are we having fun yet?

buy my house!

After 2 years and 4 months, our journey is going to be continuing onto the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia.  We are really excited (and scared) to move down South!  It'll be another 'mile marker' on our journey in life.  Looking forward to warmer weather and living close to family......heck, anywhere we move, we are bound to live close to family since Justan comes from a family of 12!  We will most certainly miss the amazing family we've had here in Michigan.  It goes without saying that family here in Michigan made one of the most difficult transitions super easy.  We will miss them like crazy.

We've been preparing our home to be sold for the past few weeks.  It's been no small feat being 26 weeks pregnant, Justan traveling to NYC for work, etc....but it's now officially listed.  We feel confident in the realtor we selected, and within an hour of it listed, we already had a scheduled showing.  Today is the 2nd day, and we have another family coming through.  

The next few months should be interesting to say the least!  Not really sure when the house will sell, but should make life interesting nonetheless.  Not even sure where this baby girl will be born.  

My new mantra of 2012:  It is, what it is. :)

Without further ado, here is a link to the PDF of the brochure my realtor put together about the home, lake, and property:

Willow Grove Home

pregnant!

The week after school started, I started wondering where my period was.  Not really that uncommon that it wasn't there on time, but since I'd been tracking it FOR-EV-ER, I noticed it wasn't on time.  We've been trying to have another baby for A VERY LONG TIME (hence the 6 yr age gap that will be between Grant and the new baby).  I'd spoken to my new OB/GYN here in Michigan, and the "just keep trying" and "we can do more extensive measures" were discussed.  I had given up in my own mind that it would ever happen. :(

So, after about being 5 days late, I had one more pregnancy test here at home from earlier in the year, and I thought, "I can't waste this test!" So, I waited ANOTHER two days to test because I knew my period would come.  Then, since it didn't, I just decided to test.  What do you know......it was positive instantly!

So, then the shock set in for about another 4 weeks!  I guess I didn't really believe it, or I thought that I could miscarry again since I have in the past.   Plus, we had A LOT going on in terms of the school stress (see previous post) and a new job interview with the contemplation of moving again stress.

Anyways, here we are.......having our 3rd baby!  Due May 17, 2012!  I don't care if it's a boy or a girl......I just want a healthy baby.  

 

first week of school

First day of school picture:

To sum it up and so you don't have to read any further......it was EMOTIONAL.

School started for the boys this past Tuesday.  It's our 2nd year of starting the day after Labor Day.  I quite like it a lot.  Feels like you have more summertime to play, but I will admit that last week of "waiting" for school to begin was rough.  It started with Jaden coming to us and telling us he didn't want to go to his new school.  There were two nights he couldn't even sleep, that's how upset he was.  It all had to do with his best friend, Kadin.  Kadin was supposed to go to a new school as well, but his parents changed their minds and Jaden was very upset that he wouldn't ever see him again. It was heartbreaking.

Now, let me back up for a second because I'm so behind on my blogging in order to explain how this all came to be.

Jaden had tested last April into the Magnet Program (aka the Gifted and Talented program).  In our school district, out of the 4 elementary schools, it's only housed at one of them, and of course, it's not at our "home school," so we had to make the decision whether or not to move him to the new school.  He went last May for a day and observed the classroom and the teacher.  When he finished that day, he was very excited, but said, "I'd like to go half of the week to my old school and half the week to my new school." Well, we all knew that wouldn't be possible, so we had him sit down and we went over the pros and cons of staying or moving to the new school.  In the end, we decided to move over to the new school. 

That in turn, brought on another layer of complexity as Grant would begin Kindergartgen this year as well.  Do we move him?  Do we split them at two different schools?  We determined that because both schools start and end at the same time, and the only way it could have worked was to put Grant on the bus, then have me drive Jaden to school, wasn't going to work for a couple reasons.  First, two separate schools would have been hard.  Second, putting all 40" inches of Grant onto a bus alone scared the beeguzes out of me.  So, I determined to drive both of them five days a week to the new school.  I, make that Justan's rational thinking, decided we will "cross the bridge" of Grant returning to our "home school" when he enters 2nd grade because elementary school here in Michigan only goes until 4th grade, and Jaden will be in this self-contained Magnet class for the next two years only (3rd and 4th).

First, let me say, I only want the best for my kids, so I was willing to drive them to and from each day.  However, you really don't know what you are getting until you actually do it.  In addition, to us, this "self contained Magnet program" was a crapshoot.  Was it "really" going to be that much better of an education compared to what he would get at his "home school"?  Only time will tell. 

