This past week was a little more catch up, a little bit of fun, and the beginning of football season and preschool.
Harvey and Beverly started at preschool on Monday. Beverly really seems to be enjoying it this year… Harvey… not so much. He hasn’t played as “rough” with the other kids as last year, but he is really struggling to be happy at class which breaks my heart. I am hoping it’s just getting back into the routine and that he will begin to look forward to going to school to play with his new friends.
Before school 
Beverly’s best friend, Afton, gets to go to preschool with her this year! It makes it really nice for carpooling. 
After school… at least one of the Kids seemed to have a good day. 
The teacher said Harvey didn’t enjoy himself and mostly sat on this red bench while the class did interactive activities… I hope this changes soon. 
Andy walked the girls to class. Afton insisted upon a hug “like Bev”
Andy and Max began football season. It was fun watching Andy coach and interact with the kids. Of course some of the kids’ moms are “Karens,” but overall it’s been a positive experience. Max is always beaming from ear to ear with happiness at the end of practice because he’s so happy his dad is the coach. The only “complaint” we’ve gotten is that there isn’t more structure… but we’ve literally only had two practices and Andy’s coaching is volunteer. I told the lady that my husband would be happy if her husband wanted to step up and coach and she muttered something about how he’d just gotten back from a deployment for a year. I told her I understood. I’ve done deployments and my husband just finished residency where he worked an average of 6 days a week and around 70 hours on average, but not for one year… for three. I’d still rather do residency over than a deployment, but basically I wanted her to just realize that we were all doing the best we could. “We came from a team that won state, we were very competitive.” I said, “Oh well you’re in the wrong league. Our team was undefeated last year against the rest of the county and that’s as far as it went.” Personally, I prefer the more casual way of the County’s sports, but I’m also not a crazy Karen.
Aside from negative Nancy, the kids all seemed to have a great time. Andy would do the drills right alongside them and the second practice went a lot smoother than the first. I think that they’ll be getting better in no time. One of Andy’s assistant coaches is in our ward, so that’s been fun to get to know him and his family a little better.
Harvey got a new helmet, his other one was falling apart– it was a hand-me-down from his older siblings after all. 
Though he doesn’t seem to mind hand-me-downs, even if they’re his sister’s. 
We went to a birthday party on Saturday where they had a peace officer show up. The kids had a blast learning all about his car and gear. 
A lot of people have asked me what life is like post residency. And I’m not sure I know yet. Andy didn’t have to work at all the first week because there was a lot of paper work he had to do and some signatures and trainings he had to go to base for, but he didn’t have his first shift till halfway into the second week of August. Because they had to back-load his shifts he’s been pretty busy. Still, it isn’t nearly as bad as residency and he doesn’t have to go to conference which is a huge perk. He is still doing some mandatory in-processing and in-person and online trainings, but they aren’t even that bad. He’s had a lot of time at home to work on some projects that we’ve been putting off long enough. I mentioned a lot of the perks of having him done with residency, but another one is that he is able to finally tackle some honey-do’s. I wrote a list on our kitchen chalkboard so if he’s ever bored he can just glance up and get an array of ideas to cure the boredom. 😉 He is actually excited about a lot of the honey do’s because most of them are getting his garage ready for his new car that should get here between November and January.
As far as post-residency transition is going for me, it’s a little weird. We left the day after his last shift to go on a month long vacation, hoping around the US visiting family. It was wonderful, but VERY exhausting. We got back and the next day Andy started in-processing and a few days later the kids went back to school. Plus, as mentioned in a previous blog, all hell seemed to break loose with car problems and freak-of-nature house problems. Between a new battery and tires (and alignment) for me, the jeep’s radiator being replaced and then the engine exploding, getting the motorcycle up to snuff to tide us over for a while (registration, a fixed carborator, etc) we’ve been juggling a lot. This week will be the first “normal” week (knock on wood). I spend the morning going to the gym, running errands, picking up the kids, and then by the time I get home I am EXHAUSTED. I told my sister this and she said, “I think it’s because you’re recovering from three years of just surviving.” And I have to say, I think she’s right. That and recovering from a month long vacation with four kids that included two airplane rides and three round trip road trips. My evenings are another whirlwind of back to school shenanigans, sports practices, ballet, making and cleaning up dinner and trying to stay on top of laundry and house work. I’ll find a balance. Until then I think I’m still gonna enjoy some brain-dead hours between 1 and 3. Once I feel I’ve recovered I have some goals to work on some house projects (repainting the trim, etc) and getting back to my art and writing. I have been working on a new art piece that I am really enjoying. It’s a new technique where I sketch it out in pen, cover in acrylic ink and then layer with gauche. I’ll show you when I’m finished. Till then you’ll just have to wait in anticipation.
Till next week!