Settling In

Whew-  this has been a busy, somewhat stressful couple of weeks.  You'd think we would be used to this moving by now.  We think it was harder to move across town then it was to move across country!

We have been packing since before mom's birthday and finally got the keys to the house on September 22 and brought our first load of stuff over.  It was night time and the first thing we heard when we opened the car door was quiet.  Then we heard crickets.  So very peaceful here compared to the other house.  The movers came on the 23rd and we spent all day finishing up packing, loading the truck, cleaning and unpacking the essentials at the new house.  Kind of the same deal on Sunday.  And Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Except during the week, you have schedule in time to actually go to work to pay for this new place.  Everyone was little fried by Friday.  The good news is we got to head up to Pine Top for a weekend camping trip.  The grown ups are riding in Tour of the White Mountains next weekend so this was a practice run.  It was mom's first time on her bike since her wipe out a few weeks ago but everything went OK.  It was a beautiful weekend with lots of relaxing.  We came home on Sunday to more boxes and unpacking.  We're hoping to be done sometime before I leave for college.

This past week was more unpacking and organizing but not as stressful and we got far enough along that we had our friend Brian and his kids come over Saturday night to watch the Wildcats embarrass themselves on national television.  Basketball season is just around the corner!  It was a beautiful night and we spent some time sitting outside, disrupting the silence with a little pool action.  Dad spent today installing our remote control gate opener so now we feel like real royalty.  Mom and I went out for a bike ride and explored our neighborhood a bit.  We found a donkey and fed it some grass and then played in the wash a little bit.  I also found an owl pellet which is basically dried up owl vomit but it has all the bones of whatever it ate all wrapped up in it.  It's super cool and I'll show it to you if you ask.  It looks like our owl ate some ride of rodent.

But.  Enough of that.  On to me!  I played in our first games of the fall softball season.  So far, this season has been chaotic with not one but two coaches not showing up so once again, a reluctant parent had to step in and take the lead.  Thankfully, he knows what he's doing but no one really had high hopes for the season.  But.  We are surprising everyone.  The first two games were last week and we lost both of those. ( I didn't play because I was in Pine Top) This week however, we won both games!!  I got to pitch an inning in each game and ended up with 5 strikeouts and only gave up two runs.  No walks unless you count the girl I nailed.  I also had three nice hits for singles and an RBI.  It was a good night!  I'll be missing next week's games as well because we will be back in Pine Top but we will keep everyone updated!

A Nice Long Weekend!

Happy Labor Day everyone!  We all had Friday AND Monday off here so we had a nice, long weekend!  

Mom celebrated her birthday last Wednesday and as usual, she took the day off work.  It was a thoroughly pleasant morning of shopping, but not really buying and eating fattening foods.  It was a good day!

On Thursday, I had a trip to the dentist for my 6 month cleaning.  The office is using this new fangled fluoride thingy that cracked mom up.  So she took a picture and that is the dental hygienist in the background making me look even sillier.

For mom's birthday, all  she wanted was a trip to IKEA so we hauled her up to Phoenix on Friday to do some wandering and idea getting.  It wasn't a complete loss of a day though because dad and I talked her into going to Dave and Buster's before hand for lunch.  We're so accommodating!

On Saturday, we met my friend Simon and his family to go bowling.  Last year, we always had fun hanging out together but this year, it turns out that Simon is a boy and I'm a girl.  So it's a little awkward.  But I had fun anyway and bowled a strike and two spares (without the bumpers) so Grandpa Vern would be proud.

On Sunday, we headed out to a friend's house for a barbecue.  I spent the whole time in the pool with all the other kids and was so tired that by the night's end I could hardly walk myself to bed.  Then I got up Sunday and did it all over again with the day spent at my friend Lily's house.  Whew- popularity is exhausting!

Now, while it sounds like it's been all fun and games around here, we have been doing some serious packing.  It's getting annoying but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  The movers come Saturday and then we get to do the process all over again but in reverse.  It will be much more fun on the back end though because we will actually have space!

And then on top of all that, we thought Ginger had ringworm, which is super gross and highly contagious.  Mom actually spent her birthday afternoon disinfecting the house and tossing old rugs and dog beds only to find out it is most likely a rash from a food allergy.  I guess that's easier to deal with the ring worm but Monkey has to stay in a cone of shame for 5 days to let every thing heal up.  Lots of fun for all involved.

Hope everyone has a great week!

This Week

So, I finished my first full week of 4th grade and so far, so good.  Not nearly as much regular homework but a few projects to do that make me have to plan my time.  This involves mom telling me what I should do and me whining about doing it later.  I do like my teacher and I listen to her a lot more than I do mom.

I also started fall softball.  First the bad news- at the parent's meeting, the league president announced that we had no coach for the season and would anyone be interested.....The only woman to raise her hand said, "I'll do it!"  And the second question out of her mouth was "Do I need to know anything about softball?"  It could be a long season.  Dad would do it but he doesn't get out of work until almost 6, so that's a no go.  Someone finally stepped forward and maybe actually knows something about the game.....  Now, the good news!  My very best friend, Claire, decided she wanted to try softball as well and she is on my team!  AND two other girls from my class are on the team too!  So much fun!

