All For Me

I have been spending the majority of my days with this tiny princess:

If you're guessing that it's blissful, you're right. Not only am I enjoying how free it feels to only have to answer to one child's needs for an extended period, (something that I always took for granted when I actually only had one child) I am also loving her little quirks and the fact that I get her ALL to myself from 7:40 in the morning to 2:25 in the afternoon, five wonderful days a week.

The fact that she says adorable things like, "I bet I'm hungry" and sings "I love He-Man, he loves me" only increases the bliss factor by like a million.

Finally a sweetie I don't have to share.

(And who doesn't have to share me.)

Leaving the Nest and Going to School

Diz. Ang. My kids have done it again. Growing up without my permission, that is. This time they were both the culprits: Savanna in the form of going to kindergarten, and Julia in the form of starting second grade. I got back home from dropping them off on Monday and I thought to myself, "Did I really just take my baby to kindergarten?" Why yes, yes I did.

Thankfully, they have both transitioned beautifully, which I must give them credit for doing in the wake of so many changes this summer. (Like moving. Twice.) And, I, for my part, am doing better than I thought. I teared up on the way out of the building, I will admit, but in dealing with all of the craziness of the past few months, it is excellent to have some sense of normalcy and routine in my life once again. (Also, grocery shopping without three children in tow today for the first time in Idon'tknowhowlong was like an early Christmas miracle just for me, packaged in a shiny, kid-free shopping cart and wrapped with a Fry's receipt.)

I love them. I miss them. I am ecstatic to see them at the end of the day. But so far, they are thriving.

And so am I.

Uh, is it just me, or are regular clothes SO much cuter than boring uniforms?

Friends Again

I love it when the girls are friends...though, I will admit, towards the end of the summer, that was happening with less and less frequency. Usually, they absolutely love playing together, but 9 weeks with not much to do, and tons of time together, and no other friends to play with (since we don't know anyone yet!) was a bit much. Now that they are in school (more on that soon!) they can actually miss each other again.

And, if you ask me, that's one of the things that sisters need most.

playing "pretend winter" when our a/c was broken.

(bad timing, if you ask me).

on a stroll in flagstaff, where you can 

actually wear pants this time of year.

No Time At All

Um, the Olympics are on, plus I am supposed to read both "Hamlet" and "King Lear" this week, (a virtual impossibility in and of itself) plus I need to go grocery shopping, plus we are still far from being completely unpacked,  plus I am leaving tomorrow night on a trip out of town* for the weekend. There is literally not enough time to do all of the things that I need/want to do. (Side note: I am much more concerned about fitting in the things I want to do than I am the things I need to do. As far as I'm concerned, King Lear and Hamlet will just have to wait because I am not missing the gold medal beach volleyball match tonight. That probably already happened. But don't tell me who won.)

Can't wait to finish Shakespeare. And hopefully get the blog caught up. Also I can't wait until 7:00 so I can turn my thermostat to a decent temperature. (Got our air fixed yesterday. Blessed relief. Too bad we can barely run it from 12 to 7).

Stand by for Greatness.

*Mentioning my weekend trip reminded me of something funny. Vanna was sitting with me while I was watching the Olympics/perusing "Hamlet" and she saw a bunch of Decathlon athletes leaving the field with roller suitcases (presumably carrying some of their decathlon gear...shot puts? Warm-up clothes? Who really knows?) She got really excited at the sight of the luggage and said, "Oh! They're going out of town?"

P.S.

This is me washing dishes at our new house. 

We hadn't gotten our sunscreens yet and the

 blinding afternoon sun streaming through 

our large family room windows was making

 the task even more fun than usual.

JustSoYa Know...

Time to crack my knuckles and pretend like I have enough core strength to sit up straight and let everyone know what's happening on our street.

1. It's a new street! We finally closed on a beautiful home that is 10 minutes away from Craig's mom and dad, and 15 minutes away from mine. Overkill? We don't know the meaning of the word.

2. You know how when you're facing a problem and you think that everything will be better once that particular problem is resolved, but you kind of forget that every problem's resolutions actually lead into a whole new set of problems? That happened to us. We thought that after the incredibly stressful, nail-biting, excruciating, tear-jerking experience of buying a house in the current economy was over that we could sit back and relax. Nope. Dog-pee-saturated stinky carpet, a stove that doesn't light, and a broken upstairs air conditioning unit (that the home warranty was supposed to cover but really doesn't) were on the horizon for us. The second and third of those problems have yet to be resolved. In another 24 hours I'll know if the pee smell is gone for good. Blind-sided? Why yes, yes we were. Still suffering from the nerve damage caused by the impact.

3. Still plugging along in my Shakespeare class. After a painful tutoring experience with my (college English teacher) sister in which she helped me to realize that my writing approach needed a serious overhaul (and in which I whined and complained like she was my mom and I was her seven-year-old who didn't want to do her homework) I think I am finally on the right track. (Thanks, La. Sorry again for being such a brat.)

4. School starts on Monday. I'll miss my girls. (A lot.) But this will keep me from killing them.

5. We still don't have any windows or blinds, but we did get some fabulous sun screens installed today. You should drive by at night and spy on us some time.

6. Our new electricity provider has told us that we have to be on the "time of use" plan. This means that kilowatt hours from 12 pm to 7 pm (the hottest hours of the day here on the planet of the sun) cost about four times as much as they do any other time. (Of course, this happened right after an exorbitantly high electric bill at my parents house led us to wonder if they were on the same plan but had neglected to mention it to us. They were, and they had.) This (along with my confession from number 4) is making me re-think my not so lucrative position as a stay-at-home mom.

7. A much-needed trip to Flagstaff this evening will get us away from our hot-hole for a couple days.
Halle-freaking-lujah.

That's it. May the force be with us.