Eagle Harbor

So, we found a house we really wanted to buy here in Carrollton back in November, but it was a short sale.  We blindly made an offer & let fate decide whether we got it or not.  Meanwhile, Trek found the rental house we're in right now & the owners offered to rent it to us for 4 months just in case we got that other house.  We signed the rental agreement & hoped for the best.

Well, 2 weeks after we got here we got a call from the bank with a counter-bid on the house we want.  It was a mere $5000 more than what we offered.  We were amazed.  We totally under-bid & thought they'd come back with at least $25000 more than what we offered them.  For $5000 more, we jumped on it.  Wahoo!  We're going to become home owners for the first time in our married lives.

Since it's a short sale, we can't close until March, & we're in the rental house until April 15th anyway.  It actually works out great for us because we can go in in March after all the paperwork is signed & paint, fix things up, etc. before we even move in.  Then in April we'll move everything over to the new house & still have 2 weeks to clean the rental really good for our move-out date.

Both homes are in a neighborhood called Eagle Harbor here in Carrollton.  The rental we're in is on the far South side of Eagle Harbor & our new house is right in the middle of it.  In the rental's neighborhood, there are only 3 other kids (in the entire neighborhood) & no sidewalks.  The road in front of our house is a busy one & people speed past.  The kids can't go outside here, it's kind of sad.  But our new house is in the hub-bub of Eagle Harbor.  It's a 2 minute walk to the lake, bike trail, playground, pool, splash pad, mini golf, course & clubhouse. 

Sunday we parked our car at the new house & just walked around to see what we could find.  We walked around the lake which was GORGEOUS & let the kids swing on the swings around the lake.

After walking around the lake we walked back to our new house to explore the backyard a bit.  While we were out there, I swear 20 kids came out of their houses asking to play with our kids.  This place is kid heaven.  I can't wait to get night games going here.  There's probably 100+ kids on our street alone. It's going to be a BLAST living there.  And there's sidewalks so the kids can ride bikes. . . & ward members all around us. . . March can't come soon enough!

Our first home.  I can't believe we're going to be homeowners!

Snow Day

SNOW DAY. . .  well, kind of.

Thursday night we got a phone call at 11:30 pm from Trek's commander stating that it was snowing outside & that they were delaying work for 2 hours Friday morning so that everybody could make it to the base safely with the horrible road conditions.  Trek spent the next 2 hours notifying the 60 people in his flight of the delay.  (Try calling people at midnight. . . they DO NOT want to answer their phones.)

It made me wonder about the kids' school.  Sure enough, at 5:00 am Friday morning, I got an email & a phone call from both kids' schools saying that it snowed too much & that school would be delayed by at least 2 hours.  So we slept in of course!

When we finally got up, I rushed to the window to see how much snow we got.  The kids have been missing Utah & I thought it might be fun to have a snowball fight or build a snowman together as a family before they went into school a little later.

Well, we got a grand total of

1/4 INCH OF SNOW.

Yep, you read that right.  1/4 inch.  You could hardly even see it on the ground.  Seriously?  We cancel school & work for this?  These people would NEVER survive in Utah.  ha ha ha.

The real reason they do it is because they don't have plows or salting equipment to take care of the roads so it's safer just to keep everyone home.  They say that everything shuts down: work, school, businesses, restaurants, bridges, roads. . . the whole place just shuts down until the snow melts.  It's the craziest thing I've ever seen.

But I was happy to get 2 extra hours with my entire family.  In fact, I hope it happens again.  We had a BLAST.

Preschool

Now that we're all unpacked, I'm finally getting back to a routine again.  My three youngest are SO EXCITED for me to be doing preschool with them again.  This month we're focusing on Food & Fitness so our first lesson was about DAIRY.

We made cows, ate dairy foods, learned how farmers milk cows, & drank lots of milk.  And of course we worked on some letters & numbers too.  I'm just happy to be back in a routine again.  I love spending time with my kids, especially if that time teaches them something.

