Chaos

We are in the midst of complete chaos around here. If you were outside looking in you wouldn't notice anything different in fact very little has changed in our daily lives. It is there, it is looming up ahead. Change. 100 little changes that will be amount to one big giant season of changes.

I mentioned that we will be moving to New Orleans. Here's the only thing we actually KNOW about our move, Mike will be an ROTC instructor at Tulane and he will start there no later than December 1st. Between now and then it feels like there are are a million details to work out, all of them depend on eachother, they're lining up like dominos. As of not it looks like Mike will be finishing up with his current job responsibilities here around September 15th and we're hoping to officially be in New Orleans no later than October 1st.

We know that I want to go back to work when we move to New Orleans. I have had several phone interviews and a couple of on campus interviews. I made a quick trip earlier in the week to New Orleans for the on-campus interviews and I was able to view several rental properties. The interviews went well and I hope to hear something early next week. I am very apprehensive about the job search. I'm well aware it's a very difficult time to find a job so I wanted to be sure and start my search early. I've expressed that I would be willing to move to New Orleans sooner than October 1st if a potential employer needed me to. I don't mind moving without Mike but it would make it more complicated.

We have found a wonderful school for Olivia to attend in New Orleans (more on that later) but her first day of school will be in North Carolina later in the month. Olivia will transition to a new school but she will have the same 1:1 aide that she had last year. We love Olivia's 1:1 and are so happy that she will be able to help Olivia transition to her new school.

Peter was registered to attend a pre-school program here in North Carolina but with everything else going on we've decided to wait on that for a bit. We're looking into daycare/pre-school programs for him in New Orleans. There are plenty of options and I know that Peter will enjoy being able to socialize more with peers.

After touring most of New Orleans over the weekend we have been able to identify which areas of the city we'd be comfortable living in. The housing market in New Orleans is very different from the military communities we're used to living in. I'm sure we'll be able to find something but we're worried about the timing. We still own our home in Colorado and while we do receive some rental income we want to try and coordinate the move so that we are not having to pay rent/mortgage on 3 places at once (Colorado, North Carolina & New Orleans). Again all of this depends on when I might find a job.

We are all feeling the stress caused by so much uncertainty. We hope that more details will fall into place soon!

Do Over

• Olivia's diaper ripped at some point last night and in the 30 minutes that she was awake and playing in her room before I got her she managed to scatter diaper filling all over the carpet, in her bed, everywhere.
• During my run this morning Olivia threw her cup out of the stroller, as I tried to pick it up I stepped on it, fell, and skinned my knee
• When we arrived home from our run Peter went promptly went to the bathroom but then he proceeded to pee two different times on two different couch cushions in a matter of 15 minutes.
• While I was cleaning up the diaper mess in Olivia's room Peter managed to order a new book on Mike's nook. It took Mike and I several hours to figure out how to order new books and Peter managed it in a matter of seconds
• While I was cleaning up Peter's potty accidents Olivia proceeded to have some potty issues of her own but unfortunately this task was even messier since it involved #2.
• It was 11 am before I got everything sorted out and I was supposed to squeeze in a trip to the grocery store but that obviously didn't happen
• While I made lunch the kids proceeded to completely destroy the living room. I've been cleaning, cooking, and doing laundry all day and the house is 10 times messier now than it was when we woke up this morning.

I'm ready for a do over. This does cheer me up a bit....

http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/blogs/2011/07/history-of-rap-part-2-with-justin-timberlake/

August

Are you one of those people who loves shopping for school supplies? Does your heart skip a beat when you see brightly colored notebooks and freshly sharpened pencils? Do you love the smell of a new box of crayons? Yeah, me either. :)

I am so not ready for summer to end, I feel like there are a million things I wanted to do this summer. The weather is still on my side, we're still enjoying triple digit temps but the calendar is a different story. I cannot believe it's August already! I have found the perfect solution to my end-of-summer blues. A couple of weeks ago Mike and I were walking through downtown Fayetteville and we popped into one of my favorite little stores here. It's a good old fashioned gift shop with tons of breakable stuff so I rarely go in. Imagine my delight when I saw the beautiful display of Lilly Pulitzer agendas.



It's an August 2011 to December 2012 agenda so it really is a great investment (of that's what I told Mike to convince him I had to have said agenda). And the shop offers a military discount and my military guy is a sucker for that 10% discount.



I have acutally been counting down to August 1st for the last 11 days just so I could use my new agenda!

Couch to 5K--Success!

At the beginning of the summer we got a new jogging stroller and I decided to celebrate its arrival by doing the Couch to 5K program. I was diligent and stuck with the program. Initially it was really tough. It gets hot here in North Carolina so I would get up and get my run in first thing in the morning. Most mornings it was all I could do to get the kids up, dressed and out of the house before the temps topped the 90's. The kids would ride barefoot, I'd pour some dry cereal into their trays but at least we were on our way. The kids really do enjoy their stroller time. There are quite a few bunnyies in our neighborhood and Peter would enjoy pointing them out along the way. Olivia just enjoyed the scenery.

Last week Mike came home from work and announced that he'd signed us up for the Ft. Bragg Family 5K. I was a little worried, I had just finished week 6 of the 9 week program, I was worried I wouldn't be ready. I continued training though and decided to just do my best. When we pulled up to the race I almost changed my mind. I thought there would be a few people there but it was pretty crowded. We set off and I felt comfortable with my training. Initially it was very strange to run with such a large group of people. I was used to it just being me and the kids (and our neighborhood bunnies). I kept my pace though and didn't let the crowd and rush of people throw me off. As we continued I began to feel more and more confident with my pace and my training. The crowd thinned out a bit. People that had sprinted off the start slowed down and started walking but I kept up my steady jog. Mike pushed the kids in the stroller and he was nice enough to run slow enough so that we could run together. I finished! I'm so proud of myself. I was very slow but I did it! I'm not sure I'll ever be one of those people who can't wait to get up in the morning and go for a 6 mile run but I have come to really enjoy my 35 minute jogs in the morning.

At the finish line! Mike kept trying to take pictures of me during the race but I fussed at him every time I saw him try to pull out the camera. That picture at the end was my motivation to keep going!


Mike was incredibly supportive! He pushed the kids up a huge hill (I never would have made it up the hill if I'd been pushing). Mike would stop and refill the kids sippy cups and get them more snacks and then run to catch up with me. If he hadn't signed us up for the race in the first place I'm not sure I ever would have done it. On top of all that he got me these beautiful flowers!