Halloween in our new hood

This might make us sound all kinds of weird, but we've technically never taken the kids trick or treating. The neighborhood was full of houses on large lots that were very far apart.  Trick or Treating in our own neighborhood wasn't very easy. We could have driven into Little Rock or over to East End to another neighborhood, but a  local church threw a HUGE fall festival on Halloween. The kids always had so much fun and racked up so much candy that we would just take them there. They'd ride ponies, jump in bounce houses, play games and come home with bags of candy. When we got home, we'd go across the street to our favorite neighbor's house and do our treating. It worked best for us at the time, but this year, it was time to do some real trick or treating.

A Shark and The Dark Knight

First we hit up 50cent corndog day at Sonic. Then we hit up the neighborhood behind our townhouse. I love that neighborhood. If we are ever able to swing a house there, I will be a lucky girl. Its full of streets that all end in Oaks. Twelve, East, Golden. All kinds of oaks. And they all had lots of candy. The kids had the best time. Per his usual, Max ran 90 miles an hour for about an hour and then he nearly fell over tired. 

I love the memories we are making here. I love the ages the kids are right now. It makes life very fun.

Your life: in queu

What brought you to Fayetteville?

I am asked this question daily. Its a very normal question. Its a conversation starter. My answer isn't super normal and has garnered me a few looks.

We just really liked it here and always wanted to move here.

Its just that easy.

I don't lie, people look at you weird when you answer that. This is a college town. On top of that, there are several HUGE companies here: Walmart, Tyson, JB Hunt, and a few more. So, the NORMAL, usual answer is either: college, family, or new job. And in truth, all but college are true. We do have family here that we missed all the time. And Rob did get a job here. But our hearts were here much sooner than the job.

Rob and I went to high school together, but we really MET in Little Rock at a bar. . Both of us, seperately, had intended to move to Fayetteville after we finished college. Both of us had siblings living here. Both of us had childhood friends living here. We were both in Little Rock for jobs.

Rob was unable to find a job in his field in Northwest Arkansas, once he graduated, and he ended up in a good job in Little Rock working for the Postal Service. A year before I graduated, I got a job at Arkansas Children's Hospital as a tech. As I worked more and more, I decided I wanted to stay at that hospital and get experience in the ICU setting and then go travel nursing, so my move to Fayetteville got postponed.

I set myself a goal to apply to be a travel nurse May of 2004. I re-met Rob April of 2004. By May we were inseperable and I was all "travel nurse WHAT?". The next May we were married. We both had full time, good paying jobs, so we made Little Rock our home.

The itch to move started when we got pregnant with Rylan. We were having a nephew for our sisters and a cousin for our nieces and nephews. Once we had Rylan, it wasn't as easy to jet off to visit our people like before kids and I had dropped to part time so money wasn't as plentiful. We still made our Razorback visits and kept up as much as we could. It was when we decided I needed to mostly stay home with the kids, the plan to move to Fayetteville got forgotten for a while. The kids were always sick as infants and toddlers and our main goal was to get through it unscathed as possible. Rob's job paid him very well and my job allowed me to work just enough to give us some extra spending money and keep my foot in the door and keep my nursing skills in check. We both feared we wouldn't find that kind of deal anywhere else.

Over the last five years, our trips to Fayetteville got more and more spaced out. Traveling and tailgating isn't as easy with two moving kids rather than one that sits in a pack n play like yesteryear. Our nieces and nephews started getting into sports and their weekends were busy with that, so their trips to see us became fewer. Our best friends, Justin and Debbie got married and settled in the Fayetteville area, another friend of mine, Becca, met and married a great guy and they settled in the Fayetteville area and several of my childhood friends ended up in Fayetteville.

While this was going on, we were growing tired of living in a suburb of Little Rock. We loved the area because our MOPS group was there, our church was out there, and the housing was so much cheaper than inner Little Rock.  Only problem was our suburb wasn't a very handy one. No Walmart, no post office, no good preschools. To take the kids to school and then go on to work, I left the house at 7:10 to get to work by 8:30. Rob had a 40 mile drive to work, each way. Everything we did required a 10-20 minute (minimum) drive. Everything: groceries, school, t-ball, church. Most fun stuff, like the kid's favorite library, the Jump Zone, our friends houses, took 30 minutes at least to get to. Most of my paychecks went towards gas.

