CRAZY

Since being back in the States things have been very crazy.  Not only were we trying to get things for the house but I was also trying to get my classroom in shape.  I had a lot of help from my Mom, Cameron, Kelly, Grace, and my friend Karen.  My two new teacher friends, Tiffany and Jennifer, also helped.  I would have never been ready without all hands on deck.  A HUGE thank you to all of them. 

No frogs were hurt during decorating.

My room.

So I was feeling pretty good since my classroom was ready to go.  I had a week of training.  Monday and Tuesday were half days.  Wednesday and Thursday were full day.  My brain was on some serious overload. 

Monday, August 19 I had to start work.  Monday and Tuesday were full days of meetings.  The air shipment arrived on Monday.  Thankfully Todd and Cameron had a lot of it put away.  We still had boxes and boxes of clothes to put away.  Luckily they were in the garage and not in the house though.  But, obviously it was bothering me subconsciously. 

Todd had to be at the airport at 5:00 a.m. on Tuesday, August 20.  Cameron and I took him out there and said our goodbyes.  Little emotional driving away.  Cameron and I stopped at Walmart for things I needed for my classroom.  By 5:30 a.m. we had a cart full and headed towards home. 

Off to work I went and Cameron went to Scott's to hang with Griffin all day.  I got off work at 3 but I stayed to work because we had back pack night at 5:30.  From 5:30-6:30 I met some of my students and their parents.  I was pretty excited.  The kids seemed to be ok.

I picked Cameron up at 6:45.  He was at my brothers for almost 12 hours and he had been up since 4:30 a.m.  He was sad.  I was sad.  We both had hit an emotional wall.  We got home and we were both bawling like babies.  It is so hard to explain.  Neither of us had issues we were just emotional.  He gathered himself but I couldn't.  I was in an almost full blown panic attack.  I was shaking and I felt like my heart was going to jump out of my chest.  I was completely overwhelmed with everything...stress of being a miracle worker at work, not having a clue what I was doing at work, not enjoying rushing to get everything done at work, my house was a mess, nothing seemed right.  Cameron was so good.  Talking to me like an adult, reassuring me the kids would love me and everything would be fine.  Man I love that boy.

Wednesday went great.  Cameron had his first day of school and it went well.  He said it was kind of boring because the teacher just talked and talked but he was excited to get back to Seton.  He had P.E. first thing in the morning so he didn't have to wear his uniform. He thought that was pretty cool.  My class seemed good and things went smoothly.  Cameron got out of school all week at 1:30 because of the heat.  Not my district.

Thursday rolled around and honeymoon was over.  My kids were crazy.  I had to remember it was the beginning of the year and the kids would get better.  It was just hard to remember that at the time.  Every year has always started like this I had just forgotten.  The worst thing was tennis shoes.  I HATE shoe strings.  All I did was tie shoes.  I probably had a lot of mad parents because I tied them in tight double knots.  Oh well.

Friday was better again.  It will be fine.  It's nice to get back into teaching.  However, the emotional craziness continued even through the weekend.  I checked with Ileana and Kerrie Bounds and they (and the kids) were having the same emotional problems as we were.  I never thought the reverse culture shock would be an issue.  It was/is.  It is extremely hard for reasons unknown.  I can't even explain it.  But I'm hoping and praying in a few weeks Cameron and I will look back and laugh that we were so sad and emotional.  The main thing for us to remember is that we are SO happy to be back home with family and friends. The rest will pass.

On Friday Cameron and I ran down to the Iwireless Center to pick up our race stuff.  We were running in a 5K on Saturday.  There was some cool stuff on sale to help us look funky when we ran.  We got our shirts, sunglasses, socks, headbands, and color packets.  We headed home.  My parents came over and we decided to have a yard sale.  My parents came over and we hauled everything we wanted to get rid of over to my parents house.  I sat and priced everything.  Cameron and I headed home around 8:00. 

He didn't quite get the bandanna on right.

Little Red Riding Hood?

We were ready.

Saturday morning we arrived at my parents at 6:15 a.m.  We put everything out on the driveway or on tables.  The yard salers were not out.  I was worried that we weren't going to sell anything.  Thank God my parents didn't mind selling our stuff for us while we went to the run.  We can't thank them enough.  My brother picked Cameron and I up at 8:00.  We were off to the Color Me Rad run.  Grace, Cameron, and I were running.  We got down to the Iwireless Center (Our civic center in the Quad Cities) and people started coloring each other with their color packets.  We decided to do it too.  The 3 of us threw color at each other.  Cameron decided to lay down on the ground to roll in the powder and Grace and I dumped more on Cameron.  I then put a huge hand print on Grace's back.  We couldn't believe how big my hand looked.  It was creepy. 

