Abby's driving!

Remember when life was simpler and our babies were actually babies... Where has the time gone???

Abigail has been so excited to start drivers ed, and she's done great! Due to Covid, classes were online for a month, so she spent 4 weekends straight in her room, learning all the rules of the road in her pajamas!

Her next step was to drive for 6 hours behind the wheel with her instructor, and day 1, she was pretty nervous...

She drove on REAL roads for 28 miles on her first trip!

While she was stopped for a driving break, she had to call her bestie to share her excitement, and get a little encouragement... I love how close these girls are!

Emily was ready and waiting with excitement to take some pictures of our new driver when she got back from her first drive!

Her next two trips took her on the highway for about 60 miles, and then on a tour of all the surrounding towns for another 50 miles. I'm shocked how far she drove in three short lessons, and I'm glad I have GPS on her so I can see where she was and how fast she was going!

After her last lesson, she was so proud of herself, and was ready to go to the DMV to get her permit!

The very next day, we picked up her paperwork from her school, and she checked out early to go get her permit! Shockingly, we were in and out of the DMV in under an hour!

She was nervous while waiting to take her test, so we spent our waiting time studying more questions together...

Of course, she didn't get a single question wrong!

I was being the "cool mom", and staying back while she went through the whole process on her own, so I only got a lot of pictures of the back of her!

 

She got it!

As soon as we got home, she popped her driving magnet on the car, and she and Brian were off to practice! I can't believe we have another driver in the house now!

I'm a substitute now!

I've finally started my newest endeavour as a substitute teacher! Covid has made a lot of changes for our kids' schools, and teacher shortages are just one of them, so I figured it was my time to help. It's taken a couple of months to get through the whole process of applying and getting through all of the paperwork, but I finally finished and found myself in the school this week! My very first class was Ben's 4th grade, followed by Emily's middle school band class the very next day! It's been fun to be out there working again, meeting all the kids, and experiencing something new every day!

Emily was texting me an hour before class, so excited to have me there! 

Family visit!

It's been years since we were all together, and some of us haven't seen each other since before Covid started, so it was a sweet time to be with siblings again! We even got to have Mom come visit for a couple of days, and we had a great time together! It may have been years since we've been together, but it still feels like home!

We had a really rainy forecast, so we found indoor activities to enjoy, and attempting cardamon bread baking was on the agenda again! We are by no means experts, but we tried, and at least it was edible!

The dogs loved having some extra visitors for the week!

Ryan even made us all dinner one night! We've come a long way since the last time we lived under one roof!

Mom does what she does best and she made up a new candy bar game for us to play. We had so much fun!

 

We braved the unseasonable cold here and went out downtown Raleigh one night to dinner, for drinks & to a comedy show... fun times with siblings (and Brian!)

Thanks to everyone for making the trip, and I'm thankful for all the new memories we made!