Back to the blogging world!

I'm diving back into the blogging world with this link to a giveaway to help my neighbors finalize the adoption of their little girl. You can try to win some fabulous prizes by helping to promote the giveaway! You can also donate to their adoption fund here.

I have met "Pie." She is one of the sweetest and prettiest little girls you will ever meet. She has been with my neighbors since she left the hospital. She has been loved on since day one. She is theirs in every way that matters. Now, they want the courts to see her that way, too. You can help with that quest. So, go now and check everything out.

Seriously, it's been how long?

Okay, for those one or two fans (Hi, honey!), who are left here, I have decided to start back to blogging. I miss it and I have a little bit of time now to do it. I will update soon on us and all our happenings. I am going to try to get back into the habit, so stick around.

Destressing at the moment

So, a few months have passed since I last posted. The summer was quite chaotic, and life is not slowing down anytime soon. I need a few moments to de-stress, so I am going to do a quick post to update what's going in in our lives.

The big announcement this summer has to do with our moving. Yes, we are moving. Bruce accepted a job about 30 minutes away and we are required to establish residency there, so next week we hope to close on our new house and move Labor Day weekend.

I have actually had a harder time with the move than I thought I would. We have lived here for 11 years. Hard not to get attached to people in 11 years. Plus, this is the only home that our children have known. In fact, Cara and Jonah did not take the news well at all. Cara said she wasn't going, and Jonah, well, we'll just say he became so upset he lost his cookies. At first, Adriana seemed okay, but that night she became a little upset when she realized that she would be leaving all of her friends behind.

Our new house is in a neighborhood with children. Right now, where we live we do not have neighbors. I have told a few people that our children may decide they actually like each other since they will have others with which to play.

Now, I am knee deep in boxes. I am trying to make the most of the time that the children are in school to get as much packing completed as possible.

So, I better go. I will update more later.

A day in the life

My brother has been involved with Revolutionary War reenactments for about 20 years. Years ago, his whole family participated, including his three kids. They are all now teenagers and hanging around campsites playing dress up is not quite their idea of fun.


Last year, Adriana's class had a character day where they chose a book and had to dress up as that character to do a presentation. When she showed me her book was about Martha Washington's mother, I made a quick phone call to my brother. He put an outfit in the mail the next day. I think she received an "A" on the report with a "great costume" comment from her teacher. Thank you, Uncle Robin!

So, Adriana was very excited when an event was being held near us and her uncle asked her to help. Since she is in fourth grade, this helped the history she has been learning to come alive. She had a great time, and I received a great workout with all the walking we did that day. Cara and Jonah went with Bruce that day to take his mother out for her birthday, so this also allowed Adriana and I to have a little one on one time.

Uncle Robin has also now helped to create a monster. She told me that she wants to go to every event that is held. Thankfully, Robin said that he only goes to about four a year now.

Whew.

That, I think we can handle.

This the same outfit that she wore last year. When she wore it last year, it went all the way to the ground.

Helping Uncle Robin with a demonstration.

She loved petting the horses that were at the event.

Let's all breathe for a moment, shall we?

Because school is out!!! (Well, for the kids anyway.) So, life has been chaotic busy lately with spring break near the end of the school year, state testing, spring sports, and the end of the school year.

Crazy, I tell you.

Just crazy.

So, let's all pause for a minute before the craziness of the summer takes over, okay? June is going to come on with a full roar in just a few days. Until then, we are going to take a few minutes to look back at our spring.

Starting here. Back in March, Bruce's younger nephew, Chip, and the very lovely Meg, were married. It was a beautiful low-country wedding on a plantation. Very romantic. Our three precious cherubs (and they were precious cherubs that day because they had been threatened within an inch of their livesencouraged to behave their best.

Here are a few pics from that day. Meg is the real photographer of the family, but she was otherwise occupied that day. So, here are a few of mine.

Cara and Jonah with their best dance moves.

Cara was relentless at trying to get Chip to dance with her.

At Bruce's other nephew's wedding a few years ago, Cara would not leave Meg alone. The fact that this time the wedding was Meg's did not deter Cara. So glad Meg loves children.

I have lamented before about the difficulty of getting three children

to stand still at the same time for a picture, haven't I?

This was about the best one of all five of us.

Jonah's first tooth

Yeah, it's been forever. I know. I'm sorry. Life sometimes gets in the way. I am officially on a break this week from school, so maybe, just maybe I can get caught up on some things.

The kids were on spring break last week, so we went to Atlanta for a few days. Had a great time, but the trip was too short and we are all tired.

While we were there, Jonah had a tooth come out for the first time. It happened right in the middle of the World of Coke. He was a little upset at one point because he said it was stuck. I looked and it was pushed back all the way in his mouth. I told him that it was time for it to come out. This was a long time coming because he has gone back and forth from being excited about losing his tooth to being upset that it was going to come out. He shed a few tears, but I think he was tired more than anything else.

Here's a couple of pictures. More about our trip and other things that we have been up to lately coming soon.

From Spring Break 2011

Just a little traumatized.

From Spring Break 2011

I'm pulling. Daddy's holding. Adriana's taking the picture.

From Spring Break 2011

Don't be horrified. I know I need a manicure desperately.

From Spring Break 2011

All better now. I think he realized he would be getting money out of this.

Jonah's school

Jonah is obsessed.

Seriously, the boy has issues.

Since he has been in school, he is obsessed with teaching his "students," his toys. Don't dare call them toys around him, though. He will quickly tell you they are students and not toys.

Somewhere around here, I have video of him with his students. If you saw the video, you would see him singing the morning song with his students, reading to them and possibly his students having rest time. You might even catch one or two in the "watching chair."

He does this every day when he comes home from school. I have learned many things that take place in his classroom just from his role playing. He even calls some of his students by his friends' names, and then I really learn what happens in the classroom and who does what.

So, the other day after we returned from Bruce's mom's house, he lined some of his students up for something new. (He has so many now that he is violating the state's adult to student ratio. Shhh, don't tell anyone.) Here is a picture. I am not going to say what they are doing, because I want you to guess.

The first person to guess correctly what his students are doing gets 100 bonus points. That's it. A bonus points and bragging rights. That counts for something, doesn't it?