August began with a BANG. Our kids, who had been sick since June 22nd, were diagnosed with Cyclosporiasis. Actually, only Brooklyn received a positive test result, but given the boys and her had the exact same symptoms we just accepted they all 3 had it. Brooklyn was the 3rd confirmed case in the state of Louisiana and while it was an incredibly horrible parasite that caused a lot of discomfort and sickness for our kids, I was SOOOO grateful to finally know what was wrong with my babies! Thankfully, our pediatrician was willing to take an aggressive approach and treated the boys as well as Brooklyn. It was only a matter of time until they would all be feeling better, or so we thought.
Within days of the kids diagnosis we moved to Borger, Tx. It just so happened that Brooks had a meeting in Houston, TX right before we were planning to leave Lake Charles so he met up with us and helped get our Uhaul loaded up and all our stuff since our move from Saudi packed up. It was a sad day leaving my parents house since we had been with them since May. I'm not quite sure the kids knew what was going on, but we were off for our next adventure.
I ended up getting a minivan as my rental car, which ended up being a blessing. I fell in love with the simplicity of it and decided I'd get one when it was time to buy my car. We decided to split our drive to Borger up in 2 days since we were taking the Uhaul and had never made this drive before. We weren't ready to take on an unknown/expected 14 hour drive and it end up being a 21 hour drive. We stopped outside of Dallas around 11pm and got as much sleep as we could.
This was my view the entire drive! And guess who was still awake at 11pm?!?
We made it to Borger around 7pm one evening and were set to close on our house the next day. We were staying in a local hotel for the week until our shipment was expected to arrive by the end of the week. Closing went somewhat smooth if you call having to move back your time a few hours because you find out your loan approval never got processed! Yea, that was fun! Eventually everything got settled and the house was ours. We brought the kids by that evening and they were excited!
Check out the balcony banister that over looks our living room! It wasn't to code and failed the inspection so we had to come up with a quick and easy solution to keep the kids safe. Their bedrooms are next to this and since we live in a small country town chicken wire was the only accessible/ cost efficient item we could find. It did the job though!
I spent most of the week cleaning the house and on Thursday the movers were here with our sea and storage shipment. For some reason our air shipment was not on the truck so we had to wait another week for that. Funny, our air shipment was suppose to be the first shipment that arrived and it had all of our necessity/essential items. Oh well. It is what it is! It kinda felt like Christmas seeing all our belongings from our storage shipment. It was things we didn't take with us to Saudi and I forgot we owned some of it! The kids were awesome with the movers and stayed out of the way for the most part. We had some great guys working and they worked hard. At 6pm they had all 9,000 lbs of our belongings unpacked in the house including furniture and beds set up! What a glorious nights sleep we got in our own bed for the first time since May!
Friday morning I stayed busy putting things away and getting the house ready for our first house guests! Brooks' mom, her husband John, Brandon and Kate were driving in to help us get things settled. It was great having all their help and the extra hands to entertain the kids. They were so excited to see familiar faces in this new place we now called home! From staining the boys new beds to changing door knobs, we worked everyone the whole time they were here!
It was sad to tell our family goodbye, but we were onto our next adventure to visit my best friend Stephanie and her little boy Jacob while they were in Oklahoma for a few days! Steph and Micah moved to Doha, Qatar a month after we left Saudi, which meant this was the first time in the 7 years we've been friends to NOT live in the same place. Telling each other goodbye back in May was brutal so the fact that we had the opportunity to see each other again this soon was GREAT!! The kids and I drove to OK and made it the 6 hour drive and as we were 30 minutes out Miles got sick from the Cyclosporiasis. He had been sick so often he was always able to tell us when he needed to throw up so I handed him the trashcan. Unfortunately, Miles used it as a hat instead of throwing up in it. He spent the last part of our drive in a diaper and I drove with all the windows down! UGH! When we arrived we were so happy to see Aunt Steph and the kids were excited to finally see Jake! Steph and I had fun watching the kids play together and we got to catch up! My kids ended up getting sick while we were in Oklahoma, so that made the time a little more straining, but we managed. Apparently the meds they were on just weren't doing the job!
The first evening we just ate at home and spent the night catching up and getting kids into bed. The next morning we did our best to keep 4 kids entertained. We went to a little children's museum type place in Stillwater called the "Wondertorium". It was a great place for all the kids. They had older activities for Gavin and even Miles but they had a separate toddler area that was great for Jacob and Brooklyn. It definitely got some of their energy out.
Once they were played out at the Wondertorium we took all the kids back out to the farm house for nap time. When they started waking up we did a little playing around outside. Gavin got to go for a ride with Aunt Steph around their property and loved checking out the cows.
Life didn't slow down once we made it back home. Miles decided he was done with diapers and semi-potty trained himself! This was his favorite way to pee for a while.
Gavin started KINDERGARTEN. Kindergarten. I mean where did all the time go? He was excited about going to a new school, but had some hesitations. He still didn't understand why we weren't going back to Saudi and asked often when he could see his friends Devin, Tucker, and Peyton. We encouraged him that he would make new friends and like his new school just as much as ISG in Saudi. Thankfully, my mom came to visit us and help me get things somewhat organized around our house so she was able to help with the little ones while I took Gavin to school. Brooks met us there and we sent our little guy off to big kid school! Gavin's school is only Pre-K and Kindergarten so they have the kids line up in the cafeteria every morning and wait for their teacher to come get them versus sending the kids to classrooms before 8am. Kinda smart on their part! Gavin was shy after telling us bye, and it was so hard to watch him sit in line, not knowing or talking to anyone! Broke my heart, but I knew all he needed was a few hours to meet a few kids and be comfortable in his new class! He had a great first day and by the end of the week there was not a shy bone in his body!
Gavin's first day was a crazy one for me. On top of the emotions I was having sending Gavin off to school, Miles touched the chrome muffler of a motorcycle parked next to us and burnt his hand which meant for major screams and tears and heartache, and at some point Brooklyn ended up with a sucker stuck in her hair and required cutting some of her hair to get it out. This day was NUTS! So glad my mom was here for that, too!
Two days after Gavin started school, he turned 5! Can you believe it? Our little man turned 5 years old! We weren't having a birthday party for him since we didn't know anyone here in town (we had only been here less then 3 weeks) so I made sure to make his actual birthday a BIG deal! I decorated the house with balloons and streamers, got donuts for breakfast, and let him open a present before leaving for school! We also pulled out his baby book and watched him look through it. He couldn't believe he was that small! It was cute to see his reactions to all his first things as a baby. He asked me to bring cupcakes to his class to celebrate his bday and he had specific instructions on the colors and type of cupcakes! It was fun to meet his classmates and see Gavin interacting with his new friends.
We decided to have dinner at home and give Gavin plenty of time to open his gifts. Grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins, and friends sent gifts that we were holding onto for him to open today! Gavin was excited to get his new gifts and played with them all evening. Afterwards we went to the local park to play and have cake! Gavin had a special day and loved the extra attention he got. He kept saying how we couldn't wait until he turned 6!
Whew! Just like that August was over!!
Wait. not yet. We had surprise visitors come through Borger a few days later. Brooks' grandparents, Mim and Pop dropped in to see us and celebrate Gavin's birthday, too. It was so nice to see them and catch up!
1 comment:
Post a Comment