Its been awhile...

I had every intention of adding another post before this, but just hadn't gotten to it until now. Again, we had a lot going on lately. Last weekend we attended a camp-out with our church. Now I'm not a camping kinda gal, and in fact we didn't spend the night. Honestly we live too close to the campsite to NOT come home for a hot shower and comfortable bed. However, we had a wonderful time and I fully intend to spend the weekend at the campsite next year. The boys had an absolute blast. On Friday night we had a low country boil. For you northerners this is shrimp and/or crab legs, smoked sausage, potatoes, corn on the cob, onion and peppers just boiled together in a big ole pot. I did not partake because its a bit too spicy for my sensitive stomach, but I heard it was pretty awesome! On Saturday Mom and the boys headed to the campsite early while Tim and I stayed behind and made cupcakes, then headed out a little later. The boys were in the water (our campsite was right on the lake, Gorgeous!) for 6 straight hours. Fishing, boating, jet skiing, just playing in the water with their friends.

• We had a fantastic dinner at camp Saturday night with Jeff making some delicious dishes. I'm still craving teriyaki chicken wings and I've already made the black eyed pea dip. So yummy! We wrapped up the camping weekend with church at the campsite on Sunday morning. How amazing it was to look out over the lake as we sang and Terrin gave his sermon. The whole weekend was just fantastic!

• This week Tim started his new job at Coke. The job is going well for him. The boys and I missed him a lot on Thursday as he left the house at 4:30 am and didn't return home until 8 pm due to a late meeting. Thankfully that isn't typical.
  
• Also this week, the boys started football practice. We are going to be crazy busy running two kiddos to opposite ends of town for practice and games 4 days a week for the next few months. They both really enjoy it and are doing well, so very much worth it. Chase, appropriately enough, plays for the Steelers!
  
• This week my mom found a space to open her new store "The Ritzy Roost." I am so proud of her and just so excited! Its something she has always wanted to do and it just finally fell into place. The store will be an upscale furniture consignment as well as will have booth space for vendors to rent to display their own merchandise. I am going to be one of those vendors! I'm really excited about this. This also has been something I've always thought about doing, but it never seemed right. I'm planning to carry more shabby/cottage chic items. Some new items, a lot of old lol! Tim has already been busy planning some things to make as regular merchandise.
  
• To wrap up the week, we are expecting the arrival of my Dad and Connie tomorrow afternoon for a short visit. Looking forward to showing them around town and I know the kids are anxious to see Mimi and Pap.
  
• So with that said, I am headed to bed early tonight. Stay tuned...

Peace

• So you may have noticed that I have changed the title of my blog a couple of times already over the past couple of days. Well its about to change again. I have been searching for a name that represents our family, the place our family is at at this point in our lives, and also my love for home decorating (which we all know I will be incorporating into the blog once we find that "perfect" place). I have finally decided on "Peace At Home." It just works. I believe that we are finally at a place in our lives where we are all finding peace. Over the past few years we have experienced a lot of unrest. We had deaths and illness in the family. We had financial unrest. We had just weren't sure of our place. Finally we decided to put it in God's hands and see what happened. So here we are in Georgia. We took a leap of faith or maybe not, maybe we just knew it was what needed to happen. Since moving here we have spent so much quality time with Mom, Larry, & Kyle. We've met some wonderful people, and have become a part of an amazing little church group. This is not to say that our move was without stress. We still have stress, we're human. We just have a lot less of it now. We are slowly but surely learning to give up control and let God take over as was intended. We are At Peace.

• That's it for tonight. I have lots to update on, just haven't found the time yet. Stay tuned!

Lots of updates

• Well first things first, I think I fixed my blog layout so that its readable again. Its not exactly how I wanted it, but it'll do for now.

• So the first day of school has come and gone. So far so good. The boys really like it and everyone at Hillcrest has been wonderful thus far. There are so many things that are different than what we are used to in PA. One thing that is pretty much exactly the same is the dreaded fall fundraiser. Ugh... The items that we are selling this year are of much better quality and selection than NLH, but its the same old song and and dance as far as the "Mega Event" goes. If the kiddos sell "X" amount of items they are eligible to attend the Inflatable Event." Of course we'll make sure this happens, but that means selling our butts off this year as we have 2 kiddos to send this year.

