Catching up, Again!

I realized this morning that it's been months since my last Blog Entry!  My life has been crazy busy, crazy stressful and crazy beautiful...

April:
On April Fools Day Sebastian broke his arm.  He climbed up on an end table and promptly fell off of it.  Surprisingly it was not the worst fall he's ever taken.  On the contrary, it was definitely one of the more "lighter" falls that he'd taken thus far.  Unfortunately, despite the short distance and seemingly mild fall that he took, he landed just the right way on his arm.  Within minutes we were flying out the door to drop Kyle, Bella and Savannah off at Nana and Pops before rushing to the ER.  Many hours (and tears!!) later and he was in a full arm cast.  Poor little guy.
Adjusting to life with a cast has been challenging, but he's actually done a great job.  With the exception of his balance being off due to the extra weight of the cast he actually gets around quite well and, for the most part, acts as though having only one arm to use is the most natural thing in the world.  Bathing and dressing him is our biggest challenge.

Bella went to Girl Scout Mini-Camp for 4 days (from 8:30-11:30a) and then attended her very first sleep-over camping trip with the Scouts!  Much to my delight she had a fabulous time hanging out with a few of the girls from our troop as well as multiple girls from other troops.  They went hiking, made some crafts, played games etc.  It was a perfect first experience for her!!

May:
Kyle had the adventure of his life when he attended the West Point Camporee at the Military Base in New York for 2 nights/3 days. With over 6500 Scouts and Leaders from around the world there it was the most memorable weekend to date for Kyle!  From hiking to obstacle courses to training side by side with the Military he truly had the time of his life!  It was the most physically demanding trip he'd ever been on, but I think he enjoyed every second of it.  The activities he participated in helped him to rank up, which made for an exciting night for him at the Code Of Honor earlier this week.  He earned multiple patches and pins for his uniform - and was as proud as could be to receive them!
While we were at the Code of Honor I overheard some of the other kids talking about their trip to West Point.  Many of them did not have nearly as great of a time as Kyle did, mostly because the exercises were hard and left them feeling tired and sore.  Some of them didn't even participate in all of the activities offered, which is a real shame because the Troops are chosen by lottery to attend West Point - which means their Troop likely won't get chosen again during their time as Boy Scouts.  I actually felt a little sad listening to the kids complain about the things they didn't like about the trip.  It all boiled down to one main thing: these kids are lazy.  They sit in a classroom all day, then come home and sit in front of some kind of electronics.  They spend very little time outdoors and get zero exercise.    I'm glad that this is not the case for Kyle.  He loves adventure, he loves moving around, he loves being active!
I've reached out to the leaders and asked them to send me any pictures they took of Kyle while at WestPoint.  As soon as they get them to me I will create an album to share with everyone!

In general May is shaping up to be a busy month for us.  I am hosting a brunch for my Girl Scouts/Parents this coming Saturday morning.  After that my Mom and Frank are coming over mid-afternoon for an early dinner.  Then next week we have multiple Dr's appointments - Kyle's annual physical, Sebastian's allergist appointment and his orthopedic appointment, followed by Kyle's 12th (!!) Birthday celebration!

I have decided that I'll have my last weekly Girl Scouts meeting at the end of May.  After that I will still host activities for the girls, but it will be on more of a random basis.  My plate is too full - all the time - and I'm feeling a bit burnt out.

In between all of this Jim and I found a house in Smithfield that we've been thinking about purchasing.  Although the house itself needs a lot of work, it sits on quite a bit of land and is located down a long, dirt road in a very quiet section.  I have very little info to share about the house just yet, as there have been multiple issues that we have encountered with the property since we first took an interest in it about a month ago... - all of which the sellers have been working on getting resolved.  Up until very recently I was feeling pretty skeptical about it all..unsure of whether or not the sellers were trying to "sweep" some hidden issues under the carpet, so to speak, because it was Jim and his incredible knowledge of things that detected all of the problems from the very beginning.  But I'm starting to feel more at ease now that the sellers are actually paying for the problems to be fixed/corrected.  Even still, they have not signed our contract yet - which clearly states that the sellers will pay for ALL major repairs - so until we actually get some signed paperwork it's really not worth going into details just yet about the house itself.  I will say that although a big part of the reason why we're even considering this house is because it's much bigger than our current home it is more that the house itself sits on a very nice piece of land, which is something Jim's been wanting for a long time. 
We never intended for our home here in Riverside to be our "forever home".  Initially it was to be our starter home.   But life had a funny way of throwing obstacles into our path (all good obstacles) which kind of got us off track.  So now here we are - a family of 6 with pets - all living under a rather small roof.  We have (creatively) made use of every inch of this house..creating lots of storage, bedrooms and general living space - all of which seemed plenty big enough to me up until Mr. Sebastian came along.  Now that he's walking, running and nearing the toddler years the walls of this house feel as though they're bursting at the seams!  We're able to make things work, but we're definitely cramped.  And that's on the inside.. on the outside the fence around our yard feels like it's closing in on us pretty rapidly now that the kids are getting bigger.  Their toys (and Jim's!) are also getting bigger and multiplying.  Just the other day I was sitting in the yard taking stock of all that we have -- toddler toys, big kid toys, dirt bikes, ATV's,  lawn mowers, snow plows, bicycles,  etc etc.  In short, we have simply outgrown the space we have.  When Kyle was Savannah's age he was able to ride his ATV around the yard.  That's impossible now.  There's just too many things and not enough room. 
For a few years Jim and I really weren't on the same page about moving.  This is the first time that I can honestly say we're side by side with our reasons - weighing out the pros and cons - creating mental lists of what we actually need versus what we actually want.  It's been a process, but one worthwhile because even if things don't go right with Smithfield at least now we have some kind of a starting point.  I should note here, though, that with the exception of our interest in Smithfield we are not actually house hunting right now.  I really have little want to give up our summer months so both Jim and I are in agreement that if we don't get Smithfield then we will wait until next year to resume our hunt.  I'm very much in a "what's meant to be is meant to be" state of mind right now, as is Jim!