The military moves us but we know we’re overweight so we always take a load of really heavy stuff ourselves. It just so happens that this time it worked out to take it in advance so Tom can:
pick up the keys and make sure the house is ready (our lease there starts July 1).
paint the garage before we move all our stuff in (it really needs it and the landlord was cool with it and even bought the paint).
move the deep freezer door-to-door without having to empty and defrost it (I’ve been trying to empty it but couldn’t do it—I didn’t start early enough and the time flies).
It’s hard to see in this picture but there’s a good 6′-8′ of stuff in the shadows there…all of the heavy-duty tool storage cabinets, all of Tom’s tools, our awesome stainless refrigerator (it’s been unplugged two days and we’re already going crazy—the house fridge is much smaller and currently has no water filter or ice capability), the grill and propane tanks, and a few random totes. Tom worked his butt off today (plus had help from a friend) and will have a long day tomorrow as he’s planning on leaving at 4am to get up there by dinner.
I’ve had them for awhile now but haven’t read them. Until today.
Why?! Why did I do that? Because I’m an overly emotional sap anyway and add an imminent move to that? No hope. /Bawl
I know this is supposed to be a surprise but I really want to share them with him now. I’m hoping he will remember these teachers enough so that what they wrote still has meaning when he’s graduating high school. It’s only 10 short years away…
The move is starting to sink in…we picked up the U-Haul this morning (even though the military moves us, we know our household goods are overweight so we always take a separate truck) and I forgot I was losing my garage freezer so it was a mad scramble to move stuff to the kitchen freezer so we will have stuff to eat for the next two weeks. And it’s hot. And I found someone local to do some product trades with so was running around a bit this morning. And Target didn’t have water shoes for Owen. And did I mention it’s hot? #frazzledfriday
It was my friend Caitlin’s birthday and she didn’t think I knew, so we surprised her with cake and ice cream…and took them out to dinner. They just happened to have face painting that night, so three of the four kids did that (Owen stayed at the table watching Nationals baseball with Tom). The face painting lady and I even convinced Caitlin to get her face done as she didn’t think she’d ever had her face painted.
Let me give you some advice of what you can do instead: Just spend time with them. Take them out for ice cream, or a date to the zoo, or even to the park down the street. They will love that more than any toy, I promise. They will remember it longer too.
Our kids just had a birthday party and got lots of gift cards. The plan is to let them but one thing and then trade them experiences for their cards. Would you rather go to Target and get a Barbie or would you rather go to the zoo? A new Lego set or a baseball game? Fingers crossed my plan works.
Tom has been cleaning and organizing the garage to get ready to take up a full U-HAUL this weekend…so in the process the garage was cleaned out just enough to pull my car in.
Heather and Eric invited us over to their pool today, but I had a LipSense party scheduled and Tom really needed to work in the garage…so they offered to take the kids for us!! And they had A BLAST! The pool is much bigger than our AND has a real deep end with a diving board so Owen was THRILLED—he’d never been on a diving board before! Heather said he was so cute—he must have gone on it 30 times!
These are some of the friends we are REALLY going to miss…
We were planning on having a going away party but long story short we ended up cancelling. Heather and Eric had RSVPd so we asked if they wanted to go out to dinner. They did, so we picked a local French place we’d all been wanting to try—Bistro L’Hermitage! You might recognize them from baseball (Eric was Owen’s coach this year) and our F*** It Friday group! Our sitter had to cancel at the last minute, and their sitter was able to watch ours, too! YAY FOR FRIENDS!
When you’re trying to use what you have but the presents are too wide for all 12 birthday bags you have…you have the kids decorate pics to glue on. #reducereuserecycle #littlekidswontcaretheyjustwantthepresents
It was so hot and humid at Owen’s Field Day that we had decided to take the kids to the pool when Owen got home. Tom was home as well, so we all went down…and it started sprinkling almost immediately. It was fine for a bit and then it started raining harder. Tom stayed with the kids as they were already in the pool while I went to sit and wait in the car (it was chilly in the rain). They didn’t last too much longer. These are the pics (and video) I snapped before the rain started.
After Owen gave me the yes/no business about his end-of-year grade party, I decided to surprise him and just show up at the whole-school field day event. (I had asked if he wanted me to go and he said no again.) He was happy to see me and eagerly let me take pictures of him with his friends. 🙂
The school as I approached.
Mohammed, the kid Owen ran around with the whole time.
Every kid wore one of these. They got a sticker each time they completed an event/game/activity.
I get kind of choked up when I see this. I don’t want to leave.
Racing off to the next thing.
I was surprised when Owen wanted to do cup stacking—I wondered how he knew how to do it because he’d never mentioned it.
And then I watched him do it—ahhhh, he has NO idea how to do it. (I later showed it to him on YouTube and of course he loved it.) You can watch it in the video compilation at the bottom of this post.
We saw our friend Gavin and he wanted to give Katie a hug but she started to be shy.
Miss Christina, Katie’s teacher.
Showing me he can now climb to the top. When we were there for back to school night, he refused because he was scared. We told him he’d be able to do it by the end of the year.
He mastered the rock wall, too!
This is about as high as Katie gets. They don’t play on this playground in her class—the pre-k kids have their own smaller playground.
Waiting for face (or arm) painting.
Finally getting over her shyness with Gavin.
Katie wanted to get her face painted but the lines were pretty long and I wanted to be able to follow Owen around, so I told her not unless the lines went down. I turned around to talk to someone for a minute and when I turned back, she was getting her face painted by Miss Anne (our friend and Katie’s teaching assistant). I asked Mrs. Stuhlman (Owen’s kindergarten assistant who I had been talking to) how that happened and she said she just took her over and sat her down—the privilege of being a teacher! So Katie got to cut ahead of like five kids!! Mrs. Stuhlman asked if she might get Katie in her class next year…and I had to give her the bad news that we were moving. 🙁
Owen getting an alien on his arm.
I let Katie do some of the games that didn’t have big lines. She was waiting to throw baskets (video below).
Katie with AJ, a neighbor girl who is in first grade. She’s a tiny thing.
I’m not sure I’ve ever gotten my face painted (that wasn’t a thing back in the day) so when the grades were switching areas and there wasn’t a line, I sat down to get a quick flower to match Katie’s. Gorgeous work as usual by Anne and her daughter!
Lining up getting ready to switch to the fields for flag games and kickball.
I may have to redo this photo, but you can see three tiny black dots in the sky. They were dragonflies! The field was swarming with hundreds of them! It was the strangest thing!!
After flag games were done, Katie and I left. It was HOT and we hadn’t planned for it (I was in jeans and a black tee shirt and we hadn’t brought water—and we hadn’t thought it was going to be so hot and humid). Thankfully our neighbors stayed and got a few pics and videos (see below).
Owen waiting for kickball.
Having a BLAST in the water!
Me and Katie back at home…
I am SO glad I went and was able to take lots of pictures. We are going to miss this school so very much…
So, Owen’s second grade party was today and I had asked if he wanted me to go and at first he said yes—which I was excited about because he never wants us to come to anything (when did he turn 14 by the way?)—but then the night before he changed his mind and said no. 🙁 I should have just showed up anyway because I really wanted to get some pictures, but I thought I would do as he wanted. But, I saw some friends walking in as I was walking out (I was there picking up Owen’s end-of-year book signed by his teacher) and asked them to take pics if they could. These are what she sent:
