Adjusting to the New Normal

Well, it's been a rough few weeks for us as you can imagine. As I write this, it's been exactly three weeks to the day since we lost Carrie's dad. It's really hard to believe even now. But we're slowly trying to adjust to the new normal. We haven't figured out exactly what that means just yet, but we'll get there. Thanks to all of you who commented, called, emailed and sent cards. We really covet your prayers and we're thankful to be surrounded by such wonderful friends and family. It's been, well, it's been pretty sucky all around. I'm not sure how else to say it. I guess I can think of a few other words, but this is a family blog. But seriously, friends and family definitely soften the hard times, so thank you for that.

We have good days and not so good days, but we're trying to make our way through this horrible season of life. We're back in Huron after over two weeks in Brainerd. It was really weird at first to be here. It didn't feel right. But Ellie had her first day of pre-school Monday of this week, so we needed to get back. As for Ellie, she couldn't have been more excited.

With her little pink dress, her princess backpack, her new school tennies, and a couple of ponies in her hair... Ellie embarked on her first day of class... but not before a little model pose on the front steps. I made her do the "look over the shoulder" pose so we could show off the sweet backpack...A quick snapshot with mom...


And dear ol' Dad (in his matching pink shirt of course) ...And she was off to begin what will be a long road to graduation. 14 years of backpacks (and maybe someday she'll pick one without princesses on it), school supplies, and a batch of new school clothes. Every. Single. Year. This is gonna get expensive. I don't think I'm ready for all of that.

But Ellie had a blast on her first day. You never know how they're going to react in a new situation. But when Carrie and I dropped her off it took her about 6.5 seconds before she was playing on the other side of the room. When Carrie and I said, "Bye Ellie, we love you,"

she barely turned around and said, "Bye." Simple as that. So no worries about her being able to detach from mom and dad. But should we be a little worried because it was that easy for her?? Hmm...

This past week was also filled with haircuts for both of the boys. Maguire was in the chair first. And it didn't go so well...

And I don't really know why. Last time he was a little scared by the clippers, but we got a sucker in his mouth right away and he was fine. So Carrie was already armed with multiple suckers this time, but it didn't do much good. But you can see in the picture above that Alex was happy as a clam eating his own sucker. But he wasn't the one in the chair. Thankfully Maguire made it through though. Barely. But when it was Alex's turn, he sat like a champ. This picture was actually taken by Ellie because Carrie was in the bathroom bathing a very hair covered (and still not so happy) Maguire. Ellie might have a future in photography, she's got a nice little artistic tilt to her shots.

So that's a little snapshot of our lives this past week. Keep us in your prayers, and we promise to post more frequently from now on!!