We are.....

accomplished a ton but it at the same time it feels like we haven't been able to accomplish anything.

• We're living in our new house, we have water, gas, phone, electricity, cable and Internet
• We have no furniture to speak off--mattresses on the floor, high chairs and toys for the kids, a single lawn chair, a step stool, and 2 TV trays
• We went grocery shopping at Sams and stocked up on all kinds of unimportant stuff but have failed to remember to buy paper towels and trash bags
  
• I've learned my commute to work takes about 12 minutes, 17 if there's a lot of traffic
• Olivia starts school Monday
• We're still figuring out when and where Peter will start school
• Mike starts work in about a week and a half
• We hope our furniture (and all our other household goods) will be delivered Monday
• We're wanting to catch up with friends but just can't seem to find the time with all the stuff there is to do around the house
• I am loving my new job, and I've been too busy to even think about missing the kids (of course it helps that I know they're enjoying the extra time with Mike)

Cozy

Is a nice way of saying small. We started moving into our new house this weekend. It is in a great neighborhood. We have a nice backyard. It's in a great location and we like the neighbors. It is small, tiny, cozy, quaint. Olivia and I lived in a 15 x 20 hospital room for months, we can do this. We lived in a small apartment for months in Durham after Olivia was discharged from Duke, we can do this. We are going to live below our means. We are repurposing money that we might have spent on housing to pay for private schools. We don't need a gourmet kitchen because we want to be able to enjoy the fabulous restaurants in New Orleans. Bedrooms are really just for sleeping. Who needs a home office when you have an office at work. We are a family of four, we don't need a dinning room that seats 6, we can make do with an eat-in kitchen. The house is cozy but it's also kinda cute. It feels happy, it's got a good vibe. Does it sound like I'm talking myself into liking it? I absolutely am and I think a new iPhone might help continue to convince myself. Not sure yet, just something we're considering since we're living so far below our means and all. :)

Is this really happening?

Now that the physical labor--packing, loading, cleaning is over the emotional side is sinking in. I am very much looking forward to moving but I'm really going to miss our neighborhood and the friends we've made here! We hope to start our drive today so say a prayer for safe travels, good weather, and a car-sick free journey!

Packing Day

I hate packing day! It's such a strange experience to have other people pack up everything you own. Mike loves packing day so he's bummed that he is still having to do stuff at work this week. Mike hates the unloading and unpacking process, which of course happens to be my favorite part. I'll be at work though so he'll be there for the unpacking as I've been here for the packing up. Figures.

This is our 6th military move. In a military move you have a variety of options to chose from---you can let the contracted company pack and move everything, you can pack and move everything yourself and be reimbursed, you can pack and move some of your posessions and let the packers move everything else. Your weight limit depends on your rank and as a Captain with dependants we're authorized 14,500 lbss. We've done every combination of military move--when we didn't have any kids and didn't have much stuff we happily took the money and moved ourselves. When we moved from Oklahoma to Washington state Mike and a friend rented a Uhaul and moved our stuff into storage so that we could take our time driving cross country and sight seeing along the way. Our move from Washington state was a complete blur. I was completely consumed with getting ready to move into the hospital with Olivia and having to say goodbye to Peter. The contracted moving company arrived early one morning with 6 packers and our entire house was packed and loaded within 5 hours! Everything went into storage for 6 months while I lived at the hospital with Olivia and Mike moved in with a friend. Each move has it's own challenges. I think the challenge with this move is that it seems to be happening so quickly and the logistics of it are a little complicated. I start work on Monday. Mike still hasn't finished "clearing" Ft. Bragg yet (the "clearing" process involves Mike turning in equipment and getting signatures from all over the base, i.e. the library stating that we didn't have any overdue books). It has been so helpful to keep Olivia in school during the packing process so that I can clean while Peter is content watching Toy Story and Thomas DVD's. We pick up a U-Haul Wednesday to load with a few of our possessions and the beds. The packers will haul all our other household goods on Tuesday and Wedesday half of which are going into storage and half of which will be delivered next week to our house in New Orleans.

We have had a great moving crew though and that has made all of this so much easier! A husband and his wife from Boone, North Carolina arrived bright and early Monday morning to start packing up. They have grandkids of their own and enjoyed having Peter around.

Boxes, boxes everywhere!


Peter is perfectly content as long as he has Buzz Lightyear around!
Olivia has been able to stay at school during most of the day so she's not as affected.

The Great Purge

One of the pros of moving every 2-4 years is that you get to do some serious purging! Throughout this process I've discovered my husband is a hoarder. The man still wears the same size shirt he did in High School and we had lengthy discussions over the weekend about how many Structure shirts he still needed. At one point we had a full scale debate--pros, cons, rebuttals--about how many fleece pull-overs a person actually NEEDS. After lengthy discussion Mike was able to narrow it down from 5 to 4. I donated 6 huge trash bags of clothes, shoes, and bags. But who's counting :)

Everything we own is divided into 3 categories....(1)bring in the U-haul, (2)get packed by the movers and delivered to us in New Orleans, (3)get packed by the movers and put into storage indefinitely. This is all great in theory but the reality is that our house is full of giant piles of junk.