New Church Calling

On our drive to Virginia, Trek & I were jokingly talking about if we had a choice, what the ultimate church calling would be for us.  For Trek it was a "teacher" of some sort.  He loves to teach church things in a way that makes people fully understand it.  And he's GREAT at that.  Me, I've always wanted but never had the calling as an Activity Days leader.  I was in Young Women's for 6 years, but never in Activity Days.  Oh how I dreamed of having that chance to work with my girls after they get baptized.

Guess what my new calling in my new ward is?

ACTIVITY DAYS LEADER.

My Heavenly Father spoiled me this time.

I'm also the new Sunbeam teacher so on Sundays I get to teach Bladen's class.  I love that one too.

I get to work with another amazing woman in Activity Days.  It's just super exciting for me.  Cadence is in there right now & Lorien turns 8 next month so she'll be in there with me as well.  There are 6 Activity Days girls (age 8-11) in our little branch which is perfect.  We do 2 activities a month to help the girls pass off goals to earn their Faith In God Awards.  I'm going to LOVE this calling.

In January we made cloth necklaces.  The girls got to learn how to hand sew & make something & then they each gave a necklace away to someone they felt could use a pick-me-up.  It was fun.

I've already got a bazillion fun activities planned for the entire year.  It's going to be great.

Oh, & by the way. . . Trek got called to be an Elders Quorum Teacher.  We BOTH got SPOILED this time around.

You Lost a What?

So on Sunday Taya comes running into my bedroom completely excited about something.  She reaches out her hand & inside is a single tooth.

What?!?

"Where did that come from?"

Then she made this face:

 Taya lost her first tooth. . . for real.  None of us knew it was even loose.  Cadence didn't lose her first tooth until she was almost in 2nd grade.  Lorien was in 1st grade when she lost her first tooth.  Taya's not even in Kindergarten yet.  She's only 5 years old.  Both my older girls came running to me the second they could tell their teeth were loose.  Taya never said a word.  I've been brushing her teeth forever & never noticed that tooth wiggling in any way.

I asked her what happened & she said that she coughed & all of a sudden the tooth was in her mouth & she almost swallowed it.  No pulling, no blood, no pain.  It literally just fell out.  She was 

SO EXCITED.

She couldn't wait for the Tooth Fairy to come visit that night.  And she did.  The tooth fairy brought Taya ONE DOLLAR for her tooth.  Taya was in heaven.

Now Taya is my darling little toothless girl.

(And now I wiggle ALL her teeth every night to see if any others are loose.)

1st Day of School - For the 3rd Time This Year.

My poor kids.  Cadence & Lorien both had to start school AGAIN for the 3rd time this year.  Luckily these schools are the schools they will be in for the next 4 years.  FINALLY some stability.

This one was really tough on the girls.  For the first time EVER, they are in different schools.  Here in this area of Virginia they have Jr. Elementary Schools & Sr. Elementary Schools.  Lorien goes to the Jr. Elementary School: Carrollton Elementary which holds Kindergarten - 3rd Grade.  Her school is about a 10 minute drive from our house so she gets to ride the bus to school.  She was TERRIFIED of riding the bus alone.  But after a couple of days she's decided she loves it & LOVES talking to all her friends to & from school.

Lorien has a great 2nd grade teacher here.  Her name is Mrs. Opajari or "Mrs. O" for short.  She took Lorien right in & has helped her adjust to the new curriculum & new area.  Lorien is loving her new school.  They have art, music, computers, PE, library, & much more.  She seems to be WAY ahead in Reading & Math, but a little behind in Social Studies/History & Science since she barely got any of that at her last 2 schools.  We've been working hard teaching her how to take notes during a discussion & how to study those notes for tests & quizzes.  I LOVE the way they run the school here & it's been a great learning experience for Lorien so far.

Lorien ALWAYS gets off the bus happy & smiling.  I love that about her.

She's always happy & smiling, but she's ALWAYS a mess.  That's my Lo!  Dirty hands & ruined shoes ON THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL.

At least I know she had fun.

