I know I haven't blogged in a while, but looking at my last post, that is seriously old news.
So an update on what has happened since we last sold our house. Everytime I even think about complaining about this or that, such as the massive heart attack I have everytime an enormous bug, such as a spider, cockroach or cricket jumps out of my cupboards, I just have to remember, we are lucky, we sold our house!
We moved from our house that I miss dearly, back in April. That was sad. The kids were sad, Aric and I were sad, but to be honest I didn't have time to mourn for my house until after we moved to Oklahoma. There was work to be done, and I had to do it. Patching the walls, cleaning, the floors, remembering how my husband painstakinly transformed the backyard from a terribly slopped wast of space into this beautiful retreat where we watched the stars and roasted marshmallows. A home where Brecklen grew up from a tiny toddler into an amazing boy I am proud to call my own, our girls were born there, and grew up, all the playdates at the "castle" where superman whould be the hero, or spiderman would save the day. The many princesses who were saved from the "highest tower", the many times I was called down by shreeks from children only to be met by giggles and laughter by young children who would point at the spider painted on the wall. The many long, cold winter days spent in our warm sauna taken away from the land of freezing cold air into an oasis. The many times our kids have spent in that sauna which their breathing problems that kept me up all night sick with worry. So many memories, great and small, good and not so good. Such a wonderful house that I wish I could take pieces of it with me, like my beautiful AC that works so well. I could use it here in Oklahoma in the 110 degree heat. On the day we left our house forever, my little one, Madelyn, said "I miss our house." I miss it too, so many wonderful memories. Thank you to all my friends and familiy who helped create those memories. I will mis the playdates especially. My kids were never bored, but when friends were over, there was constantly some fun taking place and that mad me so happy.
But alas, we knew our time in Rochester would end after 6 years in Minnesota. Living in an apartment our last two months in Rochester was different. My kids adjusted well, and we all looked forward to moving to Oklahoma even more, to be somewhere more permanent. Althought we knew we would miss our friends dearly.
So here we are, in Oklahoma city. It has been over a 100 degrees, mostly closer to 110, but it is slowly cooling down to low 100's, and hopefully cooler in the near future. It is funny how I spent all winter cooped up in our warm house, and know as we left Minnesota at the most beautiful time of year, to having those same feelings and thoughts of "when can we go outside?" here in the heat of Oklahoma.
The kids had a very short summer, School started August 1st. I am selfish in thinking that I don't want summer to end, because I am not ready for it to end. I am not ready to get up at 6:30 every morning, I love my sleep. I am very much a night owl and LOVE to stay up late. These early mornings are killing me, but We have all adjusted to going to bed earlier and getting up earlier. I do look forward to sleeping in on saturday, but since my kids like to still get up early, even my saturday morning sleep is being taken away from me. Breck started 2nd grade, and my Hannah started Kindergarten. Both have done beautifully with their transition to Oklahoma, and seem to enjoy their school and are making friends. It was news to me when we moved here, and 3 weeks later to start school that they would not be in the school district that i was intending. But their school startes August first, and they have to wear uniforms, and Hannah will have all day kindergarten. They were pretty tired from the first couple of days, with it being over 110 outside, and no AC inside because of some remodelling. They would come home sweaty and red-cheeked, and crash when it was time for bed. i was pretty hesisitant when I dropped off Hannah in her classroom on the first day to leave her. Her classroom was sweltering, but the kids can't go outside to play because it's too hot, they can't eat in the cafeteria, because it' too hot. So what did they do all day? They stayed in their classroms from 8-3. Yup, they ate lunch in their class,and they didn't have recess. Those teachers are saints for putting up with these kids in those conditions. For about two weeks this was the way it was. Now they have AC and can go outside to play for short periods of time. Bless their teachers' hearts. I am sure that was not easy, yet they all did it with a smile! I was not certainly as graceful about it. Our AC has not working well, it was on average 87 degrees downstairs, and 90-91 upstairs where we sleep. I was not doing well, the heat triggered my migraines big time, and I was miserable, sick, nauseous, and even threw up to the point I took a prego test just to be certain there was no little Murphy on the way. I am happy to report I am not pregnant, and am just fine with that! Finally putting up with the heat for 2 weeks Aric hunted down a window AC for the upstairs (a very hot commodity, and out of stock at every home improvement store), and since then it's been a cool 75 upstairs, and my migraines have mellowed out. Note to self- my head does not like heat.
Our favorite activity in Oklahoma city is swimming. That is pretty much the only time we step outside except for the walk to the bus stop. Hannah is a great swimmer now, and Madelyn learned to swim after being here one month. So, my 2 year old can swim on her own, but yet she refuses to be potty trained. Go figure. Madelyn sees Brecklen and Hannah swimming all over, and naturally wants to do what they do. She is a very determined 2 y.o. and is stubborn and fiesty like her older sister.
Aric is loving his fellowship getting to continue to do oral surgery and expand his scope of practice to craniofacial, and cleft surgery. The Very highly known and well recognized Doctor Smith he trains under does more Clefts than anyone in the country, and He is such a down to earth, humble man. He invited our family out to his vineyard a few weeks ago to pick grapes. It goes against my philosophy of having to get up early, but I was excited to meet Dr. Smith, and for my kids to see what harvesting grapes is all about. One of our family's favorite activities in the fall is picking fresh apples, but not just any apples, the Honeycrisp apple. I miss honeycrisp apples and this grape picking was able to fill my nostalgic quota of picking fruit. So here we are at 7 in the morning already hot at blazes, picking grapes. The kids enjoyed that, and the fact that they got to see how grape juice is made, and then fermented and turned to wine. Quite an interesting process to see.
We are loving Oklahoma so far. I think I love it because I have never seen my husband so much since he started Dental school in Indiana. Our family has sadly never had so much time together as we do now, and I LOVE it. I may not have any friends, but I get to see my husband. I am sure all of that will change once i have written this, because that's just the way things go. But for now, it"s nice to enjoy our time together. Having seen him like 5 or 6 weekends in a row now is a miracle. Surely makes the weeks go by faster, and I actually look forward to the weekends. Aric and the kids are heavily engrossed with playing legos. Our entire livingroom is covered ith them. There are piles of lego people, and piles of green bricks, and brown bricks, now that we have acquired a blue lego base, it will only expand the lego building out to sea.
I'll have to post some pictures soon about the past little while, But a few days ago Breck celebrated his 8th birthday. We partied all weekend, and had lots of fun. We went to a restraunt for dinner that was called Nhinja sushi and we all loved it. Such a cute, clean fun japanese/chinese restraurant. The perfect place to celebrate for our little ninja.
As I was tidying up Breck's room to put up streamers and trash it again with balloons, paper and such, I found Breck's old school folders that his teacher sent home on the last day of First grade. It almost made me cry. Sweet friends who wrote notes to Breck about how they will miss him, and cute pictures of them playing togther. I dearly miss my kids' friends.
Madelyn's birthday comes up next month, and I can't believe my baby will be 3! It's just not right. She's certainly not a baby anymore. That's all to share at the moment.Stay tuned for more, hopfully the wait won't be so long as before. Happy summer to all.
