Playing Catch-Up!

Wow!  Where do I even begin.....?  Almost a year ago?!?  Obviously it was a very busy year.  Alyssa started 3rd grade which proved to be less than we had hoped for.  Anniston started kindergarten (sniff, sniff) and LOVED Mr. Hodum.  But we'll get to that in a minute.  Back to Alyssa.  Her teacher was, well, lets just say not quite what we were used to!  After many frustrations and tears and 9 weeks of school, Wes and I met with the principal to discuss the situation.  We expressed some concerns and she responded by recommending we place Alyssa in a new class.  Tough times.  The new teacher was better.  And I'll leave it at that.  We survived 3rd grade and now we are anxiously awaiting to find out who her 4th grade teacher will be.  School starts in less than 2 weeks!  Anniston's kindergarten year could not have gone BETTER!  She had a great class with the BEST kindergarten teacher (okay- there are a LOT of great kindergarten teachers at her school, but Mr. Hodum holds a very special place in my heart!).  Mr. Hodum has taught both Alyssa and Anniston and I PRAY we are fortunate enough to have him teach Ayden Claire.  He is one of a kind.  Fun, funny, unique, silly, creative, and did I mention fun?  All the kids love him and lots of the parents do as well.  I could write an entire seperate blog just on why I love kindergarten and Mr. Hodum but I won't.  Because I'm trying to "catch-up" with this blogging thing!  We did get a call yesterday from Anniston's first grade teacher.  I am SO excited that Ms. Autrey will be her new teacher.  She is SO loving and she even talked to Anniston on the phone and told her she was going to be in her class!  I have a feeling she will also be very dear to me by the end of the year. 
Okay, so enough about school, because right now its still summer!  For 12 more days that is.  I guess after we got back from our cruise we got busy with the holidays- Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Exhausting!  Even more exhausting with 3 little girls!  :)  But we survived.  And then we decided to put our house on the market.  It was an idea we'd tossed around off and on for several years.  And it was one of the hardest decisions ever!  We loved our house and really loved our neighbors so it was NOT an easy decision.  We just really wanted to pay off some debt, get something slightly bigger and get in to a little better neighborhood.  Not that I was scared or that we lived in a bad neighborhood by any means- we just weren't sure it was where we would want to be forever.  We listed it in February and got a contract in April.  Now would be a good time to throw this in- the family who bought our house has 3 daughters about the ages of our girls, the mom's name is Kelli, and their oldest daughter's name is Alyssa.  Crazy, huh?  I think they were definitely the buyers that were supposed to have our house!  We quickly put an offer on a house we had been looking at and wanted and after much stress we closed the first week of June on both houses and moved.  We moved 7 years worth of stuff and 5 people from one house to another in about 72 hours.  Stressful?  Slightly.  Add to it that at the time Anniston was playing All-Star softball and practicing EVERY night and had a tournament the day we closed and that weekend that was an hour away....  And Alyssa had started cheering with the Armory and had practices twice a week.....  And Anniston had made the preteam at gymnastics....  And poor little Ayden Claire was somewhere in the crazy mix!  But, fast forward a month and a half and we are pretty settled in and the new house is feeling like "home" and we really do love it here.  Maybe I'll put a picture in the next blog post!
About the time that we were in the midst of selling our house and buying a new house, I had some other extremely stressful things come up.  If you know, then thank you!  Because I only got through things from the calls and talks I had with you, and you know who you are.  I learned a LOT about myself and who I am and how strong I can be during this time.  It was not the way I wanted to do it, nor would I wish it on anyone but I am stronger than I ever knew (and I always thought I was a pretty strong woman!) and I know I have the best friends and family and support ever!  I also know that my family is THE most important thing and at the end of the day, as long as we have one another, we can survive ANYthing. 
I have a lot of exciting things I'm looking forward to in the near future.  I'm having something done that I've always wanted to do but was too scared to and never would have spent the money on.  Hopefully I'll be happy with the results!  :)  I am SO looking forward to becoming an Aunt again in September when my sister Kendra has her baby!  I am going to start keeping Jill's boss' baby boy sometime around December.  His name is going to be Anderson, which I just LOVE (it's an "A" name!) and I can't wait to love on a sweet little newborn baby!  I may put Ayden Claire in a mom's day out at the begining of the year.  We'll just wait and see, I'm not really in any rush but I know she would LOVE it!  She is going to miss her big sisters being home everyday once school starts.  She just adores them both!  Oh, and we are planning another cruise for the end of November which is almost as exciting as becoming an Aunt again! Almost.  We had such a good time last year and said we wanted to try and do it more often, maybe once a year if we could.  And we can this year so we are going!  I can't wait....nothing is more relaxing than laying out by a pool and being completely surrounded as far as you can see any direction by beautiful blue water....  Ahhh....  I leave you with this quote one of my best friends sent me recently.  I've heard it before but I still love it-
"As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let you down probably will. You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it's harder every time. You'll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken. You'll fight with your best friend. You'll blame a new love for things an old one did. You'll cry because time is passing too fast, and you'll eventually lose someone you love. So take too many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you've never been hurt because every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back!"