Where has the year gone?

A friend had messaged me not long ago to tell me that she loved my blog, and how I had it set up. After a little chuckle, I realized that I had not touched this blog in well over a year! When I posted last, L was just picking out what instrument he was going to play his first year of Middle school and here I sit, D just finishing up her 3 weeks band practice with her trombone ready for her first year of Middle school. We sure have packed a lot in this last year.

L did amazing in middle school, he played and excelled at playing the trombone, had many honors classes and made high honor roll, his first year as a Boy Scout, running cross country, being on the Lego Robotics team, learning to play Magic the Gathering, breaking both arms in a freak skiing accident, and now growing taller than me with his voice starting to change.

D finished her last year in elementary, finished her 2nd year as a Junior Girl Scout, sang in Circle the State with Song, ran in Running is Elementary, tried her hand at a number of afterschool sports clubs, spent a week away at Girl Scout Horse camp, and started to learn to play the saxophone. She is really looking forward to the start of middle school next week, especially the library.

We bought a house! That was pretty much the biggest thing over the last year. Seated on just under 2 acres of mostly wooded land, we found a 1963 3 bedroom home. Each kid finally for the first time in their lives has their own room. We also rescued 2 stray female kittens, and brought home and raised 10 chickens, although we are now down to 8 and still awaiting eggs. In Jan we took a family vacation to Orlando, the first time all 4 of us flew together, and spent a long weekend in the Harry Potter section of Universal Studios. We have all gained new friends, and lost some of the old sadly, and have overall been loving life to the fullest. I hope to try to maintain the blog a bit more, but with extra time at a minimum I'm just not sure how often that will occur. And as a funny side note: This was my 10 year anniversary of this blog! Thanks for reading!

We Moved!

Our old landlords told us that they were selling the house we were living in. They would have given us 2 months rent free to find someplace once they sold it, but I was worried about them selling in the winter. I had been looking on Craigslist and driving around looking for places for 2 months, and nothing was working out. They didn't sell the place, but with 2 small kids, it is too much to worry about when and where you will be moving! On an off chance I drove past this house and the one directly across the street from it. Both were for rent, so I called. D and I went to check this one out because the other didn't allow pets (we have an 8 year old cat). I fell in love at first sight. It is an adorable cottage bungalow just 9 blocks north of our old house. So we were happy to stay in the same neighborhood. It is only 2 small bedrooms, but it has a finished basement. The backyard is perfect for the kids, and it has a garage. The street the house is on is not a very busy street, and it is very quiet here. We had to act fast, the landlord was starting to get 9 calls a day on it. So in the middle of planning a birthday party, 2 birthdays and Father's day, we got a house. We gave 2 weeks notice of our moving and starting packing like crazy. The week we moved it was the hottest so far this year. We have been here a month now, and still love it like crazy! We don't plan on moving for a few years now. And I finally have a good size kitchen to do all my baking and cooking in. All of my stuff fits in with plenty of work space! I'm in heaven!!!