And finally, the big news!  We are moving again!!  This time, we are staying in town, just heading a bit further east.  Although we love the convenient location of our current house (everything is either walking distance or less than a 10 minute drive) we have pretty much outgrown this house.  We are not small people and we have a dog that is the size of another person so now we will have an extra bedroom, a bonus room AND a third bathroom.  As excited as we are about the house, I think we are more excited about the neighborhood.  Again, we love the location of our current house, but there are no kids for miles and miles and we are on a kind of busy street so I can't exactly race around on my bike.  In our new neighborhood, a girl from my class lives around the corner and mom keeps hearing about more and more people she knows that live there.  They have their own swim team, a major Halloween extravaganza, Octoberfest, the mom's have Porch Wine Parties (squeeeeee! says mom) and everyone drives golf carts around.  We are super excited.  The only downer is all. the. packing.  Sigh.  It's all worth it, right??!!

Have a great week!

2 Months of Fun, One Huge Blog

All right, we are back, trying this again......

I started school last Wednesday (the big 4th grade!  Can you believe it??!!) but I had a pretty awesome summer.  Last we checked in, I had just returned from an awesome week with Nana and Mr. Walker.  We have a ton of pictures and because we have so many, they are in no particular order.  I'll just talk about what we did and you can figure out which picture goes where.  Sounds like a fun game!

In July, we headed back to Ohio for the McConnell Family reunion.  Mom went back 2 days earlier to spend time with her good friend Heidi, who had just moved back to Cleveland from Stockholm.  It had been waaaaay too long since mom had been on a vacation by herself and waaaay to long since she's seen Heidi so it was fun all around.  They made the trek to Niagara Falls which was amazing and beautiful (and they issue really cool footwear there), went out for a beautiful walk in the woods near Heidi's house and spent a morning at the West Side Market which was food heaven!  

Dad and I finally showed up on Friday after a perilous journey.  We had an emergency landing in El Paso, Texas because of engine failure and weren't sure we would be able to get to Cleveland.  Dad was super upset, as you can imagine, but thankfully, the airlines found a way to get us there.  The funny thing is Nana D, Mr. Walker, Uncle Adam, Aunt Erin and the kids had arrived about 4 hours earlier but by the time they got everything situated to actually leave the Cleveland Airport, we were just about landing.  It's always fun traveling with the Walker's!  We had a great time catching up with Grandma, visiting with family.  Mr. Walker and mom ran in the Wellington Cheese Festival 5K and finished at the same time- and mom was working hard at it.  Once again, the Wellington Cheese Festival had no cheese but there were bounce houses so I was good.

We finally recovered from that and then the second week in August, we headed out for our summer vacation.  We took our trusty RV up the coast of California for 8 days and had a really good time.  We were still talking to each other at the end of the whole thing, so that is a good sign.  We started of in Disneyland because we can't miss the 60th Anniversary celebration you know!  After a day and half there, we headed up the coast to Santa Barbara.  Our RV park was right across the street from the beach and we had a great time there.  We went horse back riding which I loved.  Mom and dad had about a thousand other things they would rather be doing but they were troopers.  Even when mom's horse decided it didn't like the water and bolted up the beach every time a wave came in.  Good times......

We also spent a day boogie boarding.  I had the best time ever and mom and dad had a good time too but could barely move the next day.  I have decided I want to be a professional boogie boarder.  Do they make those?

After that we headed up the coast to San Francisco.  We spent a day at Alcatraz.  I was told that it was entirely possible for me to be left there and the doors locked behind me if I wasn't good.  Once we got back to the mainland, we walked for miles and miles eating Ghiradelli chocolate and sour dough bread as we went.  We came home with three loaves and they are soooooo good.  We also spent a day at Muir Woods.  It was insanely crowded but so, so beautiful and surprisingly peaceful.  We really enjoyed that day as well.  We couldn't have asked for better weather while we were there- upper 70's and clear blue skies.  It was a wonderful trip and we are already making plans to find another beach to camp out at next summer.

I started school last week and so far, so good.  I love my teacher and it was great to see all my friends again.  Check back in a few weeks and we'll see if I'm feeling the same!

  Day 1 of the vacation-  all smiles heading out for our RV adventure!

Dad and I on the beach because mom's horse wouldn't go near the water.

Getting buried in the sand at El Capitan Beach.

Needs no description!

Boogie boarding!

Dad built me a castle and that is our $15 umbrella that we snagged at the gift shop.  Not bad, eh?  Oh and we also got cool $12 beach towels at the CVS in town.  Good trip!

We made a stop at mom's favorite brewery for lunch and picked up some good beer, in the process.

On the trip to Alcatraz- mom spent the whole trip waiting for the earthquake.

The Muir Woods

San Francisco from the boat.

First day of fourth grade.

Mom's newest adventure was taking mountain bike lessons from her friend Edy who is a pretty stellar rider.

Mom did really well until her second time down this hill. She skidded out and bounced down the hill on her right side.  She survived but her shoulder is a little wonky.  We may have to amputate...

And finally, we had a huge rainstorm come through and flooded our back yard.  We (meaning dad) unclogged some wall drains and we got to draining.  It's all better today.

  Nana and I starting out on our 1 mile fun walk at the Wellington Cheese Festival

At the 5K with Mr. Walker

Niagara Falls with Heidi

Our really awesome foot wear courtesy of the state....

The West Side Market

And that's our 2 months in a nut shell!  Hope you have a good week!