Time to catch up!

Well, life got busy and blogging fell by the way side.  For almost 2 years!  It saddens me since I love looking back at how the kids were developing.  I do have some notes on my phone and stories on Facebook and plenty of pictures.  So I will go back and cover a little bit of what's happened in the past two years!  In the meantime, I'll pick up with where life is currently!


It's July 2018.  Claire is set to start 2nd grade and Ellie is about to start kindergarten!  I'm a little nervous about it just because she is so reserved in new situations.  I worry about her advocating for her own needs.  She did great coming out of her shell in her last year of preschool.  But a new school is a whole new ballgame.  This summer at a week of camp she wouldn't tell the staff she wanted to be called Ellie instead of Elizabeth.  But she is excited to go and very excited about riding the bus.  So hopefully she will settle in quickly.


Daniel is going to be in the 3's class at preschool this year.  And I'll be right across the hall teaching in the 2's!  The director approached me in the spring about coming on as an assistant teacher.  It was perfect timing because I was starting to feel a little unfulfilled with being at home.  So I'll be working three mornings a week, the same days Daniel will be in school.  I'm giving up all my kid free time for the year.  But hopefully I can keep my sanity with some help from Jeff and my mom.  My parents recently moved to the same county.  So instead of 60 miles away, it's down to 6!  My mom also retired in June. I think we are sending enough babysitting her way to keep her busy.  The new house has a pool so it's a grandkid magnet and the gathering place any time we all get together. 


This summer has a good mix of travel and downtime.  We took a trip to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge in June.  Jeff and I just got back from a few days in Portland, Oregon.  The kids stayed with my mom.  Jeff's parents also took the kids for a few days at the end of June. Oh, and I was in Boston in June.  My college roommate had her second baby so I went to visit for a few days.  In the days in between we've been mixing in daily outings with more quiet days at home or around town.  We had to visit the zoo, Botanical Garden, and Fernbank of course.  We are going to squeeze in a few more fun things next week before school starts up.