 We were also growing so very tired of the crime. Big cities bring bigger crime. Our house was the only house on our street that was not burglarized. And that's probably only because, if you don't look at her, Lola sounds like a Pit Bull whose baby you just took when you ring a doorbell. It was unsafe to walk alone to my car AT A CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL and the recent murder of a real estate agent that was all over the news? Her killer was hiding in an apartment complex down the road from one of the daycares the boys had gone to.

It became an almost daily saying: "I wish we were in Fayetteville."

When I used to have to call the kids' doctor they'd put me on hold and a lady would say "you are caller 2......in queue." That's how I felt about our life. We just couldn't seem to do what it took to leave, but we couldn't see ourselves staying forever. We weren't hanging pics on the walls just in case we suddenly put the house up for sale, but we weren't fixing it up to put it for sell very fast. Our life was in queue.

Little Rock wasn't terrible, I actually miss it a lot some days. Our house had its quirks (cough, no closet space, terrible kitchen setup cough) but I loved that house. We had land and a pool and our neighbor across the street had become one of my best friends.  We were members of two playgroups, a wonderful church, and had jobs that paid us well. Max had his zoo, Rylan had the library and the splash pads, we all had Pei Wei. But we just couldn't settle. We had this smaller mountainy (its a word) town with 3 sisters, 3 nieces and 2 nephews and lots of friends on our brain. We had the idea of shorter commutes to work, lots of parks, lakes, hikes, good shopping, and THE RAZORBACKS in our heads.

That phone call last June letting Rob know a job was open was a true prayer answered. Our life is still a little bit in queue. We need to sell our house. When we sell our house, we can start looking to buy a new one here and put in some roots. But, we are very happy here. Fayetteville is still a huge town, but it is the type where you can settle into a section of it and not have to go very far to get what you need. I've gone up to two weeks with one gas tank. Walmart and the gym are walking distance from our townhouse. About a quarter of a mile from here is the kids and Rob's haircut place, a frozen yogurt place (very important) a liquor store (even more important), a bank and several restaurants. One day I went and worked out, got Max a haircut, went to Harps to order a cake, paid a bill at the bank and came back home and only put one mile on my odometer. That makes me happy. Rob's 5 minute commute to work makes him happy. Rylan's teacher makes him behave and he is really doing awesome after all our worry with therapy needs and behavior issues.

Rob loves his job and I love what I do at my job, I'm getting to like the setup, coworkers, and schedule, but not yet at love. I have never worked with a patient over 25 in my nursing career, so I was worried about how I would do and if I would enjoy it. I love the older patients. I love the fast pace. I just don't "fit in" as much as I'd like to. I'm not good at being the new girl. My last job I was at for 8 years and the one before that 6. I haven't been the new girl in a long time.

So, there you have it, why we wanted to move here in 74,000 words.

And, of course, obligatory cute kid pics, a blog just isn't right without any

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Park time with my boys, this park is 0.9 miles from our front door

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Getting to meet Rob at the park during his lunch break? Priceless. 

Taking kids to a tailgate is the new cool

Getting to go out to dinner with your bestie because she lives just 15 minutes away? Awesomesauce. Unfortunantly, this was a goodbye dinner because the minute Rob got a job in Fay-town, Deb's husband got a promotion and they had to move to Houston. They will return. Hopefully sooner than later. 

And we love visits from our Zoe.

Chili with cornbread waffles

Years ago, before children, I used to work nightshifts and Rob worked days. Our time together on my workdays was during his lunchbreak. He'd come home for lunch and I'd have slept about 4 hours, we'd eat and then I'd take a nap and go back to work. While we ate, we would watch Paula Deen on Food Network.

See all of the things that have changed?
-sleeping all day
-watching tv while eating
-eating on the couch
-watching something not animated or including names like Squidworth

Anyhoo, one day I was watching ole Paula (pre-banning from Food Network) make some chili. And she put it on cornbread waffles. It was weird but at the same time, it looked fan-freaking tastic. Here is the recipe if you want hers.

It's a bit........not super healthy. Its not bad in comparison to many of Paula's delicacies, but it can get skinnied up a bit. I also like to cook the meat ahead of time and stick it in the crock pot all day so it can be ready when we get home on a workday.

