NAPA's Grand Opening

The NAPA Distribution Center/Division Office, where Mark is now working, held a Grand Opening celebration for families and customers at the D.C. There were so many things for the kids to enjoy! We spent about three hours there! 

The bounce house.

The Cash Box! You had to guess a number, then spin a big wheel. If your number came up, you got 20 seconds in the box and got to keep the money! Jacob didn't get in, but Ethan did and grabbed $5. There were bigger bills in there too but he was so excited for his $5!

Different members of the staff took turns in the dunk tank. Not sure who Jacob dunked, but luckily it wasn't Mark's boss.

The clown lady had a very friendly monkey. He would sit on your shoulder, pick through your hair (and pockets if you had them!)

Sarah getting a paw print tattoo since her new school mascot is a Wildcat!

Lucas got over his fear of the balloon man/clown once he realized the dude would make him swords and a sheath to carry it! What's better than that? TWO swords and sheaths! 

Beating up on the oldest...

Visiting with the NBA Championship trophy. Not pictured were the Mavericks cheerleaders and Ron Capps, the NAPA Indy car driver.

Oh yes, back to the balloon man. This "hat" has eight different balloons in it!

Sarah's elaborate face painting!

There was also a game truck outside with XBox, a hockey shoot, a magician, tons of product and promotional displays and a full meal catered by Dickey's BBQ. Good time!  

Blog Neglect Hotline

Hello? My name is Shannon and I've been neglecting my blog. Yes, I know I have tons of stuff going on with the move and school starting, but that's when people are most anxious for updates! So here goes!

We came up to the Dallas area last week for middle school orientation and to register the kids for school. Got all that done, registered for a new church, found out our Lifetime membership is reciprocal. Spent lots of time with the Shoups - our friends from San Antonio that live in Flower Mound now and about three block from our new house! Went back to San Antonio last weekend for Lucas' birthday party (pics later) and a couple going-away parties. Back to Dallas for elementary orientations this week and to get Jacob's schedule and practice walking it! He'll have Art, PE, Social Studies, English, Reading, Science, Math and Study Skills. No lockers...kids will get a set of books for home and not have to carry much around during the day. I hope he makes a friend by lunch time!

We're now living in a two-bedroom hotel room in Lewisville which is about seven miles away from our new house and about two bedrooms too small. There are several perks to living here temporarily: maid service every day, hot breakfast every day, hot dinners Mon-Wed (free!), two full bathrooms, kitchenette in room, pool, nice staff.

Not so good points: Did I mention it's small? $4 per load of laundry; always having to be quiet; not enough chairs, utensils, plates or cups for a family of six; sheets that don't stay on the bed through the night (by morning, sleeping on mattress!).

We are all set for school. Sarah has Mrs. Ryan, an avid reader and bird-owner. "Tiki" is a parakeet (I think) and comes in on Fridays. Sarah will also be switching teachers for math and social studies. She'll go to Mrs. Gustafson for that. Mrs. Gustafson grew up in St. Louis Park, MN, (near my hometown of Eden Prairie) and knows Tim Donahue - someone we shared daycare with when Jacob and Sarah were babies. Ethan has Mrs. Kinney who has a ladybug addiction. They are everywhere in her classroom. Kinda makes you wonder if she had one or two and then over the years got bombarded with ladybug gifts so might as well go with it kind-of-theme.

Lucas will be in a new dual-language kinder program. He'll have an English speaking teacher one day, then switch to a Spanish speaking teacher the next. Unfortunately, his homeroom teacher is recovering from color cancer surgery so he'll have a long-term sub to start the year. Mrs. Herrick is very nice and experienced, but we've heard great things about Mrs. Piper and can't wait to meet her. Mrs. Giraldo is his Spanish teacher. She was born in Peru. She is only allowed to speak Spanish to the kids at school - even in the hallways/playground/lunchroom - so I'm sure the kids will seek out their homeroom teacher for questions for a while! If kids are present, she can only speak Spanish to parents too! I hope to brush up on what I've learned over the years in San Antonio and try to have a conversation every now and then.

I also made it through all the parent orientations and meet-the-teacher nights without signing up for anything PTA-related. I did send an email to the elementary President and ask to chat with her next week though. I can't stay away! Although I won't jump into anything too crazy.

Today we hit the Grand Opening Party at the new NAPA Distribution Center where Mark works. There were clowns, magicians, face painters, an Xbox truck, dunk tank, Dallas Mavericks cheerleaders, Ron Capps (one of NAPA's race car drivers), Dickey's BBQ, and a money booth that you could stand in! Ethan was the only one to get in and he grabbed $5 of swirling money he got to keep. Jacob was completely bummed he didn't get in to try. (Pics later too - can't seem to load from laptop!)

School starts on Monday, so we'll try to go to bed early tonight and get up extra early tomorrow. It will be a rude awakening on Monday, especially because we have to drive a little farther. We'll need to leave the hotel by 7 am. Elementary starts at 7:50 am and middle starts at 8:45 am. Pick up at 2:50 pm and 4:00 pm.

