You Know You Aren't in Arkansas Anymore When...

Moving to Arizona has been eye opening, an adjustment, lots of fun and many more things. There are things they agree on like they both start with A, they both have bad drivers around, and they both have wonderful Churches. BUT there are a few things will clue us in to the fact that we aren't in Arkansas any more....

• It is November and you can still wear shorts, halter tops and flip flops out side. It was kind of scary to go to the Mall last weekend and see all the Christmas stuff up and everyone in shorts.
• When you get a drivers licenses in Arizona the renewal date says that they will see me again in 2033.
  
• We left our lawn mower in Arkansas and we don't miss it. The "lawns" are mainly rocks out here.
• The cactus out here are as tall as the Pine Trees that were in our front yard in Arkansas.

And the most amazing thing that I have seen since I've moved out here and I never saw when I lived in Arkansas was....

.....Someone vacuuming their driveway. I kid you not. I told Jeff that I understand the need to be clean and I do try my best to follow the "rule" in the housing association we live in but I will draw the line at plugging in our shopvac and sucking up dirt and rocks that are in the cracks in our driveway. Just am NOT going to do it.

My Head in the Sand and then my Heart...

We did it. We had the MRI on Georgia done. I know most of my "Not Needing To" feelings were from "Not Wanting to Know". Ignorance is Bliss. The MRI came back as "normal" for someone with NF-1. She does have a benign tumor on her optic nerve but it is not interfering with anything. The image of her brain did show bright spots that just confirms that she has NF but nothing else. We knew she had a mild form (for now) and this just helped confirm it. She will have another one in a year to make sure that there are no changes and then we wait. We wait and see. I guess that is the hardest thing as a parent to hear. There is nothing we can do, we just wait. Granted we do that with all our kids.. wait and pray that all we do is the right thing and they grow up to be happy and healthy adults. But here we also wait and see how this will affect her when she is 13, 18, 21, and so on.

My heart was so sad on Friday. I went to pick up my girls from school. Normally Georgia is running and trying to "win" getting to the car before Catherine. That wasn't the case on Friday. On Friday I pull up and she is dragging her backpack behind her. She is sad. She opens the door and she is crying. I ask why and she says she did get to go to the Popcorn party her class had. She "didn't do good". I now am livid yet trying to cheer up my poor sad 1st grader. Why? Because her teacher sent home a homework packet during their Vacation. It had about 20 pages of math (with at least 15+ math problems on each page), around 35 pages of language/writing pages and 15 pages of writing (she had to write 3 sentences using the proper punctuation for each page). We had not finished the packet correctly the teacher said and Georgia needed to finish. We did. We sent it back. The teacher never got the packet. Georgia and 3 other kids missed the fun because of this. I tried to remain calm but have to admit I'm seeing red. It is amazing how a normally laid back mother is ready to go confront a teacher. My heart is sad (and just a little bit angry). What would you do?

I LOVE PINK....

so says my daughter Charlotte. Here is our conversation about Pink (with a capital P) last night when she was in the bathtub.

C: I want a PINK scooter.

M: Do you now...

C: Yes. Cause I love pink.

M: What else do you want that is pink?

C: A house, all pink. Cause I love it.

M: What else?

C: My car. Oh, my stomach and legs, I want those to be pink.

M: That would be silly.

C: But you would love it cause I LOVE pink.

M: I Love you. Who do you love?

C: I LOVE PINK.

M: But WHO do you love?

C: Well, PINK and God. I Love pink and God. I want to take a pink bath. You know why momma?

M: Why Sweetie?

C: Cause I LOVE PINK!

I'm beginning to think she loves pink. What do you think? AND if you scroll down to the Halloween pictures you will see she is a Pink Princess with Pink cowboy boots on. Cause you know, she loves pink!

The Sugar High Holiday...

Ah, Halloween. I have such fond memories of this holiday. My mom was so artistic and we lived in a house that could have come off the pages of Haunted Halloween Houses that it was a perfect holiday for us. Living in Arkansas meant that we didn't get to do too much with this day. Schools started having "Harvest Parties", parents complained if you did anything related to bats or witches during this month, most houses never even turned their lights on. To my wonderful surprise it is almost a weeklong holiday here. We had Trunk or treat at our church last week. Then we did Boo at the Zoo with Catheirne's Girl Scout troop on Friday. Next was the Halloween at the Park down the street from us on Saturday. Finally it was last night. We had so many kids. Andrew's school let the kids dress up as long as they didn't wear a mask over the face. Adults and kids alike were all decked out for the fun. It was nice. It was fun. I can't wait for next year... I say as I shove all the decorations in a box because I'm tired of black and orange. ~grins~ We all have our limits.