No fried food?? What kind of festival is this??!!

Well, the first full week of school is done.  The kids are settling in to a routine somewhat.  Meeting new friends.  Making some 'get to know you' projects for class.  Getting up early.  Complaining.  Going to bed early.  Complaining.  Life is rough.
Here is Evan's car of the class train for the hallway.  Emily is still working on her poster collage and I will post a picture soon.

As I was driving to school on Wednesday to help with the project in Emily's classroom I prayed and asked God to help me to meet people and to provide me with friends here.  I remembered how He has been testing my patience in most things lately and not giving me what I want immediately, so I told myself that it might be awhile before any connections are made here and I need to be okay with that.  The first mom, Petrina, who came in to help made a comment in a lovely accent that her kids are new to the school this year.  I excitedly said, "mine too!"  We quickly compared stories and found a lot in common with our situations.  Her daughter is in Emily's class and she has a son in first grade and a fifth grader also.  They have only been in the area for a week, moved by her husband's job, and are living with her in-laws because they don't have a house yet.  They moved here from Ireland!!  Wow!!  Now, THAT is a move!  But, it was neat to talk about what we had found out so far and what we were still clueless about.  We agreed to stay in contact to be a support to one another.  Another mom, Erin, came in to help also.  Her kids have been at Wesley Chapel all through school, but she moved to this area about 10 years ago.  So, she also knew what it was like for us.  She offered some great insight to the school, teachers, area, doctors, dentists, etc.  I left the school beaming mostly because God is SO good to me.  It was such an encouragement and He again provided that because He loves me.  And the project - it was just mindless grunt work while the kids were at lunch - so it was perfect socializing time :) 

We have been trying to be patient as the building permits had to 'appear' before our house could start.  I was thrilled to see that the footers were dug Wednesday morning. 

Huge rocks while they are trying to dig the footers.

They are leaving them in piles for me to use in my landscaping!!

I have spent the last two days trying to figure out knitting.  Teaching myself with a book and some youtube videos.  I got the 'casting on' pretty quickly.  But I could not figure out the knit stitch for anything!!  I was getting so frustrated.  Not to mention there are two different ways to do it and they suggest one is for right-handed people and one is for left-handed people.  So I kept trying to do the right-handed or 'continental' method.  It was NOT happening.  Then I watched a video on the other method 'English' method (or 'German' or 'American' or 'Throwing' apparently) and it was pretty easy after that.  So, step two done. Yay for me! Are you proud, Jenny?

When I picked the kids up after school today Emily was excited to tell me that she was chosen as the "Star Student" from her classroom for the week.  Her teacher told the class that she would never have known that she was new to the school. Proud of her!  Now, if she can tone down the sass...  After school we drove the one mile to our house and watched the guys laying block.  Evan was amazed...he said "That sure is a lot of hard work! How much are you paying them for that??" and "I could just watch them all day!"  He really enjoyed it.  Emily helped me measure the windows in the model home so I can start looking for window treatments and we visited with Rachelle some.  She was loving me today since I sent Petrina there to look into houses - since she needs one!  Maybe a future in sales for me?  Um...no.

The block layers working hard...and, yes, I paid them a lot!!

We then picked up Jeff and went to the Matthews Alive! festival that is like their 'fall festival.' Wow.  Let me just say that we are SO spoiled by the Fall Festival in Evansville.  It was 98 degrees out.  There were probably 7-10 food booths (nothing unique or that made you say "ew") and then rides and games we weren't going to do. Nothing was marked so we never did  find the craft area which is why I wanted to go.  The street was open to traffic at first so cars kept going by and the kids were wandering around while Jeff was talking the latest cell phone lingo with the Verizon booth guys.  I became a bit irritated by it all - or maybe it was just my shirt sticking to my sweaty self??  (hrm, it sounds funny now...)  So after getting a few freebies and Evan using a port-a-potty (of course) we left.  Found us a Texas Roadhouse and had some grub.  Needless to say, we are thankful to be coming home for the festival of all festivals in a few weeks...no festival will ever replace it!  :)