Life Lately.

It’s been a while, actually, a long while.  Truth is, we’ve all been busy living life and I have not prioritized documenting about it.  So much has happened in the last couple of years what better way to rejoin the blogosphere and jump back into this than to give you a recap of 2017 until now?

First, the kids have gotten so big!  Actually, Cienna has gotten big and Dean is a full fledged adult, 18 years old, with a job and even going to college.  Time flies.  Cienna has started middle school and she loves it!  She’s currently in Cheerleading and Broadcast Journalism at school, so much so that she doesn’t like when the bell rings at the end of the period.

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Dean started college this past Fall Semester, he is currently attending a local community college and plans to transfer to a State University next year.  Dean is a working student, and is very interested in doing something in the medical field or technological science.  He has some time to decide, and whatever he decides, we would support.  We are so proud of that boy!

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In October 2016, we lost our beloved Junior.  We made the decision to put him to sleep, it was the hardest thing we ever have to do.  Junior was almost 13 years old, but his health took a steep decline around 2015 when the symptoms of his Degenerative Myelopathy, combined with his osteoarthritis, hypothyroid and old age really took a toll on his quality of life.  Our entire family was devastated and heartbroken, it still hurts when I think about it, even as I write this, but we were so fortunate to have 12 years with the sweetest, most wonderful, loved dog.

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After losing Junior, we thought it would be at least a couple of years before we got another dog but we adopted Cav in January of 2016.  Our home and our hearts just wasn’t the same without a pet, if you’re a dog lover, you might be able to relate.  We decided to rescue Cav from the Pensacola Humane Society.  He has been a wonderful dog and makes our family feel complete.

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Perhaps the biggest change is we’ve recently moved to California.  (I will write about everything I love about where we live now in a later post.)  We bought a house!  We were tired of renting, tired of breed restrictions and the stress that comes with finding a place to live that checked off all the things on our list. Get ready for a bunch of home improvement posts in the near future.

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That’s life lately!

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Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall!

Kids across the nation are starting school.  Summer is coming to a close, soon Fall will be here!  Fall is my favorite season, pumpkin flavored everything, leaves changing colors, the cool, crispness of sweater weather, football season, and the official beginning of the holidays.

Some parents are sad about summer ending, we all enjoy lazy summer days with no routine, no shuffling kids to and from activities, and just simply having your kids at home!  While we enjoyed the summer, I’m personally so relieved the kids have gone back to school.  (I wanted to do a happy dance or throw a party when both kids loaded onto the bus and drove off!)

I found these hilarious memes that I know many parents can relate to:

Dean will be a sophomore this year, and Cienna will start third grade!  Time sure does fly.  We had a great summer, we spent lots of quality time together as a family and the kids learned some life skills too!

We spent some time at the beach…

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We were at the pool almost every day!  Cienna learned to swim, and passed her deep end test!

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Dean got his permit in May, Jeremy and I have been teaching him to drive.

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The highlight of our summer was a trip to visit family in Tennessee.  We spent the weekend on the lake, boating and just hanging out with family.

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Jeremy and I were also able to spend a weekend in New Orleans for a mini vacation.

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Hope everyone had a wonderful summer, but I’m one happy Mama that my kids are back in school! Here were their bright and shiny faces from this morning when I snapped the obligatory “back to school” picture:

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