It’s over and it went just fine. Nia is now all set to be shunned by the private/home schoolers! Whatever. It’s not them that I have to worry about – it’s that our little girl makes the most of her education, no matter who’s teaching her.
Now, on to the next stressful thing we face as parents!
We are now legitimately back online! We’re going to have a new email address though so I will let you know what that is when we have it 100% finalized.
Anyway, as far as the vallesfam goes – we’ve been keeping busy this week getting ready to head back to the SAV! We’re renting a beach house on Tybee and I am just so excited to hit the road and get there! I think it’s so funny how we could have picked any beach to spend our vacation (certainly there are more luxurious and tourist-friendly areas than Tybee) but we knew going back would mean we’d get to see our very missed friends and family. That beats clear blue water and boardwalks anytime!
I just hope the Earwigs don’t eat the house while we’re gone. Maybe one will crawl over the alarm sensor and set off the alarm. That would be our luck. I’m telling you – these things are wicked. They just won’t go away. I’m seriously afraid how many we’ll come home to since we won’t be able to kill them as we see them. That’s another reason I’m so excited about our trip – NO FREAKING EARWIGS. I say that but wait – one little bastard will stow away in our luggage or something. You don’t even want to know the wrath I will unleash on it…
I need a vacation!
First Day of School
I wish I had more pictures of Nia’s first day of school to share with you but we’re still not up and running with our own internet so we have to keep all of our online activity short and simple. With that said – I just wanted to let you all know that Nia (and Mommy) did super. Even Nate handled the whole thing well.
After he and I walked her to her classroom (which I plan to do for the first few weeks of school), we ran some errands together and then came back home where we read some books and snacked. (He had Goldfish crackers and juice while I had coffee – this was the earliest I had to be up in like 10 months or something! Talk about spoiled!)
It was really nice getting to devote all my attention to Nate. He’s always had to share mommy and daddy so I’m really glad I’m able to give him some quality one-on-one time now. This first day though I felt like it was more like I was watching the clock – I really couldn’t wait for us to get back in the car and pick up the big sis from school.
Nia told me she had a lot of fun and her teacher said she was wonderful (I’m sure she tells all the parents that during the first week but it was still nice to hear). Nia said she did all the typical preschool stuff – heard stories, colored/drew pictures, ate snacks, played (and she “shared the toy doggy”)… I’m just so excited for her and all the neat things she’s going to get to do. She even got her first sticker from the teacher from being good in class – it says “100%” Nate even got a sticker today – his said “I visited the Post Office.”
You know you’ve moved to a small town when it takes a freakin’ week to get the internet! What the heck?!?! We just got it up and running and this was the first website on my long list of sites I need to visit in order to feel a sense of balance again!
Now for the difficult decision of deciding what to write about – I mean so much has happened to the Valles Fam in the last few weeks but I couldn’t possibly write about them all – like you really want to read about them and frankly I don’t want to re-live some of them. What I will share is a general idea of our lives so far –
We love our house – it’s twice the size of our old one and offers the kids tons of play space – although we still haven’t fully baby-proofed it yet (Andrew just put a gate at the top of the stairs but I know the crazy little man will try to rip it out of the wall). Our priorities are pretty odd when it comes to getting the abode together – we still have boxes to unpack and rooms to situate but we made darn sure to paint Nia’s room like a princess. Pink – Purple and Blue – When we get the camera stuff hooked up I’ll share some pics- it’s really pink but Nia LOVES it.
Andrew has to drive anywhere from 2 and a half to 3 hours a day to get to and from work right now until his company finishes the new plant that’s closer to our house. They say it will take about 6 months for that to happen. We just hope it will really only be 6 months. He seems to like working out here – I think he really likes the challenge of trying to fix something and make it better. I just have to give him the time to do that and not call him 10 times a day about the silliest things.
As for me, I’m still trying to figure out how I’m doing. Everyone keeps asking me how it’s going as a stay-at-home mom and if I’m getting the hang of it. I really don’t know how to answer that. (DISCLAIMER – please don’t take offense if you’ve asked me these questions – it’s frustrating hearing them so many times.) I mean, it’s not like the job I was used to – where I would see results at the end of the day. Right now, I just consider it a good day if zero or very few tears are shed (both from me and the kids) – I really don’t know how to gauge if I’m “getting the hang of it.” The question actually kind of angers me a little bit too – I mean what do people really think I’m going to say – “NO! I HATE IT AND I WANT TO QUIT! I WANT TO RUN SCREAMING FROM THE HOUSE SOMETIMES” Or, “Why yes, I’m an excellent mother with perfect children and I never have any issues with them. All I do is watch soap operas, Dr. Phil and Oprah and eat chocolates.” Really, all I can say is – I’m doing the best I can. Anyone that tells you it’s easy either doesn’t care that much about teaching and disciplining their children or has a housekeeper and cook. Just like any job – there are ups and downs – in this case the downs are Nia crying “I want to be nice to brother!” over and over after just pushing him down and then sitting on him – sometimes the ups come out of the downs though – for example when Nate looks at me and his sister with a smile as she continues to scream she wants to be nice to him –
I’m hoping that once we are really moved in and finished with the big house projects I will be able to have more of a routine with the kids. I’m sure that will really help us all. I’m also looking into getting Nia involved in a part-time preschool just so she can interact with others who want to color all of the time and play tea party. (As much as I love to do these things with her it’s kind of hard when there’s a 1-year-old boy standing up on a little rocking chair like he’s surfing.)
I guess I’ll just have to see what tomorrow brings and thanks to our working internet connection – I’ll get to share some of the humor (and grief) with you!
Are You Zhazha? 
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