1st Day of School, Daycare, Work.. Take Your Pick!

Well, after a long day, I finally sat down to my computer to write this post and Blogger was being ridiculous and wouldn't upload my pictures. So, I gave up and went to bed. I figure if I get it in before noon today that still counts for yesterday and then anything after noon today counts for today. Right? Right.

Yesterday was a good day. In the end we all did just fine with happy faces and no tears. I think the reality of it all set in more today and will probably continue to do that over the week but we can handle it!

Anna decided on Monday night that she wanted to be a big girl and wake up on her own with the help of an alarm clock. So we hooked her up with one all set to go off at 6 am. She jumped right out of bed and was dressed and ready to go in no time. Her sister wasn't as excited about getting up that early but did ok too! I on the other hand took a little while longer to get moving. Dragging just a bit! It wasn't long though and we were all dressed and ready to go!

Anna kept saying she was nervous but excited all at the same time. Me too. More than anything we were all just sad that we wouldn't be spending our days together anymore. Anna was going to miss her sister and vice versa.


She had her dress all picked out for the day but with the chilly weather and rain, leggings were added to the outfit. Here she is showing off her new back pack too. All packed up!

We have a tree and a bush that we usually take pictures by on days like today but as Anna is showing here it was still dark (gah!) and rainy, windy, cold! I thought, oh we will just get the picture after she gets off the bus. But things got a little hectic with the bus coming so late that we were late to get Nora. So of course didn't get the picture after school either. Maybe today? We did take a picture of me on my first day but must of had problems uploading it because it isn't here? Oh well, you don't really want to see me anyway.

Chad and I both took Anna to school for Kidstop. It was a strange feeling to be back there but as soon as we arrived a few of her friends were there too and mommy and daddy were no longer necessary! Next off, I dropped off Nora at Mary's house.

After a few instructions it was time to leave Nora. I have done this once before with Anna and that was hard. I cried. But didn't with Nora? This time when I left, I left Nora with someone that we know like family. Another grandma you could say. I knew that she would be loved like we love her. No question about that! Nora was all smiles when I left even if she looks so serious here in this picture!

On my way to work then after dropping off Nora, my bestie Jill called to see how I was doing. She gave me this story about why she was in her car too and I believed it. We chatted about the morning and drop off and all that good stuff. As we were wrapping up, I said I was pulling into work now. Talk to you later. Then I noticed a car in the parking lot that looked like hers? And sure enough it was her, surprising me at work with her boys. She had a card, a plant, and a Caribou coffee in hand! Such a great way to start my day at work!

Work for me was good. It was good to be there and see everyone. It was good to fire up my computer and be at my desk. Good to read emails and plan out my tasks that need to get started again. It was all good. A little unfocused and overwhelming but all good.

I called to check in on Nora and all seemed good there too. My mind was on Anna as she started school and went through her day. So excited to get home! So I left work a little early (on my first day back!) to make sure I was there in time to get her off the bus and then go get Nora! Of course I knew that her bus would come late but didn't think it would come over 20 minutes late!

Oh but first when I got home I was a little taken back to see something on my counter that wasn't there when we left for the day. I had a very quick panic moment and then realized that they were flowers and it was probably ok. And it totally was. Another great friend, Sarah, had left us some flowers at our house to come home too. Between my fantastic and thoughtful friends and all of you that passed along your thoughts, I felt very loved and needed that yesterday! Thank you!

Back to Anna getting off the bus......

Oh the joy! She was bouncing off the walls excited to tell us about her day! Her teacher is so so nice and so so fun. The color of the day was blue and they sang a song to the tune of the Farmer and the Dell - "B-L-U-E spells blue, B-L-U-E spells blue. Hi-Ho, Oh don't you know? B-L-U-E spells blue." Let me tell you I was singing that song all night long. Recess was great, lunch was great and she had so much fun and can't wait to go back and and and and...

We quickly left home to go get Nora and found that she had a super day too. One little bottle spit up issue but otherwise she ate good, took great naps and was smiley and cute! Such a great report to hear! Next we headed to Anna's choice for a special back to school dinner. She picked Texas Roadhouse and we didn't protest. Gma and Gpa were there also to see Anna off the bus and came to dinner with us!

