90/365

Today was Jackson's field trip to the Abilene Zoo. It was a lot of fun. I was worried about it being really hot since they had forecasted a high of 94 but with the wind it was really nice. It is amazing how you view heat after living in a really humid area. A West Texas 94 it a lot cooler than a central Texas 94!

One of Jackson's classmates went along with us at the zoo. Each parent who was there took a kid or two with them around the zoo and we all met up at the entrance at a certain time. It was nice being able to do it that way rather than have a lot of kids all bunched up together trying to see the same thing. Jaci and Tyler really enjoyed it there. Jackson and Tyler loved the alligator and snakes and Jaci of course LOVED the Sophies. (Giraffes) She has called giraffes Sophie ever since I can remember because she had a little baby toy called Sophie the Giraffe. It was the best baby teether and she has loved Giraffe's ever since then. She cried until we went to see them and then cried when we left. I have to say I was impressed with the zoo considering it was Abilene. It was pretty nice for a smaller town.

Feeding Sophie!

After the zoo we went to a park and had a picnic lunch and then an Easter egg hunt. It was fun to watch. I was able to talk with quite a few parent's and teachers and it felt great to be having friendly conversation in person other than over the phone. I have to say that we have been totally blown away by this school and how wonderful they are to each and every child. I honestly can't say enough about how great they have been. I think this is going to be a great place for the kids to grow up and get the best possible education!

I'm exhausted and about to head to bed. It has been a busy week.

89/365

More visible signs that Spring is here...We started baseball today! The league here is WAY smaller than in Lockhart but I think it is going to be good. In Lockhart we had practice 2 times a week and games 3-4 times a week. Practice started in early March and the final game was the end of May. It was a bit much. Here we just started practice today and only have practice once a week. We have our first game on April 10 and our final game the first weekend in May. The games are only on Saturdays. We have 2 weeks with 2 games in a day and 2 weeks with 1 game. FOUR weeks of baseball! I would like for it to be a little longer but I am SO happy that it isn't as long or as involved as it was in Lockhart. It is a nice change of pace.

It was also great to meet some other parent's and for Jackson to meet some more kids. So far everyone has been really nice. We stayed after practice and played at the school playground. The kids had fun and we had a nice time visiting with the coach. Overall it was a great evening.

A ladybug!

I better head off to bed. We have a field trip to the Zoo tomorrow and an Easter egg hunt. It should be another busy but fun day.

Oh...and Jackson did great during practice.  Can you tell he is happy about it?

88/365

Today was such a beautiful day!  It is feeling like Spring .  The tree in front of our house is starting to bloom and it was 84 degrees out today.  It was the perfect day to spend outside once it warmed up this morning.  Of course when we go outside there is always some drama.  Today Jaci was the one who cried non stop at everything.  I was so ready for the kids bedtime tonight.  She absolutely wore me out today.

Can you say DRAMA Queen?

I miss us having a fenced in back yard where the kids could safely play.  Here we live right by a busy highway and it is a battle to keep the kids far enough away from it.  Yesterday we discovered a huge bee hive in our back yard so we can't really play back there.  We are going to have to figure out how to get rid of it.  I do enjoy the shade in the front yard and sitting under the beautiful trees blooming does lift my spirits.  If only my daughter would be quiet and enjoy it as well.

87/365

Tonight is the first night that I have felt a little more settled in this house.  We officially got everything totally cleaned and all put up.  Although all of the unpacking was done last week we had just placed things in the closet or not totally hooked up everything neatly so it needed to be done.  It feels so good to be done with that.  We also were able to cook with the new oven/stove today and I think that really helped the way I was feeling about the house.  When one thing is off it all feels off.  At least now that we can cook I feel like we can function in this house.

The kids spent a lot of the day outside while I was inside cleaning.  Jacob also was able to mow the weeds...I mean yard.  We got a lot accomplished but once again my pictures are lacking.  Maybe now that we are a little more settled I will start working more on pictures.

Jackson has a short week at school this week and a field trip on Wednesday so it should be a busy but fun week!  I am looking forward to meeting some other parents from his class.  I miss having friends locally.  Although my friends are just a phone call or an email away it just isn't the same.

86/365

Sorry for the lack of decent pictures lately. I just haven't been overly inspired lately and to be honest I am kind of in a blah blogging mood. It could just be that I am in a blah mood myself or it could be that I have blogged for 86 days straight and I am just getting a little tired. Hopefully Spring coming and the weather changing will get me a little more inspired.

