Busy, Busy

These past few weeks have been so busy; I can't even remember dates for things right now!

It started with some guys helping us move a ton of packed boxes and the heavy stuff from the old house to the new one. Our family had already started moving things over little by little, and I kind of liked that we were able to do that instead of everything all at once. Because we were waiting on carpet to be installed in the upstairs bedrooms and hallway, the king sized box springs and mattress were set up in the living room and Lauren slept on the couch. Evan's room is downstairs and all set up since there was no carpet downstairs needing replaced.

We ordered our carpet June 23rd and we moved into the new house the weekend before July 4th. We were told the carpet would arrive July 9th and then we would have to set up and install date, so we were expecting to not have to sleep in the living room for about a week and a half. I got a call from Lowe's whom we ordered the carpet from and was told the carpet we ordered was out of stock. They didn't know this info 2 weeks ago when we ordered it?! They told us it would not be in stock for a couple of more weeks and we would receive it the end of July and so it might not be installed until the beginning of August. Roger was furious and went to Lowe's and made them fix this problem. What they ended up doing was letting him pick out a different carpet that they made sure with the manufacturer was in stock. It happened to cost more than the carpet we originally bought, but Lowe's covered the difference in price, we still got the padding we originally picked out, and I think a better warranty than with the original order. It didn't take long at all for the carpet to arrive and an install date was arranged. We had a lot of people telling us to cancel the order and go somewhere else, but we had bought the carpet when it was on sale, and used a Lowe's 10% off coupon so we got a really great price.

The kids and I were gone to church camp in OK last week. We left Monday and returned Saturday. It was a fun week. I went last year also, but this year the camp had added an extra day onto their sessions. That meant an extra day from home, but it was worth it. It meant the different groups of kids got to spend more time at their activities during the week and they were less crowded. I so enjoyed the wave runners at the lake, and the go karts. While we were gone, the carpet was installed, Roger painted Lauren's bedroom pink, and he was able to spend two days working from home which I think he enjoyed.

While at camp, I was able to witness a huge maturity in Evan. Our children's pastor and the other adults in our group kept commenting on it also. He was making wise decisions about the kids he was hanging out with, and showing real leadership qualities. Our children's pastor said that if camp gave out a Fruit of the Spirit award, Evan would have received it. He hasn't always been this way, he's usually been a follower, but over the past year we've seen a change in him. Roger and I think a lot of it has to do with his scout troop--it's a homeschooled one that stresses leadership qualities, the fact that we do homeschool because he's not around so much junk that you experience in public schools, and not to be haughty, but part of it is the way we parent him. We are really big in not telling him what is the right thing to do or the right people to hang out with, but in trying to get him to look at things in all perspectives and making wise decisions for himself. He's doing a great job so far. He's not perfect and still has his moments, but I am very proud of him.

We've had a few moments with Lauren this past month. The first one was she and I were driving somewhere just the two of us, and you know little girls, they want to talk and talk my ear off she did! Somehow the conversation lead to if Santa Claus was real. She has been asking this recently in the past few months and I would simply ask her if she wanted to know the truth. Her answer so far has been no, so we left it at that. This time her answer was yes, she did want to know the truth, so I told her. She wasn't upset at all, she simply exclaimed, "I knew it!" Then that lead to the Easter bunny and Tooth Fairy being exposed. I am so glad this stuff is out in the open and done with. I was never thrilled that we started that stuff from the beginning and it was never our intent. I remember when Evan was almost 3, he must have watched something on tv or in a movie, or heard a friend talking about Santa and he started talking about Santa bringing him a present to us. Roger and I never brought it up to him. After the Christmas of his 3rd grade, Evan wanted to know the truth and so Roger told him. He never spilled the beans to Lauren, though.

The other moment with Lauren was just a couple of days ago. We went to the store and bought a zucchini and I made zucchini chocolate chip muffins. Lauren ate one and I told her that entire zucchini we bought was in the muffins. She said, "Yum! Now I know what a zucchini tastes like." HAHA! I told her the vegetable added moistness and vitamins but there is no way she could taste it. She was just happy to be eating a chocolate chip muffin.

We have almost everything from the old house moved over, most of our things are unpacked, and now we are starting work on the old house. Roger is working on putting up drywall on some of the rooms that have been without for a few years, and I need to start paint priming some of the rooms. The outside of the house still needs painted, but with no signs of the temps getting below 100 degrees for the next week, that is difficult and dangerous to work on. We have decided to not make the house picture perfect for the next buyers, so we are praying for the right people to come along soon who will appreciate the work we have done on this house and will accept the fact that it still needs some TLC. On top of all of this, homeschool co-op will start next month, as well as soccer practice I think. I am looking into a few different dance studios to figure out which one to put Lauren into. Evan starts middle school with a new schooling method as well and I am anxious to see how that goes.

Busy, busy, busy........

A Right of Passage

For many months now Evan has wanted to be able to mow the lawn, but we have a riding lawn mower and he just hasn't been able to safely sit on the seat and reach the brake. He begged me on Sunday to let him try again and Roger agreed. Well, he can do it now, but it's kind of funny. He has to lean his weight back against the seat (some kind of safety feature) and reach his foot just a tad for the brake. The video shows him just driving around on the machine without actually mowing, but once dad saw that he could do it, he let Evan mow a lot of the yard. You could hear the mower sputter a few times like it was about to quit and back fire a little and Roger said that's because he keeps moving around too much on the seat? I kind of do that too, so I guess now Son and I need to just try to be more still or Dad says we will ruin the engine. I'm super excited for him!