it is simple.

Lately, I hear things like this often 

"things just seem to work out for you" 
"you don't have to worry"
"you have people who love you"

and you know what... it is all true.  I have struggled at times, I still struggle at times... I feel worry and sadness creep in when I let my guard down, but then I realize that it isn't my battle.  It is actually very simple, and tonight, I came up with the perfect response to those statements that usually catch me sitting there stunned:

Dear Kansas

Dear Kansas,

Today it was a million degrees outside.... your lack of shading was not the ideal situation for a dead car battery. After at least 30 people passed by me and snarled because I had my car doors open on one side, trying to at least catch a breeze since I couldn't lock my car doors and walk away so that they could get a closer parking spot....   I am thankful for my ONE friend here in town who was able to come to my aid, armed with jumper cables.  She let my very grumpy kiddo sit in her car and she even hooked up the iPad up to her car stereo so he could watch Toy Story (for the 1,235,887th time) in superior sound comfort.  She followed me to McDonald's so that I could buy her (and my tiny gremlin) some lunch.  She let us enjoy lunchtime in her car with A/C and then she followed me and waited on me while I had the VERY NICE lady at Advance Auto pluck a dead and boiling over (have you ever heard of such!) battery out of my car and install a new one.  

This extreme-temperature-battery-dying came on the heels of the numerous maintenance issues that occurred at the town-casa this morning and the many issues we have been trying to address as we wrap up the sale of our home. It also doesn't help that I am scrounging around at the last minute, trying to throw together a tiny b'day party for my tiny bff.

You will not win, Kansas.... I am determined to have a good day. I am thankful that I was able to get this resolved, that I came home to have the maintenance man fix some of the issues, that my big BFF came out of his meeting to try to help me (even though he was ALSO dealing with house stuff via phone all morning and at one point had not only a tow truck on the way, but was on his way himself), and that I somehow managed to grab some party supplies before our car died.  :)

Easy Wednesday....

Tiny BFF and I didn't do a WHOLE lot today.... we had breakfast, did some art, got ready, decided that we would rather stay home and play with the Batman houses and then go grocery shopping after naps. 
I made a chicken pot pie for dinner (I think I am craving comfort food and FALL).  It was okay.... one of the ready-made pie crusts was in a gillion little pieces when I opened them and so I had to creatively piece together a "top" for my pie.... the flavor was pretty good (I used a rotisserie chicken).

After dinner, tiny BFF and big BFF went swimming and then they went fishing.  I stayed in the town-casa and cleaned up the kitchen and tried to finish putting up the groceries. 

Tiny BFF does the sweetest thing these days.... he brings me a rock from wherever he has gone.  Josh says that sometimes tiny BFF will just stop whatever he is doing and say "Wait, I gotta find mommy a rock".  I love it.... here are the ones that I have so far.  3 of them are from TN (they are the tiny ones), the rest he has collected from KS.

Museum morning

This morning, we went to the neatest little museum.  It had the best play area where kids could dress up and pretend they were the "big people" in their own town.  The sets were amazing and Luke and his little friend had a great time.  On the way home we stopped at Panera (one of many around town) and had lunch.  I didn't get a picture of us at Panera, but let me tell you that "Superman" made many memorable episodes in there, so I am sure we will not be soon forgotten.  At one point, we had to go to the bathroom for a time out.  Uggh....

Despite the lunch-time meltdown, we had a pretty good morning and we will most definitely visit the museum again. 

We made it to Kansas and you made it to the new blog!

This is most definitely a work in progress. I just wanted to document our journey and get back to blogging.  

We moved, last week, from Clarksville to Kansas! HUGE surprise and huge change for us. 

Some of the MAJOR changes are:

1. We are living in a rental after being homeowners for many years (8 years and 3 different houses!) 

2. Luke is not in daycare right now which leads to....

3. I am staying home with Luke! (after we can organize everything and quit living out of boxes, this will be amazing).