Wordy Wednesday

School is off to a fantastic start!
Alivia comes home happy and glowing!
Dylan is enjoying that there isn't homework yet (and so am I).
Isaac has behaved himself quite well these past three days.  We nap together and snuggle and lay about being lazy, it's really been great!  He likes walking the other two to the school bus in the morning and being there to pick them up in the afternoon. 
I'm amazed at how much better I feel about life right now, my house stays clean and organized, I'm not stressed out about entertaining my kids all day long, there is quiet and peace! 
When the kids come home, I'm glad to see them and I think they are glad to see me.  Isaac gets a few hours to be obnoxious with his siblings and we have dinner together and I think to myself, " Yeah, things are great right now". 
It's been really hot out the past few days, waiting for the kids bus in the afternoon is just about the only cruddy thing I have to complain about.  Our pool is supposed to be closing this weekend too, BOO!  I keep hoping that they extend how long it's open (like they did last year), but who knows.  I've always thought it was a little silly to close the pool so early in the year, since we still have at least 6 weeks of HOT weather.  The pools down here are maintained year round, and ours does not have a life guard, so I'm not sure why they feel like they have to close it.
I have 43 days until my Utah trip, I wish I could stay there for a week or two, but I'll take the 4 days I'm getting.  I'm so excited to see my friends and family!
I'm hoping now that I'm getting back into a routine with our lives again that I can start implementing some things that disappeared from my life over the summer.  I'm hoping to start walking in the mornings again.  I think after Isaac and I drop the kids off for the bus that we'll just wander across the street and start walking around the lake again.  While the mornings can be very humid and still rather warm, it's probably the best time to get out and get moving again.  I also finally cleaned off the treadmill so I'm hoping to start using that daily as well when Isaac is napping or other wise occupied.
I want to get painting dressers as well.  Most of our furniture is hand me down stuff.  Three of the dressers I have and use just happen to be dressers I used as a kid (and I think they were used even back then).  The one in our master bedroom is still painted peach and cream from my old bedroom as a kid and it's about time I painted them to match what we have now. 
I also found the cutest tutorial on how to build a bed frame so I want to get making those for my boys soon too. 
I love my new house but I think I've had a hard time wanting to decorate it and really make it my own.  Money is always an issue, but deeper down it also meant facing the fact that we are staying here and it's worth investing the time and money to decorate and furnish it.  A very large part of me wishes I could fly my house somewhere else, anywhere else, as long as I didn't have to stay here in Texas.  Every one keeps saying to just give it time and sooner or later I'll grow to love it here, and maybe that's true...But there is a part of me that feels that this place will never be home to me.  I think I've said it a million times before, but I feel like I need to say it again, there is nothing inherently wrong with Texas, and it really isn't a bad place to live, I just can't make it feel right or feel like home to me.  I feel isolated and yet I'm surrounded by millions of people, I feel disconnected from everything.  I HATE the heat just as bad as I hated Utah winters (maybe even more)!  I can't stand to be outside lately not even for 5 minutes and being outside is very much a part of who I am and where I find happiness.  I thought by now we would have found dear friends, a ward that happily replaced our distant families, or at least had family out to visit, but so far none of it has come to fruition.   
There have been many kind people I've met down here and we do get out with friends every now and then so I'm not sure why it all feels so much like somethings missing.  Maybe it's my own stubborn refusal to accept that things are good in my life and that life is exactly how it needs to be right now.  For now though I'm guessing the best approach is to recognize and count my blessings.  I'm hoping that painting the dressers and making some bed frames will help me to have the desire to make this house our home, and maybe that will help me finally move on.