Back to the Grind

I started working again.  I had planned on waiting until the fall, after the kiddos started Kindergarten and were gone from me all day.  But, I had always hoped to go right back to my old job and pick up where I left off.  So, when that exact opportunity actually happened, I had to jump on it.  I am so fortunate to be back with my old company with my old peeps that I had missed so much!

For now, I'm only working part-time, three days a week.  I am so unbelieveably thankful to have had the time at home with my babies.  I wouldn't have traded it for the world and will always be grateful for those years with them at home.  But, it definitely feels great to be back at work again too.  I was so apprehensive about it at first and battled through a lot of guilt about going back early.  So far, it's been great especially since Brent can work from anywhere.  A laptop by the pool or at the park is just as beneficial as a laptop in an office.

Here are some random pictures from the last few weeks.  It's been really hectic but I'm sure it will calm down a bit once we find our groove.  Our poor house is in complete disarray with laundry flung from floor to ceiling and dishes piled so high in the kitchen that flies are soon to start swarming. We are loving being on summer break though.  I've been so spoiled having the babies at home all day again.  I'm going to miss them way too much in the fall.

Flinging rocks into the May.

Callie's flower with a bonus organ.  I bet their teacher got a kick out of this one!

Lacey bit him in the ear and he had to have stitches.  He also had surgery on his
foot twice since he was ripping off the cast and pulling out the stitches. 
Thus, the cone of shame.

Cotton candy at the last day of school picnic.

Pre-K diplomas!  Hooray!

Wyatt's soccer team.  They were just too cute!

Callie and I made kale chips from the kale in our garden.  It was pretty nasty
so we left it outside for the armadillos.  Even they didn't want it.

Geocaching

I had heard the word "geocaching" before but had no idea what it was.  Randomly, the word popped up again in an article I was reading early Saturday morning and I decided to put an ounce of effort into figuring out what it meant.  Quickly, I realized that I had been in the dark to a world that some people obsess about.  I thought we should try it just to experience the hype, so we entered in our zip code on the geocaching.com website and decided to hunt just one of these things down.  If it sucked, we'd stop.

We expected to be gone about 15 minutes or so.  In fact, all four of us quickly threw on some shorts and strolled out of the house in the shirts we slept in; bed heads blazing.  We had no idea we'd be geocaching for the rest of the weekend!

The first hunt was cool even though we didn't know what we were doing.  Having recently cleaned out my car, the only treasure we could find to trade was a free pen I'd picked up at an emergency vet up in Charleston.  We found the first box in a hollowed out log on an abandoned golf cart path not too far from our house.  We signed the log, chose a pretty shell in exchange for our pen, and excitedly headed to another set of nearby coordinates.  It was complete outdoorsy, nerdy fun. 

Here are some pictures from our, what turned out to be, weekend long adventure.  My mom joined us for the second half of Saturday and all day Sunday in Savannah too.  Our adventures included driving over dozens of fiddler crabs, happening upon a wild heard of goats, tons of animal bones, treks through parking garages, four very unfrightened rats, a couple of orioles, baby bunnies, mosquitoes, ticks, and bug bites in crevices you hope never to be bitten in.  While a few of us may have ended up with West Nile, we sho' had fun!

Our first cache hidden in a hollow log.

Trading a pen for a shell.

The "Love Connection" cache.

Sifting through the treasures inside.

A part of somebody's spine.

The "Aww, Shucks" cache near the Oyster Company.

Our first micro cache hidden inside a fake sprinkler head.  We almost gave up on this one.

Callie found this one all by herself and picked a really pretty marble.

Bones seemed to be our theme of the day.  It freaked the kids out so much that they are sleeping
with all the lights on at night. They are scared of skeletons under their beds and in the closets.

Sunday - taking a break to picnic in Forsyth Park.  Peep the kid's stylish outfit.
He loves wearing tube socks and always wears one black and one green.