Dormanville

School is back in full swing. Hadley started kindergarten and is my independent child for sure. Both kids are blessed to have good friends from church in their classes and I love both of their teachers. Mr. Zach was sad when they first started school and went out to the car an hour before it was time to pick them up and said he was ready to go get "Bubba and Hadley." Now he enjoys his one on one time with me and I have been taking full advantage of reading with him more and playing with him outside.

The house is coming along. There is so much to still be done but it doesn't have to happen overnight so we are taking baby steps at this point. Its easy to get overwhelmed when you think too deeply about how much has to be done still. This house grows on all of us daily and we are loving it more and more.

We have been going to a small group from church and love the friends we have found. It is a great way to get to know people on a smaller, more personal level when you are involved in a small group and the house we go to is less than two miles from our house so thats a plus. Our church encourages small groups for so many reasons but I love how we can get together and not feel like we are spending too much time at church during the week. Ryan didn't like how much time I spent at Shandon because it took away so much of our family time. We have so much more flexability now.

As far as activities go..... Ryan is playing tennis here in Oak Ridge this fall and I think its great for him. Otherwise he would be home making dump runs or helping me paint and stuff at home. That is pretty much what I do in my "free" time. I work on the house when I'm not tending to kids. Ryan still helps me plenty around the house on the weekends. Stuart is going to be starting up with Cub Scouts in a few weeks and yes our Miss Hadley wants to start ballet and dance. Zach is still going to speech twice a week but seems to be improving daily. Even I can tell so thats good. So I think I have brought everyone up to date on whats going on around here.

Last, Lucy is the sweetest puppy ever. She is four months now. We've been going to puppy classes together and she is learning a lot. Food is her trigger. I can get her to do anything for food. The kids don't care for her puppy teeth so much but they love eachother and she never intends to bite them with the intention of hurting them. We love story time at night because Lucy jumps up on the bed and curls up when we start reading to the kids. The boys lower bunk is the only bed she can jump up on and she is only allowed up there for story time.

I feel really bad for not keeping this blog more updated but I am settling in a little more and organizing my time more. The house is great. A lot of surprises that cost money but great satisfaction when we complete a project. Ryan spends his whole weekend with the "bigger" projects and I try to do a little of everything else during the week. I just got to the point where I can take a day off here and there to enjoy the summer with the kiddos. We have a big pool here in town that is a bunch of fun. Wish you could all be here. Emily's wedding was fabulous and exhausting all at the same time. We are happy to be at home a lot because of our sweet new Lucy. She is such a joyful addition to our family. Having a little trouble with the crate training because the kids won't let her spend anytime in the crate but we don't have one rug yet so the few accidents she has had are easy to clean up. I think its crazy how you focus all your time on one room and its never completely done. There is always something to do in that room. But we are working slow and steady with the exceptions for taking time off to do fun summer stuff. ...... Stuart went to Florida with his Mema for a week to have some one on one time and I think Splash Country is waiting for us next weekend if it doesn't rain. Summer is flying by and I wish I had more hours in the day to call you all and catch up. Hope you are all well and I'll try to update a little more frequently.