This "new school" if you look on the map, is on the COMPLETELY opposite side of where I live.  It's about 20-25 mins one way, so we are talking at least 45-50 mins roundtrip DAILY, twice a day.  There is only one way to get there.  What I'm saying, is I didn't realize until I completed a full week of driving this past week, is I didn't realize how big of a deal this was and it's been exhausting, worryisome, etc....I didn't realize that I'm really the only one that can get them.  I have no one to help me.  That alone stresses me out.  Justan works at least 40 minutes away.  Sure, I'm sure under very dire circumstances could I call upon my SIL, niece, or neighbor, but they have their own life, their own kids, etc....  Basically, when the bus took them last year, I knew the bus would bring them home each day, and provided me with a 30 minute window after school got out that if I got caught out somewhere, I could mak e it home.  Now, I have to leave 30 minutes before school gets out, so it's almost as if I've lost an hour a day.  It's a lot of pressure on me to realize I'm the only one getting them to and from school.  Ugh.

We'll see how it goes.  

 

beautiful blonde hair

I just love this boy!!!!  As usual, his hair has become so blonde this summer.  I wish it could stay like this all year round!

We (as in Grant and I) had a discussion about growing out his hair to a shaggy, sufer like look (because he has the right texture for it. Jaden, not so much) and he said, "but Mom, I don't want to look like a girl!" I couldn't help but laugh as I looked over at my sweet 5 year old with his valid response, as he was wearing a NECKLACE AND A BRACELET!

I realize why I stopped doing this. Takes way too much time to upload pictures. I wish I could upload multiple photos at a time. That, or stop taking so many pictures. :)

tyler and grant

best friends.

even better that I really, really like tyler's mom. 

the only thing that would make this situation even better is if we were next door neighbors, but I'll take what I can get. :)

Grant is 5!!

It's amazing to me that 5 years represents at times, an eternity (like as in, I can't believe Grant is 5) and at other times, 5 years is not that much time at all!

We adore this kid!  He is a total crack up at every turn in our day, and we don't know what to expect 90% of the time with him. 

Here is birthday invite for his party this year:

 

I may or may not have my Mom making 17 superhero capes......she confirms though, it's because she loves us!  Thank goodness for talented, sewing moms! :)

 

two deer

Occasionally, we pass deer on a dirt road we take to get to the store, the gym, on the way to the freeway to get to Justan's work, etc....but over by us, across the lake that is, we've maybe seen them in our yard two times since living here. 

But, I guess, in the winter, they can walk across the frozen lake and apparently, the Stringham's is the place to be (we are pretty awesome)!  We originally put this feeder out for the birds, but all sorts of animals come to gather.  It's fun to see the squirrels maneuver to get onto the bird feeder (you can see one in the picture below), and now the deer.  When Jaden called me over to the window yesterday, I had to repeat, "you said, deer?  You mean a squirrel, right?" and he said, "no, it's really two deer out there!"  So, I was actually surprised when I saw two actual deer standing there looking back at me!

Taken from the bedroom upstairs:

Ran outside and got this shot as they were leaving:

Detroit who? Pistons???

Living my entire life in Utah, has made me a loyal Utah Jazz fan, undoubtly. I can even remember watching games with Isaiah Thomas and Bill Laimbeer with the plastic mask from a VERY long (20 yrs?) ago.

However, this summer in August, Jaden had the opportunity to attend a basketball camp at the local high school put on by the Detroit Pistons.  It was actually a GREAT camp for him to attend, and I plan on signing him up again!  It was four days, of basically 4 hours of instruction, and game play each day.  He was always exhausted, but I know he really learned some valuable skills, and deep down, I think he really enjoyed it!

Camp in August (he's the one getting the rebound):

He was given ONE free ticket to attend a Pistons game, and shoot on the Pistons court before the game.  What a cool opportunity!  Of course, we couldn't send our 8 year old alone, so we ended up making it a family night and stopped at the Rainforest Cafe for dinner since the arena is a good 60 mins away from our house.  Rainforest Cafe is overpriced zoo food, but the atmostphere was cool and my kids liked it.

 He made the shot!!! 

 

 

For paying $15/ea for the other tickets, our seats weren't bad at all.  First row of the upper level.

The one thing that really shocked me was how empty the arena was.  I don't follow the Pistons at all, so maybe they aren't so good......but it was surprising how empty it was.

I liked their "basket" entrances to each of the portals, and of course, my kids being goofballs!

meet Elliott

meet our elf, Elliott, who comes and visits us daily in a new place.  He is quite mischevious!  Today he wanted to show us he could write his name and also did a snow angel!