VA

Good gravy, I feel blessed this month. Busy, as usual, but happy to be where we are in life. I was going through a bit of a, "I'm done with Virginia/I wanna move back west" phase for a while there.., but lately Virginia has felt so good to me. Home. At least for now. The kids are happy in school and have good friends. I'm still trying to figure out how to be an at home mom whose kids are in school..the home school thoughts always plague me and who knows, I might home school one, two (or scary! THREE) kids next year. All depends. Trying to not rush into it, though. Take my time. Feel things out first. BREATHE.

Geof. is very happy, too. I think it's the first time since we've been married (almost 11 years) that he feels confident about what he's doing and of course, the fact that he can provide for his family. That's something men need to be secure in and I'm so glad he's there.

Cole is active as usual and just finished his tenth (possibly more?) season of soccer last week. A lot of his friends went on to play travel soccer last season, but he (and we) chose to keep him in rec soccer because the travel teams play ALL THE TIME and on Sundays. I admit, I've gotten quite competitive with Cole and wanted so badly for him to play on the travel team, but Geof. was solid and reminded me how silly it would be to devote our lives and possible testimonies to NOT recognizing Sunday as the Sabbath. He was very adament and it didn't take much for me to be on the same page with him. Thank you, Geof.

Dayne is doing well and school and is transforming from little girl to not-so-little, anymore. I never like this change-especially with Dayne who grows up faster than the other two (middle, forgotten child syndrome--or am I the one with the syndrome?). She wanted to do dance this fall but like soccer, has ended up wanting to quit. She really loves playing the piano and she and Cole have a teacher (a lady in the other ward) who comes every two weeks just so they have someone other than me to answer to. She's fun and easy-going and doesn't freak out when Dayne's wiggling all over the place, trying to play the pedals and not sitting up straight, or that Cole is rushing through each piece at 3x's the speed he's supposed to play just so he can be done sooner (he's actually VERY talented in piano). And she's super affordable which is just perfect. Dayne continues on with her arts and crafts and I'm hoping she'll continue with that..just maybe more concentrated and less rushed.

Junie. Kindergarten has been quite the adjustment. Her teacher says she's as happy as can be and sings NON-STOP (I told her to feel free to quiet her if/when it's disruptive. She assured me it's not..) but when it comes to academics, might not be "processing" the information that the teacher is teaching or asking her to answer. She said if it continues on this way, June will probably do Kindergarten again, but she's still too young to test and they'll watch her and see what happens in the Spring. This didn't surprise me or Geof., but we're hoping if she IS held back, that it doesn't affect (effect?) her socially or hurt her confidence. She's also very young (turned 5 in July) so it could just be an age thing. Geof. and I think it's a lack of interest. She does well in what she's interested in. I just don't think she's interested in reading/writing yet. With that being said, we still need to be better about working with her.

Amy and Lydia came out for Halloween and my kids were in HEAVEN! Lydia, come back and play..or stay? Amy spoils me rotten.

Need to take some pictures, apparently!