Got home to finish up homework (yes, on the first day!) and to get to bed. A whirlwind of a day. What will tomorrow bring? Well, it was a little bit harder to wake up than yesterday but we managed to get out of the house at about the right time. Everyone was still excited about leaving going in their directions. We will see how enthusiastic we are next Monday though!

And one last picture that has nothing to do with anything except that it is a picture that makes me smile every time I look at it. Anna was "playing" with her little sister. Anna was going to put on a show and apparently Nora was the producer or director or something. Pretty sure Nora didn't know what she was either!

Winds of Change

Starting tomorrow everything changes. Not for better or worse, just changed. And really after all the changes that we have endured over the last couple of years, this should be and sort of is a welcome change.

I have been craving this time of the year for the last couple of months. Fall is my favorite. I looked forward to being in a routine again. One we were familiar with. We get more done around the house and we sleep better and we have more quality family time and we cook more dinners at home when we have an established routine. I have been craving getting back to work. To see my friends and work my brain again in different ways than I have over the last 7 months. I miss Mary, our daycare lady. I looked forward to having her be a more integral part of our lives again. And I miss school. To keep Anna busy and learning and with her friends.

But ALL of that doesn't make tomorrow any easier. I have tried to keep VERY busy over the last couple of days because when I slow down and stop to think about it, I can hardly handle the thought of tomorrow. I can't stop the tears from flowing.

Anxiety is a nasty beast. One that I usually handle pretty well. But when it comes to this, it has grabbed a hold and won't let go. I am anxious about working again after being out for 7 months while at the same time thankful I have a job to go back to. I am anxious about Nora being in daycare and "missing out" on so much while at the same time thankful that we know and love Mary so much. And I am anxious about Anna being a 1st grader and will she like her teacher and ALL that comes with having a child in school while at the same time knowing she is so ready to get back at it.

Who thought it would be a good idea to do all this on one day? To tackle the anxiety and fears all at once! I guess the one thing I do know is that by the end of the week I should be feeling so much better than I do right now.

Family and Fun

Tell me. How is it 11:30 pm again and I am just starting to work on this post? Ugh! I am in for a shock on Tuesday morning when I have to get up for work again. Getting kind of used to this late night bedtime. Boy oh boy!

Again I am finding myself not blogging about what I thought I would tonight. I haven't continued my "what we did this summer" series but instead I have to share some pictures from the lovely day that we had today!

I love Chad's brother and his family. Angie is like a sister to me and the kids are fantastic. We typically try super hard to see them once a month but this summer found us with opposite schedules. When we had a weekend open, they were busy. When they had a weekend open, we were busy. Hated how it worked out but so glad we were able to find some time this weekend to spend some time together.

And I love that we spent that time at a state park. We love to camp but have a pop-up in our garage that is collecting dust. Didn't use it at all last year or this year. By the way, that will change next year! We camp 99% of the time at state parks so it was great to check out a new one today. One that I have wanted to see for a while now. Willow River State Park in WI.

The only problem. Apparently, in Wisconsin they penalize visitors from another state. Seriously, that is totally backwards to me but ok. It was $10 for a day pass. Doesn't that seem ridiculous to you? When I was sharing with Scott & Angie that I thought that was a little steep, they said they only paid $7. WTH? We come to visit the "wonderful" state of WI and they charge us more? Ok, whatever. I am not bitter... But again, like in most of my posts, I digress.

Here are some of the great pictures from a great day of hanging with family and enjoying the wonderful weather!

Auntie Angie getting in some snuggle time with Nora!

And now it is Uncle Scott's turn! See Scott, she loves it when you hold her. Really she does!

Oh cousin time! Anna talks about her cousins all the time and looks so forward to the times when they can be together! They are so creative and create so much fun together!

Sometimes I look at recent pictures of Anna and just stare. How did our little babe turn into this beautiful little girl on the inside and out?

Chad's brother, Scott. Wife, Angie. Children, Logan & Emily.

Love them!

Another great Cousins photo!

And this is so them!