Falling Into Place--Part III

After MONTHS of searching one of the final pieces of our move was finding a place to live. The New Orleans housing market is drastically different from any other area we've lived in. We've lived near large military bases so there tended to be plenty or rental properties available at a variety of price points. In New Orleans there seems to be a lot of housing options for individuals or couples (i.e. college apartments) or very high end options furnished with high end furniture (i.e. brad pitt and angelina). Mike does get a housing allowance and we've generally been able to find plenty of options within that allowance but that isn't the case in New Orleans. Everything was much more than we were willing to pay. Fortunately we are pretty familiar with the area and we had great friends to help in our search! We started working with a Realtor but discovered that most rental property in New Orleans doesn't go through the MLS system and had much better luck with craigslist. There were also some unique little quirks with houses in the New Orleans area that we had to get used to. Apparently in New Orleans houses don't come with refrigerators. Four out of every five houses I looked at didn't have refrigerators. I wouldn't expect a house to have a washer or dryer or a microwave but a fridge.....yeah, I would expect a fridge! We also learned that new construction doesn't mean the house is brand new or even built within the last 10 years or so. In New Orleans new construction means "renovated since Katrina".

We narrowed it down to a pretty specific target area. We have LOVED our neighborhood here in North Carolina but Mike has had a long commute (about 40 minutes each way) and I even have to drive about 15 minutes each way to get to a grocery store or gas station. We didn't want to have to commute longer than 15 or 20 minutes and we didn't want to have to deal with a lot of traffic. We finally settled on the River Ridge area of New Orleans. River Ridge is a suburb along the Mississippi River about 8 miles from where Mike and I will be working. It's a much smaller house than what we're used to but with everyone being at school/work we won't be spending nearly as much time there as we currently spend at home. We also know that we're only going to be there for a few years. I'm looking forward to having less to clean. This does make the logistics of our move a little more complicated, we're having to separate what we will want with us in New Orleans and what we want to go into storage until the next move. And get this.....after all the houses I looked at that did not have refrigerators this one happens to have TWO. Crazy! Just Crazy! I love it!

Falling Into Place--Part II

As soon as we knew that moving to New Orleans was even a remote possibility we began researching school options for Olivia. New Orleans has notoriously bad schools. We are fortunate to know so many educators in the area and they were very helpful in steering us in the right decision. We cannot thank you enough Wendy L, Erica G, Crystal L, Katie G, Catherine B, and Nicole A!

After much deliberation and prayer we decided that the best place for Olivia is The Chartwell Center (I almost hesitate to link to their website because it's not very informative and it's outdated). It is a private school for children with autism and related disorders. The student to teacher/aide ratio is very low. Olivia will be the 5th child in her class and there is 1 teacher and 2 aides. The school day is very structured, there are loads of other special education intervention strategies in place (sensory diet, PECS-picture exchange communication schedules). Occupational, Speech, and Physical therapy are incorporated into each child's schedule several times a week. They have weekly swimming and horseback riding. It's an amazing school and we think that Olivia will thrive there. Sending Olivia to the Chartwell Center wouldn't be possible without help from my parents and we are more grateful for their help than I would ever be able to express.

As we were completing the enrollment paperwork for The Chartwell Center we discovered that the Director was Mike's principal when he was in 2nd grade. She remembers Mike and his brothers and parents very fondly and is so excited to teach another generation of Leiva. I took this as a sign that we'd made the right decision! We recently received a copy of a letter that was sent out by Olivia's teacher to the other parents. We were so touched that they are actually preparing a place for Olivia before we're even there yet!



Peter will also begin attending preschool. We've narrowed it down to a couple of possibilities. There is a wonderful child development center with a preschool program on the Tulane University campus. It's in the same area of campus where Mike's office would be and it's just a few blocks from where I'd be working. Our other choice is St. George's Episcopal Day School. It happens to be right across the street from The Chartwell Center and the two schools partner occasionally to provide opportunities for integration. It is also a great school and they have an early 3 year old program that would be perfect for Peter. Both schools are tentatively holding a slots for Peter. We'll tour both and then Peter can have his pre-admission play dates at each school and we'll see which is a better fit. I've decided that Peter's school situation falling into place is another sign that the timing is right for me to return to work.

Falling Into Place (part I)

Welcome to the first part of a 3 part series detailing our move from North Carolina to New Orleans.

As I mentioned in an earlier post (Chaos) we've had a bit of a fruit-basket upset situation around here lately. When Mike accepted the ROTC teaching position in New Orleans we were consciously deciding to take every aspect of our lives here in North Carolina roll it into a tight little ball and throw it up in the air. In the long run we think it will be better for our family but in the interim it's been a little crazy.

