Keeping Busy

Family

We almost couldn't attend a campout family reunion because essential stuff was packed away in our trailer but I was able to unpack enough to find them. It was Monday night playing and eating s'mores then on Tuesday we did a big family breakfast and then a treasure hunt that we learned about the girl's great grandparents that I didn't know. They weren't good at listening, but they enjoyed finding the hidden clues and getting a toy mermaid at the end of the game. There was a hot spring pool right next to the campgrounds that we all when swimming at and I wish I would have brought their life jackets because they were attached to me the whole time! They liked to go down this ramp into the slightly too deep area and throw their mermaids so they could hold onto my arms as we swam to get them and start over.

Fun

Already we have gone swimming with friends again this week and this time I brought the life jackets and Claire LOVED being independent enough to swim on her own. She didn't want to play much on the slide in the kid's area and enjoyed swimming in the lazy river or the big pool. I might buy a season pass just to take them every week while we are here because she already has asked to go back 3 times! We also had fun playing with cousins yesterday for a little water party with water guns, balloons, and a slide. They didn't want to leave but we had to go to the store to buy a present for their friend who was having a birthday party that night and there would be more water fun with a bouncy house slide. I know we have a birthday girl in two weeks so it makes me think...what am I going to do??

Claire

It is always really exciting to be back at grandparent Bell's house because the girls know the toys and the family we see when we are here. Claire likes the doll toys here and has played with them every day, but now she also adds her own pony toys into the mix. It's hard for them to ask for their toys and I know they are just in a box out in the shop so I have to say no instead of they can have them when we go home. She asked for her Lego blocks today and I tried to make her happy with substitute blocks but she didn't like it, so she whined for a bit. It may just be me but I've noticed her being a little more emotional today and I assume it is because she misses her daddy. Keeping busy earlier in the week with everything we did was fun, but not having daddy there is starting to show and she asks him every night during our prayer calls to come because she loves him.

Shay

Because she does and follows everything her sister does, she always says she wants daddy too, but she is more 'eh' about it. I know she loves Chris, but sometimes she is a momma's girl and prefers sitting in my lap during prayers, or sitting next to me on the couch for example. Her favorite things are still PJ masks and Frozen, but she has been finding a few things like watching and playing My Little Ponys with her sister. She asked to watch Mulan this past week because she found the VHS case here and I thought that was very out of ordinary for her. We have a lot of routines that I am trying to keep and Shay still thinks homework is boring, but I've been able to get her to do her puzzle while Claire is working. I want to give them the experience of school this coming year because I think they would love to meet new people, but we will have to start the year later than everyone else since we are still in this limbo. I'm just working on teaching them so they will be ready to go when they do start school.

The Move Out

Early week

Girls had a lot of free time because mommy was busy finishing packing and continuing the cleaning. They were excited about going to their grandparents' house and kept asking if it was time to leave yet. Shay remembers her cousin's house that has big Elsa and kept asking to go there too so we are ready to visit family. Chris finished this rotation and was prepared for his 2nd to the last test. He also expressed to me how grateful he was that I’ve been working so hard to pack and clean so he can focus on school. 

Friday

We have these amazing friends that came to visit and help us move. They brought a trailer for our stuff and came early so we could take them to the beach. Chris finished his test that morning and we took a picnic to Beals point for lunch and beach time. We didn’t have very good floating devices but had fun and only got a little sunburned. The day got really hot so we focused on cleaning and packing inside the rest of the day. The girls were very excited to show off some of their toys to their friends and were annoyed that so many were packed away. 

Saturday

Nice and early when the day was cool we packed a good amount of the trailer and by lunch, it was hot again! Fitting in the last things and cleaning filled the rest of the day until all that was left were beds, cleaning supplies, and the things for Chris’s car and my car. We found a burger place to eat out since we didn’t have a kitchen anymore and it was tasty! Our couch, desk, chair, and other random stuff that didn’t fit in the trailer found new homes and we went to bed early!

Sunday

We woke up at 4am so that our friends could leave early but the girls got to sleep until 6am. Although I tried to get out of the house by 8am there was just too much to do. Well, honestly I didn’t want to leave Chris. I could have given him the list of things that still needed to be cleaned and gone by 7:30am. He only had a 3-hour drive to Redding while I was looking forward to 10+ hours! We said a prayer as a family and kissed through the tears before leaving our home in California and parting for the next month and a half. 

Crazy

It might end up being a bad decision because it’s going to be hard to be apart, but we aren’t crazy! Technology allows us to talk and video chat enough that we will get through it. This move was hard because now I have 80% of my belongings packed away and I don’t know where everything is anymore. It’s been this way for 2 weeks since I really started packing essentials but now it’s worse. This is the reason I didn’t get a blog post…I’ll transfer this to the blog when I get my computer back so it is saved forever.