How is it possible that she is 10 years old and in 5th grade? We were just watching old video camera footage from when she was 2. Seems like just yesterday!

The falls at Willow River State Park.

The groups doing some exploring. Approximately in the location of Scott in this photo someone in our group took a spill. Can you guess who that might have been? For those of you that don't know us personally, my husband has quite a history of falling! :)

Nora enjoying more snuggle time before it is time to go.

Love this age when she is all smiles! Can't get much cuter than this!

Love this day and love this photo of Nora and Angie! Special times!

Promptings and Regrets

I was totally planning on blogging about our love for the State Fair and how it came to be. That post will come but we had an experience tonight that I can't get off my mind as hard as I have tried. So I will blog about it. Process through it with you all.

For so long now our church has been focusing it seems on the message that we shouldn't be cafeteria Christians. Don't pick and choose when to live our faith. Messages on listening to God's promptings and not being afraid to act on them. Stories of people who share their faith with others every day. And so what do I do when I clearly have one of THOSE moments? I fail at all of those things.

Today we were out and about running errands and since the weather was so beautiful we planned to head to a park to let Anna play for a while. We also decided to go to church tonight and had an extra 30 minutes or so for the park before church. We used our GPS to find a park near church. We aren't that familiar with the area but found a nice looking park with a merry-go-round even. You don't see those ever in parks anymore which Anna thought was awesome. But I digress.

As Chad and Anna are playing I took that time to feed Nora a bottle in the car. As I was feeding a car comes zipping into the parking lot with another closely behind it. The first car parks and the second pulls in behind as if to block the car from leaving. A man gets out of the second car and starts yelling and swearing at the girl in the first car. I didn't catch it all but he was mad about something and blamed the girl. The girl at one point gets out of the car with a knife in her hand and says she should cut his tires. They "talked" for a while but I questioned whether or not they even knew each other? It was strange and icky and I motioned Chad to come back to the car just in case.

The guy eventually gets back in his car and backs it into a parking space. They exchanged a few other words but it seemed to simmer down. I got the impression that yes they did know each other but it wasn't a good situation. Anna wanted to play some more so I said they could go and we would be fine. At this point the guy is sitting in his car in a parking spot 30+ feet away. The girl is right next to our car and fixing something on it.

She asks how old our daughter is. I say 4 months but she wanted to know about Anna. After I tell her she mentions that she has a 10 year old boy and they come here every once and while. The girl looked no more than 25 years old. Guessing she had a child very young anyway. She was dressed in a way, how should I say this? That made the impression on me that a. she doesn't have a lot of money and b. she may be a prostitute. I could see in her eyes and in her movements that she hasn't had an easy life.

Anyway, after she says she comes here occasionally with her son, I mention that we don't live around here but we're on our way to church. Oh shoot she says, today is Saturday isn't it. I missed church today at 5. And then she asks where I go to church. I told her what it was called and where it was located. I smiled and left it at that. She went to her guy friend and asked to use his phone, Chad came back to the car and we left.

So then I sat in church and all I could think about is that girl and that guy. Was she safe? Did she need someone to reach out to her to help her step away from him? Why didn't I just ask if she was ok or if she needed help? Would she have come to church with us if I had offered? Could a life have been changed?

I still sit here and still feel this incredible feelings of regret or sadness that I didn't listen to God's promptings to reach out to this person. That I let my fears stop me from offering to help, in small ways. I really can't explain exactly why I didn't do or say more. But I do know that I need to continue watching and listening for those promptings and learn from this experience today to do better the next time God puts such a blatant situation in front of me.

God, I pray tonight for that young woman. Please keep her safe from the many influences and situations she may find herself in. I don't know her or her life but from the sounds of the interaction between her and that man, it doesn't sound like a safe environment. Let my few words to her and my smiles place a seed in her heart to know and follow you. Lord, I also pray that you continue to open my eyes and ears to your promptings and thank you for this experience tonight that reminds me of the importance of sharing your love with others. Amen.

Have you been in a situation where God is totally seeing if you follow through? Tell me about a time where you did or did not listen. Or just a time where you reached out to help a complete stranger.

