Back to School

This summer has been rough on me. I had ideas of what the summer would hold, but life happens and we must adapt. I am grateful for the new memories I was able to make in Oklahoma with my family. My kids feel more close to them now than ever and still ask about them. Transitioning to the DC area has been difficult. There have been several times where Tyler and I both have felt like things were against us. We have had verizon fiber optic internet installed - which is supposed to be amazing - and we've had three servicemen out to figure out why it is super slow. Still no improvement there. The area we live in struggles with phone reception and service. We had to switch from AT&T because AT&T doesn't cover my neighborhood. It was sort of comical - people would call but I would only get voicemails on my phone. Imagine trying to set up utilities and doctor appointments but not being able to receive calls. So, we switched to Virgin mobile and now I get phone calls, but people say my voice is difficult to hear. So now we are trying to see if they can fix that or if we need to switch to yet, another cell phone carrier. 

Medical care has also been a beast. For one, the appointment line receptionists aren't nice - which is a first for me in my 9 years of Air Force medical care treatment. Second, our new PCM wasn't able to meet with us for the whole month of August. We got in initially to get Iryna's medication filled but after jumping through hoops over the course of 3 weeks, we had to get another appointment to get a written script so we could go to CVS to get it filled. We can't not have Iryna on meds. It wouldn't be pretty, folks. Another issue is getting referrals close to where we live, instead of the 90 minute commute that most referral locations want us to make. So far we have gotten two out of the several that I need nearby, but Anna has been out of her accutane for 6 weeks now and no dermatology appointment is even made yet. Frustrating!

Trying to enroll 5 kids in school, with 3 having IEPs, has also been interesting. The school administration decided to spread my 5 kids into 4 separate schools. Thankfully, all kids will be on a bus route. However, the first two days of school, they would only bus two of the kids. So I needed to drive the twins and Silas to their schools - both of which were 20 minutes away. Silas only goes half-day, so I was making three 20 minute commutes, which added up to 2 hours of driving per day and I was only getting 1 hour and 45 minutes of a break within all that. It was TOUGH. And our a/c is out in the van. I am not trying to complain (at least not consciously) but it's been so hard on me physically. It is hot outside and I am sweating a ton and trying to deal with new schedules and the stress that I feel multiplied by the stress my children feel with starting a new school year. Thankfully, today they got the twins and Silas on their bus routes - so no more commuting for me! Yippee! Today I get 4 1/2 hours of uninterrupted time. It is sweet bliss, I tell you. And here are the photos you're looking for of my 5 kids. Aren't they cute?