Still Here

(pages from the bottom of my post, having an issue with blogger, so they are out of order)

Hate that I haven't been blogging lately. I guess in the past 10 days there has been so much more to do than normal. Just getting the house set up has been a major adjustment, downsizing from three bedrooms to two has been, well, interesting, to say the least. I really do like our new place, but I'm thankful that it's temporary. We've still got a good bit of square footage (just under our house in Baytown) but it seems to be ate up in hallway, stairs, closets, and bathrooms. I just laugh that it's a 2 bedroom, 3 bathroom place with a tiny living/dining area. We do feel a bit in each other's space because of that, I think, but it's temporary and we've made it very homey.

(yep, that's really the corner of the table in the edge of the photo, and I'm standing in the 'office' area to take the pic)

Eli's doing great with school and the adjustment over all. He makes friends extremely easily (what a gift for a pastor's kid) and loves his class and teacher and school already. Sarah has really struggled with an attitude, and is having a difficult time finding her place (at the center of attention) in a class of 22 rather than her gifted class of 8 before. She's been acting out a lot, escalating even from what she was doing during our separation from Daddy, which seemed pretty dramatic to me.

This morning she pitched a hugenormous fit over wanting to change her clothes at 7:27 (school starts at 8). I wouldn't allow it, we pick out clothes the night before to prevent that very sort of behavior. Screaming and hollering persisted. (on her part, not mine) Well, I'm not cool with this behavior at all, and now we share walls with neighbors, who I'm sure do not apreciate a toddler-sized screaming fit at that hour. So this afternoon she wrote "I will not yell." ten times. and if she does it again, she'll be writing it 10 times and a note to each neighbor to apologize. She also has lost choosing privileges on clothes and hair until her behavior rights itself. The power of individual choice seems to be Sarah's greatest currency.

Anyway, here's her writing her sentences. She did not appreciate me taking her photo, but I haven't camera-ed in forever and it's killing me!!

I also nabbed a couple of each kiddo in my new ATP prop chair. Now if I could just get some San Antonio clients to set in it. :) I say that, but I haven't produced any effort thus far. I feel like I'm just getting adjusted, and the older I get (gulp, 31 hit me last week like a ton of bricks and out of no where) the slower my adjustment period is to these dramatic life changes.

I am, though, extremely grateful to be here. I feel like Rob and I are reconnecting, our family is righting itself back on it's axis of God and church and ministry and togetherness. I'm learning the area and beginning to explore things on my own. I'm still praying about direction as far as employment and/or photography and really wondering what the summer is going to look like. Definitely going to miss LGA this year. :(

Ok, that's enough for now. Pray for Sarah please. And thanks for hanging on through this transition, I know it was a toughie. Just be glad you only had to read about it. :) The past 9 months has been one of the more difficult season of my life, and I'm thankful it's wrapping up. (we close on the 3rd, so then it is over and San Antonio is the place)

On a lighter note, I squeezed in about an hour of scrapping with Lori this afternoon. She's almost 9 months pregnant, so I ignored the screaming needs of our home-settling projects and played for a bit, it felt good and I find myself scheming as to when I can get back to it. Got three pages done..