Change is in the air

You may have noticed that I didn't do a post for last week.  That's because it was pretty rough. It was one of those weeks where not only did I decide that I'm totally fine with the three older kids going to pre-school in the fall - I also started considering sending them to boarding school. 

 I don't know if it's because we hit the halfway point of Brandon being gone, or if the weather was affecting everyone's moods, or if I'm stressed and it's rubbing off on the kids - but whatever the cause was it resulted in some whiny, clingy kids.  It didn't help that the kids took turns on the  "stay up late and bug mom all evening and then wake up early and be grumpy all day until we take naps from 5:00-8:00 and then stay up late again" schedule.  For the record I HATE- no I LOATH - that schedule.  And they all take turns on it.  It's one of those things I will not miss about having little kids.  At all.

Anyway, things seemed to have normalized again, and all the kids are actually in bed (and 1/2 of them are asleep) and it's only 9:00 pm so I feel like blogging about the past week or so.  

Our backyard is so beautiful right now.  I'm really going to miss it.  I found out our new address and I looked it up on google.maps.  I'm not sure which house is ours but I pray it's one with a big tree behind it.  I love the shade that our oak tree give us.  

The jeep had a tiny oil leak the whole time we lived here.  It left a stain on the road, and I've spent several afternoons trying to get it off.  So far kitty litter, dawn dish soap, oven cleaner, and coca-cola have been unsuccessful.  This is from the day I tried dish soap.  It did a good job at getting the some, but not all, of the oil out.  It also cleaned the rest of the road so now the stain stands out even more.  My latest plan is to just park the Honda on top of the stain when its time for the final inspection.  Hopefully the inspector doesn't notice it.  

Derrick loved following the water down the road.  You can see him as a tiny dot down at the opening for the storm drain.  He'd crouch down there and watch the water flow.

Charlotte and Lydia found a frog while we were washing the street.  They named it Ladybug.

They loved that frog so much.  They ended up building him a fortress in the backyard out of paving stones.  Surprisingly, Ladybug was gone the next day.  (Not really, I was hoping he'd hop to freedom.) The girls have been begging for a pet frog ever since.

Derrick loves playing with the water.  I let him help water the plants in the front yard.  One day I let him have a little too much fun with the hose in the back yard.  I regret this decision so much. Normally I wouldn't care, but I'm trying to keep this house nice for the next few weeks.  Having a giant muddy spot in the back yard leads to a bad lawn and a muddy house.  This is not cool.

I've discovered that I'm kind of a clothes hoarder.  I can't believe how many clothes I have that I don't even wear.  I've been hanging onto boxes and boxes of clothes just "in case" I needed them. I have dress-pants just in case I go back to work.  I have clothes I've been saving in case I needed them for a project.  I have clothes that I've been saving in case I gain weight.  I have clothes I've been saving in case I lose weight.  When I really stop to think about it I don't even like half the clothes that I've been hanging onto.

Money has been so tight for us the past few years (and really my whole life) that I haven't been able to get rid of the clothes.  What if I really did need these things and couldn't afford to buy them?

Well two factors are helping me finally get rid of my clothes.  1.  Brandon's income is increasing considerably.  If I do need clothes I probably can afford to go buy ones that I actually want and that fit me.  2. I'm trying to get rid of surplus stuff so we don't have to pay for any extra weight when we move.  We are allowed 8000 lbs. Last time we moved we had 6500 lbs.  We've added quite a bit of furniture -including a piano - since then.  Unless I get rid of the stuff we don't need we are going to end of paying for the overage.    

So my closet has undergone a major purge.  I think I've gotten rid of at least four large boxes over flowing with clothes in the past few weeks.  Most of them I gave to a local church that has a free clothing "swap shop"  (and yes I picked up some clothes there as well.)  Some I gave to Texas Thrift which is the best thrift store around here.  And this box I sent off to a program called Blue Jeans Go Green.  The program turns old blue jeans into insulation.  This box was STUFFED with all the holey pants I was saving in case I wanted to make another blue jean quilt.  

On Saturday I decided to take the kids to a community event that was going on at the Harker Heights Library.  We've never really done anything in Harker Heights (besides go to the Target) so I thought it would fun.  There was a puppet show scheduled at 10:30, and we got there a little before that.  I imagined the room would be similar to the meeting room where we have storytime at the Copperas Cove library.  Not so much.  This room was big and echo-y.  There was a lady talking into a sound system and it reverberated all  over the room.  Derrick didn't like it one bit.  He turned and ran out of the room as soon as the lady started talking.  I ran him down and brought him back.  He started screaming.  Two people made some not so nice comments, and I had to take all four kids on a walk of shame out of the room.  It was bad.

I've suspected for a while that Derrick has some sensory issues, but this confirmed it.  Getting those diagnosed is going to be one of my first priorities once we are established in Alabama.

A nice lady followed us out and offered to let my kids sit with her so they didn't have to miss the puppet show.  Lydia didn't want to leave me, but Charlotte was fine going with the lady.  I was so grateful that someone would step in like that.  I took the rest of the kids out to the bounce house.  Since all the other kids were inside at the puppet show, my kids had the run of the place.  They all had a great time. The lady brought Charlotte out a little later and everyone played with the bounce house for a long time.

