april 14. 2009
So last week, we had fun playing at a park and the girls rode bikes around the park with friends. We went bowling at a fun place called 300 Atlanta, which was a very uppity bowling alley. I mean, there were Range Rovers and so forth in the parking lot, and little did we know that “Young Money” would be showing up! Yeah, we didn’t know who that was either, but apparently, the rest of the people at the bowling alley did, and he even had his own guy to film him-fancy! It was a fun, eventful, cultural event for sure:) Last Thursday, we spent the whole day getting clothes sorted and put away and hung up(worst part about unpacking-no reward in hanging and folding clothes, unlike putting furniture out and hanging things on the wall, at least you can see the fruits of your labor from that!) Friday, Madison invited a friend, and me and five girls ventured to the Atlanta Zoo, which by the way, is practically fully covered with tree cover, so you’re walking in the shade, which was wonderful! It’s a beautiful zoo, and we had such a wonderful afternoon, and we were excited to see Jarom not long after we got home from that venture. My amazing husband totally supported the idea of me hosting a “Girls Night In” at our home, and as soon as he got home, spent a few hours looking for remotes and wires to hook up the tv for us to watch our movie:) What can I say, the man’s amazing! It was so much fun getting to know these girls, and all the experiences we can bring and share together. 7 people including myself was a pretty good turn-out, thanks of course to my good friend Carolyn-she’s the very fun and social friend we hang out with a lot. Have you ever met a friend that makes you feel like you are BFF’s, and she’s like that with everyone? She’s just so much fun to be around, you don’t care that she has other BFF’s! Saturday, Jarom and I took the girls to Stone Mountain(largest piece of granite in the world I believe-it goes something like 7 miles down into the ground, and some amount of miles above the earth-o.k.-small details to remember when you’re up in the air in a cable car hoping you don’t plummet to the earth!), and it’s got a lot of family fun things to do, so we took a Cable Car up to the top of the mountain, and hiked down with the girls. It was great! Jarom and I took the girls home—made a quick dinner for them, and we went on a fun date to the Movie Tavern-where you order food restaurant style, and they serve it to you while you watch the movie. Let’s just say, I never want to visit a regular movie theater again. Why not pay $3 more than a large popcorn you’d get at a “regular theater”, and actually have a delicious salad or burger and fries, or yummy food? Just sayin’! We had a great Sunday, being our second in our ward, getting to know names and faces better, and then Jarom tried to get a few things done, like move boxes out of his closet so he could get in to get a few things, and then move all the boxes out so I wouldn’t have to walk around them all week-and then he drove up to Ohio in one of our cars so he doesn’t have to keep getting a rental and save us some moolah! Way to go hubby! The girls and I started school Monday-which, having fibro, sometimes we don’t make enough cortisol to handle stress, and let’s just say, I didn’t handle the pressure and stress of a whole new curriculum and feeling like we had to get all the subjects done in the same day- very well. But these past two days have gotten a lot better. Tuesday we did school for almost 8 hours-yes, from 8:30 to 4:00. That’s what happens when you are figuring out a new system, and it’s day 2. Today, Day 3, we got school done in about 3 1/2 hours. We love it so much, it’s a curriculum that addresses all three learning styles…it’s an amazing curriculum delivered via computer, workbooks, and hands-on, everyone is so happy and enjoying it. This evening, the two older girls, Alex and Madison, went to their first Activity Days here tonight, and loved it. They came back to the car talking about all the girls their age and who they had met, and were so excited about all these “new” friends. It was so hard in WV, just not a lot of girls their ages, so we all are so thrilled with the possibilities! That’s our family ventures for this past week-except, I haven’t included a lot about the funny things Nadia says-like me teaching Madison and Camden how to say “pro-ba-bly”, insteady of “pro-bly”, and them rehearsing it, and a few second later, Nadia says, “pro-ba-bly”. She follows me around, and will say, “Hold you!”, which makes me feel totally guilty knowing I need to spend way more time holding her and spending time with her, so I’m glad she’s there to remind me! She’ll say a lot of “I want…” “I want a snack!”, or things like that come out, so I’m trying to teach her, “May I please have…” She catches on rather quickly, and sometimes will just say it politely on her own! If I pop my knuckles(bad habit from childhood), she’ll say, “Mommy, don’t do that!” Little sweet Nadia, she’s so stinkin’ smart, talks so well, and even plays our “slug bug” games with us when we’re in the car and argues that “she got it!” So much fun, these girls are a joy! We feel so blessed to be a family with each and every one of them.

We took a dive, sold our home in February, and was packed and moved the middle of March. Since Jarom is traveling, we just needed to live by an airport at this point. Where should we go? We felt very inspired to move to Georgia. Lots and lots of reasons started mounting in our minds, and we knew it was the right thing.

We spent two weeks in the Peck’s home(Jarom’s cousin), which is gigantic, and very nice with an indoor pool. We were waiting for our home to have some work completed(new construction), and moved in on March 29th. Life has been crazy, as Jarom “visits” us on weekends, and flew to WV to get the house packed up with the movers on the 28th, and then he flew back to his job Monday, and I unloaded with the movers in Georgia on that same Monday. We have had one wonderful experience after another though.

First off, the two weeks we were in the Peck’s home(Jarom didn’t visit that weekend, remember, because of movers), every single girl got sick, including me, and we all had our turns throwing up, except for Camden. It was so nicely spread out across two weeks too. Madison had to go to the emergency room for gashing her head on the rocks near the pool. We went on a couple of super fun field trips, including the Natural History Museum, and the Teaching Museum with lots of wonderful history. We also met a lot of wonderful people in our new ward the Sunday before we moved in, and they had meals to us all week, which was amazing to have! We also went to Piedmont Park in Atlanta(we live about 7 miles from the city), where it’s 6-8 acres of park, trees, trails, a pond, and an outdoor amphitheater where they do outdoor movies and concerts. We went with a family we just met and love, and had a spectacular time.

We enjoyed seeing Jarom Easter/Conference weekend, it had been two weeks, and we have missed him tremendously. We got the two other trucks full of our stuff April 5th(yesterday), a week after the first, and we are just about done unpacking! 8 days to unpack has got to be a record for me. As I was with the movers for a long time yesterday getting things where they needed to go, our sweet neighbor came over, who was watching her grandchild, played with my girls in our backyard, then went grocery shopping, and had the girls over for lunch, while sending my lunch over to me while I was working. Even though Jarom isn’t able to be here to unpack, the Lord has sent and inspired so many wonderful people to help us with meals, and play with the girls. It has been so great!

We are loving this area, and a new start. We are hoping and praying that Jarom will be able to find a job local after this current 4 month contract in Ohio, but for now, we are constantly grateful and know and have felt the Lord’s hand in all that we have done and are doing.

So here’s to starting school next week with the kids, learning a whole new curriculum called K12, more fun field trips and a whole new area to explore! Pictures will be posted eventually, they are on a computer that’s not hooked up-and they just need to be transferred to my mac already! But they’ll be coming!