Our Final Days of Summer

In Alaska, summers never seemed long enough.  It always seemed as if summer was ending before it even began!  Now that we're in WV, summers seem to drag on and on and on...  I was sure there was no end in sight to last years.  Several things attributed to this: being away from Nathan and being away from Nathan while pregnant!  I thought being pregnant during the summer in Alaska was bad.  As if trying to adjust to the heat wasn't bad enough, doing it at seven months pregnant was horrible!  Then there was the fact that Nathan was still living in Alaska, 4,000 miles away.  It was stressful not knowing when he would get orders out, if he was going to make it for Addi's arrival, where we were going to live, where we would find work...the list went on!  Eventually, everything worked out; Nathan was there to welcome his little girl into the world, he was offered a great job and finally got his orders that brought him back home to his family. 

Although this summer hasn't been as stressful, it has certainly felt just as long!  This one I'm chalking up to school.  I'm looking forward to getting the boys out of my hair for a while and having some "me" time.  Or more like "Addi" time.  We've never had school to look forward to in the past and now that we do it feels as if it will never get here.  When we first registered the boys to start, their scheduled seemed too good to be true; Mon-Thur, all day.  We get the call today that it was too good to be true!  Daniel will still go as scheduled, but Denton has been put on the waiting list for the Head Start program.  Instead, he will be enrolled into the Home Based Head Start Program.  I had never heard of this until today.  Although it's not what we had in mind, it doesn't sound bad and is definitely better then nothing.  A teacher will come to our home once a week for two hours and work with Denton to prepare him for Pre-K.  Included in this is what they call "Center Day" where Denton will meet with other kids his age participating in the same program. 

Everything will be starting soon so I only have a few short weeks to recover from Wednesday's surgery.  Nathan and mom will have their hands full with the kids!!  I've been strictly advised against lifting anything for the first three weeks, which I believe is going to be the hardest part.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to this little "break", but not being able to hold Addi will be tough.  Guess it's a good thing she's such a daddy's little girl.  =)

We've been trying to get in as much time with the kids before Wednesday so we've been doing a little sight seeing around the area.  Found this awesome hiking trail not far from Nathan's shop.  I see a lot of picnics there next summer!