The road before us

It's been an interesting and emotional week. Austin has a new job! He officially starts tomorrow, June 1, with the Georgia Department of Defense, as a CATM Instructor. (Basically that's the Air Force's very fancy way of saying he's a Weapon's Expert!)

What all that means is that life is about to change for us. Because he's leaving the fire department, and Baldwin County in general, he will be moving from shift work to a regular 9-5 kind of job. Which is great! But with the greatness comes a fruit basket turnover....in other words, major changes.

Austin has kept Jonathan and Annah at home on his off days since they were born. That will no longer be possible. Our wonderful babysitter (who is like a mother to me, and a grandmother to all of my children), for a variety of reasons, isn't able to keep them full-time; so they'll be starting a real daycare Monday morning. We'd already planned to put Annah there full-time in August, when Jonathan starts pre-K, so it wasn't hard to get her enrolled a bit earlier. They have plenty of summer slots open, so taking Jonathan wasn't an issue either. What is the issue is that Annah has never been around other kids her age. I'm not sure how she'll handle it. Heck, I'm not sure how I'LL handle it! I don't worry about Jonathan...he's been in a preschool setting before, and will be fine. But except for the couple of months Jonathan was in preschool for four hours a day, they've never been apart. This will be major for them. I wonder if they'll stay as close as they are now. I hope so. They couldn't be closer if they were twins.

Austin will be making a 100 mile round trip drive every day. Our gas expenses will increase, that's for sure. But we've been fortunate to be able to get new health insurance, which really decreases the amount of money coming out of my paycheck every two weeks. Hopefully, everything will balance out. We've already talked about some small things we can do to make things easier for everyone; hopefully the road before us will be smooth, with as few bumps as possible!

No "Summertime Blues" here!

Nope, not at all. In fact, there's a pretty happy young man in the house! Matthew officially because a sixth grader today. I was able to be at his Honor's Day program for the fifth grade today (you know, being their D.A.R.E. Officer and all!), and got to see him receive a few awards (Merit List, Perfect Attendance, and High Accelerated Reader points). Then we walked out the door, forever leaving behind his elementary school life. I'm thrilled for him, and only a little bit sad. He's growing up, that's for sure. He has big plans for Middle School; he's already tried out and been accepted in to the band program. And today, when we got home from school after a big day, there was a letter waiting for us in the box. He's been accepted into the ACE program for middle school, in the talent pool. What that means is that his grades are high enough for him to be in a special section of the school, in a totally different environment than most of the other students. I'm thrilled; it eases some of the fears I have of him being at our huge (and not so nice) middle school. This I can live with. Oak Hill, here we come!

Sleeping arrangments

Every now and again, sleeping arrangments in our house become an issue. Never has it been a bigger deal than yesterday though. You see, Annah decided that she's no longer a baby, and doesn't need to sleep in a crib. It's a major blow or me, because once again, I feel I've missed out on something. Why? Because Austin says she's been climbing out of the crib for weeks! Now how'd I miss THAT?

She didn't climb out once while he was in Michigan; she didn't even try! But the first day he was back, he claimed that she was out about ten times when he tried to put her down for a nap! He told me this on the phone, and I have to be honest and say I told him that I knew he was lying! This was when he informed me that she's been climbing out for a while, and he just figured I knew. I still didn't really believe him though. But I came home from work early and tried getting her to sleep for him, and she jumped out of that crib and got into the big bed before I could go get her milk and get back. Holy cow she was quick! I had to laugh...and eat a little crow along with it!

So, I had to go out and buy a rail for the big bed. It's pretty special to see her sleeping there. The bed was mine as a little girl, and my mom's before that. It's beautiful, and goes right along with her girly little personality. But it makes me sad too; the last bit of the baby she was is now gone, and even though it just happened, I already miss it terribly!

