Summer Summary: We Moved

Now, for a few more details, since I haven't seen fit to blog since April, and there were several unanswered questions in my last post that now have been answered . . .

• I drove down to Alabama to pick up Luke by myself May 12.  I had a fabulous drive listening to a fascinating book on tape called Candy Bombers about the Berlin Airlift by Andrei Chersky, and the miles flew by!  On the way home the next day, it was wonderful to catch up with Luke, who had just gotten back from a Reformed University Fellowship conference down in Florida and was very tan and relaxed.  
• Nathan came home from VT sick with what turned out to be mono.  He was so miserable!  A steroid injection helped the throat swelling go down, and he recovered quickly, thank God.  
• Caleb took his first AP exam, microeconomics (got a 5, thanks to Mrs. Mc's pushing, lol)
• I finished my seventh year of being in charge of testing for our large co-op.  It went off without a hitch, but it was Micah's first time to test, and I knew he was not ready or motivated.  I was right, in that he refused to even try to read anything more than a single word, and the occasional short sentence.  He was in the 26th percentile, and believe me, I was not shocked, but i have never actually seen those numbers in front of me before, lol.  But amazingly, that is in the 4th stanine, so I sent in the results to the county--and then later in the summer, Micah decided reading was something he actually did want to do, and now he's reading his readers like a champ.  Boys!

•  Anna and Grace finished track season.  They mainly ran the 800 and the 4x400.  I think Anna would be a better mile runner, since she's such a great xc runner, but she was way more interested in the shorter distances, lol.  It was a super fun season--I love track meets!

I became a "hurdles coach", of all things at this stage of my life.  At one of the early meets, I mentioned to the coach that I thought Anna would be a good hurdler because she has a lot of core strength and because she is interested, and Coach answered, "Oh, would you be able to coach hurdles?  We have several kids interested, but no one with any experience!"  Never mind that my experience was a good 25 years ago in high school, ha! [ETA:  Okay, I actually thought about it, and it was 30 years ago, seeing as how I was married 25 years ago, and I wasn't married in high school!)  I watched youtube videos and read articles for hurdle coaches to bring it all back.  It was actually really fun, and the interested kids made great strides!  Anna ended up running the 100m hurdles several times, and the 300m hurdles just once, in the last meet, since the other meets didn't have 300m hurdles for middle schoolers.  This picture was from that 300m hurdle race, at one of the last hurdles (which is obvious because the hurdles are in a line at that point, of course . . .), so she was tired and her form has suffered.  But overall she did great, and I am excited for her to keep going in hurdles! Grace had zippo interest, lol.

•  We went on our annual Memorial Day camping trip with all our homeschooling friends.  Nathan and Luke were both able to come, which we no longer take for granted!  It is always so nice to be all together.  We drove the 2 minivans, and other friends drove our big van with our 5 kayaks, so that was a new fun activity!  
• The day after camping, Luke left to go up to WSS in PA to work as the co-boys' staff supervisor.  He also had to leave for a weekend in early June to compete with his Space Hardware Club CanSat competition team in Texas.  He had a lot of great stories from the competition, and their rocket did better than they expected when they first got down there, but he was glad to get back to WSS and the rest of the summer!  

• Jonathan got his wisdom teeth out on May 31, just 2 days before his 15th birthday!  A few weeks later in June, his jaw was all swollen and tender again on the right side, so he had to go back again for them to cut it open again until they found a little sliver of bone that had been missed and was causing all the problems.  Then they cut it even more, to make sure they got it all.  This is not an experience Jonathan ever wants repeated, lol. 

•  June 4 we drove to Ohio, both to pick up my nieces who had flown in from TX for a month, and to be there for the inspection on a house we had put an offer on without seeing!  An older couple had moved into a new house across from my parents several weeks prior, and it turned out they were moving from the tri-level in the same neighborhood, just a few streets away.  My parents told them we were interested in buying a house in that neighborhood, so a few days before they listed their house, they let my parents know.  Unfortunately, this was the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, and Bob was in VA as we prepared to go camping.  So my parents went through the house with our realtor facetiming me!  Ah, technology.  So we put an offer in, they accepted it, and we were in business!  

•  The house was small--2300 sq. ft. compared to the almost 5000 sq. ft we had in VA, but it had a wonderful back yard with nice climbing trees, and this big, leafy tree that shades the really large deck.  It also backs up to a park, which is amazing.  As long as the weather is nice, and the kids can be outside, life is very good!

•  Emily and Elia flew in, and we had time for a quick trip to Youngs before we headed back to VA with them.  

•  Most of the time, I was busy packing and trying to declutter, but we did manage to fit in a time at IFly!  The kids all did great, even Verity--except Drew.  Even though he had gone 18 months before, he balked and wouldn't go.  Of course, as soon as we gave his time away and he couldn't go--he threw a big temper tantrum and was super upset.  Ah well, may he remember this lesson later in life, lol.

