Student of the month!

My seven-year-old was named the Student of the Month for second grade for August-September at her school!

The character word for August-September was respect, so she was chosen for displaying respect toward others. She also sets a good example in class for behavior and academics. (When she gets home she's so tired of being good and smart and so sometimes she turns into someone else altogether!!)

One of the perks for being student of the month is a special lunch, which was today. She got to sit at a decorated table on the stage in cafeteria where everyone could see her. Her dad couldn't come eat with her because he got stuck at work, but I did. We had our picture made together, and today she brought home a copy of it.

We're really proud of her and all her hard work! She's not only setting a good example for her fellow students but also her sister, who now wants to be the pre-kindergarten Student of the Month!

Working up to the big day and living through the aftershocks

The realization has hit me that being pregnant is rather akin to preparing to move. Being as we just moved and I'm in the early stages of my third pregnancy, I feel that I am qualified to point out the similarities.

The thing is that with both of these major adjustments in one's life is that it's just the precursor to the REALLY big adjustment — having a new baby, another child to care for, around; or trying to get settled into your new home and community and learning all the ins and outs of important things like where to pay the bills, where a good doctor for the kids is, and all that important stuff.

But these two life-changing situations have something else in common: after the big day not too many people are concerned with how you are getting along. Most of the inquiries about how things are going come before the big day, while you're pregnant or while you're trying to get ready to move.

Sure, you think you're going nuts sometimes and wish the whole thing would just be over and you appreciate the concern, but you feel like a dropped hot potato sometimes after the real thing happens and nobody's much interested anymore!

It's not that people don't care, they've just moved on (it took you long enough, after all) and you're stuck with the end result!!! Boy, what a deal.

Big news!

As if moving away from my hometown for the first time ever this past summer wasn't enough to turn our lives upside down, we got some surprising and exciting news exactly a week before our 10th wedding anniversary — we have another baby on the way!

The girls are beside themselves with joy while their father and I are still trying to get used to the idea. It's been a while since we've done this -- our younger child will be five in November -- so we're out of practice, out of the loop, and pretty much put ourselves out of the baby business when I gave all our baby stuff away to keep from moving it when we relocated.

The girls want a little sister, my husband and I don't care, and all our friends and family back home want a boy this time. We'll find out this winter and then begin the process of choosing names and obtaining something for the poor little thing to wear.

There hasn't been any sickness at all, which is wonderful, and the little one-inch baby has a ravenous appetite. I'm officially eight weeks along so if I were going to be sick it would have happened by now.

One thing's for sure, we are in for some excitement come next April and for a long time afterward. We're looking forward to it. Mostly.

Missing home

Never before have I missed home, never really had to even though no one in my family except me lived where I was raised in over a decade. I missed them but never missed home, until now.

We moved a whole hour from our home in Eastern Arkansas to Central Arkansas this summer, and there are many similarities, being that it's so close. The people are pretty much the same, friendly and respectful, and that has made the adjustment a lot easier for me.

I don't see anyone I know when I leave the house, though, and I really miss that. There's no one to wave to as I drive down the street. I don't know the children at school, I didn't go to school with their parents, and I didn't even go to that school.

Sometimes you take these things for granted when you are surrounded by them, when they are all you know, and then when this reassuring daily life isn't there anymore, you take notice. You even miss it.

It sure is tougher to get from one place to the other. Back home, in the small town of nearly 4,000 where I was raised and lived 35 years, it's a snap to get anywhere. You zip down the street to get to the school, you hop on the interstate to get to your next job.

Not so here in the "big city" of 60,000, not quite 250,000 if you count the adjoining twin city of 180,000. Traffic is everywhere; it's nearly impossible to cross the street just to drop the kids off at school not even a mile from the house. The places where you need to go are spread out further, too.

The place where I'm from is full of its idiosyncrasies, but something about it being home just makes me miss it. Thankfully it's only an hour away so we can visit fairly frequently.