Sara's Lightened Up Crockpot Spicy Chili
1 lb 93% ff ground turkey
1 onion
1 green pepper
2 cloves garlic minced
1 can corn drained
2 cans 15oz red beans drained
1 can 15oz tomato sauce
1 can 10oz can diced tomatoes and green chilis
2 tbsp cumin
1tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp ground black pepper
1 tsp salt

In a large skillet cook the ground turkey. As the turkey gets close to being completely done, use your spoon/spatula whatever, and chop it up into tiny tiny pieces. This is how you make ground turkey doable for a person not used to the texture/taste of ground turkey. Get it into as small of pieces as possible and they won't even know the difference.

After the turkey is done, drain any excess grease and stick it in the crock, chop up the onion and green pepper as finely as possible (or chunky if so desired and you don't have littles that think they don't like big hunks of green in their soup) and cook in skillet. About three minutes before the veggies are done, add the garlic and saute with veggies until onions are transperent. Add to crock.

Drain corn and beans and add, put tomatoes in undrained. If you want a more "soupier" chili, add another can of tomato sauce, this chili is meant to be THICK! Add the seasonings, stir and set at low for 8-10hours. You'll be a happy camper. I promise.
One very overfilled cup will run 334 calories. Its perfectly wonderful on its own in a bowl with cilantro on top. I usually crunch up four tortilla chips and call it 375 calories. This is when I'm being super awesome whole-ish foods on plan dieter. It is a perfect blend of protein/fat/carb.

This is as far as I can take you and still call this a "Lightened Up recipe". But, I suggest you save calories occasionally and do it up right.

Onto the cornbread

I've lightened up the cornbread, but it is still, a huge serving, as its the same size as a Belgium waffle, and full of flour and many other carbs. Half of a large waffle is plenty for a cup o chili.

1 3/4cup white flour

1 1/4 cup cornmeal

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup applesauce

2 eggs 

2 cups milk

Cook in a waffle maker, put it on your plate. Add toppings. 

Toppings:

Sour cream

Cilantro

Cheese

On Saturday we had the whole Qualls family over for dinner. I worked out hard that morn in the morn, walked all over Walmart getting groceries immediately after,  and the library after, and ate very few carbs all day. Mostly egg beaters, veggies and protein shake.  I budgeted my calories for the half a mamma jamma cornbread waffle with chili and cheese and sour cream and even for two cookies after. An it was heaven. This is my very favorite recipe I make.

Robs a fan too. I told him he needed to make an appearance on the blog so he modeled his chili and waffles. 

But first lemme take a selfie

Oh selfies. It used to be me and my college friends turning the phone around on ourselves and not knowing the outcome till Wal Mart developed the prints. And that maybe happened once every six months. Now we have the power to take pics of ourselves 24/7. I love watching people's transformations on Instagram and they are forever posting gym selfies and progress pics and I'm like "yep, I'm gonna inspire some too someday." So I do a few selfies. Plus I joined an online weight loss challenge where you check in with selfies, so, its not vanity, but me trying to not get kicked off the challenge. I get done with a workout, feeling all eye of the tiger and think, time to have proof I worked out (because actually losing weight isn't proof enough in our world of technology).  But then I look at my phone and....just no.

Fake smile, ten things in my hands, tshirt that I cut the sleeves off which is semi douchy, but makes it comfy

Not looking at the camera. And pushing the button with the other hand. If can't even motor function a selfie really.

Wait, let me fix this one

Sara have you seen the light? Your camera has.

Sometimes I forget I didn't even brush my hair before I take a selfie.

I don't really "do" faces all that well. I'm wondering the story behind this one. Can't be that bad of a day. That's my bacon shirt (which I'm wearing currently). Bacon shirt helps a bad day.

Even when the rest of me looks ok, the lighting is great and the backdrop is fab, I still can't muster the strength to put that chunk of hair in the clippie.

Sometimes selfies prove your overindulgence in whipped cream vodka at a tailgate.

Back in the weight loss saddle and why I call my scale a douche

I'm going to start with this: The scale is a douche
Now I'll wind my way back.

When we found out we were moving, I was doing pretty good in my quest for weight loss. I was on week 5 of Couch to 5k, and doing weights at home. I was tracking my food on My Fitness Pal (quallsy, just in case you wanna bff me on there) and the scale was budging. Barely. But budging.

Then we found out we were moving in a month and I went a little nuts in my head. For a few weeks I had to be reminded to eat, which, in my entire life, had never happened. I just concentrated on painting and getting my kids where they needed to go and all the work needed to move. When we did eat, it was for convenience. Easy meals, lots of cleaning out the pantry so we didn't have to move a ton a food to move. So-spaghetti, sandwiches, breakfast for dinner, hot dogs, and more. I was putting in like 5+ hours of painting or cleaning or lugging around boxes, so despite the fact that I was eating off norm, I still could feel pants getting a little looser. I packed my scale at some point, so I had no idea what I really weighed.

