The New Normal

Carrie's back with us from her odyssey for good now! She brought a snake skin from the barn to show Shane.

April 7th was Carrie's last day at her old job. April 9th she almost left for the barn. April 10th she did go and didn't stop going. Nibs was born, we celebrated Easter at the barn, Carrie started a new job helping her parents, and then Mira passed away, Nibs hurt herself, and Carrie's been splitting her time between the barn, the new job, and not going crazy....which Nibs didn't help with. The little filly chewed out her stitches and got her wound infected (I'll do another horse update post soon).

I'm happy to report Carrie made it home mostly sane at the end of last week. Grandma and Grandpa are off leading a tour group, so her travel agent training period is over. It's go time! Carrie now works from home, but the phone can ring at any time (and did at 5 AM one day - Grandpa wired all their calls to push through to Carrie while they're out of the country). So far, Carrie really likes her new job. I'm happy that she can feel productive and be a blessing by helping out her parents.

Carrie's going to have a small learning curve adjusting to home life. Shane and I have run it solo for the past month and a half! Carrie and I worry about different things, so Shane's going to have to adjust to her, as well 

Example: Climbing and jumping from any sort of height. Mom = worried, Dad = "Jump already!"

Another example: TV. I'm the draconian TV inhibitor. Carrie's more generous. The first school day Carrie was home, Shane woke up early, begged for an episode, and proceeded to melt down when he didn't get it. He knew better than to ask me, but hope springs eternal. Unmet expectations are a quick road to unhappy-ville.

We're back in the swing of things, though. Carrie took over bedtime duties a couple nights. She downloaded a Starfleet Academy book for Shane's new bedtime story (Worf's First Adventure). 

The barn's close enough she can do a couple of day trips each week with naps in between. Shane woke her up on Wednesday when we got home!

The face-paint made it extra surprising (They celebrated all the summer birthdays after school).

And so it goes. Things are crazy for me at work as I try to finish out (and survive the year). Shane's almost done with kindergarten and Carrie's a filly-mom and a travel agent.

Summer, here we come!