My Truimphant Return

Okay, so maybe it's not triumphant. But it is my return. To blogging, that is. Life got busy and somehow I managed to go TEN MONTHS without a post. Pathetic, I know. Part of me feels as if I should go back and catch up. Somehow cover everything that's happened in the last, well, year really. But the other part of me realizes that I never would. I'd just continue to avoid my blog, feeling guilty for falling further and further behind. So, I am just going to jump back in.

Big things that have happened since my ten year anniversary:

The birth of Anna Elizabeth Perkins. Who is that, you may ask? You probably know her as Lizzie. We never call her Anna. Or Annie. Or Ann. Just Lizzie. Sometimes, when she's in trouble, I call her Lizzie Ann. Mikey has informed me that we named her all wrong. We probably did. But Chad and I love the name Anna Elizabeth. It sounds like a sweet little English child wearing stocking socks and a pinafore, politely asking for more biscuits or crumpets or whatever it is they eat with tea. We still love the name. And maybe someday she'll use it. But for now, she is definitely not Anna Elizabeth. She is spunky and determined and strong and...Lizzie. I love her to bits and pieces. We waited so very, very long for her, and it was worth every single second. She is my sweet little miracle. I love snuggling with her in bed in the morning. I love introducing her to new things---foods, creatures, sensations, activities. I love watching her dance when she gets excited. I even love her cry. It can be stressful and overwhelming, but it's healthy and full of life and passion. And I love it.

Mikey turned 9 in July. I am far too young to have a nine year old son! He had his birthday party at the Bouncy Place in Kent. There were a ton of kids and lots of energy. It was a blast.

We moved from Covington to Renton. It's a long story, but we had talked about moving for a long time. About a year, actually. We liked our ward and were comfortable in our home, but we had a nagging feeling it was time to look elsewhere. We poo-poo'd the gut feeling though, telling ourselves that we should be more content with all that we already had. So we ignored the promptings and went on with life. Then one night, while Chad and I were up watching our stories after tucking our wee ones into their snug little beds, we were startled by the sound of three rocks crashing through our huge bay windows. There were huge shards of glass literally everywhere. We had to sell our piano because we couldn't clean all the glass out of the keys. And it took the poor, sweet man from Glass Dr. until four o'clock in the morning to patch the holes in the windows up with plywood so that it'd be safe for the kiddos to walk about the next morning without fear of jiggling more glass loose. It may have been coincidence, but we took the rocks to be a strong prompting from the man upstairs to reconsider the whole moving thing. So, we did. Within days we had found our dream home, bid on it, and had our offer accepted. The loan process went lightening fast and before we had nary a box packed, it was time to go. We were sad to leave our wonderful ward, but we are so, so, so happy in our new home. Our new neighborhood, school and ward are all even better than we could've ever dreamed. It is our little corner of heaven. Oh--and as a bonus, there are deer that feed in the empty lot next door. Like, all the time. One followed me to the mailbox the other day. A buck with tiny little antlers. Heaven!!! (on a side note--does anyone know what you can feed deer? We want to make buddies with them, but don't want to make them sick.)

We transferred to a new homeschool co-0p in Renton. It's called Renton H.O.M.E, and we love it. Mikey is in 4th grade and is taking ceramics, photography, gardening, p.e. and a lego class on campus. Natty is in Kindergarten (yeah!) and is taking reading/writing, gardening, p.e. and arts/crafts. They have both made a bunch of new friends and are excelling. I love it there too. The other parents are so amazing. One mom is teaching me how to cook everything from homemade pretzels to authentic Thai curry in the school kitchen while the kids are in class, and another is teaching me the magic that is infant massage. I think I'm learning more than the kids!!!(First day of school photos)

Halloween! Mikey was a grim reaper and Natty was a bunny rabbit. Lizzie was a little lamb for about a half hour before she convinced me (through her wailing) that it was simply too humiliating. We made our annual pilgrimage out to Thomasson Farms as well. It was so much fun. A corn pit, hay maze, hay ride, petting zoo, homemade pumpkin pie and hand picked pumpkins--what could be better?


We also made a trip out to the REI in Seattle for some rock climbing with the Petersons. For those of you who haven't met them yet, the Petersons are pretty much the coolest people you will ever meet. They also homeschool, and they are in our ward. And we love them! The mom of the Peterson clan is one of my all time favorite people in the world. I'm kinda stalking her. And by kind of, I mean full-on-single-white-female-stalking her. Last week I tricked her into hanging out with me six out of seven days. It's only Tuesday, and I've already committed her to at least 3 visits for this week. Creepy? Probably. But she's just that amazing.
We headed out to the Pacific Science Center for a special member preview of the Harry Potter Exhibit. Mikey was sooo happy! He's read all the books and is somewhat of a super fan. While we were there, Chad took Lizzie to the butterfly house and introduced her to the beautiful winged creatures. She can't talk yet, of course, but I'm pretty sure she wanted to eat them all. Or at least gum them a little. Fortunately for us (and the butterflies) she never quite managed to grab one, although she gave it the old college try. What else? Oh, I don't know. I'm sure I'm missing a hundred and one things. Like, we made a short film for the Renton Film Festival and Mikey, Natty & Chad all won awards for their acting. Or that Lizzie is already pulling herself up to stand on toy boxes, chairs, sofas and anyone that will stand still long enough. So many wonderful things have happened this year that I can't even begin to list them all. Suffice it to say, we Perkinses are very, very happy. I think it is best summed up by Mikey's journal entry this morning. The prompt asked him to write about three things that he was grateful for (in honor of Thanksgiving later this month). His entry simply read, "I am grateful for three little rocks and everything that came about because of them."

Me too.