The race started.  We were off.  We got to the first color station and we were covered.  Then we reached the liquid station and guess what?  It wasn't working.  Bummer.  We continued running.  We made it to the half way mark and then walked for about a block.  The kids needed a break.  Started running again and made it to another color station and a liquid station.  We were looking awesome.  We walked one more time for about 2 blocks and then we finished strong.  We crossed the finish line and grabbed some water.  Then everyone gathered by the stage.  A man dressed in a rabbit suit made his way to the middle of the crowd.  He started shooting color out of a fire extinguisher and people were throwing packets of color.  It was one big foggy mess.  When it stopped we were completely covered in color.  Good times.  My brother put down sheets in his van so we could get home. 

Hanging at the yard sale waiting to go.

Cameron looked awesome.

Three of the coolest people.

RAD!

Cameron getting his color on.

My giant hand print.

Nice face Grace.

Ouch and Ooooooo.

LOVE this picture of the kids.

Getting ready to run.

It's go time.

Color corn starch in the face.

No, don't get me.

Liquid station.

More color.

The finish line was in sight.

We did it!

So cute.

Nice make up.

I didn't get colored as bad.

The color party with the rabbit.

More colorful after the color party.

A picture for Todd.

Cool.

The ride home.

Grace looked like she had a purple bullet hole on her forehead.

Look at that head.

We made it back to my parents and there was still a lot of stuff.  Luckily for us a couple of the right people showed up and got some really awesome deals.  By the time we closed up shop we only had one little tub I dropped off at Goodwill.  Cameron made $263 so he was super excited.  Thank you Mom and Dad for running the sale. 

We went to the pool for the rest of the afternoon.

Air Shipment Arrives

On Monday, August 19 our air shipment arrived.  A good  chunk of our stuff arrived but we still have a lot coming in the sea shipment.  Luckily my clothes were in this shipment.  I had clothes I could wear to work.  Phew, it could have been embarrassing going in the nude.

It's here.

Empty spot in the garage for the boxes.

Cameron was the photographer.

One of the movers.

It was like Christmas.  We forgot what was in the boxes.

Cool boxes.

Lots of paper too.

Opening and emptying.

A lot of boxes.

Todd checking them in with the guy.

Random

Our first attempt of Ileana's salsa at home.  Couldn't get the correct
peppers so we improvised.  Not as good.

Celebrating Scott and Kelly's anniversary at the Captain's Table.
We went out to The Edge and then to Port Byron for the Tug Fest.

Casey and Bonnie's reception.  The boys...Casey, Jeff, Bill, Matt, and Todd.
Todd and I went to my 25th class reunion afterwards.

The boys holding the bride.

So excited to have Brenna and Gavin over.

Still goofy kids.

LOVE these kids and what their friendship means to each of them.

We hit Toys R Us to check out the new games for the Xbox.  Came
out with all of them.  Too good of a deal to pass up.

All our Disney Infinity characters.  So cute.

Jammin to music.

The hat our nephew made for Cameron.  Cool.

Cameron posing at Unpack Your Backpack at Seton.

My dad had to come over at 8:30 to check out the bee hive in
our screen door.  A bee stung me, my brother sprayed, and Dad
pulled out the hive. 

Treadmill

We had been looking for a treadmill even before we arrived back in the States.  My Dad is the treadmill mechanic (he went to school for that title) and jack of all trades at Fitness Express.  He works with a guy that decided to sell his treadmill.  My Dad hooked us up.  On Saturday my Dad, Todd, Bill Love, and I took the trailer over to David's house to load up the treadmill.  First my Dad had to take the electrical part off and the arms.  We then could carry it out of the house.  It was heavy.  We got it in the trailer and reattached the arms good enough so it wouldn't fall over on the drive home.  My Dad made sure it was secure in the trailer. 

We got home and unloaded it to the garage.  There was no way we were getting it to the basement.  We needed more man power.  Getting it home was the first step.

On Monday Tim and Aron came over to help get the treadmill to the basement.  They got it into the kitchen. That was the easy part.  Next they had to get it down the steps.  Todd put a board down the steps and attached it with screws.  They then connected a rope to the treadmill.  Todd and Aron had the heavy end while Tim, my Dad, and I held the rope.  Cameron had it wrapped around his waist before we started but we made him take that off.  The treadmill went down pretty easy.  It weighs 400 pounds so it is a beast.

Once downstairs they got it into position.  Dad put it all back together.  Cameron tried it out.  It was going to be awesome to have.

Cameron thinks he was going to be the anchor man.

Todd and Aron trying to keep it from sliding.

Dad and Tim had it up top.



Tim was a good straddle man.

Dad and Cameron putting the brains back together.

Treadmill mechanic making sure all is well.

Cameron was the first to try it out.