When I got to Fayetteville, I was down 7lbs from my highest weight. Suh-weet! But, we weren't done being a little crazy. The day we moved took most of a Monday, then the movers drove to Fayetteville and stayed in a hotel, to bring our stuff the next day. We had our townhouse, and the stuff we'd shoved into our two vehicles. Then came moving in day. Then came family. A lot of family. And friends. A lot of friends. Everybody that we missed all the time that we desperately wanted to live by was right here. And every one of them wanted to go out to eat. And we had just moved to a new town that is total foodieville.

Our first 24 hours here this happened:
Dinner: Noodles (I shared Bacon Spinach Ravioli with my sister and partook in bread and salad and an alcoholic bev.)
Breakfast: Briar Rose (Rob and I shared Biscuits and Gravy and a Cinnamon Roll)
Lunch: Smitty's Garage (I had Fish Tacos and a few french fries)
Dinner: Firehouse Subs (at this point my stomach was about to blow up, I had the low fat chicken salad only)
Yeah, that was a rough 24 hour patch. It wasn't always that bad, but for about two weeks, we went out to dinner every other night or so and it was at new fun places, so you know my butt didn't choose wisely.

Life has settled down. We've both started jobs, the kids are both in school, and our pantry and fridge are finally restocked. I'm back couponing (not as well as before, never thought I'd miss Kroger so bad) and trying to stock us up with healthy stuff and have myself a plan so I don't fall prey to the easy fix of someone else making us dinner.

The scale caught up with me. For a few weeks I kept losing weight and I ridiculously convinced myself that the gym workouts were offsetting the bad eating. I've lived in this body for 34 years and a big part of that has been spent trying make that dang scale go down, so I should know that bad behavior takes forever to show up on the scale and good behavior takes EVENMOREFOREVER!!! So the drop on the scale was my efforts with running in July, the forgetting to eat during moving, the five hours a day doing squats while repainting my house, the walking around the zoo, museum, and Rivermarket ONE LAST TIME, the jumping at the trampoline park ONE LAST TIME,  and the seventy five boxes that I packed and moved to a storage unit.

So, here I am, in early October. I have been going to the gym 3-4 days a week and wogging 1-2 days a week. I am logging like a beast in My Fitness Pal and paying attention to carbs and fats and proteins more than I ever have. It feels like I should have lost 14 lbs in a month. Instead, I'm almost back where I started. Its sad times. I am being punished for bad behavior in August. If I continue my current plan (working out, eating within my calorie range) I should see this reward in a couple of weeks. It might be 2015 before then, but we'll see.

You know on Biggest Loser where everyone loses like 10-30lbs in the first week? If I was on the show, I would lose 1, maybe gain 2, and get kicked off week 1. Remember when Rob and I did a cleanse and he lost 10 and I lost 3? I followed it to a T and he had a nacho buffet and alcohol on Day 3. The scale is a douche. Its fine.

The good news, is that I can see changes not involved with the scale. I measured myself and I had lost 3.5 inches. Rob was impressed when I flexed for him. And I think my head is in the right place now. Food is tricky for me. It is hard for me to not see food for being just what it is: nourishment. To not think of it as a reward, a therapist, a cheat, an enemy. To just simply think of it as a way to energize my body to get me through a busy day. I feel like my head is going in that direction and exercise isn't a way to 'burn off all the cheats' but to build a strong body.

I've joined a weight loss challenge group and weighed in and measured myself October 1. September was spent getting used to our new life and getting a schedule of sorts set up. October is all about implementing what I know. Water like a fish, logging food, exercising like a beast.

Max's 4th Birthday

I don't even know how its possible that Max is 4. In honor of his bday, this post is all about Max. 

Max was our second child in 2 years. We were overwhelmed to say the very least when he was born. At the same time, I think Rob and I were way more chill with Max. He benefited from our knowledge of what didn't work for Rylan (bless Rylan's heart). We knew that it would all be okay, that he would sleep eventually, that letting him cry for a minute wouldn't kill him and we were overall more calm about the situation. 

