Ehhh...I've Been on an Extended Sabbatical...Yeah, That's It!

Hello out there to anyone who hasn't completely deserted me and my blogging efforts; I'm hoping someone still has faith in me. The last time I blogged, the boys had just finished up their baseball season, and we just found out that Mark was selected for the Blue Angels. Wow! That seems like it was so long ago. Since then I have been as busy as possible. We decided to pack up and move to Florida early; a decision that didn't come lightly. Taylor finished up the school year as a second grader, and is now a third grader. Mark left on deployment at the end of July. We were lucky enough to get the chance to venture up North to Washington and spend a week with family. Boy it sure was a great week. We hadn't seen most of them in more than a few years. We were able to see everyone, with the exception of John, David, and Cindy. The kids thoroughly enjoyed visiting with family as well. We were even able to take some time to visit the Portland Zoo with Rick and Lisa. It was a beautiful zoo, and much more realistic to natural habitats than any zoo I'd ever been too. The kids favorite part of the trip was Bonnie's house. I tell you, that lady has the ultimate Grandma's house! I'm surprised the kids agreed to even come home with us. haha. She has a Wii (we do not), a trampoline (we do not), a pool (we do not), a playground (we do not), a llama (definitely don't have one of those), two goats (none of those either), the quad we had no use for, and plenty of space to run and play without worrying about cars speeding through. We ended the trip and drove all the way back to the valley.
Once we were home, we had just under a week to pull everything together for Mark's surprise going away/congrats party. Unfortunately, this was the only time that we could do something like this, and not many people were able to attend. But those that did attend had a great time, and made it a memorable time for Mark. Adam and the girls were able to come up, so that was the icing on the cake. Hiding things from Mark isn't something I had an easy time doing. I don't think I will ever plan another surprise party again! lol. We celebrated the 4th of July with Adam and the girls. We even ended the night with glow stick wars. Don't ask. It was hilarious, and definitely a memory I won't soon forget. Once Adam and the girls were on the road back home, we started back up with the packing. Over the next few weeks, we packed up our entire house, put everything in storage, cleaned the empty house, and passed a housing inspection. Once all of that chaos was over, we were officially homeless; words I never thought I'd speak. We spent a day and night with Laura and the gang. We even got together for one last dinner with everyone. That was nice. The next day we headed further south to drop Mark off at the ship. He was only going to be gone for a week, so we drove back to Laura's house and spent that week with her and the kids. We wanted to get in some last minute visiting time with everyone before we left. After that week, Mark came "home" for a few days, and then it was off on deployment. We stayed with our friends in San Diego for a little while longer, and then we took off for Tejas. We didn't intend on driving straight through, but we did. We fully intended on stopping in Fort Stockton, but by the time we got there, the kids were zonked, and I figured it would be easier to just drive straight through. We arrived in Fresno a little after 8:30 in the morning. Our time in Texas was drastically shorter than we ever anticipated or planned, but I won't go into details about that. There we were able to visit with even more family. I didn't get to see everyone that I wanted to in our short visit there, but we don't live as far away as we once did. I was most excited about meeting my niece for the first time ever! She was chunky little six month old adorable little girl. I was also able to see my grandfather. That wasn't easy for me, and I really had to choke back my tears. It was good to see that his sense of humor hadn't diminished yet; when I went to leave, I touched his hand to say goodbye and he quickly jerked his hand up saying , "AAAAAAAAAH". It scared the living daylights out of me, but he was being silly, and was trying to scare me. That made me smile to know that he wasn't completely lost in that body of his. We quickly found in Fl to live in. We are so thankful that Lisa's mom and her sisters opened up their mother's furnished home for us to stay in. The stay here is temporary, and always has been. Being able to live so close to Pensacola has afforded us the opportunity to seek out a home to buy, and take advantage of the home buyer's tax credit. After being in town for a very short time (1.5-2 weeks), we had already found our home. It is definitely a dream home. It sits on about 3/4 of an acre, has plenty of space, 4 bedrooms, and 3 bathrooms. The 3 bathrooms was on the wish list, but not a priority. As a woman, sister, and daughter, I know what its like to have to share a bathroom with boys, and it is NOT a pretty picture by any means. I really wanted for Ryleigh to have her own bathroom, and that's exactly what we got. I can't even believe that we found this house on our first trip with our realtor. We are very lucky, but mostly thankful. The house is not "ours" yet, but there is a sold sign in front of it now! We are scheduled to close on the 30th of the month. None of this would be possible without our wonderful brother Adam. He has been great throughout this whole process. He isn't always the easiest person to get into contact with, but when it comes to business, he's all ears. He has helped us in many ways than just one, and it we can't thank him enough for all of his help and efforts! We also can't say thank you enough to Hazel for 'loaning' us this home in the meantime. Taylor is doing well in school. He had a rough first week or so. He had been insistent on riding the bus to school, however the school bus was coming at 6:30AM every morning to pick him up. Anyone that knows me, knows that I am not a morning person, and sleep is like gold to me...very valuable. After his rough week of early mornings, we decided it was best if he only rode the bus home. From there, everything has been wonderful, and for the most part I have my wonderful little boy back. His teacher is amazing, and I really like her. She is extremely organized, and she sends home a classroom related newsletter every single Monday. I always know what's going on at school, and with Taylor. She is a great communicator, and I really appreciate her. I've talked to his teacher here more than I've talked to all of his teachers put together. I hope that his teacher at his new school is similar to her. Oh yes, that's the only downfall, Taylor will have to change schools after we move. Hopefully, it will be an easy transition for him. He would also like to join the cub scouts, so that is in the works for him. I think it would be an excellent opportunity to make new friends, gain some confidence, and help him 'find' himself. I'm looking forward to that. Austyn, you know, hell on wheels. Well, he learned how to ride his bike without training wheels about 2 weeks ago. He just jumped on, and took off after seeing a girl smaller than him riding her bike on her own. Since then, he has given me a heart attack almost every time he gets on his bike. Not to worry, we insist on bike safety so he always has a helmet on. He has learned to ride with only one hand, he tries to pop wheelies, hops off curbs, sits on one foot while riding, puts one foot up in the air while riding, and sometimes both. And you wonder why I call him hell on wheels. The kid is crazy, determined, and curious. Who knows, maybe he's a future X-Games BMX-er in the works. Ryleigh has also made progress on her bike. When we were living in California she would insist on sitting on her bike, and then she would get angry when she wouldn't go anywhere. After seeing Austyn ride her bike, and then his own, she quickly learned how to navigate her way on her little second hand bike. She's now a pro and tries to keep up with the big boys, although she isn't daring like them! Oh yeah, we also have a puppy named Bailey. She is about 5 months old. She is a gorgeous yellow lab that we got from a (I know, tsk, tsk) breeder. She has been great so far, aside from her scares that she has given me. Vomiting, bloody stools, and blood on her side. Who knows what was wrong with her, but she's as normal as a dog can get now. I think she may have eaten some mushrooms in the yard. She does have a pesky habit of barking early in the mornings before my alarm turns on, and that makes me really grumpy. She's getting better at not barking as much though, as she has very quickly learned that barking just buys her more time in the kennel. She now knows that if she wants out or wants attention she has to be calm. Did I mention how much I hate puppies! They are so much work, but you don't realize it until you have one. While this blog is obnoxiously long, I can't say that I've covered all the ground in between June 2, and today, but this will have to do. Pictures will follow soon, most likely tomorrow as I have a headache the size of the earth, and I don't plan from moving from the sofa unless I'm absolutely required to. ;o)