Eventually it was time to get going.  I didn't want to go back to our boring house so we went to a park.  I'd thought about coming here on Derrick's birthday, but due to whiny kids we didn't leave the house.  We played on the play ground for a minute and then headed down to the river so Derrick could throw rocks in the water.

He had so much fun.

The girls thought it was fun to run up onto the bridge that we were sitting under.

After we got home it was time for something I'd been looking forward to all day.  I'd scheduled a baby sitter to come and watch my kids so I could have a break. Earlier in the week I'd decided it was about time for a hair cut.  I hadn't really done anything with my hair in a month - and I hadn't brushed it in about a week so it was time for a change.

First I took a few pictures to document my long hair.  You can kind of see the different colors in my hair.  If you look closely you can see a dark strip that was actually from when I was pregnant with Veronica.  My hair lightened up after she was born.  Isn't that cool.

I'm pretty certain that this is the longest my hair has ever been.  What's crazy is that I kind of grew it out by accident.  I just kept putting it up in buns and pony tails forever.  And then one day I was like, "hey my hair is long."  And then I figured I'd probably just put it into a ponytail no matter how long or short it was so I decided to just keep growing it out.  

The lady who cut my hair was a little cautious about how much she cut off at first.  So this is how much hair I donated - but the amount of hair cut off was much longer.  I'd say a good 14 inches.  

The final result was a long bob.  I was so happy with it.  Have a new hair do inspired me to clean up my eyebrows and actually put on makeup on week days again.  Now I don't cringe when I see myself in the selfies that Veronica always wants me to take of us together. 

Another big change happened on Saturday.  Derrick moved out of his crib.  Honestly, I think that kid would have stayed in his crib until he feet stuck out the bars.  It's been his bed his whole life and I think he liked the familiarity. I liked that it was a nice little cage for him.  I could put him to bed and I wouldn't have to worry about him the rest of the night.  But I also figured he and I would have to get used to a new bed sometime.  I planned to transition him to a new bed along with our move.  I figured he and I could adjust to a new bed along with adjusting to all the other new stuff.

I've had a twin sized bed frame for over a year, and I've been waiting for a good deal on a mattress.  I figured I could find one here or just get one in Alabama.  Well on Saturday I saw a post on our community facebook page that someone was giving away a free twin mattress. Deals don't come any better than free so I threw all the kids in the car and we hurried over to pick it up.

We brought the mattress home and I brought it and the bed frame into Derrick's room.  I started to try to put the bed together, but Derrick freaked out.  So I decided it would be better to gradually get him used to the change.  I took the frame out of his room and just put the mattress on the floor.  Derrick liked that.  He also like that he could jump all over the mattress.  

Getting him used to going to sleep in the bed has been a bit of a challenge.  He likes to sleep on the mattress, but he also likes that he can get up and get out of his room.  So I've had to go back to my trick of putting the kids to bed and then hiding in my room and making as little noise as possible until the kids are all asleep.  This has it's draw backs.  I've been in the habit of cleaning my kitchen while listening to the Radio Ronin podcast on Saturday nights.  It seriously my favorite part of the week.  But I couldn't do that this week because Derrick would come out of his room. So instead I just read my book about the racing horse Seabuscuit and went to bed early.  I got a great nights sleep - but I woke up to a messy house on Sunday.  We're getting there though.  All in all I'm kind of glad that we are dealing with a new bed transition before everything goes crazy with the move.  

They girls and I have discovered the Fancy Nancy books.  Now they want everything to be fancy.  Lydia pretended to be Sleeping Beauty and this was the cap she made out of a blanket. Fancy!

Here is Derrick helping water the flowers.  He loves water and always pitches a fit when it's time to turn it off.

On Monday night we had our Military Family Home Evening for April.  I was so excited by how many people came.  I didn't ever get a head count, but there were easily 45 people (counting kids) there.  It was awesome.  Elder Crockett said, "We'd like to thank Sister Illguth for having this idea."  And I replied with, "No it was the Lord's idea.  I wanted to leave and he said, 'no, stay here, do this.'"  Everyone laughed at that.

This really has been good for the people who have come.  Friendships have been created and strengthened.  And that's never a bad thing.

When we drove home from the activity we took the long way home through the "secret way" gate.  I love driving on this road because it's a wide open range.

It's kind of an odd part of the fort. Many times there are cows grazing on the side of the road.  Sometimes they are even in the road.  Sometimes there are Army camps set up along the side of the road too.  I've always liked driving this way.  It's one of the things I'm really going to miss about this place.

I wish I could take credit for this idea.  But it's really my sister Lindsey's idea.  On Sunday she posted that her Monday to-do list was too long so she made it into a bingo card.  I thought that was a great idea so I turned my to-do list into bingo too.  It took me until Wednesday to get a bingo and I'm still about 4 squares away from blackout.  It's been pretty fun.

I've spent this week cleaning, and dejunking, and cleaning some more.  Sister Crockett came over on Monday to help me take back control of my house.  And I feel like I've been cleaning ever since.  I also feel like I've said, "we are trying to keep this house nice for the next two weeks - why are you messing it up?" way too many times.

I've got a week left until the movers come to start packing my stuff.  I'm feeling pretty good about everything.  We'll see how this all plays out.