Thousand Oaks: A New Era

     I have been working on finishing old posts from the past. The OCD part of me wants to get totally caught up before I move on. However, if I'm ever going to start blogging current news, then I just have to jump in somewhere. So here we go, beginning with a new beginning of sorts in our new home. Another "Thousand Oaks" of sorts after a hiatus of palm trees or barely any trees. We have so many big, beautiful trees again - yay!

view from upstairs looking down into our new living room

     I really did not believe we would still be living in Florida - working our way toward 6 years. Maybe this is it. Maybe this is forever. I don't know. Life with older kids, though, is more complicated than ever. Why did I think it would be easier than the days of strollers and diapers? I think there is so much more to think about and consider now - where to live, for example (considering high school and college and forever is on its way). Here we are, though, in our lovely new home with my beautiful shade trees that I am truly grateful for.

     I can't adequately explain how amazingly grateful I am for this sight, as well. I actually get a little teary eyed right now, about 8 months after this photo was taken. If anyone is reading this and doesn't know - we lived in an RV for a fun year. We sold a lot in a garage sale but still had 2 1/2 storage units for the duration of our 6 wheeled living experience. The traumatic part was the roof being ripped off of the building during Hurricane Irma fall of 2017. We got a call from our storage unit while we were evacuated that there was an issue - a "leak" that we needed to check out. There was no emergency noted in her voice. (I was told later that they didn't want to "alarm" us.) Therefore, we stayed evacuated since our RV park didn't have electricity and Ryan was stuck working 24-7 getting phones working again from our remote location. Many days went by - by the time I got to the storage unit, I was heartbroken to discover the inches of water, the nastiness, the mold growing on so many of our beloved items - furniture, photographs, art, childhood stuffed animals...I spent about 9-10 hour days (for a week) cleaning up the mess. It was exhausting, and I cried more than I care to remember. I don't even want to write about it anymore. I don't like that so much distress was caused by losing material objects. Part of the reason we had moved into the RV was an exercise in eliminating material objects from our lives. But there were things we wanted to keep. And just allll the mold and the cleanup and the repacking and the time...I will end by saying I hope I never have to carry a box into a storage unit again.

     My best news to go along with our new home is...our new cats!!! And NO, I never would have imagined in my whole life that "best news" and "home" and "cats" would fit into the same thought. I was NOT a cat person. In the slightest. I'm SO a cat person now. It's ridiculous. (They were born in March, just as we were in the process of house hunting.) I'm going to devote a whole post about my little cat family sometime.

I mean, can you BLAME me for my love and adoration?!

     In March, my favorite hobby of photographing and videoing my new little daughter and granddaughters began. My photo roll is full of baby cats and their attentive mama.

squeals

     Moving is hard. HARD. It was really hard moving from Arkansas, and it was hard moving out of our 3400 square foot house into our storage unit and RV. I thought it would be a breeze to go from storage unit to empty house. Well. Our living room continued to look like this for months longer than I care to admit.

And this.

And this.

     It's like I found out the MOST unproductive way to move and unpack, and that's what I did. And then youngest brother (who just said he would like his blogging name to be Ninja) spread everything out even worse. And then I became depressed and shut down and had no idea how to move forward from there.

There were good times, though! 

We have a pool now for the first time ever!

     We pretty much only looked at houses with pools. It's extra work for Ryan, but we feel grateful. We are saving up money to get it resurfaced and to buy porch/pool furniture, etc.

     Before the barrage of boxes and furniture, we had the wonderful surprise of getting a message from my dear college friend who was in town with her husband. Our first house guests! Ninja loved giving them a tour.

     During this time, my photo roll is full of pics of furniture and house ideas, IKEA possibilities, (cats!), and pics of ongoing projects like this one.

     I think this video of Ninja sleeping despite the loud Home Depot noises perfectly describes how all of us were feeling during this time.

Universal Studios

May and June included a lot of visits to Universal, as our annual passes were about to expire.

     It was great news when Vodoo Doughnuts opened at City Walk. We had visited the Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland over 10 years ago.

They have several vegan choices.

     For Tornado's 18th birthday (above, on his actual birthday), we went to Universal almost every day for a week, haha. 

     This was his one day of YES, when he could ask for any park treats he wanted, and I couldn't say no. He actually didn't eat as much as I thought he would. I think he ended up with a pretzel, a slushie, pumpkin juice, veggie burger & fries, and a Starbucks drink.

     We are super thankful for my parents and their gift of these passes that we started last year on Tornado's birthday.

Harry Potter train

arcade

spray fountain

     Our first visit or two the previous year we were a little disappointed, like it didn't stack up to Disney. However, as we dove in and explored, we got into it and became pretty attached. (Now I think the kids are torn whether they think Universal or Disney is better.) Bye, Universal, for now! We really enjoyed our year with you.

More 18th Birthday

     We thought this cup (which is his favorite color) would be funny because he drinks so much.

     So just like that, I'm the mom to a...MAN?! Is that right? Kind of. I have a kid who was born 18 years ago? I'm old enough to have an almost 20 year old?! What in the actual heck. He towers over me in height, and I love him so much it hurts. I'm super proud of you, Tornado.

Homeschool

     Thankfully, we planned moving at the end of the school year, after the bulk of our schoolwork was finished. Homeschool Academy had adjourned for the year. We could focus on unpacking and getting ready for the fall. We did continue on with some learning projects, some math, reading, and learning through travel and activities. The kids attended a few sessions of parkour (and here, Sister at aerial class).

They are hoping to make this one of their regular sports.

Travel

     The end of May included a trip to visit cousins and grandparents up north.

     I was even able to sneak in a quick trip to Chicago by myself while these monkeys played here.