I'm so happy to report that things seem to be falling into place. I have a job!

When Olivia was diagnosed with Sanfilippo syndrome I knew immediately I was going to quit work for a bit. I had been planning on going on maternity leave for a few months after Peter was born (I was 8 months pregnant with Peter when Olivia was diagnosed) but I knew I wouldn't be able to return to work. The doctor's advice when Olivia was diagnosed was to "enjoy every moment we had to spend with her". From the very second I heard those words I knew that I just couldn't continue to work and I gave my resignation that week. Almost 3 years later our lives are in a much different place. I absolutely love and enjoy being a stay-at-home mom. I am able to look back and enjoy the time I spent with Olivia at Duke. In some ways it was a luxury to live in an environment where the only things you are concerned about exist in that very moment. We were living in a hospital, the only thing that mattered was Olivia's health and well being at that moment. Sure it was incredibly stressful but the memories of the stress and anxiety have faded and I remember the best parts of that time. Olivia and I having conversations! Olivia laughing, playing games, doing her favorite puzzles over and over. I've also needed these last 2 years to bond again with Peter. He and I are together constantly. I am amazed by him and I could watch and play with him forever. I've never been so fascinated by anything as I am by Peter. With Olivia everything gets so complicated but I am just able to enjoy Peter and relish the person he's becoming.

Our lives are changing. Olivia loves going to school. At this point we've taken the doctor's original instructions to heart, we are "enjoying every second that we have to spend with her" but we have also decided that we want Olivia to "enjoy life as much as possible." For Olivia right now that means school which is leaving me as the odd-man-out for a large portion of the day. Peter is also starting to enjoy spending time with friends and he could certainly benefit from learning that he isn't the only little boy in the word (although he may be the most adorable, but I may be a little biased). So I'm very excited about the opportunity to go back to work. I'm not sure how long it will last but I'm going to try and enjoy every second of it!

Starting Monday, September 26th I'll be the new Assistant Director of Alumni Relations at Loyola University New Orleans!

Stay tuned for parts II (school) and II (house) of our Falling into Place series.

*UPDATE* Do Your Rain Dance

Good News: The wildfire situation in Texas is much better! My sister's boyfriend and family did not completely loose their houses but it was a close call and they did sustain some damage. Did you know that as a last resort to save a home from being burnt firefighters will dig trenches through the yard around the house? I didn't. It's strange to see a perfectly good house sitting in a huge pile of dirt.

Correction: Although the Green Day song "When September Ends" was adopted as a post-Katrina anthem Hurricane Katrina actually hit at the end of August. Duh! Thanks for pointing that out roomie :)

Do Your Rain Dance

Please keep the people and animals of Texas (my home state) in your prayers. Texas has been experiencing a serious drought for quite some time and now there are wildfires all over the eastern part of the state. My parents and LexStone Ranch are fine for now but everyone could use some rain. Did you know they named fires like they name hurricanes? I didn't!

My sister's boyfriend and family were evacuated from their home early in the week and have not been allowed to return. They are not sure if their home is still there.

According to the National Fire Center there were at least 26 large fires burning n Texas yesterday, with over 100,000 acres destroyed. Firefighters from 34 states have traveled to Texas to help fight the fires.

Here's a video that many of my friends are sharing on Facebook. I grew up in Magnolia and many of the pictures below are from that area. The video is accompanied by the song "When September Ends" by Green day and I am so shocked by how many major disasters seem to happen in September. Of course there's 9/11, Hurricane Katrina also hit New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in September.

Beach Bliss

Over Labor Day weekend we headed to the Outer Banks for one last beach weekend before we leave North Carolina. It was an amazing weekend. We all thoroughly enjoyed the beach! We know first hand that a day at the beach can quickly become a day full of cranky kids and parents, lugging chairs/umbrellas/toys, etc. This trip we didn't have a single moment of that. We enjoyed every second of our time at the beach and it was actually relaxing! The weather was perfect. For some reason Peter was afraid of going in the water but Olivia loved it. She ran all over the beach and loved running up to the edge of the water and then back up the sand dunes. Peter and Olivia both enjoyed sliding down the dunes. Mike got to take a nap on the beach and I cuddled up with Olivia and read some Anne of Green Gables. We had great company, we shared the weekend with some very good friends and their 2 very patient dogs. It was fun to plan meals and cook together and play games together after the kids went to bed. Mike is surprisingly very good a Scrabble while I have the makings of a Taboo champion. The weather couldn't have been better and it wasn't crowded at all! We love the Outer Banks!

Best Picture Ever

This might be the best picture I've ever taken....



We're still at the beach and still loving every minute of it!

Multiple choice

When you are completely overwhelmed and stressed out about moving hundreds of miles in less than 3 weeks you should:
a) begin packing
b) find a home to move to
c) find a new job and identify schools, doctors, etc.
d) forget about all of it and head to the beach

We've chosen option "d" and we enjoying every minute of our last trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Be back next week!