Getting Oriented

Brian left this morning early for pre-orientation. I guess you know that you are setting out on quite the educational endeavor when you have to get "pre-oriented" for orientation.

This was my first day "alone" - at least alone with the kids. We have all become quite accustomed to having Brian with us most of the day since his classes were mostly in the evening for graduate school, so it will be an adjustment for all involved.

On the bright side, we are ALL getting oriented.

I can officially drive myself around and get myself where I need to be without using the navigation system, which means landmarks are becoming more familiar to me because I do not do the whole north, south, east, west thing. The kids are getting more oriented as well. They are enjoying their new house, new pool, and playground. Although I am sure they would enjoy it more if they had their cousins near by to enjoy it with them - but that is what vacation is for, right?? (hint, hint, come visit).

Our biggest accomplishment since moving to Nevada is that I have put the kids in the SAME bedroom and it has been going great. Both of my kids are really light sleepers and seemed to always wake up at the same time from naps and in the morning so I figured it wouldn't hurt to have them in the same room and at least save on space so that I can have a guest room (I have been told you get a lot of visitors when you live near the Las Vegas strip). Surprisingly, the kids have gotten better and aren't such light sleepers anymore, or at least they know how to tune each other out. I am also enjoying knowing they are in the room together and not all by themselves in a dark bedroom at night.

I am not a blogger

This is my first blog post as a non-blogger. To be honest, I have always hated blogs. I feel like they are sugar coated journals that make everyone's life look perfect and amazing. Others read blogs in amazement, wishing to be as talented and perfect as "that" family. While I won't air all of my dirty laundry on this blog, my goal is to capture the real essence of life.

The title

The title of the blog "Meltdown" has many meanings which are easy to figure out. In this 9 days that I have lived here, the children have had multiple meltdowns, I have had my own meltdowns brought about by leaving family and moving out to the middle of the desert, and most importantly, its just REALLY hot this time of year, so we may be experiencing a physical meltdown as well.

The flight

I was fortunate enough to have my mom fly out with me to Nevada with the two kids. We left D.C. at 7am and got to Nevada around 9:30am Vegas time - this was one of the longest days to date. It took us a few days to get acclimated, but we figured it out. It was so nice having my mom around - she is amazing at doing laundry and makes the need for a laundry basket irrelevant. She can successfully put all of the dirty laundry and clean laundry in her hand because she cleans it so fast. Oh how I missed the days where my work out clothes from the morning were already folded and clean on my bed by noon that same day. I am going to miss her amazing ability to quietly keep a house in perfect condition.

The Heat

I have always been told that Nevada heat is different, because it is dry. Well it is different, its hot, really hot. My mom and I found ourselves laughing as we walked around convinced that we were standing in an oven on broil. However, I will say that either I am adjusting or the dry heat is different because at 8pm tonight it was 105 degrees and I was relieved to know it had cooled off and let the kids play outside for a bit.

Spiderman

For those of you who know Evan, Evan is sponsored/obsessed with Spiderman. He is so obsessed with Spiderman that during his dinner prayer the other night, he gave thanks for the food, daddy, and Spiderman. He has been to the Las Vegas strip twice now and has seen Spiderman in the flesh on both occasions. From our house, you can see the strip out of our back windows (amazing view). Evan likes to stand on my kitchen table or "Namom's" bed (our guest room) and look out the back window at Spiderman's house. I think he is settling in quite well.