Ah-ah-ah-ahem... this blog is a little rusty.

Oh my. 

More than two months since I last posted.

 All I can think is "Let me explain... no. There is too much, let me sum up." 

Easy answer, I finally got a smart phone and now no longer have to trudge down to the basement to check my emails and Facebook and stuff. So the blog kind of went by the wayside because I couldn't figure out how to post from my phone. I know I can, I just don't know how. Anyway I like to type on an actual keyboard every now and then.

So let's back up.

September: 

The kids started school. Things went swimmingly for about three and a half weeks and then we ran into a really ugly bullying situation with Jake. I don't want to talk about all the details of it in such a public forum, but suffice it to say that it left us all feeling very shaken and upset for awhile. You feel like you are being a good person, trying to raise your children to be good people, and then out of left field someone else's free agency comes smacking into your reality and you have to deal with the consequences of someone else's poor choices. The situation is still not completely resolved, but we are feeling back on a much more even keel. I also feel better knowing that we involved the appropriate parties, everyone took it as seriously as we did, and also everyone we interacted with regarding was very complimentary towards Brian and myself saying that they were impressed with how we reacted and handled such a stressful situation. It's moments like that that help reinforce that you just might be getting a handle on the whole being a good parent thing... 

October:

In between my regular mom duties I spent equal amounts of time knitting and playing on my new phone. Brian went to work and came home and played on his new phone. We've turned into one of those couples that lay in bed at night playing Words with Friends. The kids went to school and geared up for Halloween. I told them it was a year for digging through the dress-ups and old costumes and seeing what they could come up with on their own.

Jake was holding out hope that I would relent and help him. But what he wanted to be (a character from a video game) involved a blue ponytail that stuck straight up in back and some pretty involved armor. "Uh maybe next year dude..."

Evie started with the glasses and we went from there. I was able to borrow a poodle skirt and she made an adorable bobby-soxer.

Lila gets the most points for creativity in my book, she's a Fairy Cow. All night long as we walked around trick-or-treating I heard comments like, "A flying cow? Never seen that before..." We went trick-or-treating with Myra and Candice and their kids, which was a lot of fun. The weather was perfect, and the only bad moment was when I lost Lila for a few minutes. She followed the wrong family and was halfway down the block before we found her! It took me a good while for my heart to calm down after that...

November:

So much to be thankful for this month! All of our family and friends, and most of all....

THE RAMP!!!

Hallelujah!

We got approved and got our contractor and all that in October, but then we had to wait about three more weeks for the actual work to begin. But seriously, when you've been waiting for more than a year what's three more weeks? (It felt like for.ev.er. But it's done now, so I'll let go of that...)

A big pile of dirt got dumped on the lawn the day before. And there are the kids for perspective.

The next morning they showed up with the big machines and the rocks.

They built a rock retaining wall and filled it with dirt.

Concrete forms.

Now it's getting exciting!!!

They cut off the old threshold step so the ramp runs right into the front door.

I think for Brian it was almost like the night before Christmas...

The next day they poured the concrete.

And now it is a gentle slope to get in or out of the house. We are all loving it so much. It's amazing how much faster Brian can come and go, the kids haven't been late to school once since it got put in. Last night he took the garbage out! Just because he could! 

Before

After

Yep, it's amazing how much a few hundred yards of concrete has made a difference in our lives! I still wish we hadn't had to wait 15 months for it, there were quite a few close calls towards the end as Brian struggled up and down the steps, but it's in now and again I'm letting the rest of it go.

So that catches you up with the major events for us in the last couple of months. I'm either going to have to come downstairs to post more often, or figure out how to do it from my phone, because we are getting ready for Christmas and all the fun holiday times that are coming our way in the next month! And blogging months at a time is really hard. You have to remember stuff and that's hard on a mommy brain...