First Day of Kindergarten #2

By Monday it was off to Immaculata for Leia Rose! She was happy there right from the start, but only felt truly secure (judging from her few issues such as thumb-sucking and such) after a few weeks. And when asked which school she liked better, Artgarden or Immaculata, . . . she says a very proud, "Immaculata!" I'm guessing that generally happy children always choose in the moment. : )

Happy Second Birthday Annie!!! (# 1)

Both of the girls' birthdays are turning out to be non-conventional this year. This is mostly because of moving, as well as for one reason or another. SO, as we were in limbo for a day or so as we waited for the movers, we celebrated Annie's (early) second birthday with Grandma & Grandpa at Alan's & Cassie's. : ) And Annie's favorite part of the celebration? Alan & Cassie made her HOMEMADE french fries!!! Was there a happier kid on the planet? I think NOT!!! : )

I should also mention here not only how Leia Rose is incredibly enamored with the kitty cat on the cake, but with birthdays themselves these days. This is a result of an Elmo's World, a Miss Patty Cake, and a Yo, Gabba, Gabba that focus on birthdays. There was plenty of time during moving to allow her to watch them again and again, so she got to be a pro at singing the birthday song. And everyone laughed at her at Immaculata when, during Leia's first school assembly, Annie yelled "CAKE!!!" after they sang "Happy Birthday" to the children of the week. [Not to mention that everyone's comment about Annie is always that she is so HAPPY! And everyone's comment about Leia is that she's so INDEPENDENT! Big surprise. : ) ]

The other cute little procedure that Annie has for blowing out her birthday candles (other than wanting to do it again and again) is to lean far forward to blow, like this . . .

. . . and then lean back and blow with this funny face. : ) Gosh, I just love this picture! : )

And, of course, forget about all the fun presents she received, . . . she was most excited about this bow. Ha! : )

Now, Brian and I saved our birthday gifts for Annie's real birthday on October 1st, . . . and there was a time when I wanted there to be ONE family celebration only. But you know what, . . . how many times do you get to celebrate your small child's birthday? Eighteen times if you're lucky? So why the heck not do it a couple times each year. It just makes more memories. (I suppose this is also a result of "second-child-syndrome" and similar to this scenario: the first child has chapped hands from anti-bacterial wipes and the second child is happily eating dirt. Ha!)

And I can't BELIEVE I don't have a single picture of Chester!!! You see, Alan & Cassie just got a puppy named Chester (or "Esther" according to Annie) ; ) , . . . and both girls (although not really wanting to get too close to him) just LOVED calling Chester's name and watching him respond. What a WONDERFUL way for the girls to get their full dosage of animal loving! . . . without Mamma or Daddy to have to deal with one themselves. ; )

Our Mountain Home

And as of this evening, we are the proud owners of a beautiful mountain home along a little mountain road! Little did I know that the closing was just the beginning of our work. To put it in perspective, just imagine that every single item you own has to find a new home, . . . and YOU have to be the one to make every single one of those decisions. It would take me about a month to get back to "my old self," so-to-speak. And even at that time, the pictures have yet to be hung, . . . but we are able to live (among the myriads of workers, that is). And since we nixed our garage (because I found out I was able to park both of our cars under our deck!), we were able to make lots of improvements to make this our dream, with everything from painting to carpet to extra windows to the main highlight: a really spectacular stone fireplace. And when all is complete, I will post more photos.

Signs of Hope

Both physically & mentally, this move was the hardest thing that I have ever had to do. And through all the turmoil, I was just so thankful that the Lord sent me so many signs of hope and moments of laughter. : )
The day before we left, we actually saw a MONARCH butterfly in our yard on its journey south! I have NEVER seen one of these in our yard before, they're usually only tiger swallowtails and a few blue-tipped swallowtails in addition to a rare painted lady.

Annie was also a hoot almost every day by wanting to try on my "inside shoes" all the time.