Cadence goes to Smithfield Elementary which is a Sr. Elementary School.  It houses 4th grade - 6th grade.  Her school is over 25 minutes away (DRIVING) from our house.  I absolutely HATE having her be SO FAR AWAY from home, but the school is good.  I just worry about emergency situations where it would be nearly impossible to get her in a hurry.  She obviously rides the bus to school as well.  The buses pick the girls up at 8:00 but school doesn't start until 9:05 (LONG DRIVE).  Then school gets out at 3:50 (SUPER LATE) & they don't get home until 4:45 which totally stinks.  But that's my biggest complaint so far.  The schools themselves make up for it in their education, field trips, & extra curricular activities.

Cadence is in Mrs. Harris' 4th grade class & she is thriving there.  She is WAY advanced in both reading & math (just like Lorien), but a little behind again on the history/science since she didn't have access to that previously.  4th Grade is when you learn about your state's history so she's frantically learning everything she can about Virginia right now so she can do well on state tests.  Virginia (especially this area) is the birthplace of this nation.  It's where it all began so it's been fun learning about it with her.  She's done amazing on her testing so far.  Her teacher & a school counselor actually called me last week asking me for a meeting about Cadence.  I thought that maybe she was falling behind, but as it turns out, they want to recommend her for the gifted/advanced program.  She scored one of the highest scores in the class on both her science & history tests after only being in the school & reading through the material for one week.  They've got her ordered to take the gifted test in a month or two & then if she passes that, she'll get to be in the most amazing gifted program I've ever seen.  It's run by college professors & it consists of mostly experiments, math, & research.  They dissect brains, frogs, fish, eyeballs, etc.  The college here actually uses the gifted students' research & experiments in their research as well.  It's right up Cadence's ally.  So we'll see how all that pans out.  

Cadence also has choir & band in 4th grade so we're trying to figure out what instrument to start her on.  I really wish they did strings, but they don't (she really wanted to play violin), but they do strings in 7th grade so we'll see if we can do that then.  She'll probably start on flute or percussion like her mommy.  They also offer a guitar club after school on Thursdays that she wants to be a part of.  She got a guitar for Christmas so she's super thrilled about that.  So far the schools here have been great experiences for both girls.

Back to Normal Life

Man it feels good to be in MY house with MY stuff doing MY routine again.  I loved being with my parents, but it really is a different feeling than being with your own stuff.

Because we're moving again in 3-4 months, we really didn't fully unpack everything.  We unpacked the things we couldn't live without, a supply of kids' toys, & basically kitchen stuff.  Everything else is still in boxes in our garage.  I just didn't want to go through the joy of unpacking only to have to pack it all back up in a matter of months.

But things are great here.  I'm unpacked with what needs to be unpacked & we're getting back into a routine.  The kids are loving it here too.

My little Captain America

The very FIRST grocery shopping trip after arriving.
Yup, it took 2+ hours & it was VERY boring.  The boys
actually fell asleep in the cart.

Eating a homemade fortune cookie that Lorien
made with her Fortune Cookie Maker she got
for Christmas.

Cadence made us chocolate chip cookies in
her Easy Bake Oven.

Getting ready for church our very first Sunday
here in VA.  The boys looked SO handsome.

Behind our backyard of our rental.  I just love being out in
the woods.  It's just so beautiful here.

We left Craiger's Mickey Mouse in UT by
accident so my mom shipped it back to us.
Boy was he happy when it showed up in that box.

Trek Across America - Day 5 - WE'RE FINALLY HOME

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was when we saw this sign:

"Virginia Welcomes You."

Hallelujah!  We were almost DONE.

Our new area was only about 4.5 hours from Charleston so it was a short drive on Day 5.  The minute I saw the sign for Williamsburg, I started getting butterflies in my stomach.  This was our new home.  This was my exploration stomping grounds for the next 4 years.  I was actually moving to the birthday of the United States of America.  Boy was I excited.

The only battle I would have to face was the infamous James River Bridge.  This bridge was once the longest bridge in America.  Did I mention my fear of crossing bridges?  This puppy is 

FIVE FULL MILES LONG.

It's basically a road floating on water.  I hate being surrounded by water.  It completely & utterly freaks me out.  This was going to be my one crutch in this area.  We live across this bridge in the sticks.  It's a cute little town called Carrollton.  If I want to get anywhere or do ANYTHING other than sit at home, I have to cross this lovely bridge.  I was terrified.

