a happy middle

There are no happy endings.
Endings are the saddest part,
So just give me a happy middle
And a very happy start.

                                     -- Shel Silverstein

 {Some -- but not ALL -- of the friends that I'm going to miss so much when we move!}

So, our countdown is rapidly counting down.  I keep thinking we still have plenty of time left until we move {because we're not leaving until the end of the month} but reality caught up with me today when I realized there are only 2 1/2 more weeks until we roll.  And with the ending in sight, it is indeed the saddest part.  :(

Last night, some good friends of ours threw a going away party for us and a couple of other families who are all moving this month.  It was a perfect evening at the park, filled with lots of food, friends, and laughter and it made me realize {once again} how much we are going to miss it here when we go. 


The kids were so buy running around with their friends and I was so busy chatting with my friends, that I didn't get around to taking as many pictures as I wanted.  {It's really too bad I don't have a personal photographer following my family around to provide the pictures for this blog.  Hahaha.}  I did manage to snap a FEW gems before the evening was over.

 Alex was ROCKING out on these little playthings.

 When I tried to get Alex to pose with his "best friend," Mitchell, the first thing he did was grab his shirt to point excitedly at Thomas the Train.  Hahaha.

So sweet!  Cute little buddies giving each other a hug.

 Haela was the first friend at church that Grace made when we moved here and I know she's going to miss her a lot.  The two of them are kindred spirits.  And no, Grace is not capable of taking a picture without pulling a crazy face.

 Here is Jane with Mitchell's sister, Aubree.

Jane with her "best friends" -- Allie and Aubree.

{Me and a couple of MY best friends -- April and Charity}

Charity and April were the very first friends I made when we moved here 3 years ago.  And even though we're going our separate ways, I know we'll be friends forever.

 Ethan grabbed the camera to run and take a picture of "The Biggest Sandcastle EVER" that the older kids had created on the volleyball court.

Unfortunately, by the time he had dragged me over to see it in person, the masses had descended upon it and razed it to the ground.  Ethan was not happy.

When we finally left the park around 9, darkness had completely fallen upon us and the children were tired, filthy, and in mostly high spirits.  It wasn't until we were driving home in the car that the meltdown began in full force.  Jane gets exceptionally emotional when she's tired and the others are not a whole lot better.  Luckily, no one put up too much of a fight when we got home and we managed to get all 5 kids bathed and in bed in record time.

I'm sure this post is un-interesting to 98% of you, so I hope the following anecdote will at least leave you with a laugh:

As we were driving home last night, I was trying to explain to Scott {who had been gone the whole day at a golfing thing for work} that Alex had somehow gotten about half a stick of butter in Jane's hair while I was in the shower that morning.  {Seriously, almost her entire head of hair was greased through and through.}  I was telling him that I had no idea how it had happened, when Grace piped up with the following --  "While Jane was buttering her pancake, Alex was buttering her hair."  Hahahahahahaha.  Thanks, Grace.  Thanks a lot.  Hahaha.

Flashback Friday -- Beginnings and Endings and Beginnings

Good evening, folks!  It's been a while, but I'm back and I've got lots of little odds and ends to catch up on.  So, to start things out, I thought I'd give you a flashback to the beginning of the school year.  Remember this picture?  The horribly out-of-focus one from the first day of school that was literally the ONLY group shot I took of the bunch?  Well, believe it or not that was almost 10 months ago.  All good things must come to an end, unfortunately, and the end of the year brought a mixture of excitement and sadness for the kiddos.  Excitement for the beginning of summer vacation, but sadness in knowing that they were saying good-bye to Barretts and all their friends and embarking on a new adventure in just a few short weeks.

First Day of School -- 2012-2013 School Year.

Last Day of School -- 2012-2013 School Year.

As always, it was difficult to get a decent shot of the group, so these will have to suffice.  

For today's flashback, I turned to the kids and asked each of them the same set of questions --  What was your favorite thing about this past school year?  What was your favorite thing you learned?  What will you remember most in the years to come?  Here are their answers...

Posing with Ms. Pleiness

Ethan -- 4th Grade Memories

Best friends -- Brody and Gavin {and Ms. Pleiness}
Favorite subject -- Math
Favorite thing he learned about this year -- The Civil War and Slavery {???}
Other memorable memories -- Being at the front of the line instead of the back

Posing with Ms. Siegel

Grace -- 2nd Grade Memories:

Best Friends -- Anna, Ryan, Maddie, Grace P., and Alivia
Best thing she learned this year -- Cursive
Other favorites things about this year -- Ms. Siegel

Posing with Mrs. Unwin

Sophie -- Kindergarten Memories:

Best Friends -- Annie, Ainsleigh, Lana, Ava, and Ada
Favorite Special -- Music
Favorite Subject -- Science {???}
Favorite thing she learned this year -- Persuasive Writing and facts about the moon.  And also that lightning can be 5 times hotter than the sun.