These pictures remind me SO much of Oma as a little girl standing in her own Grandma's shoes.

BUT, the greatest joy for Annie has to be feeding "tee-toll kitty cat." We would feed Tickle for about two hours a day with these little circle "snacks" that were actually little wooden velcro circles that went to a Melissa & Doug birthday cake set. Annie would put one in Tickle's mouth and then, as she leaned down to grab another one, I would spit that first one back into the pile. And so it continued for hours each day. : )

And, don't get me wrong, there was plenty of snuggling with Tickle as well.

Then there was the thrill of Leia Rose's life (and Heidi's as well) to be able to ride in the BACK of Grandpa's pickup truck for a REALLY long ride, . . . from Heidi's house to our own, . . . a whole four houses away. Ha! ; )

And even though it was 4 AM when I took these pictures (did you notice the time of the post?), I just HAD to document this. For the last month, whenever I would take Annie out of her carseat in the garage, she would look up at this (dirty) window there and say, "Buh-Buh Bee" (meaning "Bumblebee." Why she thought this little spot of dirt (bird poop?) on the window was a flying insect, I'll never know, . . . but I sure enjoyed Annie's imagination!

And here is the very last image I will ever have of our home in Chapel Hill, . . . and if asked about the most touching memory I will always say that it is the place where I brought all of my children home after being born.

Finding Some Humor

To save money, I did most of our packing with boxes from Lowes Foods, . . . and it ended up looking like we REALLY enjoyed the incredible, edible egg! Ha!

Moving (i.e. Mamma's Hell)

This post belongs on this particular date mostly because this is the day that we closed on our new home. I have never been more exhausted than I was on that day, . . . and I had never before stayed up until 4 AM the previous night (which was to clean the entire house myself from top to bottom for the new owners). BUT, . . . the month of September was fraught with one tragedy after another (not the least of which was, of course, the news of Karin's condition), . . . the biggest blows to me in regards to our move were that Brian was already working over there and could only come home on a couple of weekends to help, . . . AND that soon after he informed me that he wouldn't even be able to come home for the day before closing (moving day)!!! When I learned that over the phone, I absolutely lost it. That meant that I was going to have to complete all the rest of the packing (including loading Grandma & Grandpa's truck) ALONE with two children on hand.

It was truly hell, but in the words of Karin, . . . I did it!!! There were other things that simply furthered my exasperation, though. Are you ready for the list? The realtor called a couple of days before closing and said that the courthouse refused to verify our buyer's POA (because her husband was in Iraq). A week before closing, our dishwasher leaked, flooded UNDER our wood floor, and WARPED it!!! . . . assuring that I would spend the days packing the kitchen (a horrid job in itself) and tripping over the following . . . .


. . . amid these crazy machines that were supposed to fix our warped floor (it didn't) and hope that the owner didn't notice it during the walkthrough (she didn't). (Not to mention that I had this horrible Christian guilt about how to do the right thing in this situation where our own closing was on the line. At least we tried to fix it, that's all I can say. Also, it was one of the very few times that I can remember when I called BOTH my parents and my in-laws in a panic about what to do.) On a lesser note, it rained on moving day (and filled the bed of the truck with all of our stuff). There was no way to get the new house painted & carpeted (in that order) before we moved in. Our move-in date was delayed to the very day that Karin was having her special birthday party and, because I misjudged the time by 45 minutes, I missed the party. The day after we moved in, both the girls and I got a horrible stomach virus which put us out of commission for days, . . . while the painters were painting. And finally, a PIG tore up our entire yard looking for wild mushrooms, and when I should have been unpacking, I was actually out in the yard on my hands and knees for hours turning snout-shaped sod divots back right-side-up. *sigh*
You add all of this tragedy together and you get these: my first age spots!!! : (

