Welcome to the Jungle

Well, hi there. So, my last post was...let's see...um, June 16. That was nearly two months ago. And before that, it was April the last time I posted. But in June, I mentioned we were busy and as I was writing that post, I also knew that a summer that was already exhaustingly busy by mid-June was only about to get busier. See, about two weeks after that post, we packed up everything we owned and moved to the Northshore. This may not seem like a big deal, but for us it was. We had lived in our previous place for 5 years and we knew our way around pretty well and were, well, comfortable in a lot of ways. Was it our ideal living situation? No. But did we know that life pretty well? Yes. But when we got to looking into schools for Tyler to attend this year, to make a long story short, we just needed to move. If there is one thing I could change about living here, it would be the schools. What a headache! We really wanted to send him to public school and for many reasons, we just didn't feel good about the schools in the New Orleans area. So July 2, we drove across the lake and unloaded all of our belongings into this 'new to us' house. Garrett's commute is longer in miles, but actually doesn't take him much longer than it used to. We are in a new ward, which has probably been the most emotional thing about the move for me. I really, really liked the ward we were in and felt very comfortable there. It's kind of hard to be new again, but it will come I'm sure.

Settling in has been a bit of a struggle because we added even one more thing to the madness and left two weeks later to see our families in Idaho. We drove again and spent 2 weeks in Idaho and a total of 5 days driving. We got home with just a few days to spare before school started. So today I sent my boy off to 1st grade! I couldn't believe they started so early, it really cut off a lot of our summer. But I sit here thinking it's kind of amazing that we did it all. And we were blessed that everything went so well along the way. When I dropped my boy off in his new classroom at his new big school this morning, I felt a well of emotions as I realized this was the grand finale of a very emotional and busy summer. I know he'll be fine, but wow, it's just been a lot for me in a few short months. I look forward to settling into this new place and a new routine. I need it badly, I'm afraid.

So, there will hopefully be a little more time to blog now and I really do have intentions of going back (clear back to March events, I might add) and catching up. But in the mean time, I got a lot of questions about our most current events, so these pictures are fairly recent. Within the first few days of moving, the boys discovered just how wonderful it was to be able to ride their bikes all day every day, no matter how hot it was outside. They love it. So up and down the drive way they go (and sometimes, a ride to the country club if I'm willing to oblige!). This first group of pictures is from July 7, a few days after we moved in.

It's amazing how I saw their friendship blossom just from this. They really have to have each other to ride with. I hear them pass by each other and say "hey, bud" or "hey, good fella". I love these boys.

These two hooligans have also spent plenty of time finding all sorts of critters in the yard. We've seen bunnies, squirrels, lizards, bugs of ever shape and size, frogs by the dozen, and dare I say...a snake. OK, so the snake was not so cool. Just ask Tyler about that one. It scared him to death. But on the other hand, watching him catch a frog the other night was nearly one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life. I was dying laughing so hard!

So, here is a picture of part of the house. I am not able to get a picture with the entire house in it. My lenses make me too close to get it all in. It is an old house with an old floor plan and a big yard with big trees and bushes, etc--all which were seriously neglected in the last few years. The yard clean up is going to be an enormous project. And to make matters worse, we weren't able to do much with it before we left for Idaho and then it rained about every day that we were gone, so when we got home last Tuesday, it literally looked like a jungle. So on Saturday, we spent the day in the yard. We filled up 16 yard bags full of clippings, leaves, pine needles, etc. And sadly, the only thing you can really tell is that the grass got mowed. :( It's going to be a lot of work! But good thing the boys can help, right?!

We insist that Sam wear his helmet while working in the yard. I mean you never know when there might be a large object fall on your head. (or it may be that he takes a lap on his bike and then comes to help, then takes another lap and repeats)

Another view/angle of the house...

And one thing we have been very good at since the move is sweating, if you can tell. The boys don't seem to mind that it's like a heat index of 1,000 degrees every day, but they sure do sweat! As in, they need to change their clothes when they come inside because they are soaked through type of sweat. Ahhhh, I just keep thinking how nice the Fall will be here!

Now to all of my family members who hassled me for not blogging anymore, I hope this helps...it's all for you, ya know! :) Hopefully there will be more coming soon!