Jet Lag

3:00 a.m.  Yep, that's what I said...3:00 a.m. and everyone was up.  Stupid jet lag.  I laid in bed trying to go back to sleep but it didn't work.  Todd put some stuff away and then ran to the store with Cameron.

When they got home we had a surprise for Cameron.  I wont go in to detail about it but it was safe to say he was pretty excited.  It had to do with a Hello Kitty phone case.  Off for more running around all day.  We stopped at my moms again to dry my hair.  Don't worry, one of the stops was to buy a hair dryer later.  We tried to go to the post office but they didn't open until 9.  We needed to go to the bank but they didn't  open until 9 too and it was only 8:15.  We ended up at Walmart.  Cameron and I ran in to get a hair dryer.  We found one but also an Xbox game and some other stuff.  Todd grabbed corn on the cob and fresh green beans from a guy selling them in a parking lot.

We dropped Cameron off at Ian's.  He spent the day with them while we ran around.  He had a great time.  They also fell right back in where they left off.  They played video games, football, catch, shot bow and arrows, and played some board games.  He had a great time. He was so happy to be back with Ian.

We hit the bank, furniture store, lunch at Chipotle, another furniture store, picked Cameron up, and went home.  We pulled in the driveway and my stomach got instantly sick.  There was a police car sitting in our driveway.  Todd told us to stay in the car.  He got out and we saw an officer walking up from the ravine.  He told Todd a guy stole a ladies purse at Burger King (which is a couple blocks away).  The police chased him and he ran into the woods which are all around our house. I was a little freaked out.  Once in the house I kept looking out the window thinking I would see the guy appear.  I never did.

Found this in our driveway.

We had my parents come over to stay with Cameron while we went to the car dealership.  He was exhausted and we knew it was going to take a long time.  They shucked corn and cleaned beans while we were gone.  Awesome!

Cameron hanging out in the living room.

My dad wouldn't take his shoes off (new carpet) so
he sat outside the living room.  We only had
bean bag chairs.

Got the new car...Ford Focus, and it did take forever.  We stopped by our insurance guys office and then dropped the rental car off at the airport.  Finally went home.

Cameron was asleep on the floor.  He had been there for about 10 minutes.  We showed my parents the car and chatted for awhile.  I went back inside and Cameron was gone.  I found him in his bed sound to sleep.  It was 5:40.  We decided to let him sleep until 6.

Tired boy.

I tried to wake Cameron up.  His eyes opened bit he was delirious.  I finally got him in the shower hoping that would wake him up.  Nope, he was still all out of whack.  Poor kid.  Being over exhausted is terrible.  He sat in the chair and kept falling asleep.  I kept waking him up.  He finally caught a second wind.  I played some Xbox with him so he stayed awake.  Unfortunately I kept falling asleep playing.

Todd used his can cooker to make dinner.  2 dozen ears of corn on the cob boiled to perfection.  None of us had anything else.  Straight corn on the cob.  Man, it was good.  That was one thing we really missed in china.

Cleaned up, a little tv, mad off to bed at 9:30.  It was tough staying up that late but we made it.

HOME

Everyone was up by 5:00.  Really?  Only 5 hours of sleep?  I ran and then got ready.  We had to run to my moms so we could drop Cameron off and so I could dry my hair before going to the beauty shop.  Sounds odd but my hair had to be dry so it could get colored.

Matching shirts.

 Todd dropped me off at the beauty shop and he went to Walmart (the real kind of Walmart) to get some groceries.  He picked me back up.  Lynette worked her magic again on my hair. Then we started our crazy, busy day.

Karen picked Cameron up at my parents house at 10:30 and returned him at 4:00.  Cameron couldn't wait to spend time with Brenna and Gavin.  They immediately fell right back into their ways...Playing, laughing, chatting.  These 3 kids have always been very close and I'm so glad they were just as happy to see Cameron as he was to see them.  They also went swimming at one of their friends house.  As soon as we got home and I asked how the day was Cameron asked me when he could see McGuire's again.  Love that family.

While Cameron was off having fun Todd and I were looking at cars, furniture, tv's and other stuff we needed.  The entire day was filled with some kind of shopping.  Anyone that knows us knows how painful that was.  Neither of us like to shop but it was all necessary.  Luckily it was a successful day too.

At 4:15 we were back at my parents for dinner with my whole family.  We had Franks pizza and for some reason it seemed like it was extra delicious.  Grace surprised us and brought us Whiteys shakes. She was working so she made them for us before going to my parents.  It was a great surprise and an even better yummy treat.  Griffin had two basketball games so everyone had to leave early.  That worked well for us because we were all fading fast and needed pillows.

Grace knows how to suck up. 

Back home.  We showed Cameron his new tv.  He was super excited and got right in bed to watch. The funny thing was he only lasted 10 minutes before falling asleep.  Off to bed.

YUM!!