Just thank GOD for friends like Sarah & Laurie who were always there to help with the girls when I was unable to give them one iota of attention, . . . and for the blessing of Mrs. Tench who allowed Leia Rose to attend Artgarden right up until the end (including moving day), . . . on which day I remembered everything, . . . EXCEPT MY CHILD, who was left standing 15 minutes after pickup with no mom there. It was at that moment that I realized what was happening, called the school, and rushed on over. And in my mind the whole time I was thinking that, if that were me, I would have been scarred for life. Totally. No question about it. But MY child, the independent little love that she is, just rushed over, gave me a hug, and said, "MOM, I've been sitting here FOREVER!!! What made you so LATE?!?" I was speechless.
However, the move did affect the girls in negative ways (not the least of which was me having to use the TV as a babysitter for much of the time, . . . including this horrible new show called Yo, Gabba, Gabba that I'm convinced was created by someone on acid, . . . & even when I wasn't letting them watch too much TV, I was yelling at the girls for no apparent reason). It certainly sent Annie into the throws of the Terrible Twos, culminating not long after we moved in with the hitting of Leia (again and again). This was solved by doing, instead of The Thinking Chair, The Thinking TUB, . . . because Annie wouldn't yet sit in a chair for two minutes and still needed to be confined. I had to do this four times on two days, . . . and then Annie never did it again!!! As for Leia Rose, it was little Leia who was affected most, I think. The first sign was one afternoon before we moved when Leia Rose was watching a show and I said, "Leia Rose, I'm going to the mailbox to get the mail, would you like to come?" She answered no, and kept watching the show. And in the time it took me to walk down to the mailbox, get our mail, and walk back up, . . . Leia Rose was pacing around the house in an absolute panic. When I saw her face through the door, it looked as though someone had died in front of her. I grabbed her and said, "Leia!!!!! What's wrong!!??!!" And her response was, "I thought I was lost!!!" Poor little love! : ( Then the excitement of her "purple kitty room" (which she kept calling her vision of her new room) was destroyed when she found out that it WAS painted purple, but without kitties. And at Leia's new school, among some "crotchie" problems that Leia Rose often has at the start of school (and that I needed Oma's help with handling), she reverted totally to both thumb-sucking and bed-wetting. Poor little dear. : (

Long story short, I have learned a lot about myself during this process. First, I learned that I am not a very good Mamma when I am in the middle of tumult (or in a rush) when I truly have to concentrate. (I feel the same way about shopping. Ha!) Second, I feel panicked and not able to focus on anything else, unable to live life until I am totally settled into a new home. And more recently, I learned that I feel very invaded when people are working on my home in any way. But most importantly, I learned that focus on my girls is truly God's reason for our move and that my calling as a Mamma should be my main focus in life. What a nice revelation! : )

My Dear Friend Karin

Although there is great turmoil in our lives right now, that is no reason to neglect prayers that are most important. Today was a very significant day in my dear friend Karin's life, today she had her diseased kidney removed due to an advanced stage of cancer. And this is the way Leia Rose dealt with this tragedy (which I tried to explain to the best of my ability as we prayed together). This is a picture of Karin (in the hospital bed) surrounded by flowers and cookie bouquets (and given privacy by a curtain) and the doctor who is curing her. I couldn't help noticing that two particular things: 1. The doctor was a woman. ; ) And 2. Both the doctor and Karin had REALLY big smiles. Leia Rose said that was because "Karin is getting better, of course!!!" Leia was right. Over the next month, Karin would recover from surgery, have a HUGE birthday celebration, complete her radiation, conquer her fear of blood tests (almost), have a port inserted, get poked/prodded/slapped-on-hard-surfaces for numerous tests, and begin a state-of-the-art clinical trial with some new medicines that should help her beat this cancer!!! Her improvement continues to be positively amazing, . . . a true miracle. (But I can't discount my sadness at being so far away now, at the very moment that Karin probably needs me the most.) : (

Annie's Chicken Dance

Today Elmo's World was about birds, . . . and Annie LOVED the version of "The Chicken Dance" done in the middle!!! She kept wanting to see that little song again and again, . . . until she memorized the whole thing! She was a riot! : )
"Put your hands like a beak! Cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck!"
"Pretend your arms are wings! Flap, flap, flap, flap!"

