Last Day of Preschool

Yesterday was Gwen's last day of preschool. I wish she could continue to go there. The program was amazing, and Gwen's teachers were so wonderful. I was so excited for her to do another year there, and to have Gracie go there and learn the same way Gwen was learning-hands on. As I was leaving yesterday morning, her teacher (who I knew in high school) gave me a big hug and I started crying!! What a baby I am!! Gwen didn't even cry when I picked her up after preschool was over.

So, thank you to the wonderful teachers and people who helped out with this preschool program, and who did so much for Gwen personally and for the love you gave my little peanut. We will sure miss you all!!

Earthquake!!

So I guess there was an earthquake today. It was a 5.5 magnitude quake in the ontario/quebec border region that many people felt here in Vermont and in New York, and even as far away as New Jersey.

I called my parents (who are away for the afternoon) and asked them if they felt it where they are, an hour north of where we are and 30 min. from the Canadian border. They said they did. They asked if my sister and I, who are at home with my kids, felt it too.

Nope. Not a thing. Lots of people from our ward, and lots of my sister's high school friends say they felt it. But did we? Nope...not a thing. Oh well. At least it wasn't centered here, right?

Update

Just thought I'd write and let every one know how things are going. Thank you to everyone for the congratulations about moving. This has been one hard year for us and we're so thankful to everyone who's prayed along with us and helped us through this trial.

Robbie is now on his third week of work at his new job at Steel Elements International. He likes it so far, but is a little concerned that they are going back on some of the incentives they gave Rob in order to get him to take the job, namely insurance incentives (and with three kids, insurance is important). Hopefully that can all be worked out and things will run smoothly after that. He takes time every Friday afternoon to go look at houses but everything that we've liked from pictures on the realtor internet sites has turned out to be bad-stairs need replaced, windows need replaced, only half the house has siding, the floors are warped in places, the basement needs to be completely rewired, etc. We're hopeful that we'll be able to find something soon, but realistically we don't think we'll be moving into a place for at least another 2 months. Meanwhile we'll either continue what we're doing now-I continue to stay at my parents with the kids while he drives down to New Hampshire on Sunday afternoon and come back Friday night for the weekend, or we'll try to find a place that we can rent month to month (not likely though). Between all that driving though Robbie's been doing some fishing and mostly spending time with us.

I have a whole new respect for single moms now. I get some help from my family which is so nice but most of the time it's just me and the kids. It kind of sucks to not really have something to look forward to every night-namely Robbie coming home from work. And I am loosing a lot of sleep. I have a really hard time sleeping at night without Robbie here-it's just weird to have the bed all to myself. And the girls are totally taking advantage of the fact that it's just mommy all the time. Tantrums, fighting, yelling, screaming...oh, and bed time is the worst. I've had a lot of nights where I am up till 11 or 12 because I'll get Georgia to sleep, put her in her bed and then have the other girls just wake her right back up because they'll be playing in the room instead of laying down. So I'll be up with Georgia, getting her to go back to sleep, until 10 and THEN pick up after the kids and get things ready for the next day. I don't know how single mom's do it. Other then that, I am doing okay and things go pretty smoothly. My sister babysits the girls for an hour a day so I can run on the treadmill and shower, my mom taxi's us around (since Robbie has our only car), and my parents help out when the girls goof off/argue/refuse to eat at meal times. Hopefully we'll figure out a solution soon so we don't have to keep this up for too much longer.

Gwen is getting so big!! I can't believe that in 3 weeks she'll be 4 1/2!! She just completed her first year of preschool-hooray!! I am so proud of her and all that she is learning. She can now count to and recognize any number from 1-20, write her first name, recognize and write most letters of the alphabet, and is even starting to sound things out when we read together!! She is such a smart little girl. And her memory is amazing!! She is constantly telling us and others about things that happened weeks and even months ago-and there's no way I can pull things past her any more. Her preschool was right next to the town pool, so as a "parting party" they opened up the pool for two days just for the preschoolers and Gwen got to go swimming in a real pool for the first time and she had a blast!!

Grace turns 3 in a month...how crazy!! I still think back about moving to our "white house" as Gwen calls it a week after she was born. Hard to believe that she's already almost 3. She is looking forward to starting preschool (if we can get moved in time) but we're still having issues with potty training. She just doesn't want to do it. I wish I could find some way to get her interested, but maybe she'll be like Gwen and decide one day that she is finally ready and she'll just do it all the time. Here's hoping. She's become quite a thinker and has an amazing imagination.

Georgia starts nursery in 3 weeks!! HOORAY!! It's kind of weird that for the first time in 3 years we won't have at least one child to take care of during 2nd and 3rd hour classes at church, but I gotta say I am SO EXCITED for Georgia to go to nursery. She can be quite the little nightmare during church when we try to keep her quiet-she's ready to go off and play with friends. She's talking so much more now-we can almost understand her most of the time. Some of the newer things she's been saying are: okay, tis-do (tissue), noe (nose), boh (book), gigi (gracie), gwi (gwen), ado (shoe), nee cookie (need cookie), nack (snack), abee (sippy). She says a lot more words than these, but I can't even think of them all, so I won't bother listing them. Can't believe she's getting so big.

Well, that's about all that's going on right now. No house yet...hopefully we'll find something soon or hopefully the right house for us will come on the market soon. Again, thanks for all the congratulations and the thoughts and prayers from you all-really appreciate it. I'll let everyone know when we finally find something.

We're Moving!!

Yes, that's right. We are indeed moving. One of the companies that Robbie interviewed with this past Friday offered him a job and after a lot of thought and prayer we feel it is the right thing for our family right now. We are very nervous and scared because it is a HUGE new step for us to take but we know that it is right for us.

Sooo...we are moving to New Hampshire. Yeah, not too far away. Only about 2 1/2 hours from where we live now, but still a big step for us. Totally out of our (or my) comfort zone. Robbie's job is located in a town called Hudson, NH, which is about 2-5 minutes from Nashua, NH. We are looking around those areas for a place to live, but since this happened so fast, Robbie will be going down on Sunday night so he can start work on Monday, and try to find a place while the kids and I stay here.

So, that's the news. Still doesn't seem real...lots to think about...lots to do. Nervous, but excited. We have been blessed, and have so much to be thankful for. I'll keep updating as things continue to happen.