Still growing up too fast

Yesterday, Charlie surprised me.  He started pointing to letters and yelling "A" or "E." He rarely gets the letter right, but it's clear that he recognizes them as letters, and I found that pretty impressive (he just turned 18 months).  I was taken quite off guard by his skills, and I was thinking about how young he is when I realized that Violet was only a few months older than he is now when she memorized the entire alphabet. 

This isn't a post about how smart my kids are.  What I'm really talking about is how differently I see them.  It was easy for me to accept Violet's milestones since she was an only child.  By the time she knew her ABCs, I was already pregnant with Charlie, and she didn't seem like a baby anymore.  But since Charlie is the younger sibling, I have viewed him as a baby for much longer.  When I think about him learning the alphabet or speaking in sentences or someday becoming an older sibling, the first thing that comes into my head is, "That's crazy!  He's my baby!"  I guess that's what comes with being the youngest.  Now I know why my family can't take me seriously.

Our best day of the trip

Am I still talking about our road trip?  Yes, I am. Get used to it.  The best day of our trip in my opinion was our last day.  Brandon's family came to meet us in Capitol Reef and we went to hike Cassidy Arch, in the picture below.  The arch is enormous, and you get to climb right on top of it.  It was one of my favorite hikes of all time.

 And the most exciting part of this hike, at least for Violet, was that Aunt Mia was there.  I love all the pictures I got of them.  And is anyone else impressed that my 3-year-old did this hike?  I mean, she had to be carried a good part of the way, but she hiked much of it by herself.

 In the next picture you can see a cairn in front of them.  Violet was really excited to learn about cairns on this trip.  At first she kept asking if she could knock them over, but I explained to her that they were actually there to point the way.  After that, she would get excited each time she saw one, point, and yell "I see a Karen!  Hi Karen!"

 This next picture shows Brandon and me out on the arch with a 200- foot abyss in front of us.  I had to leave shortly after this because I was too scared.

 One really cool part of Capitol Reef is the holes in the rocks.  My kids loved exploring them.

 The fun didn't stop when we got back to camp.  Violet still had the time of her life playing with Mia.

 Charlie gorged himself on their homemade apple juice.

 And we made campfire hot chocolate-- one of my favorite things on the trip.  The whole day made me really miss living by Brandon's family!

ice cream cone

He knows what he wants.

Illegal

Remember my last post about having my own car and getting to do whatever I want this summer?

Scratch that.

I went to get a Texas license yesterday.  And because I'm dumb, my current Idaho license had expired a couple of weeks ago.  I didn't think it would be a big deal, but it was.  I got to the DPS nice and early when the wait was only 20 minutes, and I had brought the things that their website said I would need.  Just kidding!  They lied. They sent me home to get my SS card, birth certificate, and another proof of residency.  The only thing was that I didn't have any other proof of resiency.  I am basically a nomad.  We have moved at least every year since we have been married, and that doesn't count the four times we moved for just a couple of months for Brandon to have work. There are no utilities in my name.  I don't have a job, and don't go to school.  I'm not married to a Texan.  I don't request bank statements.  I'm not on medicaid or WIC, and my health insurance card doesn't have my address on it.  Even our rental contract was done electronically, so we didn't have a hard copy of it. This was a problem.  When I finally got something figured out and went back to the DPS, the wait was over 2 hours.  (To make things worse, I had someone watching my kids the whole time.  It was definitely better than having them with me, but my poor friend had to watch them for much longer than she signed up for.)  My turn finally came and I was asked to surrender my Idaho license.  Surrender.  Like we were at war or something.  The lady then took my picture and had me take a written test-- which I passed.  When I walked up to do the last thing, the lady told me I would have to schedule an actual driving test, and that their next available appointment was JULY 23.  Yes.  Six freaking weeks from now.  And did I mention that they took my Idaho license?  So I had to drive home illegally, and I can't legally drive until I pass a driving test, even though I have been driving every day for the past 9 years.  I spent six hours at the DPS and left in a worse position than I came.  I guess the best part of yesterday was getting this text from my sister: "Lol.  Like you aren't going to drive.  Screw the government."  Amen to that.

I've discovered the secret.

Let me take a moment to publicly thank my sister for giving us her car.  This summer has been the best one in three years.  The past two summers we have had to move out to either corporate housing or my parents' house for Brandon to go to work, and he would take the car every day (unless I wanted to wake myself and the kids up at 7:00 to take him.  Nope.) I was away from my friends and on most days, stuck without a car in a house that wasn't mine. I honestly started to wonder if I had some kind of reverse seasonal depression during the summer.  No, it wasn't depression.  I just hated it.

It was much better during the school year, but since Rice charges $400 per semester for a parking pass, I still had to drive Brandon to school every day.  It doesn't sound that bad, but I couldn't leave the house before he was ready to go each morning, and I couldn't start making dinner until we were back every night (which was at least 6:00).  The worst part was when Violet would fall asleep in the car on our way to pick him up and then think she could stay up till 10:30 because she had a 15-minute nap.  

Now, since Brandon's company is nice and doesn't charge him $400 for a parking permit, Brandon drives himself to work every day.  He also works close to home, so we didn't have to move out for the summer. Oh my gosh, it has made such a difference in my life.  I can start making dinner at 4:30 instead of 6:30.  Last night we had TWO sides with our dinner.  That's two more than I normally make.  Since we eat earlier, I get the dishes done right after dinner instead of having to put the kids to bed first.  My house is actually clean before I put the kids to bed.  And since I can leave the house earlier, we can get more done and still have Charlie home on time for his nap each day.  Is this how all the other moms manage to stay on top of things?  Is this why everyone else seems to have a handle on things while I could never seem to get myself together?  Well, now I know.  The secret to keeping order in your house isn't in waking up early, or doing a full load of laundry every day.  It's having a husband who drives himself to work.

Cutest nightstand ever

I posted on my sewing blog.  I'm really proud of this project, go check it out.

Retraction

It was unplugged.