Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Officially Official

Upon moving to Virginia, I tried really hard to be all legal and get myself a VA license fairly quickly after we moved. This, for me, was quite odd because even though I had lived in Washington, Ohio, Idaho, Utah, and then Washington again, I had never had anything other than a Washington license. I had pretty much refused to get an Ohio one because I heard I would have to take the drive test again. No thanks! And in Idaho and Utah I considered myself a student (because I was!), so when I went back to Washington to visit my parents, I just renewed my license there . . .

Anyway, I digress.

Well, I did not know how difficult it would be to get the appropriate documents that VA demanded in order to get my license. It took me almost 2 years of living there before I finally bothered, and that was only because my WA license was about to expire! But now, after less than 2 months being back in WA, I am officially a Washington Resident once more. I've got my license and I'm registered to vote and everything! Go me! Plus I got my old license number back, which makes me super happy because I've had it memorized for years. Now all that is left so far as paperwork and what not goes is registering the car. It's strange to have such a short list of "things to do."

As far as everything else goes, things are pretty much the same. Soren is busy and getting settled in his new routine. The only thing he doesn't like is the early bed time and early awake time. He's like his dad that way! Alan is still truckin' away with his commute and working hard for us. And I'm here at home, taking care of my web design stuff as well as all of the odds and ends that are a result of moving across the country. It's odd having time. It's even more odd being able to spend an entire day at home without needing to leave the house for one reason or another. I've still not adjusted, can you tell? Haha!

Hopefully one of my future posts will include some pictures of the beautiful place we are living. Maybe I'll even have my mom take a pic of me doing something that is now everyday for me - COOKING! I have to say, I miss Alan's cooking a lot.... but we are somehow surviving on what I dig up for dinner each night.

Ok, the clock is ticking and Soren will be home soon. This means I need to steal myself an afternoon nap before the afternoon is gone!

Friday, September 19, 2008

Failure to Update

Why is it that when you have no time and life is crazy, you find time to update blogs/journals/etc. but when life is a little slower paced, you just feel like there is nothing to say and/or you don't bother to update even if fun things are happening?

Well, that might not be YOUR problem, but it's certainly mine!

If I am in the throngs of chaos, I have to sit down for a few minutes and update my blog. When things are moving at a slower pace, nothing gets done. Maybe that's why I enjoy chaos so much? It motivates me to get things done!

So here's the latest:

-Soren is enjoying his new school, new teacher, and new classmates more each day. He is doing well in school, has decided to join the school band (playing trumpet), the school choir (they have a music festival in mid-November), the chess club, the safety patrol, and was accepted into the EXCEL program, which is like a gifted program but they don't call it that. On top of all of that, he will also be resuming piano lessons soon, starting basketball, and continues to be involved in Cub Scouts as a Webelos this year. Is he busy? Yes. Overprogrammed? Probably. But right now I want him to involved in as much as possible so he can figure out for himself what he likes and what he doesn't. Also, it will assist in making friends. However, this does mean we need to get him to bed much earlier each night as his days will be long. The good news? Thus far he has had practically nothing for homework in comparison to what he came home with in Virginia.

Aside from all of that, he is getting more and more excited for the arrival of his little sister. He talks to her everyday and tells me how much he loves her and how she is HIS baby. I laugh and remind him he is much to young to have his own baby and that this is his baby sister. And she will only ever have him for a big brother and she is so lucky!! He has also had the chance to go on two field trips for school already! Both of them involved the beach - so that was awesome for him. Today, however, he is home sick with the first school-germ-generated cold of the year. And he has sweetly passed that on to me. What an angel....

-Alan is still working and commuting. We get to spend a little time with him each night, but we have become early sleepers in comparison to our late nights we'd have back in Virginia. Now it is pretty unheard of for us to be up past 10:30pm - unless it's a basketball night! Alan is looking forward to joining the community rec center here so he can go play ball whenever he wants! Soren and I agree that this would be awesome because while daddy plays ball, we can invade the pool! And our Little Bean will be able to have the chance to swim, too - just like her big brother did when he was a baby!

