Is Summer REALLY Over?

We had such a great summer with trips through Arizona, Family Reunions, etc. But now it's over. The weather is getting slightly cooler (translated as "sometimes under 100 degrees), and Mallory just had her 2nd birthday. For her birthday, she got a Build-A-Bear bear (she named her Pickles). She loved Maren's Build-A-Bear (named Dimples because Maren has such great Dimples) so much that we thought that would be the perfect gift. As predicted, she loves that thing (as evidenced by the end of this video).

The kids have been back to school for 4 weeks now. They are loving it, and although they didn't start the first day at the same school, they are loving being at the same school now. Before we left for Iowa, Xarissa went to Neely Elementary. When we moved back, Neely could get Ella into kindergarten, but not Xarissa into 5th grade. Burk Elementary could get Xarissa into 5th grade, but not Ella into kindergarten. So, we went a whole year with the kids at 2 different schools. We put Xarissa on the waiting list for Neely this year, but didn't find out she got in until the first day of school. Since Burk started 40 minutes before Neely, we dropped her off then took Ella to Neely. I went to the office at Neely and they told me to go get Xarissa because they had an opening. She'd already been at Burk for an hour. Thank goodness Autumn warned me that she'd be emotional when I picked her up, because she was. Made me wonder what I was in for as all these girls hit the teenage years. She was grouchy the whole day, even though she knew more than 6 people in her class from going there before. She still had attitude that night, but after we talked, she fixed it, and it's almost as if she never went to Burk, except she still keeps in contact with a few friends from there.

With summer being over, it fortunately has also meant that Rob's retirement has come to a close. He started a new full-time position a week after the kids started back to school. Thanks to everyone for their prayers and thoughts as we went through that trial of our faith. We feel that the Lord truly blessed us and took care of us in our time of need.