Off to School!

The first day of school. . .can it be?

New shoes. Sweet faces.

A picture with mom.

Jeff

Here comes the bus! Have a good day.

And so it begins. . .the new school year. The days of summer have slipped away and the everyday routines of school return. The kids were up and ready, beds made, dog walked, teeth brushed and still had time to spare. Not bad for the first day!

Of course, I took the usual first day of school pictures. . .the kids in front of our house with their new backpacks, new shoes, new (or maybe not so new) friends. This time it felt a little more familiar and not quite as scary. Yet there was still an unspoken and subtle yearning for "home" if not on the kids part, on mine. The kids wore big smiles as they each hopped on the bus greeted one at at time by our busdriver, Jeff. He is so wonderful!

As the bus drove away my heart was beating fast and I wondered how their day would go? I wrote little "love notes" for their lunch boxes and thought to myself. . .these days are going so fast now. . .slow down. I guess they will be home soon enough with stories to tell of their first day of third and fourt grade.

I will be ready to listen.

The Last Days of Summer. . .aaaahhhhhh!

And so the last days of summer have now arrived. . .my how the summer flew by. We spent one more afternoon at our new favorite spot at the beach. Thekids climbed on the rocks, found cool sticks and rocks, had fun looking at the cool tide pools, and even saw a beautiful pale pink jellyfish. It was great. Every single time we are here I am in total awe of the absolute beauty.

I took this picture for you, mom. I loved the flowers, the sky, and the water.

Connor is really growing up and changing every day.

Weren't they just falling asleep on our shoulder yesterday?

And now this. . .crazy! Every now and then she nails him with a kiss when he least expects it. Good job, Christen.

Fourth grade!

Connor's classroom.

Third grade!

Christen's classroom.

Kelly and Christen have an early birthday sleepover at our house.

Open your present. . .

The girls made their own mini pizzas. While they were in the oven I painted their nails.

Then they watched Princess Diaries. At the intermission we sang to Christen

and had birthday brownie sundaes. . .mmmmmmm! I love her 8 year old toothless grin!

Happy Birthday sweet girl.

Hammonasset at High Tide

We went to Hammonasset on Saturday at high tide to see if Hurricane Bill was causing any changes along the Connecticut coast. There was talk of 9-12 foot waves. When we got there it was just a very pleasant beach day. . .nothing else. I guess that we are so well protected by Long Island that it was totally a non-issue. On the other side of Long Island it was a very different story. I guess we are quite lucky.




The kids have so much fun in the water and climbing on the rocks.
Another view.
King of the world!

Back to back on a boulder.

Christen is turning 8 on August 31! How can that be? I told her to smile big. . .this is your

8 year old picture. I just love the toothless grin!

VBS at St. Paul

Okay, last week was a great week! The kids and I went to vacation bible school at our new church, St. Paul Lutheran Church. It was so much fun! The kids had a great time. When we got registered I said that I would be happy to help in any way for the whole week. . .they said, "In any way?" and then gave me a "leader" shirt and a name tag! I was with the pre-k group of kids for the week and I loved every minute of it. Believe it or not, on Sunday night I told Larry that I really didn't want to go. . .I was missing our "home" church and friends. He said, "Get over it! You know that you will love it once you get there." He was right. . .don't let it go to your head Larry! Anyhow, Rally Day is September 13th and the we will be in regular attendance at St. Paul and the kids will be in Sunday School. That will be thing for all of us to have a church home.

He fills my life with good things. Psalm 103:5

Our Last Day with Karen

It is hard to believe that today will be our last day with Karen for a while. It has been so fun to have her here with us. We will spend our last day together at the beach since it is a HHH day again. (Hot, Hazy, Humid) At least we are not in Snoqualmie where it was 103 yesterday!

July has been a flurry-scurry of visitors!

Wow. . .today is July 28th!Happy Birthday to my brother and to Sarah Crane! Where has the month gone? Actually, we don't want it to end. During the month of July we will have had company all but 5 days. We are enjoying every bit of it. . .storing it up in our cells for later when visits are less frequent. The month started out with a 10 day visit with our friend Liz from Iowa. (a.k.a. Auntie Liz) It was so good to spend time with her. We did so many fun things together. . .exploring Connecticut. Some days were long and crazy while others were spent relaxing. When Liz left we were feeling sad, but not to worry, The Rosenwinkel/Dikelsky van would be pulling into our driveway in just a few hours! The van arrived at about 3:00 p.m. with 2 exhausted moms and 4 very excited boys! In a matter of no time there were 6 great friends up in the newly built pirate ship tree house. All kinds of art supplies were carried up to make signs and flags for the ship. While we all sat on the screened in porch enjoying a beverage, we marveled at how not one of them had skipped a beat. The friendships that they share between them are so part of who they are that they just picked up where they left off over 4 months ago. . .it was awesome! Then we had 3 very full days. Mystic Monday, NYC Tuesday, Beach Day Wednesday. Thursday was the day for a slower start with Miss Carol's famous swedish pancakes and some more time in the tree house. Then we went around Guilford a little bit on our way to New Haven to see the green and go through Yale. We had lunch at Miso and then said our goodbyes. I am not very good at the goodbye part. . .that was a rough day. Since we have moved to CT I have been amazed at how easy the adjustment has been. All of us settled in to our new routines so easily. Larry loves his job, the kids love their school, we all love our neighborhood, the area is beautiful and all of the people we have met have been so welcoming and so friendly. That being said, this is one of the hardest things we have ever done! Leaving our friends behind has left a huge hole in our hearts and in our lives. So much comfort comes from our familiar and well established friendships and relationships. Here we have so may opportunities for new friendships, but right now they are new and a lot of work, which is okay, but it does not bring comfort. It is like we have planted tiny new seeds and now we are waiting for them to grow. They need our time and attention. They will need watering,fertilizing and weeding before the harvest. This takes time. After everyone left we realized that it does not matter where you live, how beautiful your house is, or how beautiful the area is. . .life without your friends and family is not quite as sweet. It was great to see everyone and so hard to see them go.

Then we had 4 days before Karen arrived for a 10 day stay. We ran the washer and dryer 24/7 for 3 of those days and tidied up the house the rest of the time. We went to get Karen at Laguardia on Tuesday in a total downpour and the went back to get Nick from Laguardia on Thursday. . .in a total downpour. Crazy. On Friday we spent the day in Newport, Rhode Island touring mansions and walking along the Cliff walk. It was breathtaking! Newport, we will be back! Saturday we went to Hammonassett for a day at the beach. Nick was recovering from what we think was food poisoning, but everyone seemed to have a great day. When we got home we had a light dinner and played many rounds of Old Maid and Go Fish with the new deck of cards that we got in Newport with all of the mansions on them. Sunday morning Nick made us all breakfast and Larry and Karen took him back to the airport. His original flight was cancelled so he was put on a new flight which left 3 hours late, therefore missing his connection. He ended up landing in Cincinnati and his car was in Indi, so his mom picked him up and he got his car the next day. Moral: never fly in and out of Laguardia if you can help it! So now we have just a few days left with Karen. We will enjoy every moment of it. We are enjoying having all of our kids under one roof! This should bring you a little bit more up to date. . .more stories and pictures to follow.

Love,
Jodi