I’m pretty sure that we squeezed out every possible moment today.

After breakfast this morning we took a trip out to visit my sister in law and her kids to get some cousin time. They live about 35-40 minutes away, but the trip feels like half that because it is a beautiful drive through some gorgeous scenery. When we pulled up to her house, the kids could see one of their cousins inside and they couldn’t wait to get out. The kids picked up right where they left off a few days ago. Their cousins wasted no time showing them around and before we knew it they were playing in the basement and having a blast. We stayed for a few hours and ate lunch there.

After our visit we headed towards home (it still feels strange to say that!) and met up with my mom and sister for a stop at Sweet Frog. Yum!  🙂

After we got home we spent about an hour on school work.

And we finished our evening with time in the sprinkler and dinner on the front porch.

There have definitely been moments over the past few days where I have felt off-balance or completely overwhelmed. For that reason, I’m glad that we had already begun to establish a life at the new house before we moved out here because I know the transition would have been so much harder if we hadn’t. I miss work a lot, I miss my friends there, but I don’t miss the commute at all. I’m grateful to have my sister in law so close and that the kids have cousins nearby to play with.

Change is good. It pushes us out of our comfort zones. It is there we can grow. Change makes us value what we have and it causes us to self reflect, and this change is already teaching me so much.

I anticipated sleeping in this morning, so imagine my disappointment when I woke up at 5:15 ready to conquer my day. It wasn’t all bad, though. It gave me an early start to my day and we got everyone fed and into the classroom by 8am. I wanted to start some sort of schooling as early as possible. Nothing big, just a little work to keep their minds from losing everything they learned this past year. I printed out some worksheets that included some math activities, reading, coloring, and copy work. Since I’m not a teacher, and I’m not completely sure what is age appropriate at this point we worked on things as we could. If we got to a worksheet that was too hard we moved on.

We did school for about an hour and the kids seemed to really enjoy it. Baby E even had some preschool time of his own, which mostly consisted of coloring, putting together a puzzle, and working on his numbers.

By 9 am we were done. Then we packed up and headed to the shop for a few hours. Turns out I ended up needing to run an errand for them, so my mom, Baby E, and I hopped in the car and drove to an area less than a half an hour from my in-laws house. So much for not commuting, right?!? If it hadn’t been mid afternoon, we would have detoured to load up the van again, but as it was we were pressing near rush hour.

As we made dinner this evening the kids played in the sprinkler in the front yard. Kids from next door came over to play with them and I loved watching the kids make new friends. I am excited that we live in a neighborhood with some families with young kids.

I have to say, today went really well and I enjoyed getting all the extra time with the kids. 🙂

It’s Sunday night and if I’m honest, I have to say I feel like a fish out of water. There was no hurried drive back to my in-laws house. No rushing to get the kids to bed so I could squeeze in a little down time before going to bed myself. No flurry of laundry or the bustle of grocery shopping for the entire week. There’s no dread of a 5am alarm or calculating how much sleep I might get before it goes off.

As difficult as all those things were, my life feels uncomfortable without them. It feels foreign. I walked around our house today not knowing what to do with myself. I swung between sadness and excitement with every breath.

I know it will take a few weeks to settle into a new routine and start building our lives in a new town with new people.

We ate dinner on our front porch this evening. It’s my new favorite place, especially after the sun has set and a light breeze drifts across the yard. Our kids are so unbelievably happy to finally be here, for us all to be together, and so am I!!

I had a dream last night. In my dream, Baby E (who was sleeping beside me) rolled out of bed. He was crying and I rolled over and looked over the edge of the bed. As he laid there crying I said, “You ok, buddy?” He said, “Yes” and promptly got quiet. In my dream I thought, “ok, he’s fine,” and rolled over and went back to sleep.

At 4am I woke up and looked over, only to discover that, except for me, the bed was empty. No Baby E. So, apparently that wasn’t a dream. My kid had rolled off the bed and I had left him there! So I leaned over to check on him… only he wasn’t there! I was so confused. I sat up and looked around the room. That’s when I saw his head barely peaking out from under my bed.

Poor kid! He had not only rolled out of bed, but had managed to then roll under my bed.

So now for the dilemma. It’s 4am. My kid is asleep completely under my bed. I can’t leave him there, can I? But getting him out would definitely wake him up. What to do? In the end I figured a good nights sleep was what we all needed, so he spent the rest of the night under my bed. Around 7:30 this morning I heard a faint, “Mommy, how do I get out of here?” coming from under there. I helped wiggle him out and all was well. 🙂

This morning we packed up my sister-in-law and her family’s house to move them to their new home (35 minutes from our new house!!) Since I’m no longer working we are now officially living at our new house, though most of our stuff is still back in storage and at my in-laws house. We will make time in the next couple of weeks to make trips and bring it all over. We packed our van to the brim for the trip out today.

Since it is a Saturday, I don’t think it has really sunk in that I’m no longer working, since it just feels like a weekend. I wonder what it will feel like on Monday. I’m incredibly excited about being home and all that that means for our family, but I am also struggling with being really sad about leaving my job. I miss everyone already.

I’m so very grateful that part of our family will be so ‘close,’ and I am looking forward to settling into our new community!

We’ve been praying for this day for years and it has finally happened.

I emptied the drawers. I cleared off the computers. I took the pictures off the walls. I said my goodbyes and I turned in my keys.

After 9.5 years, it was time to go.