Bob the Builder's Baby Birds

Today Bob came over to work on the piddly repairs that the new owner requested, and before he began, he invited us over to see the new baby cockatiels at his house! I have to say, they were the ugliest baby birds I had ever seen! Ha!


But Annie and Leia were much more excited about the snake food: mice! ; ) (Bob even had a real copperhead in there! Scary! Glad that cage was locked!)
Then Leia Rose was happy as a clam helping Bob make a cement form for under the house! : )

Firefighter Princess!

Last Time On the Del Silva Playground

Today was a bit sad for me, in that it was the last time the girls would play on the playground of 28 Diana Del Silva Court. : ( We've had a lot of fun out here! Brian was a REAL dear and agreed to disassemble and transport our very special swingset for use at our new home. (And what a project that was, my poor hubby!)
Just look at how OLD Annie looks in this picture!!!



And for some reason, I couldn't get Leia Rose to swing. : ( But she was happy to do a dancing show for us! : )

Special Visit, Special Gift(s)

This was a really important visit to the Faulkners' today. Not only was it our last visit before our move but also it was the first visit after having learned about Karin's most recent medical issues. Karin had e-mailed me earlier that day and asked if I would like to come and paint her toenails (in that she is unable to these days), and I not only said "absolutely yes" but I offered a foot massage as well. It was wonderful to have some time, just us, as our children played together with Bockba Nina (Karin's Mom) watching them wherever they roamed.
Leia Rose adores playing "wild" with Kevin, . . . especially when she's in a "wild" kind of mood. Well, she certainly was today!!! : ) What a great action shot!
But the highlight of their playdate (besides jumping off of Kevin's bed upstairs, that is) was drawing with bath crayons on the bathroom walls. Look at Leia Rose's keen unicorn!!! : )

Yeah, I had brought over some fun/cute/inexpensive nail polish stuff for Karin & a tape of Miss Spider's Sunny Patch for Kevin and Kien, . . . but what I was NOT expecting was all the gifts showered on us! Here is Leia Rose with what is sure to rival her favorite pink heart jewel ring (also from Kevin): a beautiful heart jewelry box that Kevin painted himself!!!
Leia Rose was SO touched by this gift, . . . and she did the little thing she always does when she is very touched by something: she tilts her head to the side, smiles coyly, and bats her eyelashes. Ha! : ) Kevin made this for Leia Rose as a going-away present, and poor little Kevin cried so hard when she left. : ( I told Kevin that he and his family could come sledding this winter up in the mountains, . . . but I think that excited Steve more than Kevin. Ha! : )
And in addition to a special birthday present for Annie (that I'll save for her birthday post), LOOK AT THIS!!!! I was so touched by this scrapbook that I cried. Right in front of Karin! (Even after I had told myself that I wasn't going to get emotional over there. Goodness gracious.) This little book documents our entire friendship up to this point!!! Wow!!!
It begins way back at Furman when we were cottagemates, and goes through when we next met up again before Leia's baby shower (where Karin even made the cake!), . . .
and goes from when we brought Leia Rose over after she was first born . . .
all the way until the Faulkners first met Annie, . . . and ALL the other playdates in between!
It ends with Kevin concentrating on making the special heart jewelry box for Leia Rose, which she was holding in her hand while I was looking at this. Such memories! Karin and I have always bonded over creating and then sharing our precious memories with each other, so this gift was incredibly apropos. Both this gift and its creator are very special to me!!!
And let me end this on a humorous note, . . . because this was another gift from Karin today. Ha! Now with my bumper stickers, I'm all decked out for the election! Palin Power: Activate!!!