When he was a tiny baby he puked all the dang time. All the time, but he didn't cry about it. He just puked and then went about being cute. That was our first sign of our very go with the flow kid. Every day of Max's life is his new best day. He is easy to please and very rarely complains. He will shop with me, eat lunch with my girlfriends, yesterday he played in an empty jacuzzi at my sister's Pool and Spa Store for an hour. I love his chill nature.

That being said, Max is nuts. He is easy to please and overall happy, but ZOMG the kid does not stop moving until he passes out! He is a jumping, running, air guitar playing, spinning, chatting machine!!! If I could have 1/10th of his energy, I'd weigh 110, tops. He is still working on sleeping in a bed and bedtime is a little.......not fun at times. I've decided naps are no longer our friends if we'd like our kid in bed sleeping before 10pm. 

Kid loves corn. A lot.

 Our last trip to the zoo. I don't know many kids that love animals more than Max. 

He told me the other day I was his best friend. He has a sweet heart.

I don't lie, he will play at Toys R Us for an hour and be fine leaving with no toys. Perfectly happy picking everything up and playing and then putting it back.

He's nuts I tell you

He goes until he passes out, quite literally

He could play in the sand forever. This is a sand volleyball court near our new place in Fayetteville. Its his favorite.

Mastering the duckface

I posted this pic on Facebook recently. All the kids were having the best time swimming and Max was giddy about just hanging in this bucket meant for foot washing before getting in the pool.  

Someone mentioned him being my challenging child. He has his moments of having fits, being overtired and hitting or being a mess, but for the most part, aside from his constant ear infections and need for multiple allergy meds and a special diet, I've had a cakewalk with Max. I literally potty trained him in, like 4 hours. He is happy no matter what. He has the forgiving nature of a puppy dog. He has been so good about the fact that he can't have milk due to his allergies and tummy problems. He asks me dutifully, "mom? does this have cow's milk in it?" He randomly thanks me for things that most people wouldn't be thankful for "thanks mama, for taking me to preschool." "thank you for letting me feed the ducks at the pond, mommy." 

So big!

And so crazy

He was placed in his preschool in the "Wild Class" and last week was the "Wild Child of the Week". I've never heard a better phrase describe my kid. 

He's perfect in our eyes. 

Happy Birthday, love bug. You are so loved.

Rylan in kindergarten

And then, my first born, the boy that originally inspired this blog, was a kindergartner. In a way I feel like we've been through so many more than five+ years in the last five years with illnesses, therapy, playgroups, moves, and more. At the same time, I feel like I blinked and this:

Turned into This:

Really fast

Yes, his favorite song is Turn Down For What by Lil Jon. What? I never nominated myself for mother of the year. I do have two kids that can dance like WHOA though! And one that can do Tommy Likey on command and the other shouts "the new phonebook is here, the new phonebook is here!" like on The Jerk. sooooo....Our work here is done. Seriously, how cute is it that he wants to be a toymaker. That is so much more doable than last year's Spiderman wish. Also, the fact that his favorite food is yogurt and he can't eat dairy and he thinks that dairy free yogurt is the beez kneez is proof that he is a cool kid fo sho.

When I came to Fayetteville to find us a place, I purposely found a place in a certain school zone, because that's the school I was told would be good for Rylan. Since he was 3, Ry has had some form of therapy. He's done Speech, Occupational, and Developmental. In May I found out, he'd graduated from speech, Developmental isn't offered past Pre-k and Occupational isn't given if he doesn't qualify for speech or Physical Therapy. They basically said "goodbye and good luck." So, I was hoping for a school that would help ease the transition of full-on school with no therapies. I had heard this one would do it.

We were set to move on a Monday. On the Friday before our move, I found out Rylan was on a waiting list for that school. They had just forgetten to tell me about this. Good news, he was #2. Bad news, no idea where he would go if he didn't get in this school. Chances were big that he might be put at a school quite a distance from our townhouse. You know, the one I purposely picked out because it was in this school's zone. 

We moved on a Monday. On Tuesday we found out at 1pm that he was going to a different school. And, oh by the way, we needed to be at parent night that same evening at 6pm. mmmmkay. We got lucky. The new school is MAYBE one mile further away than the zoned school, just a different direction. Rob and I went to parent night while the kids played at Rob's sister's house with their cousins (shout out to living in a town with family!) and met his teacher.

She's a seasoned teacher with 20 years under her belt. She insists on "yes ma'am" and "no ma'am". She says she is hardcore for the first 6 weeks so that the kids know the rules and the year goes better. A no nonsense teacher that isn't a pushover and has worked for 20 years with kids Rylan's age for our son that thinks fits are going to fix all his problems and needs someone that will help him ease his transition from having 3 therapies? Yeah, sign us up for that.