• As I said, school seems to be going great. Ian has a lot of homework already. Tim and I both can't believe how much they kids here are expected to know. Thankfully, my brother Kyle has been an awesome help to Ian. He spent a few hours last night going over Ian's math with him and they are back at it again already this afternoon. Chase got his "site words" before kindergarten even started. I'm sure he'll do great, he's very eager to learn. Today when I picked them up from school and explained to Chase that he only had two more days until the weekend, he said "aww well I don't really care about the weekend, I love school, that's why I want to be there all the time!" Gotta love that! They are both making lots of new friends and even have a few here in our neighborhood. One of the most interesting and exciting things about our new school is that the parents are encouraged to stop into the classrooms anytime to visit. I can walk the boys to their classrooms in the morning without buzzing in or signing in at the office. All my girls from PA reading this, hold your horses.... I've signed up for the PTO! I know, I know but I figured I'd try to get as involved as possible and try to participate more in the school activities, at least until I start working again :)

• We started attending a new church two weeks ago and like it very much. We are blessed to know the people there and are so thankful for all of their support. Check it out online if you get a chance www.familylifefellowship.net.

• And for the most exciting news of the week, Tim got a call today in regards to a big interview he had earlier this week. He is now an employee of Coca Cola! We are all very proud of him!

• I'm off to prepare for dinner and ice Tim's celebration cake!

• Hopefully my blog layout will not stay this way. I was trying some new designs and now its just stuck like this. I'm not sure what I did or how to remove it yet. All I do know is that its entirely too late tonight to worry about it any longer. Kids first day of school tomorrow! Gonna be a looong day!

Woah what a day!

• We had two major events happening today in regards to the boys. Early this afternoon my Mom and I took the boys to the Rec Center to register them for football. For Chase, this year and next will be regular old flag football with the exception of MANY more practices a week. However, for Ian this year will mean an "evaluation day" and following that "the draft." Now this isn't (and I mean no offense at all here) your regular old "Mo-Valley YMCA flag football." Nope, they take their football seriously here in the south. I'm excited I must say. I have absolutely no doubt that Ian will do fantastic. The kid is a powerhouse. He is a bit reserved and shy until he gets comfortable, but look out after that! Chase is chomping at the bit to get involved in sports. He is so high energy and an incredibly tough little bugger as well. Starting in a few weeks until the end of September we will be very busy bees around here, buzzing from one 2-hour practice to another, but we'll love every minute of it I'm sure!

• Also on the agenda today was "meet the teacher day" at the boys' new school. What an experience. First of all, was the dreaded paperwork. Instead of getting the big packet of information and forms to fill out sent home with your child after the first day of school, you complete these forms at the school before being assigned to your teacher. Filling out paperwork for one child is plenty of work, but paperwork for 2 kids means entering into a whole other realm of hand cramping, lol. After the forms were complete we paraded around the cafeteria from station to station (much like back "home") making sure all forms were completed and signed off on. Finally, we made it to the "teacher assignment" table. There we found out that Chase, entering kindergarten, would have Mrs. Batchelor and Ian, entering 4th grade, would be assigned Mrs. Roper. We met with the teachers and visited the classrooms. Both teachers were very nice and we met some wonderful people today. The school is great. Much larger than we are used to, but packed full of great and helpful people. I honestly did not see anyone today without a smile on their face. I am very comforted by this and the fabulous faculty we met today. One of the things that happens here that we are not used to in Pennsylvania is the posting of the "required school supply list." This list is broken down into grade levels and includes supplies necessary for each student as well as an "optional but not necessary" list to be purchased by parents and sent with your child to school on the first day. Now most of us moms know that it really isn't necessary for us to send in anything other than the required items,(Lord knows we're busy enough), but we will most definitely send every darn thing on that list! Can't hurt right :) All in all a great day (except for that family trip to the grocery store where my mom and I ended up gathering the groceries while Tim dragged hyped-up kids out to the car to wait, lol).

• We ended the day with a nighttime dip in Ohmi & Pop's new pool, relaxing with some refreshing adult beverages (grown-ups only of course!).
  
• Stay tuned to tomorrow's blog post, hopefully with pictures. Ian is getting his hair cut off... his request. Could prove interesting...

Almost time...

• For the start of a new school year! Four days to be exact. I can't believe we've already been in Georgia for almost 3 weeks and the boys start school at the end of the week. Chase will be starting kindergarten this year, so it will be an entirely new experience for him. I think he'll love it. Ian is a typical 9-year-old with a love/hate relationship with school. Just hoping for really great teachers for both of them to hopefully ease the transition.

• As the days go by Tim and I are both getting more acclimated to the area, learning what is where and how to get there. The one thing we all are loving is the weather! For those of you who know me well, you know that I am ALWAYS cold. So I love being able to walk out into the sunshine and feel instant warmth. It is strange to walk OUT of the house to get warm (central air everywhere here), but its wonderful.

Tonight we enjoyed a lovely dinner with our neighbor Miss Sue, a true Southern Belle. She has been a blessing to my Mom, Larry, & Kyle, and is proving to be one to us as well. Chase has really taken a liking to her, inviting her outside after dinner to "watch him ride his bike." Priceless!


Well I think that's about it for today. Again, I will continue to try to update daily, but at this point it might be more like several times a week, lol.


Goodnight!