Home on the Range

Bella is napping. Benny and I are watching Phineas and Ferb. It's raining outside with bouts of thunder and lightning. It's as good a time as ever to catch up over here. Hopefully. It's been a while since I last wrote. A lot has happened, tons to write about. But, I am going to give you the abridged version, let's zip through it all to get up to date!

We had a beautiful upshernish, not at the park like planned. The weather changed things for us. We would have been able to put up with drizzles. Not the downpour, accompanied by thunder and lightning that we got! So we had it at a friend's house. It was still great, we had A LOT of people there! Food was great, decor was awesome, we had plenty of everything, the kids enjoyed the projects. It was definitely a success. We went straight from there to Benny's haircut appointment, which he definitely enjoyed! Sat in a train while getting his hair cut by a great stylist. She was super sweet and patient with him (and me!), familiar with Jewish law (so no weird looks about his payos). He came out with an adorable new hairstyle and a nice new train (courtesy of his cousins).

Traveling home was a story of its own. We shipped two boxes home - all the extra clothing and toys we accumulated over the summer. We went pretty early to the airport, turned out to be a blessing. The line for security wrapped all the way around the airport (inside) and took about 45 minutes to get through, maybe even more!! There were delays due to weather. Our first flight left a little late but the flight itself wasn't too bad. Our second flight had us sitting on the runway for over two hours. That was horrible, considering the flight itself was only about 45 minutes! We got to Des Moines, got our luggage, hopped on the shuttle (which waited about an hour for us!) and trudged up the stairs to collapse into bed. Spent the rest of that week catching up on doctor appointments, unpacking, reorganizing to make our apartment friendly for two kids, getting Benny's paperwork filled out for school (and meeting with his teachers), getting Shuky ready for school to start, and trying to squeeze in some family time! Needless to say, it was a long week. We stayed home that Shabbos, just stayed in pj's and did nothing. Well needed and well appreciated!

This past week was more of the same, although Shabbos went a bit differently. We made Bella's kiddush in Des Moines, staying at the Jacobson's house. My father drove out to join us. It was very nice!

The past few days have not really been anything new, laundry and organizing galore. I am trying my hand at organized meal plans for the week, for budget and easier grocery shopping. We'll see how that works out.

We are having guests for Shabbos this week (can't wait Slaters!!).

Then, drumroll please, Benny starts school next week!!!!!!! I may be slightly excited about the 3 hours a day I will have to let Bella actually nap, clean, shop, blog, whatever! If there were more hours for me, I would consider taking on a little hobby of some sort. We'll see how the time pans out. For now, I must go entertain my kids, little one is no longer napping and big one is getting antsy. It's raining so I'm not sure what we will do but we definitely need to get out!

Thank you to all the people that helped make our summer great, (especially my mother and step-father). It's good to be home!

The Long Farewell

It has come to that time. The part of the trip I abhor. Out come the suitcases. I become a slave to my belongings. Speaking of which, why the hell did I feel the need to pack so much to come here? It's not like we wouldn't have access to a washing machine. It is not even five feet from our bedroom door. It's not like we wouldn't have access to stores where we could **GASP** go and buy stuff! I felt it necessary to tote pretty much all of Benny's clothing, every article Bella owns (but for some reason, nothing from the next size, which we need already obviously), and anything I might fit into. Whether I like it or not. I'm pretty sure there is a full drawer of clothing I never even touched here. And then all the new stuff I got as I continued losing weight. Good stuff. Shuky is probably the best off out of the four of us. He packed a good amount, nothing excessive. Although, he was usually the one most affected by my pushing off laundry times if (read: when) I did. You live and learn. Or in my case, you just live. We all know I will over-pack the next time we go anywhere. At which point you can expect another fun little rant like this.

Being the realist that I am, I began packing last week already. One full suitcase done, another half completed. The drawers are emptying slowly. We occupied two full dressers while here. It will take some time. Been giving things away that we don't want to take back. It's been a full week already and it's only Tuesday night. Nope, make that early Wednesday morning.

This Sunday is Benny's upshernish. The long awaited party is (almost) here! As it comes closer, I'm getting more sentimental about the adorable blonde curls that will soon be no more. I took the kids to Prospect Park this past week to get some nice pictures, (I shot the pictures, my pipe dream of an outdoor photographer stayed a dream) and I do believe I got some great shots! In a rare form of my single-child-blogging life, I will actually post some pictures for you!

Big brother keeping our little model happy between shots. Sigh.

The hair :'(

And, while these are not Prospect Park beautiful, I had some fun with Bella at my mom's place. Enjoy!

Alright, just wanted to pop in for a quick update. Much to do this week between packing and party planning. We'll have to catch up on life later!