What We've Been Waiting For

Several things...warm weather, Marshall to be at an easier age to enjoy the outdoors, Jack to be able to really ride his bike, Daddy to be home.  I'll explain them all.  Our eagerness for warm weather obviously needs no explanation.  These kids have been stir crazy and we're all enjoying being outside.  My house doesn't stay a mess with toys scattered everywhere and the boys hardly put up fights at bedtime.  Last summer was hard with Marshall not being on his feet.  Not much he could do outside except be strolled, pushed in a swing or laid on a blanket.  Honestly, we just didn't get outside much.  This year is already totally different.

Jack has always been a big kid, so it seemed ridiculous to ever buy him a trike.  I regret that decision and have already done things differently with Marshall.  When Jack turned two, we bought him a 12 inch bike.  He couldn't really ride it until last summer after his third birthday and by the time he was 3 1/2 he had outgrown it, so Santa brought a 16 inch.  He is doing so well that last week we started taking family bike rides around the neighborhood.  Well, everyone was on a bike except me.  At first he was a little apprehensive going down hills and kept braking to the point we could hardly go.  This was my view of him on our ride this week.

He was running off and leaving Marshall and me.  I did get this closer up picture of our big boy on his big bike.  I have to note that we're already had to raise the seat on the new bike, so I'm wondering how long it will last before we have to bump him up to a 20 inch.  He is growing like a weed!

Daddy is home!  I've made mention that Travis has been traveling to Jackson, MS a couple of times when I've blogged about us visiting him.  What I didn't give details on was the extent of his travel.  Starting Monday, January 17th Travis left home for Jackson only to return on Friday and that routine was repeated until just a couple of weeks ago.  When he took this job with AT&T he knew that 50% travel was required.  At the time, he had been unemployed for 2 months and the job market wasn't looking any better, so we were just happy to have an offer from a company as big as AT&T.  Eight of the first nine weeks on the job were spend on the road in training.  The time spent in Memphis from September to January seemed to fly by and we were back to the same old routine of only seeing him on weekends.  This would continue until May or June and be repeated again next year and every year after that he worked in this position.  It took a toll on all of us.  Jack made claims that his daddy lived in a hotel and would ask when Daddy would be living with us again.  It was heartbreaking for him more than any of us.  Both boys missed Daddy, as did I and I was exhausted holding down the fort!  I am happy ecstatic to report that he has now accepted a new job with Cars.com.  He returned home tonight from 1 week of training in Chicago and Monday morning he will begin work out of his home office.  To say that we are all relieved is an understatement.  We feel like a family again.