House for sale

I'm sure everyone who reads this blog already knows we're planning on moving to NC ASAP. Which probably means Christmas, and more likely June. Work has been bugging Brian to move to Charlotte since we moved from AL, and slowly his job has become more and more centered there. The good news: Brian will get a promotion (yay Dad!) and it is a community that fits our needs a little better (no ballet rehearsals or soccer games on Sun.; TWO wards of our church in the community) PLUS Brian's work is located only 20 min. away from the community we're looking at and he promises travel will be severely cut back (since he spends 90% of his time in Charlotte now, I hope so). We're all looking forward to seeing a little more of Dad--in fact, that is the major reason we're putting our house up for sale in this horrible market. Brian scored a sweet deal from work so we won't actually get hurt by selling the house low, but we still have to sell it.

Which is why I haven't written. Getting a house ready to sell admist going back to school--getting supplies, 4 back to school nights, soccer games and practices, and ballet has almost done me in. My realtor, in regular blunt NJ fashion, gave me more and more to do to make my house acceptable. But between Bev coming over to help take painter's tape off the walls and hang curtains, and Br. Monts being my on-call handy-man to do all the things Brian would do if he were here, I think my house looks pretty awesome. Well, it looks the best it can, considering.

Meanwhile, Paris got his braces off:

And Apollo got a new set of ear tubes. This will be his fourth set. He has crummy eustacian tubes according to our dr. Hopefully, this will be his last set.

Apollo and Paris are home sick today so I decided to take it easy with them. Apollo really is sick. Paris I think is just trying to get out of math because he forgot his homework again. Meah, we all could use a day to recharge once in awhile.

First Days of School

These are the first few days of school outfits. Can you tell who plans all night what they are going to wear and who throws on the first thing they see? (There are 2 in each category.)

School preview

Apollo is going to a different school than our neighborhood elementary school so he can have more concentrated help with his speech and reading. So Paris will be going to one school and Apollo will go to another one, and for some reason (hello overprotective-of-her-last-child mom) it is freaking me out. Luckily, Apollo's new school had an open house today.
We walked through to where he would be let off the bus to where his home-room class is. "See you just walk straight til you get to the door with the smiley faces are." He told me he would draw a picture of smiley faces on a card to bring with him so he wouldn't forget. (Isn't he smart?)
Then we visited his speech room, his pull-out room, the gym, and library. I lifted him up to see into the cafeteria. "It's so big" he exclaimed, and when he I set him down he let his knees buckle in awe and fell down. A fellow student rushed to his side to ask if he was all right. I swear Apollo rolled his eyes as he tried to explain that he was just overcome by the bigness of the cafeteria. His new friend stood there confused--he either didn't understand or couldn't believe someone swoons over a cafeteria, and Apollo walked away muttering.
Outside another mom introduced her son to us. He and Apollo had the same home-room teacher. Apollo held out his hand and shook his new friends hand deliberately, "Hi, I'm Apollo. What's your name?" I was a little stunned and no longer worried about him making friends.
The whole tour took about 10 min. and that was going back to search for water fountains. So when we were climbing in the car, and Apollo spotted the playground equipment, he suggested I should let him play. "I can make new friends," he said, though I have an inkling he was less concerned about making friends than in manipulating me into letting him play.
It was about 100* outside and so (amazingly) there were relatively few "friends" playing, so I got elected to push down on the teeter totter opposite him and help him explore the balancing bridge. "When I come here with my new buddy, he'll have to stay with me because that's what buddies do. And I will play soccer on that field. And all the girls will chase me because I'm a boy. They'll say 'There's a boy! Agghhh!'" he holds his hands up, waving and hollering. "But I can run faster than them," he assures me.
Looks like he'll have a fun year.