•  The girls all went to Camp Caleb at WSS.  First Faith and Elia went.  It was really special because Faith's closest friends Elena and Amber went too.  I was worried about the dynamics, and that maybe they would leave out any other girl, but no, everyone got along wonderfully, and they all became fast friends with the one other girl who was there.
• Grace and Emily went the next week, and they also had a lovely time with good weather.  Caleb was there working on staff both those weeks, so it was fun to see him during the drop-offs and pick-ups.  He smashed his middle finger with a sledgehammer while splitting wood, and the rest of the summer we all watched with interest as the finger turned different shades, and the nail eventually fell off.  

•  We made another quick trip back to Ohio to close on our house and to say a sad goodbye to Emily and Elia, who had to fly home.  The van sure was quiet after they left!  They also moved this summer, to Seattle, so we're not sure how much we'll see of them anymore (but you can't say that to the girls because that will bring on immediate tears . . . thank the Lord for Facetime!)

•  The kids and I drove back to VA so Anna could go to Camp Caleb July 8.  When we picked up on Friday, we went up to Bob's sister Rose's house on the lake in NE PA for the weekend.  We rode in the boat, went tubing, and went fishing!  It was a great weekend! 

•  We also participated in the 5k to raise money for the volunteer firefighters.  Anna and Rose both won their age divisions!  In the afternoon, there was a parade with tons of fire engines and other emergency equipment for districts all around.  The kids had been looking forward to the parade so eagerly because they knew they would get tons of candy, and they did!

•  Grace got her braces off July 16!  Our orthodontist had worked to speed up the process since we found out we were moving.  He did a great job, and now she just had to wear her retainer.  The orthodontist's office said how much they would miss all the kids--but maybe they will just miss the rest of our narrow-jawed clan!  Ha!

•  The moving van finally came on July 17, our 25th wedding anniversary!  What a way to celebrate!  Bob was in Ohio, and I pulled an all-nighter the night before to finish boxing up as much as I could.  Nathan actually worked for this moving company, JK Moving, for the summer, and his experience proved incredibly valuable.  He helped me get the kitchen packed up that night, and I couldn't have done it without his help because I was so mentally done!  I highly recommend JK Moving, if anyone is looking to move from VA.  The estimator was right on, as far as weight, and they did such a good, careful job of wrapping everything and loading it all.  Nothing broke!  Plus the crew was super nice.  Nathan informed me that I should have gatorade and water ready, and not to buy pizza for lunch (because that's what everyone thinks of, but on hot, humid days, you don't want a heavy, greasy meal like pizza!).  It was approximately 1000 degrees, so I bought a sandwich platter from Costco that was well-received.  Christine watched the other kids, which was a relief to have them all out of the way.  Plus, with the doors open all day, I turned off the AC, and it was like 86 degrees in the house.  I was melting, and SOOO tired!  But I survived.  Whew!  Next year will hopefully involve a nicer anniversary celebration!

•  We drove back to Ohio July 20, and the Mc's were there to wave goodbye.  That was such a sad day!  Words can't express my thankfulness for such faithful friends.  Well, family, really!  So good thing it wasn't goodbye forever!
• The moving truck delivered our goods Sunday, July 22, and we started trying to figure out how to cram all our stuff in!  We made it mostly work, although it is tight, but our garage is definitely full too!

• In fact, we were back in VA 2 weeks after we left!  We came to say goodbye to Nathan, pack up more stuff that I just couldn't get to, watch a production of "Beauty and the Beast" that friends were performing in, and greet Luke as he came back from WSS!  Oh, and we made a trip downtown to visit the Museum of the Bible with Bob's sister Ann and her granddaughter Jasmine!  The museum was fantastic--highly recommended!  Unfortunately, I dropped my trusty almost-6-year-old iphone 5 that I got September, 2012, after toddler Micah microwaved my old Motorola one in a hotel in St. Louis.  The glass shattered, but it was time for me to get a new phone anyhow.  The old one was VERY glitchy, wouldn't turn off and on anymore, only stayed charged for a few hours, etc.  Bob and I went to Costco that night and got me an iphone 8! 

So now we are back in Ohio.  Luke drove back with us so he could pick up all his stuff, and then he drove himself down to Alabama.  We are attempting to settle in, and I at least got all the books unpacked and organized so we could start school last Monday.  We were also able to get Caleb registered for community college classes (just math and English this semester, since we weren't even sure the whole thing would work at all!), and we decided not to do anything else outside with anyone else.  It's actually been kind of a nice change of pace to not have to go anywhere in the mornings, but just focus on school here at our house.  I'm sure that will change as we get more involved over the upcoming years!

There . . . all caught up!