Today we have just had a crazy day. Last night at about 1 (I guess that would technically be morning) Tyler woke up throwing up. I seriously don't know how many stomach viruses that kid can get in a year. He has had his fair share lately. Basically that meant that we were ALL up at 1 because of the boys sharing a room, Jaci being in our room and the bathroom being in our room. He acted ok today but it made for a long night last night. Then this morning our landlord came by and dropped a new oven off on our front porch. I was a little annoyed that he left the installing for us to do but I am just happy to have a working oven! Of course the old parts were so old and nasty that it turned into a several hour job and the dang thing still isn't in. We had to make a trip to Lowes to get new connections because the others were just ruined and wouldn't come off the stove. It was a much bigger project than we had hoped for and it still isn't in.

Today we also went and looked at a few homes in Abilene just trying to get some ideas on floor plans and come up with our own ideas as to what we want to do. It got the kids excited and I think it was just what Tyler needed to get happy about being here. His sad mood from yesterday carried over to today so I was happy to see him excited about looking at houses.

We are hoping for a good night's sleep tonight and a much more relaxing day tomorrow!

85/365

TGIF...It has just been one of those weeks!  Not that we have been overly busy...the weeks leading up to us being here were certainly much harder than this week but this week has been emotionally taxing.  Today Jackson did great but Tyler threw a curve ball at me and spent most of the afternoon crying saying he missed Lockhart.  It was very unexpected considering he was the happiest about being here and the most excited about the house.  He was the one in the beginning who was resisting moving the most but once we got here he was happy.  Not today.  Poor thing.  He is still saying how unhappy he is.  It is hard to hear but I know it is just temporary.

Jaci worked a puzzle by herself today for the first time.  She was so proud of herself.  She spent a lot of time working and reworking the puzzle.  I now have instructions to get her a Hello Kitty puzzle.  Dora just isn't working for her anymore.

I have the kids here begging me to play some games online so I am going to keep this short.  Hope you all have a great weekend!

84/365

Things seem to be getting a lot better for Jackson at school. He came home yesterday so excited about playing kick ball and couldn't wait to play again today. He had never played at his old school which seems odd to me. He had also never played red rover red rover. How is that possible? I am so happy that he is starting to enjoy school. He also came home today excited to have made a 100 on his spelling test. He has always made a 100 on his spelling tests in Lockhart but he has REALLY struggled here all week long. We spent 3 hours on spelling last night and he still wasn't getting it. I was very proud of him. He earned that grade!

The little ones continue to move along not phased at all by the move. The only thing they really seem to miss is seeing Gale and her girls and Bonnie. All of these people became so important to us while Jacob was gone and now we are really missing them. Jaci will ask about when we will see them again and Tyler will say "In just a few weeks...is that right mom?" It is pretty cute.

Jacob's job is going well and we officially closed on our house so it looks like we are to stay.  Hard to believe we have been here a week today.

83/365

He gets it from his mama...

My little man Tyler LOVES cameras and LOVES to take pictures all the time. I put new batteries in that camera this morning and by this evening they were already running low. He took pictures of everything today. My favorite is him taking a picture of his prize hog tooth and his John Deere belt buckle.

Cracks me up.

I spoke with Jackson's teacher today about how behind he is from the other students in his class. We are hopefully coming up with a good plan to get him caught up. It is hard to go from being one of the top students in a class to being so far behind. We spent around 3 hours on homework tonight. It is driving us all crazy because I am constantly on the little ones to be quiet so he can concentrate and they are getting angry and Jackson is getting angry and then we all have a melt down. After much frustration on Jackson's part I finally loaded his spelling list to an online site and decided to let him have some fun while hopefully learning. I think it finally worked and he at least wasn't angry with me for making him do his words over and over again until he got them right.

It was kind of rainy and cooler this evening so we were forced to cook inside which means cook in the microwave. I am really over this no stove/oven thing. We tried for 30 minutes to get it up and running and still only 2 burners lit and the oven will not turn on. The knob is broken off but even with pliers or one of the other knobs we still couldn't get it on. We are going to call again tomorrow and see if our landlord will fix it. I can live with a small house short term but I don't think we can make it without an oven.  Believe it or not my kids are getting tired of pasta bowls and TV dinners.

82/365

Today was a better day for Jackson at school other than the fact that we discovered that areas where he was far advanced in Lockhart are areas where he is now behind here in Albany.  We kind of thought he might be a little behind but not this bad.  He had really high grades in Lockhart and came home today with a 74.  We are going to have to work really hard to get him up to their standards.  It is frustrating but we moved here because the schools were so good so hopefully this frustration now will all pay off in the end.  Jackson and I were both in tears by the time his homework was done.  He is sad...I am sad.  We both feel really lost.  The little ones haven't missed a beat and Jacob is pretty settled in here so he isn't phased much.  It makes it hard for him to understand why I am sad.  Although I am happy to be here and have this house I am still missing my friends and missing having a house that is my own to work on and buy things for.  I just feel lost here and am so ready for it to start feeling like our home.

Oh...I finally got internet service!  Yay!  Now I won't feel so disconnected from my friends.