I’m going to miss this building. I’m going to miss my office and the videos I have gotten to edit. But mostly I will miss the people. I think the success of nearly every job in the world is whether or not you like and respect the people you work with, and I certainly have for the past decade. I will miss them.

Today was pretty difficult. I didn’t realize how much I had worked myself up to it until I was halfway home and the adrenaline subsided and exhaustion took over.

But I’m lucky. I’m fortunate. I’m blessed to be getting this opportunity to be home with our kids. In the midst of tying up all the loose ends today, I also purchased our curriculum for this coming year. We are very excited to see what God has in store for our family as our future unfolds.

Thank you for all of the well wishes!!

I have a heavy heart this evening. Between hearing about an injury of a family friend, to learning that other friends lost people they care about in a workplace shooting, I am weary with grief. Today was difficult on so many levels. I don’t have much to say.

We met with friends and family tonight for some ice cream and time together on the boardwalk. I’m going to miss our get togethers, but I love that the children are squeezing in more time with their cousins and friends!

One more day.

It starting raining pretty steadily while we were driving this evening. We were on a back road and on a blind turn I had to slam on the breaks. There was a man standing in the middle of the lane about ten yards behind his SUV. It took me a moment to realize what was going on, he had stopped to help a box turtle across the street.

The kids were very curious about this incident and started asking me all about turtles. I think they are fascinating animals, so I did my best to describe different kinds to them. But I warned them there are some turtles that can hurt them, so I didn’t want them to go near any turtle without me until I am sure they know what they are looking at.

I remember the first time I ever saw a snapping turtle. I was probably around 12 years old and I saw this huge turtle crossing the street in front of my house. As I got closer I noticed it wasn’t the normal box turtle, but rather it had spikes and looked aggressive. The turtle was huge, at least 12-15 inches in length. Eventually a neighbor came over with a broom, stuck the handle in front of the turtle’s mouth and I was surprised at how quickly the turtle snapped at the broomstick and latched on. From there the neighbor was able to pick up the broom (turtle attached) and walked if far away from any of the other houses.

This evening our discussion about turtles lasted a few minutes before we moved onto another subject. However on the way home, C told me that she thought it would be cool to train a snapping turtle to be a really good pet. She said she would train it to only snap at people that were trying to steal her or steal money. Otherwise, the turtle  would be nice and she would cuddle up with it every night in her bed. We discussed the pros and cons of such an idea, but in the end I think she changed her mind 😉

When I got home this evening I could tell that my kids were tired. After the third day of VBS, they are pretty much wiped out. We had plans, though, so I knew we had to get out the door pretty quickly. I made them dinner, and while it was cooking I looked down the stairs so see that Baby E had fallen asleep… on the wooden stairs. That couldn’t have been comfortable. He was in fine form when he woke up and never quite recovered his spirits this evening.

We had the chance to meet up with some of my friends from years ago this evening. We met at Rita’s and had italian ice and caught up with each others’ lives. I am grateful for the friendships that you can slide right back into even if you haven’t seen each other in years. This amazing couple has had such an impact on my life and they continue to do so. I am thankful for them and the way they live out their faith in a tangible way. They are truly a blessing and I am glad we got the chance to see each other before our move. 🙂

I think I have finally resolved myself to the fact that for the next few days I am just going to be a blubbering mess. I sniffled though most of my morning commute. My eyes watered throughout the day. But for the most part, I held it together. Then this afternoon I said goodbye to Gail, since she is going to be on vacation for the rest of the week. I’ll be honest, I cried a lot. I knew it would be hard, but it was so much harder than I expected. Her friendship has truly been a saving grace for me. I will greatly miss our chats, bubble tea runs, and all the little things that make a daily friendship so special. Leaving was hard and my commute home was done through blurry tears.

Three more days.

The kids and I met up with some cousins this evening at the park. The kids enjoyed themselves. I’m trying to squeeze in as much time with the people they love as possible before we leave.

This afternoon, my office threw me a going away party and it was simply wonderful. I will add more pictures when I get them. There was a delicious spread of fruit, rita’s italian ice, and cookies from my favorite cookie store. The whole office showed up, and even my original boss and other people I have worked with through the years were there. The best surprise was when Tim and the kids showed up.

It is difficult for me to put into words what today meant to me, but I do know that I am going to miss each and every one of those people. I have built some amazing friendships along the way. I’m thankful I have a few more days with them!!

It’s late, but I will post more tomorrow!

Tomorrow starts my last week of work. I’ve been emptying my desk, clearing off my computer, and taking stuff off the walls. They have started interviewing for my replacement. It’s a strange sensation to watch it all happen. I’ve been struggling the past few days between sadness and excitement.

Tim and the kids came home last night and the kids were in bed by the time I got back from my dinner. Tim brought Baby E into our bed so that he could spend the rest of the night with us. He fussed for a moment and then opened his eyes. He smiled his sweet little smile, and said “Mommy!!” and fell back to sleep. While I didn’t get much sleep last night, I loved the feeling of him in bed with me, knowing my kids were home!

After church this morning we made it to the park for a little while and then for a trip to Rita’s. Tim had to go out to the new house so I told Baby E he could sleep with me again. After much tossing and turning, he finally fell asleep. 🙂

Tomorrow the kids start vacation bible school for the week and they are very excited. I’m looking forward to hearing about their adventures every evening!

FIVE MORE DAYS- we got this!!