A Brand New Start

Good morning, my friends!  Well, we had a fun and memorable vacation in Hilton Head, SC.  As soon as I can find a few free moments (or days!) to sit down and edit all of the pictures I took, I'll write several posts about our trip. Since we returned, there has never been a dull moment around here!  We had a surprise birthday party for my mother-in-law over the weekend in South Carolina.  She'll be 75 on the 19th.

As you can tell by the look on her face, she was blown away when she walked into the room filled with 40+ friends and family. 

 
Beyond that, I've been trying to get the girls all geared up for the start of school.  Buying school clothes for a 15 yr. old and a 20 yr. old can be the challenge of a lifetime!  I'm not kidding...I have never been so exhausted in my entire life!  Often times, what they think is cute, I just shake my head at and what I think is cute usually gets this response..."Mom...are you SERIOUS?"  I think it would be so much easier if we'd had boys!

Needless to say, today was the big day for Abby.  My alarm sounded at 5 AM...much too early, if you ask me! I walked into her room and told her it was time to rise and shine!  She didn't move a muscle!  This should come as no surprise from someone who's been known to snooze in all summer long past 11 AM. It took me about 5 tries to get her up and moving.  She made it downstairs around 6 AM, just in time to scarf down some scrambled eggs and buttered toast before the bus arrived at 6:15 AM.

I insisted on taking a picture of her as she prepared to head off to 10th grade...

Just doesn't seem possible.  You know, I've had the awesome privilege of being a mom for the past 20+ years.  However, there is one sight I don't think I'll ever get used to...watching the school bus pull away from the front of our house.  Puts a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye every single year. I hope and pray that Abby has a great start to the new school year!  Can't wait until she comes home this afternoon...I miss her already!  Brittany leaves for college on the 15th.  I'm sure that will stir up a whole new set of emotions. Just never gets any easier to say "goodbye".

I'm still hoping to get back to my regular blogging sometime after Brittany leaves.  Until then, I plan to milk every last second we have together for all it's worth!  Miss y'all!  

All Good Things Must End

Well, my girls head back to school today after being off for the holidays since Dec. 19th. Plus, Chris flies down to New Orleans and won't be back until Thursday evening. He's been on vacation since Dec. 18th. We've had such a great time together and I hate to see it come to an end.

I definitely have a lot to get accomplished today. The house needs a good cleaning, from top to bottom. With Chris and the girls at home, I've done the bear minimum in order to have ample time to spend with them. So, now that the holidays are behind us and the decorations have been put away (actually, most of them came down on Christmas Day!), I really need to get mop the floors, dust, and clean out the bathrooms, to name a few! I hope I'm up for the challenge!

Another thing I need to do is organize the girls' closets. They have some clothes and shoes they no longer wear that I need to donate. Chris and I cleaned our closet out last week and it was so therapeutic! We took a big load to Good Will and I was so happy to get rid of everything! In fact, it was the busiest day of the year for donations, New Year's Eve.

I am definitely going to hop on the treadmill and get back into my running, and I'm going to work out with my free weights. I've not been very consistent about exercising over the holidays because we've been so busy. I'm ready to get back in the swing of things! It always makes me feel so much better!

I have two books to start reading that I got for Christmas..."The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch and "The Lucky One" by Nicholas Sparks. It's been awhile since I've taken the time to get lost in a good book, so I'm looking forward to it!

Of course, truth be known, I'm going to miss having my girls and Chris home with me. It just seems like it's the natural place for them to be. I love it when we're all together! There's no feeling like it in the world! We've had such fun having numerous movie nights and challenging each other in games of Wii bowling and Guitar Hero. We're all competitive and we all like to win! It's been great not having to follow a tight schedule or a set routine. The girls and I have had tons of fun cooking and baking together, as well as going shopping. We've shared lots of laughs and made many new wonderful memories. For me, that's what it's all about...MEMORIES.

As much I as enjoy the opportunity to finally get some things accomplished around here and being able to actually hear myself think for a change without hearing, "Mommmm!" fifty times a day, one thing is for certain. I'm going to miss hearing the voices of those that I love echo throughout our house. The sounds of laughter, silliness, and, yes, even frustation are what make our house a HOME.

No, I've never really been one of those moms who says, "I can't wait for my kids to get back in school!" I know plenty of them who just count the days until their kids are off on their own and OUT OF THE HOUSE. Not me! I love having my girls around and I dread the day when it all comes to a screeching halt.

Sorry for my melancholy tone today, but I'm just trying to keep things REAL. Things are about to get crazy, again, with track season right around the corner, homework piling up, and Chris traveling 3-4 nights out of every week. Seems like we're always going here and there, with very little time to just be. Another opportunity like we've had these past several weeks won't roll back around until early April when the girls are on Spring Break. That's definitely something I'm looking forward to because we'll be taking our ski trip to Colorado! It can't get here soon enough!

I'm going to end this post with a song by Suzy Bogguss called "Letting Go". Oh, it's a "lump in your throat" kind of song, so get ready!





Have a wonderful Monday...thanks for allowing me to share what's on my heart!