Sleeping arrangements

Just a fun picture.....Jonathan and Matthew love camping out together on the pull out couch mattress, which is now residing permanantly (oh I hope not!) in Jonathan's room. Don't they look like angels? Boy if they could just be that sweet all the time!

No turtle heads allowed!

Jonathan has spent the last three weeks looking like (what I affectionately call) a fuzzy q-tip. The kid has needed a hair cut sooooo badly. Austin was supposed to cut it before he left, but it didn't get done, and since Jonathan isn't exactly the sweetest chocolate in the box when it comes to doing things in public, I decided that his fuzziness would have to continue til Austin came home from Michigan. I even commented to Austin on several occasions (by phone of course!) on Jonathan's desperate need for a haircut.

So today, when Austin came home, the first thing he did was shave his own head. He hates any type of long (meaning longer than a quarter of an inch!) hair on his head. Then he started trying to sell Jonathan on the idea of a hair cut. Trying to get down on a level Jonathan understands, Austin brought up the idea that turtles don't have long hair. (Now we all know that Jonathan lives, eats, and breathes Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, so this idea seemed like a good one!). But after only a few minutes, it was pretty clear that no amount of reasoning would work. So it became a forced haircut, which I hate.

How Austin manages to cut Jonathan's hair with him wiggling and screaming while sitting on the stool is beyond me. But he does. Only this time, in addition to the loud screams and frequent "nooooooooo!!!!", there was a new phrase thrown in.

"I don't want a turtle head!!!!!!!"

Lifehouse - "Everything" video

OMGosh...this is so awesome. It completely represents, in five minutes, what tons of people face throughout their lives. It depicts the struggles of one person being torn between God and the temptations and trials of this mortal life, and shows true happiness when their life is on the right path. Please take five minutes to sit down and watch it. You'll be glad you did.

News, er... photo-worthy!

I've met an incredibly talented woman. Her name is Roseann Roberts, and she owns and operates Southern Grace Photography in Milledgeville, GA. She's solely responsible for the beautiful photo creations at the top of my blog.

Seriously folks...this woman has it going on. I went into the studio with a lot of stress, because anytime you take Jonathan anywhere with a specific goal in mind, it usually falls through. And these particular pictures were important to me....very important. It captures a time in our life that was a huge turning point for our family, and I wanted a tangible reminder of that. And she did it. Perfectly. I can't even begin to explain what a wonderful job she did of pulling the image I had out of my head and making it real. I have never had someone work with us on photos in the way that she did. So kudos to her!

If you live in the area, go by and check out some of her work. Otherwise, check out her website: www.southerngracephotography.com And if you don't mind making the drive, go let her work her miracles on your family! I promise it's worth it! Thanks Roseann!

And tonight's entertainment provided by the Lewis children!

My kids are fun. And sometimes a bit obnoxious...but most of the time, they're just fun. With Austin gone though, it's been a challenge to see just the fun stuff, and I've found myself losing patience with them more than once. So tonight, to be a fun mom, I took them to IHOP for dinner.

They were really good. It didn't hurt that we were the only ones in the restuarant until about 20 minutes before we left. But still....they were good. After Jonathan had finished eating, he was pretty restless, and got up to play in the isle with his new super hero men. In the process, he started singing the infamous "Barbie Girl", by Aqua.

Now this isn't a well known song. It's very unique, and very descriptive. Not a kid song at all, but it's the kind of music Austin loves, and it clicked with Jonathan the first time he heard it, so it's been "his" song for a while now. It's not one that I'm super fond of him singing, but nevertheless, he sings it. So anyway, we were in the restuarant, and he was singing "Barbie Girl" at the top of his little lungs - which coincidentally, didn't appear very little at all tonight. And I happened to look over at the couple sitting next to us - a young couple, maybe early 20's, very stylish and modern looking - and catch them eyeing each other and laughing. And I could tell right away that they knew the Barbie Girl song.

And I had this really strong desire to just blurt out, "And for your entertainment tonight, it's Jonathan Lewis!" It was great.