Packing in the Heat

 Claire

With the temperatures rising, I have been allowing the girls to run around in just their panties...chalk it up to saving money on our electric bill for just a little longer! I only got this picture of her after church because I knew I had to get at least one to share with everyone. She picked her own dress for church and Chris was the one who picked her up from her class and then told me she had cried a little. We've been explaining that we are moving and apparently she cried because she knew she would miss her friends. I cried too, of course, and now I know she will be like me and have my thick long hair. Whenever I do her hair or see her sweating at her hairline because of how hot it is I know she has thick hair just like mine. 

Shay

She was more accepting of leaving because she hasn't started feeling mommy's emotions and also has thinner hair than mine but maybe she will get there with both. She likes to distract Claire when we are working on her homework so I got one that she can do at the same time. Claire then wanted to do Shay's homework and when she finished her own stayed to do some of Shay's too. They have been getting a lot of time to watch shows and play with their tablet in the last 2 weeks because I don't want their help (or distraction) when I'm packing boxes. I started the cleaning and they both helped clean the walls yesterday, so this week they will be helping more as we are cleaning and getting fully ready to be gone.

Me

As I've said, I've been packing and cleaning, feeling like I'm running around the house always lost or frustrated because I already packed x, y, or z. I have a hard time shutting off my brain for bed because I'm trying to plan the next day's tasks and think about what else needs to be done. Then I have been getting up at 6 am to do some running training to prepare for a 5K I will be running in 3 weeks so I get tired during the day and worn out. The girls I have are wonderful and caught me falling asleep on the couch and then started whispering because they noticed I was trying to sleep. They are wonderful! I rant a little, but I am glad I'm keeping myself busy because every time I stop to think about leaving I start tearing up because I'm going to miss the people at church I've grown so close to. I wonder if it would be easier if I knew where we were going instead of just leaving this home I've made to go...somewhere...

Keep It Going July!

 Claire

I got the idea off Pinterest to make the girls matching rainbow shirts! Aren't they such good sisters? Not that I specifically posed them to be perfect for the shirts I made...Claire keeps remembering things she wants to play with that I have already packed in boxes and then asks if I will unpack them. There were puzzles that they haven't played with in months and all of a sudden she watched the show Bluey and wants to do the puzzles. Several things I try to pack, they want to take out of the box, like bike helmets, my jewelry, and balloons, and there will probably be more since we are not all done yet. She is obsessed with this picture on our fridge because daddy said it was his favorite and she likes seeing herself of course so she asks very nicely to borrow it and look at it in her heart.

Shay

When I washed out my tie-dye creations from my Relief Society activity this week, Shay was very excited to wear the shirt I made them. I found out the difference between 100% cotton and 50% cotton/polyester and how they hold color. I now want to redo one of them because it looks really faded. The 100% is much more vibrant and the colors really pop, but they are cute anyway! Mine is a patriotic one because last week I was realizing I don't have any patriotic shirts anymore, just nice-looking red or blue. For the first time in what seemed like a year, Shay slept in longer than Claire and my mind almost exploded. I don't know how it happened, but Shay has always been up with me in the mornings while the other two sleep in, even to the point where we go shopping or I distract her enough for me to work out...it was only once and then it was back to normal.

Red White and Blue

 Claire

Claire still fits in her patriotic outfit from last year even though she's getting a little tall! I'm just glad she let me dress her and she didn't want to go in a princess dress to our ward pancake breakfast. We also went to the beach with some friends this week and Claire loved the floaties that we could borrow. She told me twice how funny it was that when she ran in the water it made her slow and borrowing my goggles was the best. I pushed them out to a tiny island on a one-person kayak because Claire wanted to climb a big rock, but I only had my phone for one picture because Chris was at his current rotation and I needed to keep track of them.

Shay

These two are as thick as thieves, literally because they stole my dresses! Shay saw when Claire put my dress on and then wanted a turn so I got her a dress out to wear too. They also like to put on my nice bras if I don't put them away fast enough after getting dressed from church. Shay's time at the beach was fun too because she was obsessed with this sparkly purple tube that she wanted to hold on to while I pushed them around. They had to hold on and I would only ever go far enough out that the water was as high as my own waist so if they lost balance they weren't in danger. Right before we left she fell and scraped her leg and foot on some rocks right where the water started so she remembers getting hurt. Now they both keep asking to go back with daddy because that's how I convinced them to leave...

July 4th

We went to our ward 4th of July celebration yesterday and attended the flag ceremony with breakfast right after. The girls were overly excited and had a hard time sitting down for long enough to watch the flag raise, sing, or eat their whole breakfast. It's been a long time since I've sung the National Anthem and I just love it, especially since we did the other verses today at church too. One of the Young Men recited the Declaration of Independence from memory, and the wind blew the flag beautifully while we sang. There were pancakes with a delicious homemade creme syrup by someone from our ward, on the side we had a hashbrown egg casserole, bacon and sausages, and fruit. I loved hearing all the patriotic music as we ate and socialized and the girls played with their friends. Now we get to have a day with Chris off work tomorrow and grill some hamburgers and watch everyone else's fireworks tonight.