What We've Been Up To

August has flown by in a flurry of unpacking and getting back into our fall routine. We have started soccer practices again.

One of Brooke's best friends is finally on her team.  There are a couple of other kids from school that play too, and it is neat to watch them all out on the field together. 

 

They are turning into country girls a little more every day.  Here they are running around trying to catch frogs.  I think they managed to get five or six this evening. 

And it is all fun and games until one of them empties its bladder while you are holding it. Someone was pretty disgusted, and I think it ended her night of catching. 

We finished up our school work early one Friday, so we headed to Costco.  The girls love it when they get a surprise treat at the end.  

What started off as work, quickly turned into play.

And of course it is officially football season! The girls enjoy putting a little snack tray to eat during the game. We are hoping for a good season this year!

Birthday Weekend

My birthday always falls during the first week of school, which stinks a little bit. But we try to squeeze in a little bit of fun when we can.  After dance and gymnastics we went to downtown Woodstock for dinner, and the girls tried out bubble tea for the first time.  They seemed to really enjoy it!

On Friday we headed up to Dollywood with some friends. This little one apparently needed a nap on the way up. 

And so did this one. 

Silly girls playing silly games to entertain themselves in the car. 

I think this may have been the first time the kids rode the water ride.  They had a blast and rode it twice.  I volunteered to watch everyone's bags. 😁

1st Day of School 2018/2019

We have basically moved in and prepared to start school.  I had one week to work on unpacking before I had to report back to school.  It has been crazy to say the least, but we are excited for a new school year! We have an 8th grader, a 6th grader, and a 3rd grader this year!

This one will be in my class this year. How in the world did that happen??

Last year of middle school. 

 

First year of middle school. 

 

 

 

A Couple of Things to Note About the New House

There is a family of deer that live down our street.  We see them several times a week, and they seem to be checking us out.  As long as they don't check out my landscaping too much, I'm happy to see them stop by for a visit.

This will very quickly become my favorite room in the house.  If you can't find me, check here. 

Moving Day!

Getting our final CO was crazy.  The inspector came on Monday, and he has been very nice, but when he was here he said, "You didn't think I'd pass you on the first attempt, did you? I have to show that I'm actually doing my job." We weren't expecting a pass on the first try, but it stinks that his attitude is failure from the beginning.  Thankfully it was only about 8 small little things he wanted done, nothing major. Unfortunately Marc was headed out on a business trip the next day. We had to pass this week so we could move on the following Monday. Sam was so awesome about working to get everything done.  It took him a full couple of days of tracking down what we needed at Home Depot and getting things fixed, but we passed our reinspection! Time to move! 

All this work wears a couple girls out.

More mud prior to moving.  Macy is on a rescue mission here. 

See all of those little dots? Frog eggs. Hundreds. Probably thousands. She wanted to rescue as many as she could.  Unfortunately they didn't make it past the tadpole stage, but it was neat watching them grow. 

We started off with a UHaul for a couple of days. The movers were moving furniture, but we were taking care of the boxes.  It was nice to have the weekend to work on this before the movers arrived on Monday.

Monday was a long day, and it included two trips by the moving company because they only had a smaller truck and crew available that day. 

This was so surreal.  The hardest part was walking into the basement when it had all been cleared out.  Maybe the hard work we put into finishing it off was fresher on my mind. I don't know, but it was hard to walk away from this house. It was never our intention to sell and move.  This was our final home. But God. His hand has been over this entire process.  The whole process and move has been bittersweet, but there is so much sweet in following the Lord. We are excited (and so thankful to be almost done)!

Always a game with this one.  Hiding in the paper that was covering the flooring. And the other little miss is sitting in the driveway reading.

Her life has been so disrupted. She's a lot of work, and she is making it a lot more work on me right now.  I'm hoping she settles into the new house and routine quickly.

Late night cleaning up at the old house.  Wow, that's weird to say. The girls found some cardboard tubes and are having light saber fights. One last hurrah, but new adventures and memories await us now.