Moving soon

This has been a week of a lot of exciting happenings. Abby just finished second grade and was awarded for her attendance, getting all “A’s” and for being a top speller. She also spent more time reading books outside of school than any of her classmates. We’re very proud of our little girl and her accomplishments. Abby has been to lots of parties with her friends in the past weeks. It seems like every weekend has something for her to do. Now, we’re getting ready to get into summer vacation mode and Pam has lots of activities lined up for Abby for the summer. She will be taking swimming lessons; going to a horseback riding camp; attending an “American Girl” doll camp; Vacation Bible School and other church-related activities, plus lots of playdates with her friends.

From Abby

David had a follow-up appointment with his kidney specialist this week and we are happy to report that he is doing well. His blood pressure was the best it has ever been and his blood chemistry is not doing bad. His creatinine and potassium did creep up a tiny bit this time, but the amount of movement was small enough to be dismissed as testing variances.

From David

David keeps getting more cute and sweet and he has been showing us how smart he is. Pam got him some soft letters and numbers to play with in his tub during bath time. He has been learning the names of them and he likes to hold them up and call them out to us. He goes through his numbers and several letters. He enjoys interacting with people and he loves his teachers at our church. David loves music and dances around when he hears tunes he likes. He is still obsessed with watching “Barney” and he seems to have a love/fear relationship with all vacuum cleaners. He likes pointing them out to us, but he doesn’t want to be near when they are running. He also calls anything he does not know the name of a “vacuum.”

Last Tuesday, David performed with his class from our church’s “Mothers Day Out” program. The kids sat in front of us and sang songs to us while making gestures with their hands that also told about the songs. I took video of this and it has been posted to our channel on YouTube for you to view if you like. In the video, most of the children need help getting seated at the start, but David climbs right up into a chair and sits like a good boy. There were many distractions during their performance (they’re two years old, what do you expect?) but David was able to stick with the performance and did a very nice job.

The biggest news of all this week is we are going to be moving soon. We bought a house closer to my parents’ house and much closer to Abby’s school. So, Pam will have much shorter drives to get our family to and from the places they go most often. We’ll also be closer to my folks so we can be helpful to them and vice-versa. It will be good for the kids to have easier access to them. I timed the drive from work to the new house and found it is about the same distance and time as it was to our current house, so my daily routines will have little impact at all.

The house we’re buying is larger than our current house and seems to be laid out better with more storage. The downside is we will no longer have a garage, but Pam and I are working on solving that problem. The big bonus for me is I will have a larger room to dedicate to my music interests. The current space I use for music is just too small to be practical, so I’ll enjoy the upgrade.
What Pam likes about the new house is the kitchen – it has lots of character and three ovens! She also likes having an upstairs for the kids. She likes 2 story homes. There are a lot of neat built-ins in this house. The neighborhood is nice and quiet and there are no houses directly behind us, just open fields and woods. The back porch and back yard look really nice for sitting around in the evenings or entertaining guests.

We had the new house inspected today and that’s always a sobering occasion. There are some things we’ll have to fix up and some things we’re going to expect the seller to fix for us. But, we’re not going to be difficult about it. I’m pretty handy when the need arises. Since this is an older home, I’m sure the need will arise – often.

Well, that’s about all the news for now. Stay tuned for more updates on the kids and the move!