty the dishwasher so you don't have to...

...90% of your students actually remember enough stuff to PASS the stupid geometry test...

...your big kid gets invited to try out for the UIL spelling team at school because he's been recognized as one of the best spellers in 3rd grade (please-Jesus-let-him-make-the-team)...

...your little kid, who is a whirling dervish of naughtiness at home, manages to go 5 weeks in kindergarten without getting in trouble...

...after 8 weeks of employment you FINALLY get paid...

...you wake up one morning only to discover your pants are too big (yee haw!)...

...you can buy an iPod from a vending machine in the middle of the men's department of Macy's...

...no really, you actually can...

...and when fall finally arrives and you can spend the day with your family at the football game...






Saturday, September 4, 2010

Just Breathe

So. Freaking. Tired. But I'm not complaining. Not that much anyway. This was easily the busiest 5 months evvvvver. And that includes that one time I took 3 graduate-level classes in a single summer semester....one of which required reading 4 novels each WEEK. Yeesh. But I can honestly say that I haven't felt quite this alive in a long time. I hadn't realized what a deep rut I'd fallen into until the massive changes of the last few months yanked me right out of it. You know how when you're scooping out the cat box you hold your breath because you don't want to breathe in cat litter dust and it's taking a bit longer than you'd like because cats poop a lot apparently, and you finally run out of the room and suck in a chestful of fresh air before you pass out? Um, maybe that's just me. But THAT'S what I feel like! The fresh air part that is....and it is so nice to breathe.

The busiest part of the busy-ness has been the house. As it turns out, selling and buying a new house (mostly by yourself because your sweet husband is working insane 18 hour days and w/ 2 little boys underfoot) is no easy task. That's the sugar coated version of course. But suffice it to say, I intend to live here for at least 65 more years because I am never doing THAT again. Whew. And for the record, I can whine all I want about such things. It's my blog darnit. Kyndra, my bestest bud ever, who has sold, packed, bought, and unpacked houses all over the world following an army captain husband would roll her eyes in a major way if she read this post. But she won't read this. Because she's doing all of the aforementioned things in a move from VA to AL. By herself. With 2 little boys underfoot.

Anyway, settling into our new house has been the BEST part of the craziness! It's kinda slow going, but who cares?! I've got another 65 years to get settled! My first settling project was this:


If you're wondering, that's the tile. Um, ick? And there's a fair amount of tile in the house. But aside from filthy grout, we are LOVING this place....the space, the location, even the beautiful dark wood floors that show every blooming white cat hair. There may have been a *slight* lack of forethought when adopting those little boogers. Oh well.

But, when we weren't moving, working in town, working out of town, getting a new job, or sweeping up cat fur, we were out and about doing regular ol' summery kinds of things. Grant's a pretty good little ball player...



Nate, Grant, and the cutest trophies ever...



Jaden turned 8 with a beach party at Seahorse.

Invitations...

Lemonade cupcakes...




Grant took his first ride on an airplane...


My nephew came to visit...



Jaden practiced doing his "butterknife" off the diving board...


We couldn't talk Dad into getting wet...


Grant learned to do a front-flip...





The boys met Tommy Tuberville...



iPhones!!! ...




Oh! And I LOVE my new job! But more on that later because it's way past my bedtime...zzzzzzz