Okay, so I cried.  I cried good & hard the first 3 times I crossed the dumb thing.  Now I cross it 8 or 9 times a week with no problems.  I even forget I'm on the water half the time.  Thank heavens for the strength of overcoming fears.

And here we are!  Our rental house in Carrollton, VA.  We will only be here until April, but it's a beautiful home for us until then.  In April we will be moving 2 minutes up the road to

OUR VERY FIRST HOME.

Yes, we bought a house.  How crazy are we?  We are so excited we can't stand it.

But for now, we're living in our own little piece of heaven out in the beautiful forests of Virginia & we love it.

Trek Across America - Day 4

Day 4 was another long driving day, but we passed through 4 different states which made it much more exciting than our Kansas drive.

We left at 5 am again & barely caught the Illinois sign as we drove over the bridge coming out of St. Louis.

We weren't in Illinois long, & quickly crossed over into Indiana.

After cutting through the corner of Indiana, we jumped into Kentucky for the majority of our day.

(As a side note, I love how all 3 of these states use "Lincoln" as their tourism selling point!

The Land of Lincoln

Lincoln's Boyhood Home

Birthplace of Abraham Lincoln

kind of funny.)

But the real beauty hit when we crossed the border into West Virginia.  The landscape went from dead, barren, flat lands to gorgeous rolling hills full of trees & wildlife.

Everywhere you looked there were trees covered in snow.  It was GORGEOUS.

We stopped for the night in Beckley, West Virginia.  This is my little brother's old stomping grounds.  He served a 2 year LDS Mission in West Virginia & he spoke highly of Beckley so that's where we stayed.  I have to admit, it was MUCH safer than Charleston, which is where we had originally planned to stay.

One more day & we'll make it to our new home for 4 years.

Trek Across America - Day 3

We were all excited for Day 3 of our journey.  We planned the middle travel day to be fun rather than just driving straight for another 13 hours.

We still drove across the entire state of Missouri, but stopped in St. Louis.  Since we missed the 

"Welcome to Missouri"

sign, we took lots of pictures of the Arch to prove we were indeed in Missouri at some point.

Trek's cousin Kim lives in St. Louis with her cute little family so we stopped by on our way into the city to visit & take a breather.  She made us a wonderful little lunch which was heaven to me (I was SO sick of fast food) & the kids had a blast playing with their kids & their kids' toys.

After visiting, we drove to the Arch to take some fun pictures.  Even though the skies were clear, it was FREEZING.  We literally did a drive by for pictures.  Trek dropped the girls & I off at the base of the arch, went around the block & picked us back up.  Brrrrrrr COLD.

Our original plan was to take the kids to the St. Louis Zoo, but it was way too cold to be outside for more than 10 minutes.  Kim recommended the Science Center.  It was free, fun, & easy to get to.  Talk about a win/win for us.  We had an absolute BLAST there.

They had a super fun DINOSAUR exhibit which my boys went bananas for.  What's not to love?  I mean, we're talking about dinosaurs here.

We also enjoyed the other exhibits.  The entire place was full of science experiments & hands on fun for children.  We love museums where you DON'T have to say

"Dont' Touch That!"

This museum encouraged the kids to 

TOUCH, PLAY, RUN, & LEARN

They also had a special bird exhibit the day we visited.  The bird handlers even let each of my kids hold some of the parrots.

Taya, Lorien, & even little Craiger each held the parrot.  Cadence & Bladen are both too skiddish to get near a live bird, but the other kids LOVED it.  Craiger wanted to kiss the bird & take it home with us.

My favorite exhibit was the digital musical instrument section.  I LOVED this digital harp.  There were no strings.  Instead of strings there were red lasers in the place where the strings should go.  As you ran your fingers lightly through the lasers, the harp would play.  It was amazingly FUN.

St. Louis was great.  Our hotel was great, the museum was great, & the 5 hour drive seemed like nothing after the last 2 days.  It was by far our favorite day of the trip.