Roller Coaster Ride

Not a literal roller coaster, but man has it felt like it!

I am well over a month behind in posting an update, and the last blog that I almost finished but hadn't quite posted was a re-cap of our awesome trip to the beach back in the middle of May. I promise to catch everyone up on that, as well as the following weekend's trip to Atlanta to see family and to celebrate Emmy Cate's 2nd birthday. Both of those trips were so much fun, and deserve their own post and pictures, but I finally decided that it was more appropriate to do a full update of our crazy lives SINCE those trips, then back track so that I don't miss anything. Unfortunately, life has been too crazy for a lot of pictures, but we have captured a few fun moments on our phones, so I went ahead and scattered those throughout this update, just to make it a little more interesting!

Silly...

Willies...

The big news (that many of you know, but a few surprisingly do not) is that we MOVED!!  It's been a month-long process, and I have to say it's been pretty hellacious, for lack of any better terms to describe it.  However, we are FINALLY fully relocated.  I use that term carefully, since that does NOT mean that we're settled in...or even close to finished unpacking...but we are physically living in a new house and a new neighborhood.  We LOVE our new home, and are all very proud of the major remodel that Gary has spent the last 5 months managing.  We have a lot more space, a lot more room to get ourselves organized, and a lot of new "luxuries" (new appliances, showers, flooring, tile, etc).  It is AWESOME!!  Unfortunately, our spacious 3 car garage is still FILLED TO THE GILLS with junk...boxes and boxes of junk.  We may never get them ALL unpacked, but I'm hoping at some point I'll just accept the fact that I've survived without said junk for long enough that I can just throw it away...unfortunately, my inherited "Edna instinct" (thanks, Mamaw Childers), will most likely never let that happen! 

Breakin' in the new digs...before the furniture gets in the way!

We officially started our move on Memorial Day weekend...assuming that the timing was good for Gary to be around and I would be off work.  Little did we know that he'd be "ferrying race traffic" in the helicopter all weekend, and only had one full day at home.  Thanks to my wonderful mother, I had help with the girls all weekend, and, although I almost killed myself, I was able to survive.  My fantastic father put himself to hard labor as well, and between him, Gary, and a couple of helpers, they worked their butts off to move all of our furniture on Memorial Day.  At that point, we THOUGHT we were near the end...almost a full month later, we just carried over the last boxes yesterday...just in time for the renters to move in TOMORROW!  Oh my goodness, what a nightmare!!! 


Thrilled to have Marley over for a play date in the new play house!

Besides that, the weekend after our move, we were thrown for another loop when my mom was knocked over by her dog and ours, only to have her hip broken and land in the hospital for a few days and on a walker for weeks!  She has been in so much pain, and it's been pitiful to watch her suffer with not only the physical discomfort, but the agony of not being able to be there to help us or to really play with her grandchildren!  She's a trooper, of course, and will be back on her feet soon...and boy have I had a chance to appreciate all that she does for us on a regular basis!  (of course, Papaw has stepped up to the plate for all of us, and we've appreciated his help tremendously!)

Chillin in my cozy coupe

If all of this weren't enough, we've (probably more me...) been on an emotional rollercoaster.  Leaving the old 'hood was SO MUCH harder than I thought it would be!  We felt like we had truly outgrown our house there, and, as I said, are SO happy with the new house that we have.  We are supposed to be in an AWESOME neighborhood now (LOTS and LOTS of kids, family stuff, etc), but we LOVED our neighbors at Crown Harbor, and, of course, we were walking distance to the boat, where now it's a 15 minute drive...but, we do still have our friends, we have our boat, and I'm sure that we're going to "bond" with the new neighborhood, it's just a matter of time (which, hopefully we'll have more of now that we're fully moved). 

The emotions flowed much more heavily than I dreamed possible around daycare matters as well...since the new house is about a 20 minutes shorter commute for me to and from Charlotte every day for work, we were quick to start looking for a new daycare that was convenient and "in the way".  We found a place that was recommeded by friends, and we thought, after several visits, that it would be a good fit. Until...the day I picked up the girls for their last day at their old school, I just had this feeling that this wasn't the right thing...I never thought it could be so hard to do something like that for 2 pre-2-year-olds!  Crazy enough, I couldn't stop crying...for days!  I thought it was just my emotion about everything going on at once and everything would settle down...until the first week passed...and I felt worse.  The girls did ok at the new school, but I will say it wasn't an easy week...assuming we all just needed to transition, we waited another week...by the end of that week, I knew we had to "fix" this mess.  I was still a wreck about it, and, for several reasons, I just didn't feel like this was the right place for them to spend their days.  Considering how much guilt I have for working at all, it is EXTREMELY important for me that both us and the girls are HAPPY with their "accomodations".  A quick call to Goddard (where I expected to have to beg our way back in) was easily answered by the awesome director who was THRILLED to make necessary adjustments to work our girls right back in to where they felt at home.  They've been back for a week now, and, even though the drive isn't wonderful, none of us have had ANY doubt that this was the right decision for ALL of us! Taking the girls for their first day back to their old school was probably one of the most fun things I've done in a long time!!

SPECIAL treat!  A ride in the FRONT seat of Daddy's truck!

Whew...It's been crazy, we've had some tough days (emotionally and physically), and I felt, for our own "historical record", I had to provide some level of re-cap.  Although I've been very slack with pictures, we have managed to have a little bit of fun along the way, the girls have come to LOVE the pool, and they have just been wonderful about going with the flow through all of this and enjoying the crazy little adventures that have panned out because of it...and that's a lot to ask for 2 22-month olds!  Things are slowly settling down, though, and we all owe it to each other and ourselves to try to slow down and relax a little...in the end, it's still a beautiful life!!!  :)



Chillin at the pool

Learning to LOVE the boat!