First Friday of September!

Happy Friday Y'all! It has been a LONG time since I've joined Mrs4444 for some Friday Fragmenting. I am going to jump in with both feet and maybe get back on track. Ha! Me, on track??

***Since my last Friday Fragment, I've moved halfway across the continent. Big change! I miss Texas, I really do. I love South Carolina though! So torn...in a way, they are right when they say you can never go "home" again. Yet, here I am, in my hometown. Most of my family is still here, I know where everything is, yet it is different. Maybe I am different. More on that in another post.

***Man O Mine has returned (AGAIN) to school. The man would be happy if he could find someone to pay him to go to school. They say never stop learning, and he takes that seriously! So the other day he came in from school, and told me he'd seen something he'd never seen before. We've seen people driving and texting, driving and on the phone, driving and reading, driving and eating, driving and putting on makeup, but this one was new. He passed a lady on IH-26 that was driving and KNITTING. Yes, she was knitting what appeared to be a pink baby blanket. Sigh...what ever happened to just driving?

***The kiddos and I will kick off the school year on Tuesday. Princess is so excited, TT not quite so much. He is not looking forward to getting up earlier, and having to complete assignments before he gets to play. I am really excited about homeschooling here in SC. There are so many resources here! I found the most wonderful bookstore (it is like Wonderland for the homeschool Mommy, aisles and aisles of books in a metal warehouse building!), we've joined a support group that does monthly activities (field trips, holiday parties, plays, etc), and we even found a Lego Homeschool club! Each month we go to the nearby library with a Lego creation that fits a certain theme. We study the theme ahead of time, build something to fit it, and then present it. Then the kids get to just play with legos and each other for an hour. TT is so excited about it and the new buddies he is making.

***The move has been hardest on TT. We went from a neighborhood in which he literally had a little buddy in almost every house on the block, to what we jokingly call "Heaven's Waiting Room". Here almost every one of our near neighbors is 60+. They make for great neighbors, but not so much for playmates. TT has been missing being able to go outside and immediately having 2-3 friends running around with him. Fortunately there are the aforementioned clubs, church, and Scouts for him to get some good buddy time in.

***My sweet MaMa had a stroke about a month ago. Talk about a shocker. We honestly expected that there might be some health issues while we were here with one of the grandmothers (Man O Mine and I have 3 grandmothers left between us). MaMa was the strong one though, we didn't expect her to be the one. She is a tough one though, and here she is, a month later, and back at home. She can manage pretty well, but can not be left alone anymore. There are some balance and vision issues that make it dangerous for her to be alone. This afternoon I will be "MaMa sitting". It is nice to be able to sit with her though, something I so missed while in Texas. She does not really need anyone to do anything, just to be there. Please keep her in your thoughts/prayers as she continues to recover and as the family and paid sitter take turns making sure everything is safe for her, yet giving her as much freedom as possible.

***I love shopping. Have I ever mentioned that? Last weekend, I participated in a big consignment sale here in town. I was thrilled with it! For one thing, the majority of my things sold, so I got a nice check when I picked up the few things that did not sale. For another, I am back in the sweet Deep South, and I was able to pick up a couple of darling dresses for Princess. She is now the proud owner of two gorgeous smocked Bishop dresses (one blue with pink/green smocking and one pink, with the Carolina Moon and Palmetto smocked in it!). I also found her an adorable little halter dress in garnet checked print with USC embroidered on it. Guess what she is wearing tomorrow for the first Carolina Gamecock football game? OH YEAH!

***Following the picking up of that lovely check, I braved the mall with three kids yesterday. I was planning to just go to bath and body works for hand soap (when you have a child that does not always wash his hands, scented soap is a surefire way to know for sure!) and to a children's store that was having a sale (on top of a coupon I had). We hit those two, and were on our way to the door with bags in hand (success, 3 tops for each boy and 4 soaps) when Boom announced he HAD to go potty. We made a quick detour through Dillards to take care of that. The children's shoe section is right by the bathrooms, so we noticed a large table of shoes on sale. TT is in need of shoes, so we stopped, because I spied boxes of Sperrys on that table! They had the brown leather classic Sperrys on sale for $15! Yay! Of course it was hilarious when TT put them on, and said something about needing socks. The sales lady and I both immediately said "Oh no, you don't wear socks with Sperrys!" Once we explained that Sperrys are "boat shoes" he was very happy, he is all about beaches/boats/ships. We might have stopped by the adult shoes on the way out the door and someone may have purchased some adorable blue plaid Sperrys for $20 too, but I am not going to name any names.

Well I better stop for now. The two little kids are way too quiet right now, so there is no telling what is going on...