Wish us luck!

Lucas' Hotel Birthday

Lucas had wanted a Phineas and Ferb cake for his birthday. 

Although for his birthday party at the Little Gym, we shared the day with Caitlin, and ended up with a cute Minnie/Mickey cake that was great for the boy/girl party. So on Lucas' actual birthday day, we got the local Walmart to come through with a P&F deco pac.

 

Happy boy!

Tired boys. Raise your hand if you're sleeping!

Mrs. Tiller's Cookie Party

During Sarah's second grade year, she earned the privilege of going to her teacher's house and making cookies...and then we found out about the move and ran out of time to schedule it. But her amazing teacher came through and held a special one-on-one cookie day with Sarah at her country house - complete with a chicken coop, horse and several dogs and cats.

Chores first, with Mrs. Tiller's daughter.

Heading to the chicken coop.

Then the baking began! Chocolate chip cookies and a big pan of brownies! Not enough eggs in the chicken coop. Had to use store bought ones. 

Sarah was able to enjoy all this the night before we left town - the same night of Jacob's rank ceremony. It was a busy day and night! 

Jacob's Tenderfoot Rank

Right before we left for Dallas, Jacob earned the first rank advancement in Boy Scouting: Tenderfoot. We were proud of him for working hard over the summer to complete it - he was one of the only boys from his patrol to earn it so quickly. We have found a new troop here but haven't attended any meetings yet. Maybe after we get into the house and settle down a bit.

With Mr. Woodard, his den leader from Cub Scouts.

Lucas' 5th Birthday Party

We celebrated Lucas' birthday at the Little Gym again. This time we shared the party with his friend Caitlin who also turned five.

Birthday buddies.

Big sisters, Camryn and Sarah.

Lucas and Dryden monkeying around.

Big brothers, Connor and Ethan.

Pink Lady Posse girls: Lakyn, Sarah and Camryn.

Uh oh. This can't be good.

Giggles.

Minnie and Mickey cake!

Happy birthday Lucas and Caitlin!

Our New House

The universe was listening after all! Our new house is in Flower Mound, Texas. It's a 5BD Colonial on a street with the same name as Mark's favorite bar in Des Moines, the Greenwood! It was meant to be. We are assuming the sellers are down-sizing. They had the house on the market in 2011 and took it off. They put it back on the market in February of 2012 and were motivated to sell. They have two kids - a daughter who must have recently married, and a son who just graduated from high school (we could tell from the pictures around the house). We think Grandma lived with them too. So now that both kids are out of the house, and maybe Grandma isn't as comfortable with her upstairs bedroom; they were ready to move on. 

To get to the house, you come up a small hill and meet a T-intersection. Our house sits just to the right of the T. To the right are five houses in a true culdesac and to the left are about seven more houses in another culdesac. I can sit in the front yard and watch the kids on their bikes the whole way up and down the street! There's a basketball hoop cemented in the flat drive which Jacob is excited about. 

There's a back staircase that the kids thought was great fun. Lots of play spaces and built-in nooks and crannies to store things. The kitchen is awesome. Pull out drawers in all the lower cabinets! It's the little things! There's a sunroom beyond the eat-in kitchen area. Enough bedrooms for each kid and I still get a study for myself! 

Upstairs play areas...

Could be someone's bedroom or could stay a play area if Lucas and Ethan want to share a room.

We will close on September 6th (happy birthday Sarah!) and move in on the 10th. Corporate housing of some sort for three weeks or so, but I don't mind because now we know the kids will be starting in the right schools ON TIME! A big relief for me.

Thank you universe ... for everything. 

Timing

The last two weeks have been very challenging mentally. All I can think about is a looming deadline of the first day of school and how nobody else is moving fast enough to help us meet that deadline.

The appraisers NAPA sent out are instructed to price our house in such a way that it will sell in 120 days. But one appraiser had our pricing, days on market and square footage wrong in his report, then made incorrect calculations based on those numbers and really priced our house down. Luckily, we caught all his mistakes and reported them to the relocation company. After he fixed his mistakes, we ended up with an appraisal that was $15,000 higher! We can't accept NAPA's buyout until our house has been on the market for 45 days.

Our loan officer from the local Wells Fargo branch was slow in returning phone calls and emails. We're not talking hours...we're talking DAYS. Eventually, I had to go through Wells Fargo's relocation program to get our pre-approval letters and to lock in our interest rate (3.375%).

We can't register for school until we have a contract on a house and we haven't even put an offer on anything yet. The ONE is still available though. Waiting for us, I hope. Jacob's potential school has orientation on the 16th. We're running out of time. The elementary orientations aren't until the week after, but the first day is the 27th!

To top it all off, Ethan had strep and Sarah had a stomach bug. I am very thankful that the Summer Olympics have been on TV. It's been fun to watch volleyball, swimming, gymnastics - and even the random stuff like trampoline and kayaking -  and not think about all this moving stuff. We've also spent a lot of time at the pool and Lucas is quickly becoming a little fish. Hooray for that!