Life in Las Vegas

I've been struggling with blogging lately (well, obviously. For like the last year) because it seems like there are so many places on the internet to share information now. It always seems silly to post pictures in 3 different places, but maybe someday I'll figure it out.

Anyway, I should probably update the last 8 months of our lives in summary:

(1) Peter volunteered for a job at Creech AFB that should mean he deploys much less and shouldn't really travel at all.

(2) Peter deployed in February, got back in April, we went house-hunting in Las Vegas for 3 days and put an offer in on a house before he went off to New Mexico to train for this new job.

(3) The bank approved our short-sale and wanted to close within 30 days. I panicked. We decided it wasn't worth making double house payments for 2 months until Peter was done and so the kids and I moved by ourselves. With 4 weeks notice. I'm still not sure that really happened, but I hope it never happens again.

(4) I dropped the two older kids off in Norman, OK to spend some quality time with Peter's parents while I Evie and I got the house somewhat habitable (well, Evelyn mostly just put stuff back IN the boxes and made messes)

(5) I got obsessed with building furniture thanks to www.knockoffwood.com and have nearly given myself heatstroke working in the garage in this ridiculously hot climate. But, we are rapidly accumulating new furniture that we desperately need since no one in the family had a bed since we moved. Plus, my mom came out and did some awesome painting in the kids' rooms.

(6) Peter got done with his training early, drove BACK up to North Dakota to out-process and picked the older kids up on his way back. We spent two fabulous weeks all together as a family.

(7) The kids and I packed our bags and headed up to Washington for a week-long family reunion at Birch Bay, where we dug in the wet, sandy beach and enjoyed being able to wear jeans and jackets. Aunt Emily traveled with us, which was a lifesaver and we added a gratuitous peach-picking trip on both the way up and the way back.

(8) We made it back, got Alexander enrolled for school, ordered homeschooling materials for Allison (yes, I'm taking the plunge this year) and she's trying out a new gym for gymnastics tomorrow. It's starting to feel like we actually live here!