Dallas: Back to School Weeks 1 & 2 (also, Murphy!)

I can't wait to finish the rest of South Africa, but feel we need a catch-up post in the here and now.

It's Saturday morning. We're two weeks into the school year. I've done my walk on the treadmill, James and Landon went to swim practice, and now James has taken the girls to the Y for their own swim practice (their team starts up again this week). I'm at my desk with my tea- I did a couple hours of work and now a blogging break feels nice. Also Love is Blind UK is playing on my phone. Indulgence takes many forms.

So we got back from South Africa mid-morning after a million hours of travel. I was impressed at everyone's spirits as we had long lines at customs, getting our bags, and finally getting home. Everyone unpacked (our last lodge included laundry service, so it was nice not to have a ton of laundry on our return), reconnected with friends, and assessed their back-to-school readiness.

Landon had to go straight to his high school parking lot to prep his parking space. At his school they have a fun tradition that seniors get to paint their parking spots. You have to get your design approved and it has to be done in the two weekends before school starts. We were gone for weekend one and we only barely made it back for weekend two. He went to the local hardware store before he left to get paint and supplies, and while I'm sure scraping off old paint in 105 degree heat after two days of travel did not sound great, off he went as soon as we were back home.

On Saturday he got to start his design and on Sunday James went to help him with some detail work and then we all got to come see the results and I thought it turned out so great!!

I can't believe he's a senior.

Every time feels like a crazy mix of joy and celebration at his human we've raised and devastation and disbelief that he won't be in our house every day in a year. It's exactly what is supposed to happen, and he is going to be so ready, but damn. It already affects me more than I anticipated.

Like how will I even be able to work at night if he isn't perched in some strange position on my couch randomly interrupting me with thoughts on completely unconnected things?

On Sunday night we did a back to school dinner.

I'd ordered these fun decorations before we left and made up the table. Turns out, a coloring book table cloth is a hit at all ages.

Claire's first day was Monday.

Like mother, like daughter, she had everything laid out the night before:

She had a good first day! It was so different from dropping her off the year before, when she was coming off a rough middle school experience, new ADHD diagnosis, and showing up at a new place where she knew very few people. The nerves we both felt... this year was just so much lighter.

She got her driving permit on Tuesday and now she's driving us around the neighborhood like she's actually 15 years old.

Unlike her brother, she is SO excited to learn to drive and is begging to be in the driver's seat for every errand and trip.

Landon and Cora started on school on Tuesday. Landon has late arrival and early release so I think he was at school for like an hour, but he does whatever he's supposed to and we don't really worry about it. His new swim team is up in Frisco so he's driving 1.5-2+ hours/day.

Cora was very nervous for her first day at her new school (the school we only learned she'd be going to a few days before we got home). We were able to get her uniform pieces, her school supplies, and at least a vague idea of where she'd be going and what she'd be doing on her first day.

She took the bus - the first of our kids to ever be able to do so, and then she was off!

It went "okay," in her words, which is pretty good for Cora. She's a tough grader. It's hard because most kids in her school started there in 4th grade, and since we only moved here in 3rd, even the ones who transferred from her elementary school weren't kids she really knew. So she's one of maybe five kids starting there in 6th. But on Friday of this past week she came home genuinely excited about her day, so that made me so happy. She's going to do great.

Moose has been very social since we got back. I'm sure it was very strange for him to have all of us leave, have Maggie go to her boarding house, and have Milo gone, all in one day. He's still awkward, but for the first time ever he jumped up on a lap and tried to cuddle. He's loving it, can't you tell?

Speaking of cats! We immediately went on a local Dallas rescue website once we got home. We miss Milo terribly. He will forever be a Milo-sized hole in our hearts and no one can replace him. But we have room in our hearts and home to love another cat, Moose needs another cat to continue teaching him how to be one, and we wanted to rescue an adult cat that wasn't flying off a rescue website the way kittens do.

We reached out with interest on one cat, but his foster mom was very honest about his independence with his humans, which I really appreciated. We reached out about this distinguished gentleman and a few texts into the conversation, I realized his foster mom was one of the associates at my new firm! So crazy.

We got to visit him at her house and he was very purry and social. I also got this amazing comment on Instagram from a blog reader.

We decided to adopt him! He's been with us since last Sunday and is settling in well. His name is Murphy Mittens McMuffin Fike. He is very handsome, very social, and a bit derpy.

Moose clearly wants to be best friends. Murphy seems open to it, but is still accepting other applications for that positions.

Maggie didn't notice him for several days and even now I'm not entirely sure she knows that Murphy is different from Moose or isn't just Milo in a different outfit. But she seems glad he's here and already looks to him to tell her what to do. Here she is getting instructions on how to monitor the neighborhood from my office window:

After a few days of decompressing, Murphy has started to show off his personality- he's always following us around from room to room. He has started playing with some toys. He's scratched all the scratching posts. He likes boxes. He tolerates being held. He does not yet sit on laps, but he has started jumping up on the back of the couch when we're on it.

This seems pretty great for 6 days in.

Hopefully over time he'll start being more snuggly during the day and at night. He definitely seems increasingly comfortable just hanging out with us.

We're so glad to have him here.

And now it's Sunday morning and I'm back at my computer to get back to work. Happy last week of August to all who celebrate!