Our situation in life

When I was in fourth grade, I got a taste of what was to be my academic style for a long time to come. I would be so busy enjoying the company of my classmates that I would neglect to do a solid 85% of the mandatory schoolwork that we were responsible to complete.  The classroom was set up in units and like the good student I was, I’d be sure to collect all the homework papers right away.  However, my social life was far more compelling than learning about the Pacific Ocean.  Some of the worst evenings of my life consist of each day before the unit was due. It involved me sitting at the kitchen table (where I spent a lot of time anyway because chatting during meals was more important than eating… I see a theme, but that’s a whole different story), with my parents justly hounding me about responsibility, procrastination and the like.  I would cry, they’d be upset and it was all in all an ugly scene.  The kitchen table would be covered with way too much work to do and no idea where to begin. Welcome, 9 year old, to the world of pulling all nighters.

Coming back to a blog after an unintentional hiatus is complicated.  I'm sitting at the same table and my inner fourth grader is panicking and overwhelmed with the things to write about but I have no idea where to start. A story?  Sweet moments? Milestone?  Our “Sitz im leben,” if you will? I suppose the latter would probably explain more of what’s going on all summer long than anything else so we’ll start with general information.

Backing way up for a moment; we moved to Alaska in February 2012.  We lived with my parents until September when we house sat for family friends.  We still own our house in IL so we can’t buy one here yet so in March we lined up a duplex that was being built and was on schedule to be completed June 1.  It was perfect timing!  Unfortunately, when we had to move, it wasn’t done.  We moved back in with my parents for what we thought was going to be 2 or so weeks, but we’re still here.  It’s mid August and the duplex is still not done, indefinitely. 

We are very ready to unpack our things that we haven’t seen in a year and a half.  It’s been great being able to spend this time with my parents and the opportunity to housesit was nice.  However, there is something to be said about settling down and planting a family somewhere.  To have friends over, to decorate, to host play dates, meet the neighbors and to consider entertaining the possibility of maybe, perhaps thinking of getting a small dog at some point… these are just some of the things that will feel good and family-ish.

We’re incredibly grateful to my parents for all the help they’ve given by letting us stay with them.  I know we’ve been a burden in many ways and I feel bad about it!  My kids adore them and want them constantly.  We come with a lot of toys, noise and potty, which I can imagine cramps their style a bit.  Not to mention it never fails that when my parents watch the kids, Gavin will undoubtedly do something nasty in his diaper and my parents will have to take care of it… which wouldn’t be an issue but they’re not into cloth diapering. 

My mom called me hurriedly on Friday saying that she’s found us a house! A family is withdrawing from the school where my mom works to move to California and just put their house up for rent that day. It’s similar in stats and price to the duplex that we’ve been planning on only much smaller bedrooms and with a yard.  Plus it’s a HOUSE.  She texted me the address and the phone number and we drove by then called from the driveway (can you say creepers?!) She invited us in, showed us around and we left there to go straight to her rental company to get paperwork started.  The best part is, we can move in one week from today!  No more waiting until further notice! 

We are going to see all our stuff again!  Who wants to come over?!