September 2014

We went to the drive-in as a last of summer blast. It was a wonderful time!

I'm supposed to be doing something productive that involves writing the sequel to my book. But I'm not. I don't know why, but the motivation just isn't readily available today. But as I sat here, randomly surfing the internet in an act of distraction, I came upon the link for the blog. I wondered how many times I'd actually managed to sit down and document life and was surprised to see the results of my wondering.

Twelve.

That's it. Twelve whole posts. I started to do monthly posts, but gave up on that as well. As a writer, (or "writer" with the finger quotations, as I like to say) I should be using this as practice to keep my mind in writing mode. So a September post it is!

School:

School is in full swing and the kids are in their routines. Alex has discovered that second grade is more work than he thought it would be. They are always busy and he has homework all of the time. He's starting to tell me how much he dislikes school. That doesn't make me happy. That being said, he's still doing amazing. His reading skills are way up there and he's whipping through books at an astonishing rate. The Book-It program starts in October. He'll have his books read at the end of the first week. Abby, on the other hand, is in love with school. I think this is the first grade happy bubble. That bubble will most likely burst next year as it has for Alex. She has come to surprise me in her reading skills as well. That little girl has gone from barely reading to reading two to three full books per night. She read five Dr. Seuss books tonight on her own. It shocks me how far she has come in one month. I'll be interested to see what her teacher says at the parent teacher conferences next month. Evie, my little stay at home child, is the one who I fear is suffering the most with school in full swing. She gets lonely, the poor little one. The only one to keep her company all day is me. And I'm told that I am not exactly a bucket of happy joyfulness these days. I hope and pray she does not grow up scarred and resentful. I just don't know anyone with kids her age and I'm way too anti-social to be in a playgroup.

Second Grade

First Grade

Almost 2 years old...AKA...No grade, but wanted her picture taken too.

Home for sale...still:

It's been four months and our matchbox house is still up for sale with zero interest. Honestly, I'm getting worried. We had one lady that may have had interest, but that fizzled out like wet fireworks. So far, we've been told our house is too small, over-priced, has uneven floors, horrible ceilings, is in a bad location, and has no curb appeal. Nice, huh? The problem is: We are busting at the seams. We've ran into problem after problem trying to fit three kids in one office-sized room. Bunk beds are too big to fit and too tall for a drop ceiling. So we are now thinking of putting a twin bed in our "master" bedroom with Josh and me for Evie. Which brings me to my next point -

Insomnia:

I don't think I have a full case of insomnia. But it's pretty close. I can't sleep these days. Oh, I'm exhausted alright. I just toss and turn when I go to bed. It could be that my mind doesn't have a snooze button and just keeps thinking all night long. OR it could be the chainsaw-like snoring husband and an almost two-year old that shares a bed with me due to the fact that she refuses to sleep in her own bed for some reason. I get about three inches of bed to sleep on and that's on a good night. She has major sleep issues. I remember thinking that Alex and Abby had issues. I was wrong. Evie has issues. Problem 1: She fell out of her crib very early and had to be put in a toddler bed for her own safety. Keeping a one-year old in a toddler bed is next to impossible. Keeping a one-year old like Evie in one, is even harder. She doesn't want to sleep in it. At all. So she wakes up crying up to ten times per night BEFORE I go to bed. Problem 2: She is in our room. She can sense me like a wounded seal in shark infested waters. It's almost creepy. Within two minutes of crawling into bed, she is awake and screaming for me. So yeah. I'm tired. This can't be good.

This is what happens at night when I'm trying to have time to myself. Actually, as I'm making this post, she's doing the same thing. *sigh*

Visitor:

The only other thing we've been dealing with lately, is a visitor that has made himself a home away from home. An outdoor cat that my kids lovingly named Tom, has been at our house morning, noon and night for the better part of summer. So I finally decided that it was time to see if he had an owner. I put a collar on him with a little note attached and hoped for the best. Turns out, he does have an owner. And after talking with the owner on the phone, we were asked to stop feeding him and to bring him back to their house the next time he visits. At first, the call went well, but now I'm afraid I've just made them mad. Oh well. That's what you get when you don't keep your cats inside. Cats will wander. He wasn't here today. I don't think he's coming back. Gotta admit: I missed his furry face. See ya later, Tom.

Book stuff:

*zzzzzz* Oh sorry. I got bored thinking about this for a second and fell asleep. There really isn't much exciting happening with my book. I'm actually deciding that it's probably just another dead end. I might have something worked up with our elementary school, but as of yet, the librarian hasn't approved it for the kids. So we'll see. My sales are way down. Wait. No. That's not right. That would indicate that I have made sales. Which I haven't. So, for now, it's just an over-demanding hobby that has helped aid my insomnia-like tendencies. But I keep truckin' forward. You just never know. Right?

Birthdays:

And last but not least, we had a big birthday month. Josh turned...ahem...not 40 yet. He said that he actually is feeling old due to all the body aches he has thanks to working like a team of mules 25+ days a month. Poor guy. My niece (sort of), Greta, turned five years old. I can't believe she'll be in kindergarten next year. Crazy! And finally, this year marks the first year that my mother-in-law, Cindy, wasn't around to celebrate her birthday. It was harder on Josh than I think he expected it to be. They shared birthdays just one day apart and he was always used to having his annual birthday phone calls with her. I must say that it was hard not making cards for Grandma. The pain of my own Dad's birthday this year was almost too much for me to take. Life. What can you do? So Happy Birthday to all our September family members!

Josh's birthday. He wanted a pudding cake.