Job, Sweet, Job Number 7

In the last fifteen years, I have held more jobs that most people do in a lifetime. I had almost decided that not working for a year or two might be a good thing. I talked myself into living and loving the typical officer wife life: lunch dates with friends, going to the gym with a workout partner, cooking great meals every single night, and attending a weekly Bible Study.

Praise the Lord! This arrived in my inbox today.

Ms. XXXX,

Congratulations, you have been selected for FLES Teacher position at XXX-XXXX Schools!  

Please review the job offer letter, sign, and return to me annotating your acceptance/declination. You can return this by either scanning in the email or fax.  

If you have any questions, please contact me by email or at the phone number provided in the job offer letter.



I will be teaching Spanish to elementary aged students. Can I tell you that teaching kinder and first graders scares the BeJeezus out of me? I don't even know where to begin. I've decided I just can't think about it too much or it stresses me out. I find it much more comforting knowing that I can now purchase a new washing machine and not feel guilty. Who needs lunch dates and work out partners when you can have clean clothes?

Nail Polish, Play Dough, and Cart Wheels

Day three with the family was spent hiking.

Wes and the boys have found the perfect place to train! The trail around the backside of the cave is a beautiful place to run.

Our days have been filled with the pitter-patter of little feet throughout the house, Nerf Wars, and reminders to be nice to the cat. We painted nails, played with play dough, and practiced cart wheels. We ate our weight in banana pudding and chocolate cake and learned Aunt Kacey is serious about nap time. We had imaginary conversations with stuffed animals, understood that gymnastics tricks inside the house can be painful, and took lots of slow walks.

Today we said our see you soons.

Smart, Smarter, Smartest

Today I realized that nothing can quite prepare you for the day when you realize your child is smarter than the parent. The shock is felt even stronger, though, when your child is only ten years old.

During today's day trip to a science museum, Evan was throwing out big science words like trajectory, friction, and momentum, and when I tried to do the same and throw out a suggestion, he said, "A moving force will increase momentum when friction has been reduced." It was all more than I could process, so I nodded my head and told him he had a well thought out plan.

Then these two almost got kicked out of the art museum for touching the limestone monuments. I almost died when I found one attempting a dive through one statue and another attempting to climb atop a limestone carving of a coyote.

The bubble cave was a safer bet. Soap and water didn't prove too much of an academic challenge for me, and there were no limestone monuments that anyone could destroy in here. We had one misstep with a near broken nose so we called it a day.

Lions, Tigers and Bears...Oh My!

 It seems like we have had the longest summer on record, and yet I can't believe I only have two more weeks of sleeping past 0530. We have done nothing this summer but pack, clean, and unpack; it really pales in comparison to our last two summers spent in Turks & Caicos and Puerto Rico.

Our real summer fun began this week when my sister and her family met us in Tennessee for a few days. Our first stop was the zoo.

It was hotter than hot, but we walked every inch of that park. The cousins got to see every animal on their wishlist except the koala bear and kangaroo. 

But Caroline rode a kangaroo instead, and this seemed so much more fun. She was hoppin' so fast she couldn't keep her eyes open!

This I know to be true. Zoo visits during the month of July are not for the faint in heart. 

New Adventure

This is some kind of record; we have unpacking household goods down to a science. All 256 boxes/items were unpacked, organized, hung, and/or placed in the appropriate place within three and a half days. I'm like that blind guy in that movie that I don't remember the title that can take apart and reassemble his rifle in thirty seconds. I'm that good.

I wish I could say the same about the guys who unloaded our goods from the moving van. Evan's bedroom furniture set arrived with only 1.75 bed-side tables, and the under-the-bed drawers to my brand new bed are missing knobs. I plan to file a claim to the missing furniture, the scratched furniture, and the broken glassware, but I wish I could also claim the scratches, OH THE MANY SCRATCHES, to our beautifully painted walls. 

Perhaps the worst part of our experience was the guys' inability to put the boys' beds together properly. I will admit that the Ikea bed has given me fits before, but I never dropped a handful of screws around the house and then pretended the bed was secure by saying, "You are all set up in here!"  This ambiguous statement, we later learned, really meant "Your bed is set to fall apart on you while sleeping tonight." 

I shouldn't complain. The packing, loading, and unloading is all free, and we have never encountered anyone less than accommodating. Today we can leave the house and venture to somewhere in the city other than Lowes and Target. Our new adventure awaits!

A House to Call Home

Today we got the keys to home sweet home number nine.

Better yet. After having been separated for more than 22 months, we are now living together as a family.

The house is beautiful; we are blessed beyond measure. However, it is waking up to this view completed with the sounds of hundreds of chirping birds that fills me with joy. It is also possible I am just so completely relieved to be done with traveling with a cat that I can now enjoy the little things in life.

Did I mention I am considering homesteading? Please, please, please, Uncle Sam! Don't make me move again for at least three years!

Homeless

The move is officially half way done, and now we will be homeless for the next two weeks. With no where to live and no desire to spend days on end in a hotel room, we headed to Texas for some family time. After cleaning so much my hands cracked, after packing suitcases that would hold anything that we might need in the next three weeks (and then some), and then a very long drive across the Southeast, East Texas never looked so good.

These four spent a whole lot of time in the swimming pool and eating popsicles.

How is that my ten year old is taller than my grandmother? 

Even with temps hovering around 100 degrees, the Toole cousins spent an afternoon playing Gun Wars and basketball.

Without a doubt, the biggest stressor thus far has been moving with the cat. The poor thing suffered fourteen hours in a car, we suffered through hours and hours of her non-stop crying, and then we had to fight off a late night coyote chase that the boys promise almost involved Maybelle as a late night snack. I said it once; I will say it again. Homesteading is looking better by the minute.