Fallen

I need to take some pictures of some of the fall foliage here. I've always lived in Texas or New Mexico so I've never seen anything like this. When the trees turned brown in Baytown, we figured Exxon fumes were killing them.

We had a very happy phone call last night. Let me back up first. The hardest thing about leaving Baytown for me was how hard it was for Julia. We moved there when she was 18 months old and Baytown was the only home she knew. She loved her school and her friends and our church and the beach and all the fun stuff to do in Houston. So taking her away from all that was pretty tough.

What she's really been missing since we got here are her friends at school in Baytown. She had two best friends who lived in our neighborhood and the three of them did everything together. That's the three of them at the library last summer. They played at each others' houses after school, they went to each others' Vacation Bible Schools, they hung out at the neighborhood pool in the summers. When word got around that we were moving, a few of the other parents from school told me, "I can't believe you're breaking the three of them up."

So Julia starts school here and naturally, does not have the friendships at school like she had in Baytown. I happen to be a "moving-as-a-kid" expert (see My Whole Entire Life Story, which I need to update to include our move to AR), and I've been telling her it just takes time to make friendships like that. She does have some good friends at church, but she only gets to see them a couple of times a week. Then Julia started talking about a girl named "A." She was talking about her a LOT. "Can A come over today?" "Can we take A to church with us?" I got the idea that a lot of the kids in class liked A and I worried that the thing with Julia might be one-sided -- like ALL the kids wanted to be friends with A.

Then out of the blue, A's mom called us last night. Turns out they've been hearing as much about Julia at their house as we've been hearing about A over here. A wanted to invite Julia to a thing at their church next week. So next Wednesday, Julia is going home with A and then to the church thing later. Julia is ecstatic. I talked to A's mom on the phone for a while. They haven't lived here long, either. She teaches at Julia's school, are active at their church and they seem like "our kind of people."

Maybe we moms shouldn't get so wrapped up in the things our kids worry about. But last night it felt really good to pray with Julia and thank God for new friends. And all the guilt I've had over "breaking up the three" started to be replaced by a sense of peace.

Other highlights from the past week or so:

- Jenna can sing the words to several songs from "High School Musical."
- I scored "The Open Door," which is the latest from Evanescence. How many different ways can I say that it ROCKS? In fact, it rocks so much that I usually only listen to it when I'm alone in the car. My favorite tracks so far are "Call Me When You're Sober," "Weight of the World" and "Lithium." I like those songs so much that I keep listening to them over and over, which means that I haven't actually made it to the end of the CD yet. That's how I listen to new CDs. Drives Chad nuts.
- And now for the Target report: Tuesday. Jenna and me. Wandering around the back of the store because Jenna wanted to look at the Christmas stuff. And what did we happen across but Halloween stuff at NINETY-PERCENT OFF. I had to lean against a shelf of Christmas wreaths for a while to take it all in. You know those cute Halloween T-shirts for kids that they sell for four bucks? I bought the girls a bunch for next year for FORTY CENTS EACH. I called Carol, one of my sisters in Targethood, right away. And my mom. Why experience such joy if you can't share it?