the week in review

So, lot of big things happened in the Mayes family this week as they did in houses all across the country with the beginning of the new school year.

N had a great beginning to 2nd grade. He has a great teacher(s). He now has a sign language name (given to him by Mrs. E the deaf teacher in his class). It's an airplane in motion - how appropriate for N. He had a couple of rough moments this week with learning the new rules and structure for his new school, but ultimately, he ended the week with a sticker on everyday! For this, we are thankful. I think he will settle in nicely this next week. He has already made a couple of friends and is enjoying leading them in building at recess. Their school has had to cancel regular recess due to too many children becoming overheated and they are now doing indoor recess until the temperature cools off to less than 100. At the rate things are going in San Antonio, this may be Thanksgiving!

L LOVES her new school. She too has made some new friends and is enjoying the activites at her school - cooking, swimming, and computer time. She also really loves our new church, which is a HUGE relief for me, because there were many days in College Station where getting her to church was a struggle. She is growing up and it's hard to believe she'll be starting Kinder in just one year. Time moves too fast!

One of the biggest concerns I had about moving was having to make new friends. Both for me personally and for the family as a whole. We've had many opportunities this week to get to know people better and we are looking forward to others. Here are just a few:

Last Saturday, we went to have dinner with my Baylor roommate and her family. Melissa, Wayne, and the boys were wonderful hosts and the kids played together as if they've known each other forever. It was great to reconnect since we hadn't seen each other in 12 years!

Sunday and Wednesday, we had church, and enjoyed our time getting to know people better - it's a very welcoming place!

Thursday - I went and joined a group of "stampers". It certainly was not the same as my group of friends in College Station, but I did enjoy the crafting and visiting with other ladies - they were very nice.

Thursday was also a big day for Lance and I - our 15th weddding anniversary! Can't believe it's been that long already! We will celebrate with date night next week - this past week was just too hectic!

Friday night, Lance and I went to a b-day party for our music minister and another guy. The home where it was being held was truly the biggest and most magnificent I've ever been in before - complete with valet parking. But, it was not like a museum at all; it was very personal and warm. But still, when the home is just doors down from David Robinson of The Spurs and George Strait, you know you are in swanky territory! The kids enjoyed their first babysitter since we've been in San Antonio.

Saturday, we had plans to truly relax and enjoy the day, but sickness invaded our home. It started with Lance and the day ended with me being sick as well - yuckers! We are both puny today and trying to rest and get over this without passing it along to the kiddos. I'm guessing all the new people that the 4 of us have been exposed to, have left us vulnerable to new germs.

Also, if you are still reading and haven't given up on this post, I started my job this week. The employees are very friendly and welcoming. I think I will enjoy the job, but am still feeling some of the overwhelming feelings that come with a new job - lots of little things to learn. I know it will come with time and I just have to be patient!

I hope you all had a great week as well. I won't have as much time to post (at least in the beginning as we get used to our new schedules), but promise to post as often as I can. I've noticed some of you with blogs haven't posted as much recently as well!

Goodbye lazy, hello routine

Today is it. The last day of lazy. The last day of sleeping bags on the floor and toys everywhere. Today is the last day of no homework, no alarm clocks, and doing what we want. This has been both the laziest and hardworking summer we've ever had. The moving has been tough, but the 6 weeks of having our kids at home has been great! They've gotten to enjoy the "lazy days" of summer that all kids should have. But, routine needs to return and Lance and I are both looking forward to tomorrow!

N is going to be in a very unique situation at school. His class is a co-taught class with a regular classroom teacher and a hearing-impaired teacher for the 5 students in his class who have hearing issues. There will also be an aide in his class and in 3 weeks, there will be a student teacher as well. So, his teacher to student ratio will be 1 to 4 which is awesome! I'm thinking the opportunity to have behavior issues will be low!!!

L will begin PreK tomorrow. How did my baby get to PreK so soon?!? She is looking forward to her new school and the fun activities they will have.

And I don't start my job until Tuesday, so I have one more day to do laundry, clean house, and run any last minute errands. I'm excited about starting my job and getting in a routine, but I have to say, I'm beginning to have some of those 1st day jitters as well.

Some new revelations

I've learned some things during this process of relocating our lives.


Being a stay-at-home mom is hard work. By the time the day is over, I'm exhausted from mediating all the arguments that go on between my two during the day.

Not having a pool to swim in during the month of August is torture, pure torture!

When you tell someone you are new to the community, they are very nice, kind, and welcoming!

When you have days upon days to get something done it takes longer than if you were simply given one day to complete the task. Why is this?

I miss my friends and my community from College Station. Relationships take time to build and somehow 2 weeks does not a community make!

A Tale of Two Cities

We've been together in one city for about 36 hours now. It's great now that we are all under one roof together again.

The kiddos and I have been enjoying our summer vacation and exploring our new city.

There are definitely some HUGE differences between living in a community of 120,000 and a city of 1.6 million. Oh yes, there are!

Swimming Pools - In College Station, we had some wonderful city pools that we were able to buy swim passes for and go anytime we wanted. Here, the only city pools are in low-income areas of the city. This has been an eye-opening experience for me. We were encouraged not to go, but I took the kids and went anyway. The great part? The pools are free of charge. We had a very nice experience and N made friends with a little boy while L and I swam together. We were the only white people at the pool, which was fine, except everyone kept staring at us. I'm sure they were wondering why we were there. I'm guessing white middle-class folks don't often come to their pool, which is a shame really. Segregation definitely still exists and it's become very obvious to me in the last week here. :(
We tried to join the neighborhood pool, but the people who own our rent house haven't paid their HOA dues and so we weren't allowed to join. Bummer!

Stores - oh, man oh, man - I've fallen in love with my new grocery store! They have everything, it's huge and the prices are really good too - and it's less than 5 minutes from our house - yippee! They have all manner of shopping experiences here and they are close!! Now, I'm sure this could get me into trouble, but hey, I have 2 small children that I don't want to take shopping with me, so for now, my money is safely in the bank!

I'm beginning to figure out how to get around San Antonio or at least our small corner of it - everyday we discover something else new and exciting!

Limbo, we're over you

This has been the summer of limbo. We've known pretty much all summer that we'd be moving. Combine that with the regularly scheduled craziness of summer as a youth minister and well, our schedule has been chaotic and at times, minute by minute.

Tonight, the kids and I are spending our last night in College Station and thankfully since we've already said our goodbyes, I'm not emotional. No, instead, I'm watching Hannah Montana with my kids.

Oh yes, the Hannah who we've managed to avoid up until this point, has now found our kids. And L, she just asked if we could go to Hannah's house. Um, no. No,No, and No. I can already tell L is going to care alot more about pop culture than her brother.

Goodbye College Station. You've been good to us. We have life-long friends here and I'm sure we'll be back. But for now, we look forward. We look forward to the joys and the challenges that will meet us in San Antonio. For they will meet us. The good and the bad. The joy and the sorrow. For they are part of life and we wouldn't have it any other way!

I'll be offline for a few days as we transition. But I'll be back with new stories and new faces and some of the old as well.