And that was that.  They were not overly expansive about their school year memories.  It's probably because I cornered them all right before they were about to start watching their movie for our Friday Movie Night.  Oh well, you get what you get.  Just what ARE they expansive about, you might be wondering?  That would be Summer School.  Hahahaha.  Seriously.  They LOVE summer school.  This whole entire week, as soon as I've picked them up, all I've heard is non-stop talking about what they did in class for the rest of the day.  It's kind of hilarious.

Summer school started this Monday and since it begins a whole HOUR earlier than regular school does, I knew it might be a challenge.  Especially since it's at a different school this year and they have to be at their school even earlier for the buses to shuttle them over.  The very first day was close to a catastrophe -- at least to the kids.  I was so tired that I totally didn't wake up until it was 7:30.  And I only woke up then because Ethan came screeching into my room that all the kids were loaded up in the car and I needed to get up and drive them to school.  Hahahaha.  What what say what?  You would have thought it was Christmas morning with the excitement hanging so thick in the air.  As I stumbled to the car, Ethan assured me that they had all eaten breakfast and were all dressed and he had buckled Alex and Jane into their seats already.  Thankfully, we made it to the school in the nick of time and the buses took them on their merry way.

This is what I came downstairs to that morning -- an absolute disaster area.  But at least they had all eaten breakfast before we left.  Oh WAIT.  No they didn't.  As Ethan -- and Grace -- so nonchalantly admitted after school, neither one of them had actually eaten anything because we were all out of milk for the cereal and there was nothing else they wanted to eat.

First day of Summer School -- June 3, 2013 

{Ignore the fact that the lens was smudged and Grace's face is out of focus.}

Ethan opted for Games Galore again this summer and added Sports of All Sorts to round things out.  He says he's really enjoying playing games with all the kids who will be going into 5th grade next year and he likes it much better when they do sports OUTside then when they are in.  Grace went for Fiber Arts this year and a class called Girls Just Want to Have Fun that she is absolutely LOVING.  They had a pajama and movie day today and as she has told me almost EVERY day this week, they are going to decorate cupcakes and paint their nails at some point this session as well.  Sophie has died and gone to heaven with her CHEERreading {yeah -- you read that right} class and Computing Fun.  She has been cheering almost non-stop since she started this week, to the point that last night I couldn't fall asleep for the longest time because I had her "Fire up, Puppies! Fire up!" cheer stuck in my head on auto-repeat.  Her favorite thing about the class so far is that since she's the littlest, she gets to be on top of the pyramid each time they do it.


After the first day of summer school -- and our first REAL day of summer vacation since we've been back from our trip -- I decided a special treat was in order for Family Home Evening and tried to teach Sophie how to make chocolate-covered strawberries.  This was a mistake seeing as to how everyone else wanted to try and help as well {creating more fighting than it was worth} and she ended up getting more chocolate on her hands, face, and clothes than she did on the strawberries themselves.  Hahahaha.    "I got some chocolate on me," she off-handedly declared when she was done.  Hahahahaha. Ya think?

{Ghiradelli's semi-sweet chocolate chips (in the gold bag) are dairy free, in case you were wondering.}

The rest of our week as fallen into a pretty sweet routine for the time being.  The kids get home at lunch time, I've been making them do Quiet Reading Time while the baby naps, and THEN after he wakes up we've been heading over to the pool where I check the two little ones into the tot care and then sit on the side and space out or read a book while the older 3 play in the water.  It is the BEST setup EVER.  There are no deep parts in the outdoor pool, so I don't have to worry about the big kids at all, and I can sit on the side and veg out to my heart's content.  It's been a much needed bit of respite over the last few days.  Hahaha.  Today, however, I struck out when I got to the Rec Plex and realized that the tot care isn't open on Friday afternoons.  Boo.   I ended up having to go back home to get swim suits for me and the little ones -- because there was no way I could convince the older ones to change our venue for the afternoon -- and then had to suck it up and get in the freezing cold water with them when we got back to the pool even though I really didn't want to.  I think I'll avoid doing that again until it is MUCH hotter.   And that's all folks.  To end, I'll leave you with a few random pics from our trip.

Hannah and Grace -- still BFFs for life.

This one's for you, Mimi!  Baby Gaga wants to be just like you.  :)

And Lover Boy finally got a haircut.  As did Ethan and Scott.

Thank you and goodnight!