Pooped

Phew! I am just barely getting in this "post" before the clock strikes midnight. But after nearly 12 hours at the Fair today, all I can get in are a few cute pictures from today. More on the Fair tomorrow! Good night!

Going Way Back

Really my time on bedrest wasn't all that long ago. I started it 7 months ago and ended it 4 months ago. But right now it feels like forever. That time was the hardest experience I have ever gone through. It was so draining on me, my body, my family. Sure I got to lay around all day. Ha. But really I was at the lowest point I have ever felt.

Of course I did blog about all the wonderful friends and family that helped sooooooo much during that time. We couldn't and wouldn't have gotten through it without them. My husband was AMAZING! Seriously, he stepped it up big time. Love how he took control of our family and ran with it when he was used to being a team. And Anna. She was really great. It was so wearing on her too but she was so supportive and loving and helpful. Kids really do have it in them if you let them shine.

But to be honest, the biggest part of keeping me sane during those three months and especially during the three weeks of hospital bedrest -Twitter. I know, call me silly. Call me ridiculous for using a social media site as my therapy. But what I found in Twitter was a community. A group of woman (and some husbands) that were going through the same exact things I was. Some were on bedrest and some were just pregnant. But I found support in a place I least expected it. Twitter with the help of @KeepEmCookin and her website connected me with other woman also that may not have been on Twitter but visited the website and posted blogs about their time.

It felt good to go to Twitter and find messages of support and encouragement from woman who were laying flat like I was. To hear of things they were doing to keep busy. Which shows they were watching on Netflix or what websites they were finding interesting. It brought some sort of peace to hear that others were worried about having a preemie. That I wasn't alone. Mostly it was just a quick note back and forth to say, "how are you doing today?" or even just to vent that I was having a rough day. They understood.

I thought when I joined Twitter that I would just use it as a way to keep on news and celebrities but what I found instead was an amazing group of men and women that have some pretty great life experiences to share. I found a weird web of connections. I found people who love to encourage and support. And that was just what I needed during that time. To be social even when I couldn't get out of bed and be with my friends and family in social settings.

Now that we are on the other side of bedrest and preemie babies, I still love checking in with those lovely woman and seeing how parenthood is treating them. Now we have moved into parenting support and I love it! And even though I haven't met any of my cyber friends in real life, I do still consider them my friends. It would be fantastic if I could meet some of them in person some day as we walked a journey together and got to the end because of each other.

And Away We Go....

Today is day 1 of the 30 day challenge. Feeling a little overwhelmed but excited at the same time. I have already read some of the day 1 posts from others that are taking on the challenge! Make sure you all go check them out and give some comment love! See the list in the post below.

This is going to be the obligatory "where did the summer go?" blog post. Seriously though, where did it go?

Our summer began with Nora coming home from the hospital. I recognized this summer as maybe the only one where I get to spend the summer home with the girls. I had high hopes and dreams.

I am not disappointed. No, that isn't the right word. I think we lived it up this summer the best we could with the circumstances. But really the first month was a fog of having a newborn baby again. And then the second month was spent with a mix of fun times hanging out with friends and preparing for our trip to California. And then all of a sudden it was August and we were in California and then home recouping from our vacation. And now, it is September. What?

I am going to use this September Blog-a-Thon challenge as a way to catch up from the summer. Relive some of the great moments. Share them with pictures and stories. Hope you don't all think that is cheating. But really we had a great summer with some very special events that needs to be shared. A 10th Anniversary was celebrated, a very special wedding was attended, a certain little preemie got on the charts at her last appt. I can't just glaze over those things without writing about them.

Over the next few days I am going to be traveling back in time. I think it will be a good way for me to reflect on how fortunate I was to spend this summer home and how blessed we really are. And I can't think of anything better to do as we prepare to enter our new life of one in school, one in daycare, and two working parents. A new normal for us. We haven't had "normal" in over 7 months now, depending on the definition of normal it could actually be 2 years!

So excited for this month of September as it brings new beginnings and so much promise! And I love the weather. Favorite time of the year! And it also brings old and new friends into this blogging challenge. Excited to learn more about each of you embarking on this journey! And like my title says... Away We Go!