Forgotten

Basically, once school started, I abandoned my "Instagram-a-day" project that I took on for the summer.

Don't act surprised.  You knew that was coming.

Me too.

Alas, I am still snapping pics.  Now, I will throw all those pictures into one post and call it "Blogging".

Here are my sweeties on the first day of school:

I can't get over how old they look!  My Little Man is clearly going to pass up his sister in the height department soon.   Considering she's in the 4th grade, that's one big first grader!  They both had a great first day and first week.  It was the honeymoon phase, and I knew it.  I soaked up every second of them telling me about their teacher, how fun it was to reunite with friends, and even the school lunches were raved about.


The first week was only three days.

We are in the second week now, and the honeymoon is over.  Homework has been assigned,  they're already tired of their lunch choices, and they've realized that recess isn't hardly enough time to get in all the socializing they want to do.

Meanwhile, just when I think that The Little Man is all grown up and ready to pick out a major, I see this before school:

 What? You don't know what that is?  It's me trying to sneak in a picture of my boy playing Legos before carpool comes.  I suspect he is laying down because it's a little early for a kid who was used to waking up about an hour and a half later just a mere few days before.  Nevertheless, my heart was warmed to see him still being a little kid again.

I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself with the whole "My youngest is now in school all day, and I have no more babies at home" thing.  Sure, I squeezed out a few tears.  Hey! It's the beginning of a new era...which means an old era has finished.  That's sad...and happy.  However, go back to about the April time frame of this year, and I was a bawling mess just thinking about it.  Like I said in my previous post, by the end of this summer, we were all ready to head back.  This helped me keep it together.

So, what did I do with some of my "free time" (haha, right), I went and got a hair cut! It was pretty nice to not have to arrange childcare or to be in a rush  because I had to pay said child care.  So, I just sat back and got a trim.  Then...I had them chop me up some bangs.  I haven't sported bangs since about the tenth grade, so it's taking some adjustments on my end, but I feel like they're workin' for me.

Self-portraits ALWAYS make you look your best, right?

 That weekend, we all went into party mode.  I went to a ladies retreat, The Hubs had a date with a golf course (and some clients), and the kids made an appearance at their cousin's third birthday.  I snuck away from the retreat to see how things were going in birthday party-ville.  They were holding up just fine in the foam pit:

On the way home from the retreat, I was given this beautiful gift:

 Honestly, it was so beautiful, I literally had tears in my eyes.  I was a little tired from our weekend, but also I was (am) so blown away at what a good God we have.  He doesn't have to make our world so beautiful to look at, but out of His great love for us, and because He is so good, we get these types of gifts.  Amazing.

Earlier, this week, I got to go for a hike with my very pampered dog niece.  Here she is sporting her hiking boots.  Yup, she's smiling.  Just like most women, she loves a good pair of shoes.

Finally, today was the beginning of our latest construction project.   The back yard.  We've been in this house for almost nine years now.  The backyard has been totally neglected since we've moved in.  I mean TOTALLY FORGOTTEN.  Remember how our deck fell off the house?  Ya.  After we replaced the deck this spring, it really made the rest of the yard look horrible, at best.  All summer we've talked and planned, and talked, and planned.  Finally, out of nowhere, we got brave and pulled the trigger.  The crew showed up  this morning (after making the decision only yesterday), and started getting to work.

And it got "Real".  Real fast. 

There's no turning back now.

I hope to have some "after" photos soon!  Stay tuned...