Then the original school called and told us Rylan had a spot. We went on a wing and a prayer and decided to stay at the overflowed school. We had a gut feeling about the teacher, and the school was recently renovated and looked nicer and was on a wayyyyyy less busy road, which would make drop off/pickup less of a headache. 

He's done pretty good. Rylan is a precious little thing. He loves to make friends and make people happy. He has a good heart. He is also a bit emotional (he gets that from Rob, just kidding), so things hurt his feelings that other kids would just brush off. Yesterday he was so upset because kids called him "Rylee" all day. He's working through things. I have every belief that he'll do just fine.

I am amazed daily at how much his knowledge and abilities have grown in the last month. His pencil grip that he struggled with so much in therapy is so much better. He is recognizing letters like crazy, something I worried about big time. I have worried so much and tried so hard not to put his abilities next to other kid's. It seems like now he is catching up. And doing it fast. He has started picking out books at the library that have no pictures and just listens intently while I read. He sits and draws and colors pictures, something I have NEVER had with these two rambunctious boys!  

And last Friday? He had a Sock Hop! Is he a teeanager in the 60's? I mean, it was a Superhero Sock Hop and he did wear a full on Iron Man outfit, and he did call it a "Stock Hop" and we didn't correct him, so he's not aging too fast, but stilllllll. He isn't a baby anymore.  

Fayetteville Life

We arrived in Fayetteville August 11, 2014. This is a dream we've always had. I pinch myself sometimes and other times I have to remind myself that we actually live here. Yesterday I was driving through town and had this feeling "its Sunday, time to head home" when I remembered home is 5 miles away.

We've been having a blast living in Fayetteville. I joined a gym that has an awesome Chick-fil-A type playground and 3 tvs for the kids, so we've been going there quite a bit. Fayetteville has waayyyyyy too many good restaurants that we've been enjoying so the scale hasn't quite moved as much as it should based on my gym schedule. We are getting accustomed to townhouse living. It is not much smaller than our old house, just placed differently, lots of narrow rooms, very steep stairs and a very small patio in the back, rather than a 1/2 acre lot. The fact is, this place is amazing when you compare it to apartment living, which we truly considered. Also, we aren't tied to a mortgage, which is heavenly considering that fabulous house we just flipped that no one has bought yet. Let me know if you need a house just outside Little Rock!!!!!

Tiny porch=Tiny trampoline

A park less than a mile from our house has a huge sandbox

My first gym selfie

I had almost two months off of work, this guy and I had lots of time together

He is so normal

 This is our nephew Wil. We are so happy we get to just call our family and eat pizza on a Friday now. Rylan thinks he needs a family or friend at our house daily now.

 I've perfected pouched eggs. I know that's random, but it needed to be documented. 

This is an awesome Fayetteville thing. A retro arcade. You pay $5 at the door and get to stay as long as you want. They have all the old machines: Pac Man, Tetris, Frogger, Hockey table

I'm ready for slightly cooler temps so I can walk my kid to the park and back without sweaty red face. 

Rylan joined the Boys and Girls Club for after school care. He hates it. Just kidding.

And, most importantly, our kids have been to their first tailgate.  All is well

After a month and a half being home 24/7, I went back to work. Don't mind my allergy eyes here, but I got a job in adult GI. Its at a center, not a hospital. Its all new to me. New people, new center, adults not kids, but so far so good. The biggest perk is that they pay me. I like getting paid. Being home was so fun, but being in this brand new town with all my friends and family and stores and restaurants being so close? I was spending money EVERY day I was home. That didn't happen when I lived in the sticks. 

We're having a blast

 

We do and will always miss our people from MOPS and our other playgroup and our church. We spent so much time worrying about not living in Fayetteville, it took us leaving East End/Little Rock to realize how many people we actually already had. I am trying hard to find our niche. We have joined a MOPS here, though we've already missed the first meeting, so we suck at it so far. I have two of my besty friends here, but one is moving and one is about an hours drive, so I need to find my own people.  I am loud and chatty when I get to know you, but I am actually quite shy to start with. Work is.....let's just say I hate being the new kid. I worked at Arkansas Children's Hospital for 13 years. I was only NEW twice in that time. I hated it both times. I don't have a very thick skin and feeling dumb isn't something I do very well. And I feel dumb right now.