Harvey is excited to start at Lewiston! 
Bev was scared to try knee boarding, but Andy told her that if she tried it, she could pick out a pair of earrings. She picked these so that she could think about her dad while he was gone… only problem is, she probably shouldn’t wear them to school. 
Our friends, the Ingles (who Andy has been staying with till they ship him over seas) sent us this mini daddy so he can go on all of our adventures with us. 
Trampoline park photos never turn out. The kids are always moving and it’s too dark to catch a good photo.
When I was going through photos to see which ones to add to my blog, I had a series of snap shots of car photos as I tried to navigate how to check fluid levels on my car. Since Andy’s been gone, I’ve taken over a lot of his tasks- changing filters, mowing the lawn (which honestly I did probably 50% of the time anyway), cleaning the grill, and fixing things. Yup, kids keep on breaking stuff.. seriously… I swear they don’t usually break THIS many things in a two week period. I’m either painfully aware of them because Andy’s gone or it’s like the perfect storm. Possibly, our kids are navigating the absence of their dad with a little bit of rowdiness or clumsiness… or both. Harvey’s been extremely emotional, with ridiculous blood-curdling screaming for minor annoyances. I would jump from what I was doing and run to his aid until about the third time of it happening and realizing he’s just throwing a fit. Heaven forbid he actually gets hurt, because the cry sounds exactly the same. Beverly has been struggling with bed wetting. I thought we were out of the woods with that, but it has only increased since Andy’s left so the amount of laundry I’ve been doing is obscene. Maverick cried the hardest and longest when Andy left and honestly he seems to be handling it the best. So maybe the experts who say suppressing your emotions isn’t healthy are on to something. Max has taken his role of Man of the House seriously. Sometimes causing himself undue stress and sometimes acting like he knows more than me. We’re working on finding a good balance for both of us. The first week wasn’t as hard as I thought it’d be because we kept busy. I took them to the movies, began my date rotations, and let them have an abundance of virtual cousin time. For me, this week has been more challenging. I started the week with a migraine that lasted three days. I had a bunch of appointments to go to between myself and the kids and so Max was left to babysit more than I wanted him to. But I think it was a bit more than that. I felt on the verge of tears if anyone asked me how I was doing. If I kept my head to the plow and didn’t go up for air, I was fine. Or at least I told myself that. Maybe crying would’ve been better. But we made it through this second week and I feel like I’m doing a bit better emotionally. I’m a little nervous for the week ahead between school starting, Harvey getting used to all day school, Maverick was placed in a class that many people have told me the teacher is mean and impatient, and Max’s schedule was all messed up, though I think that is fixed now. I’m also anxious because we’ve had the luxury of being on similar time zones to Andy these past two weeks. But now we will be six hours behind. That will make family scripture study a little more difficult, couple movie night (which we could do on Plex “watch together”) and other virtual communications a bit more challenging. We’ll just have to get more creative.
We kept busy this week with house chores, friend time, and a trampoline park outing. I took Mav on a date Thursday. He picked back to school shopping and Red Robins. It was fun to chat and get to hear what he thinks about. I think I’m really going to enjoy these one on one dates. This next week is Harvey’s week. Well, wish us luck for the first week of school, because here we go!