First Day of School

Ah, the first day of school.  It used to be one of my favorite things as a kid, but as a parent I am a fence sitter.  I love it because there is less fighting and Asher is excited to go back.  A happy school kid equals a happy mom.  I don't love it because then he's gone.  Again.  And that makes me sad.  I miss just having everyone together and free to go and do whatever we want.  Summer is free time, fun time and family time, and things just get so busy once school is in again.  This year looks to be the same.  We are already talking about soccer season times two, preschool and school events, basketball season, Lobo football games, and more.
This year, Asher starts the Second Grade, and will have Ms. Thorne as a teacher, who we met a few days before school started and she seems very energized and nice.  He was so excited on the first day!  Corey, as always, went in late to work and came along for the big morning, which is always fun.
Asher's lunchbox choice is always an ordeal.  This year he had his heart set on a UNM Lobos lunchbox, which really doesn't exist.  Trust me, I looked high and low.  With a little ingenuity, we came up with a solution that involved a Costco lunchbox with a Lobos iron-on patch.  Voila.  It's pretty awesome, and I think Ash should watch it or his Dad may snag it for his own!  Hopefully this one lasts more than a few months.  I'm crossing my fingers.

Beckett happily informed me that with Asher at school, we are going to be playing lots of games together.  That first day we came home for few matches of Hi-Ho Cherry-O.  I am thankful to still have a little buddy at home.  Next year may well kill me.  Just the other day, Corey and I were talking to Beck about preschool, and he turned to me and said, "Mom, next year there won't be anyone home with you.  You'll be all alone." Stab. Me. Through. The. Heart.  Ouch.  He's right though!  I think Corey was caught between laughing and shedding a tear for me.  He gave me the 'ah, I'm sorry' look to be safe:)

This will be a great year for Asher, and I'm excited to watch and help him to learn and grow.
 Here's to the 2nd Grade!

Little Fish

 This summer was a milestone one for Asher.  He can now swim from one end of the pool to the other. What a huge accomplishment!  His different strokes are still in the works, but the confidence is now there, which is so awesome! We went swimming to the West Mesa Pool a couple of times, and after he mastered the diving board there, he went ahead and braved the high dive as well.  It's really high.  I'm not so sure I'd go off of it.  Did I mention how high it looks?  Brave kid, I say!  I'm so proud of him!

Beckett, on the other hand, is enjoying his swim lessons, but not wanting to progress much.  I'm not too hard on him though, because Asher has gotten the hang of it in his own time and I know Beck will too.  It was a little frustrating though, when Beckett wouldn't go under the water in the Wave I class, so they sent him back to the preschool one (boo) where he gets to play all the games and act like animals.  Okay, that does sound like more fun I guess.  BUT, when we went swimming with friends, he'd float around the kid pool face down, no problem.  Go figure.  Like I said, I've learned that the swimming thing comes when they want it to, not when mom thinks it should.  Maybe that's a lesson for life?  Hmmm.  Here are some pictures of my little fishies:)

 

Staying Put

Whew.  I don't even know where to start with the whirlwind our summer turned out to be.  I'll start in late May, when Corey started talking with a company in California about the possibility of a new job.  From the start, it was intriguing and sounded like a good opportunity.  Then, they flew him out a couple of weeks later for a day full of interviews, which went really well.  After some talking and negotiating and a bit of finageling, an offer was given.  We thought and prayed and decided to take it.  A new job in a new place with new opportunities.  Plus, the locale was Irvine, California which is supposedly one of the best places to live in the U.S.(and 10 miles from the ocean).  We were excited to find out if it really was.  It was going to be a quick relocation, much of which we'd be doing ourselves.  The house was on the market, we shifted our planned trip to Utah a bit, packed half the house, started selling off some of our bigger items that would in no way fit into our apartment in Irvine that we had lined up (it looked like a resort...gorgeous, seriously), and I'd reserved a moving truck for the big day.  We were even asked to speak in church, just by chance, and gave sort of farewell talks.   It was crazy, crazy and super stressful.

Flash forward a week and a half.....Corey's boss asked him if there was any way he'd consider staying.  WHAT!? We'd made our decision, or so I thought.  After some more talking, negotiating, and further discussion, we finally received word of what opportunity his current job would offer.  California was more lucrative, New Mexico was more opportunity.  So we thought and prayed some more, and after a wrenching few days, we'd made a decision.  Again.  This time it was to stay.  It was definitely the right choice for Corey and for our family for the time being, and we both felt really good about it!  After looking at homes for a few weeks, we ultimately decided to just stay in our home for a few more years.  We just couldn't find what we wanted and I didn't really want to deal with moving once school started, so we took it off the market, and I moved our garage full of boxes back into our home. Ironically, a week after our decision to stay, I received a call to be YW President, so I can only believe that this whole mess of a summer had some kind of reason for being, even if I don't see it all right away.

SO, we are here, in NM, where we've always been, doing (for the most part) the things we've always done and are happy and well, minus a few belongings that, I'm finding, I may not need so much afterall:)  Life is such a funny surprise sometimes.  This whole experience of moving staying put has reminded me yet again that we only have so much control over what happens in life, and that if you have faith and try to make the right decisions, Heavenly Father will help it all to work out the way it's supposed to.  I am sad that I wasted much of the summer stressing out and working on moving, but happy that it all worked out and we get to continue our journey here in NM.  I have a feeling that the summer we were robbed of will be made up for in the forthcoming years.

You just never know, you know?