Success

Ladies and gentleman, we found a house!  And it's practically perfect in every way.  At least for us.  This house-hunting trip was an interesting experience --- and a bit different than the others.  When we were buying our first house back in 2008, it was all just fun and exciting.  As I've documented before, our experience when we were looking for houses HERE, was anything but.  It was stressful and frustrating and after a few days of looking at houses that wouldn't work for our family at all, I was starting to wonder if we were even doing the right thing in moving our family so soon.  The biggest life lesson I learned that year, though, was that when we trust in the Lord with all our heart, everything works out for the best.  Once we put our trust in Him completely and turned to Him in prayer, it was humbling to see how quickly He answered our prayers.  {And with 3 years hindsight now, how perfect this area has been for our family.}

This time around -- being the seasoned veterans that we are -- our house-hunting experience was a bit of a happy medium between the other two.  Throughout the entire trip {even when we weren't seeing ANYTHING that would work for our family}, I still felt like everything was going to work out.   Going into our search, we were really hoping to find a house in the area where we lived before.  In the end, though, all that really mattered was that we went where we were supposed to go.  And I think we found that place.  Even though we're a lot farther out for a commute than we wanted to be and we'll be starting over from scratch with making friends and meeting new people, everything clicked into place SO perfectly with buying this house that I know we had heavenly help.    

The Front View

The Front Hall

The Study/Perhaps Living Room or Piano Room?

 We're still trying to figure out what to do with this room.  Scott does actually need an office of sorts since he'll be working from home a couple days a week, but we also need a room to put the piano in and I don't know where it will fit.  I think that this was technically built to be BE a living room/sitting room but the current owners have switched it with the room that is supposed to be a study.

The ? Room 

This is the other room.  It's off  the back of the kitchen and kind of tucked away and we're trying to decide if we should turn THIS into the study, or if we should make it a sitting room/piano room of sorts, or perhaps just throw caution to the wind and make it my sewing/quilting room!  Hahaha.

The Dining Room

 Ethan is VERY anxious to change the paint color from red.

The Family Room

(Another view.)

The Kitchen

The Upstairs Hall

I think my favorite part of the house is the upstairs.  The hall is SO big.  I love it.  There is a front and back set of stairs and then 4 bedrooms plus a "bonus" room that I think we will be converting to a bedroom.

Bedroom 1

I think we might make this Grace's room.  

Bedroom 2

I think we will be making this Ethan's room.  Although, he's been very insistent that he doesn't want his own room and wants to share with Alex.  Bedroom 1 and 2 are connected with a Jack and Jill bathroom.

"Bonus" Room

This room is HUGE.  We're thinking of making it Sophie and Jane's room.  

Bedroom 3

I'd like to make this a Guest Room eventually, but for now we're trying to figure out if we should keep Alex in his own room in a crib or graduate him to a real bed in Ethan's room or still in his own room.

Master Bedroom

(Apparently I forgot to take a picture of this one, but it's awesome.  The thing I'm most excited about is having more natural light in this one than our current one.  We also have His and Hers walk-in closets which will be pretty cool, and the master bath has a whirlpool jetted tub which I'm particularly excited about.)

The Backyard

View from the back deck.

Fire Pit.

We got the trampoline, playset, and a basketball hoop negotiated into the contract and the kids are ecstatic.

Not pictured -- The neighborhood pool that is just up the street.

(The kids are really excited about that as well.)

Lagniappe Picture

The dog that Grace wishes came with the house.  Unfortunately, this is one item that couldn't be put in with the contract.  This dog was the best behaved and prettiest dog I've ever seen.  It made me thisclose to thinking maybe we could give Grace the surprise of her life this year at Christmas and finally get her a dog.  

And that's all folks.  We found the house on our second day of looking, put an offer in around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and had everything accepted and finalized by the time we were done eating dinner at 8 o'clock.  It was about as painless as it could possibly be.  We actually met the current owners when we showed up to look at the house the first time because they had been given the wrong time to expect us coming.  I really liked them a lot and could tell they were just a good family.  I like knowing that about the people who lived in the house before us.  It was super helpful to talk to the mom and hear about the neighborhood and schools, etc. and it was so reassuring to know that she feels the same way about the school there as I do about our school HERE.  It was surely no accident that we were able to meet them that day.

Benihana's for Dinner.  A delayed anniversary meal.

We stuck around for another day and half to check out the area some more and be there for the inspection, then headed back to Indiana on Thursday.  Scott's sister Kristin (along with help from his mom and dad who came to town for Sam's graduation) put up with our crew for the 6 days we were gone and I can't ever thank them enough!  The happy benefit of being away from the kids for so long was that I think they actually missed us!  Hahaha.  When we drove up and saw them all running out the door to meet us, it was the best and happiest feeling in the world.  :)  They like us!  They really like us!!!  Hahahaha.  All in all, it's been a week to remember.