Alan is also our Mr. Fix-It. He's had lots of projects since moving in with my parents and will continue to have more since my dad had surgery last week and is out of commission for 10-12 weeks. So Alan has become the lifter, mover, fixer, and all-around awesome guy to have around! I'm sure lucky that, in the end, he's mine!!!

-And then there was me! I'm trying to take it easy while I can, but it's hard to sit still sometimes. Ok, it's hard to sit still MOST of the time! I do have a 7 month pregnancy belly slowing me down a bit, but I am not fond of all the sitting I've been doing lately. Once I'm over this cold I am going to start walking everyday, especially since the beautiful fall weather is settling in. I can't wait for some nice little rain showers!

I finally found a doctor that I think I am going to be ok with! I have my first appointment with him in a couple weeks (he's really booked!) and am looking forward to meeting him and having him check on our Little Bean. I have heard fabulous things about this doctor and the recommendation comes from one of the few people in the medical field that I trust and love (yes, I said LOVE!). My next big project is getting a in-state license and getting the car registered. I think that will just about wrap up all the paperwork and nonsense we have had to do to get settled.

So, life is good. We love it in the Northwest, but continue to talk about and miss our friends in Virginia. Some good news? Alan is working for an airline. Yes, his company is considered an AIRLINE company. Do you know what that means? Oh yes, my friends, it means perks. Which means that I will for sure be flying out to Virginia in the spring to visit my sweet friends and show off our little princess. Until then, though, I am grounded - third trimester travel isn't exactly encouraged and there is no way I'm getting on a plane with a newborn. Nope, we'll be waiting until the spring. And then after that? Well, goodness.... we have a lot of options opened to us for vacations now! Any recommendations? Hee hee!

I'm off to nap now. I so need to get rid of this cold!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Settling In

I am sitting here in our 'new' room. On MY bed. Watching MY TV. With MY TiVo box. I have been sleeping much better - in fact, I think we all have - and it's wonderful! I did have some trouble night before last because I was worried about Soren's first day at his new school, but (aside from the frequent visits to the bathroom) otherwise sleep has been much better. I love my bed.

As you might be able to tell, sleep is very important to me and my sanity. I didn't realize this until I stopped getting a fairly normal night of sleep. Hopefully I'll be able to manage through the first few months of a new baby without growling at everyone around me because I didn't get a full night of sleep. Soren was sleeping 5-6 hours straight when he was 6 weeks old. I doubt I will be that lucky twice!

It's all worth it, though. So I will do my best to keep from complaining when the lack of sleep increases! And I will cherish the mostly uninterrupted sleep I'm getting now!

In other news, Soren started school yesterday and he was very nervous about it - even if he didn't want to (and may never!) admit it. After 4 years at his old school, he's having trouble with the idea of a new school, new friends, new teachers, etc etc which makes sense to me. So I'm trying to be sympathetic and understanding, but also telling him to suck it up and deal a bit, too! Yesterday went ok - he seems to like his teacher, he's met a few kids that he seemed to get along with, he really enjoyed a science forum they had . . . but he talked a lot about the differences, as well. He misses his old school, but I'm hoping in a few weeks he'll have settled into the new routine and be ok.

Alan's new job continues to be challenging, busy, different, but good. He's learning a lot and feeling confident in his skills. While the commute isn't a dream for anyone in the family, he's handling it fabulously. I will admit, though, I miss having him cook fabulous meals for me almost every night. I hope my family survives on my cooking. One thing I think Alan is enjoying is the amount of projects there are to take care of around my parent's home. While he needs to rest for a while after work and I don't mind at all letting him sleep in on the weekends, it's nice for him to have things to work on. Alan's always loved to work with his hands, so these projects are great for him! It's also prepping him for when we move into our own place and I have a nice list of things for him to do! Haha!

As for me, I am trying to adjust to a less -busy schedule. Truthfully, it's just strange right now. I'm watching way more TV than I have in years. I'm getting all the laundry done in one day instead of dragging it on for days and days. I've even managed to make my bed a time or two. Boredom is going to set in soon - I already feel it nipping at me. But I know that in a few months, I will be anything BUT bored. Luckily I have all of my scrapbook stuff here at my mom's, so I will be able to do some of that while we wait for Little Bean to join us.

Speaking of Bean, she is hungry. So I'm off to find something to munch on.