It's been 3 months

Yes, it has been three months since my last post. I feel bad guilty that I have not been making time for me, but when you move, have a traveling husband, birthdays to plan for and school starting, I guess that doesn't leave room for me time, though it should.

The Move
We moved back to Wisconsin on July 7, stayed in a hotel and closed on our house on July 8. The sellers were still packing at our final walk-through, which was 30 minutes before closing. I was so pissed. They left us a filthy, filthy house that we are still trying to clean and  unpack in. *sigh*

Jon's travels
Jon was gone for work from June 20-July 1, then again from July 12-July 23. This meant that we tried to do as much unpacking as we could from July 8-11, but it wasn't everything. It's not 2 months later and we still have a shitload of unpacked boxes downstairs.

The Birthdays
Oscar and Bella turned 7 on July 30. We did our usual food donation shopping, and we also did school supply shopping on the same day. Next  year, I don't think we'll be doing those on the same day. It was too much. Or, we'll do the donation shopping separate from Gus' shopping. We also chose a Bella movie and Oscar movie to watch and released balloons.

Gus turned 6 in August. We had a fun party for him in which he chose a dual theme: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Spiderman. It was mostly a big playdate with pizza and cake. We planned two activities for the child guests-one for TMNT and one for Spiderman. Each child got to practice their ninja skills by breaking karate boards. It worked out to be 3 boards per kid. The other was webslinging. We bought 36 cans of silly string and let them go wild in the back yard. I think everyone had a good time, which I am grateful for.

Lucy will be 2 next month! I can't believe it. We are having a casual, open-house style party for her the weekend before her birthday. I've sent out invitations and have gotten some responses, but I'm still waiting for a bunch of people to let me know whether or not they are coming.

School
Gus started first grade on September 1. We had a meeting with his teacher, standard protocol that each family meets with the teacher before school starts, so that helped ease some of Gus' anxiety about starting school. The first two days all of the classes lined up outside and walked in together. After that, the kids don't have to line up at all. When the doors open at 8:15am, the kids are supposed to just walk in, go to their lockers and get ready to start the day. In the newsletters from his teacher, it's stated that goal is for all kids to walk into school and to their lockers without parents by the end of September. I'm grateful that we had Gus' first grade trial week last year in Iowa, so that we were able to practice him walking in alone last year. I think without that practice, this year's transition would not have gone as well. We have had one classmate over for a playdate; I think it went well. But there is a different classmate who, yesterday, kept calling Gus a girl in the morning before class started. I don't understand why kids are like this. I talked with Gus about what to do next time, but I hate that this is even happening. On top of that, I hate that calling someone a girl is being used as an insult.

I enrolled Lucy in a "children’s activity studio offering flexible drop off activities for children 1 - 6 years old" to use when I have medical appointments. Basically, Jon doesn't have the flexibility to take off work whenever I have an appointment. When in Iowa, I had a really good friend that was a full-time SAHM and was willing to come over and watch Lucy whenever I had an appointment. We hung out a lot, too. I don't have that here in Wisconsin yet. So, I wanted a back-up for the appointments that I have that aren't Lucy-friendly. Plus, if I ever really need to get a break to do something (like 2 hours to clean out and organize the linen closet) I have a place I can bring Lucy, know that she's safe, she's being taken care of, and, as a bonus, is interacting with other kids. I have not yet used them, but I know for certain she will be going on November 7 in the morning.

Well, that's all for now. Hopefully as I work on getting a good schedule down not that Gus is in school, I'll be able to use some of Lucy's nap times to get back to writing and doing me things.