Finding sanity in a life of CRAZINESS

Well, the navy is moving us. July 31 is the last day we'll be here in the beautiful, yet rainy, state of Washington. Mike was given his transfer orders this past week. We'll be heading back to Tennessee, which is actually what we were hoping and praying would happen.

Of course, nothing is ever simple or straightforward. The home we are renting is being put on the market in the very near future. We are in an uncomfortable position of wanting the best for the homeowners and hoping the home will sell quickly, but also hoping that we'll be able to stay here in this house until we are ready to pack up for Tennessee. I don't even want to think about what we'll have to do if the house sells quickly. Basically? We'll have to find a temporary residence for a few months to allow Zach to finish 2nd grade. It gives me a headache thinking about it.

My heart aches when I start to think about how hard this move it going to be for Zachary. He loves his school and his friends and he's going to miss his buddies so very much. He's already asking about visiting and about how he's going to stay in touch with buddies like Nate, Easton, Luke, and Grace.

I'm not as worried about Alec, but I know he'll miss his wonderful babysitters who have been like family to us.

Of course, the blessing about this move is that the market is really great for home BUYERS, which is what we'll be. I'm actually going to do a quick househunting trip to Tennessee in about three weeks. Please be in prayer for us about that and about this whole thing.

Oh, by the way, I need your suggestions on househunting! What kinds of things do I need to look for/ be aware of?

Fellas

The little guys in my house greatly enjoy their movie time. I caught them cuddling a couple of nights ago and thought the pictures were cute. I think they were watching a Rescue Heroes movie while Mike and I were watching the OU/Texas b-ball game. They were in their pjs and Oliver joined them on my bed for cuddle time. Very sweet.

Filming Talents

I wanted to brag on my boys. :-) Here are a couple of examples of their talents.

Zachary:

Alec:

Fervor, Fidelity, Fondness: My Valentine Weekend

My funny Valentines: Mike, Zach, Alec. We spent the weekend in Astoria, Oregon. It was a quick trip, but very enjoyable. We had great weather on Saturday and enjoyed the Columbia River Maritime Museum and a bit of exploring in Astoria. The boys loved the hotel. It was located directly under the Astoria Bridge, which was HUGE and quite impressive.























Our weather today was a bit less enjoyable. Rain and temps below 40 degrees all day. But we made the best of it and went to a small Aquarium in Seaside, Oregon, before seeing the shipwreck on the sand at Fort Stevens State Park. It was so incredibly cold on the beach that we basically just snapped a couple of quick pictures before running back to our car. Later I asked Alec what his favorite thing from the trip was. He answered, "I liked the shipwreck best a'cause it was so cold that it STOLE my BREF (breath) AWAY! But I got more bref now."

We also explored an old military base and its museum. The boys loved that. I was just happy to be inside and out of the freezing rain!

It was a fun trip. I enjoyed getting out of town and seeing a bit more of the area. We've been here three years and I've basically been confined to the Kitsap Peninsula. It was nice seeing more of the Pacific Northwest.

What did you do for the weekend?

Feline family

I haven't posted about the furrier members of our family in awhile. We've got fluffy Molly Rainbow, who is quite possibly the sweetest kitty in the world. I love lap time with her. She is large and warm and has a deep, distinctive meow.

We also have Oliver Whiskers, who is. . . a bit of a troublemaker, but in the sweetest possible way. This morning Alec said, "Our kitties are in our family, aren't they Mommy?" Yep, they are. So this is a post about our fluffy felines.

Fairy - "tooF" - and Alecisms and a Zach story

This is going to be a veritable hodge-podge of a blog. Buckle up and hang on because I'm not going to worry too much about transitions!

*The tooth fairy made a visit Sunday night. Zach lost a top front tooth. I love these toothless pictures.

*Alec has this lisp. He told his daddy a "Super Kitty" story about lava octopusses that swim in the water. (Super Kitty is an Alec creation who is a cat superhero. She defeats all kinds of monsters and creates much mayhem on a daily basis.) Alec's story went something like this:

And den Thuper Kitty thaw da lava octoputhes in da water and den Thuper Kitty defeated da lava octoputhes!

*Today he was with Ms. Renee, his babysitter and she was trying to get him to finish his ham and cheese sandwich. She said something like, "You better eat it so you can be big and strong." Alec's reply was, "Welllll, I ate half of it so I can be big. And I'm already strong (th-trong)!"

*Zach came home telling me about this thing they did in school today where they took each letter of their names and then wrote a word about themselves based on that letter. I cannot remember what this is called. Anyway, he was telling me what he wrote about himself. For example, he put "Zarda snake" for Z, because that's his favorite snake. And he put "Amazing reader" for A, because he is an amazing reader. He got to the second A in his name and said the word he put was "Antelligent!" There was a moment of confused silence before it registered. He meant intelligent. I found the humor quite ironic.

Feeling old

So last night I had to bite the bullet and grade essays. I'm not really a great grader. I can't seem to master the art of quickly reading and evaluating. I get too personally involved and end up writing more about the writing than the actual student wrote.

Anyway, last night I began grading at 8 p.m. and finished up at about 4 a.m. this morning. I slept for a couple of hours before getting up and getting the boys ready for school. I then went to my friend Tracy's house and scrapbooked for about 3+ hours before heading back home. I just finished my lesson plan for tomorrow's class and am about to spend some quality time with Alec. I've had about three Diet Dr. Peppers today and I'm trying to talk myself out of another one. Need caffeine. Feeling. . . tired. Feeling. . . olllllllllllllld.

I used to stay up most of the night on a regular basis when I was in college. I liked to stay up late and study after everyone else was in bed. I was the editor of our school paper and that usually required late nights about once or twice a week. I don't remember feeling like I was wading through mucky water the next day.

I'm happy to be finished grading. And I'm happy that I'll be ready to pass those essays back to my students tomorrow. But I'm not happy about the tick in my right eye that is tick...tick...ticking me off!

Have a restful day!