It's just not new shoes anymore

Mason (7) starts 2nd grade

Ethan (5) starts kindergarten

Remember when back in the day we got new shoes for school and we would do anything and everything short of tossing them through a chipper to scuff them up to make them look like they had been worn for days, weeks even years? Now when we shop for shoes for our children I hear myself chide them for the smallest mark that appears before the "big"day just as my mother might have done. Why all the fuss to make them look old and used. Why not wear the blinding white sneakers in front of our peers with pride?

I believe I have the answer. Having just moved for the 8th time in our 13 years of marriage, Matt and I are dizzy and tired and downright finished after this last move to California. 3 moves in 3 years means the boys have no idea what it means to have worn out comfortable shoes because we don't stay in a place long enough to scuff them up. We plan to change that. California has been calling to us for quite some time and someone in the Marine Corps finally decided to listen and here we are. Closer to family too. There's nothing like family. They're like a pair of comfortable scuffed up shoes. There's no question of loyalty, you pick up right where you left off whether it was 2 years or 12, the love is unconditional, and the company is just that much better.

We'd love for Mason and Ethan to grow up among their cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents but for the time that we're apart we rely heavily on our communities and friends. We are so looking forward to making new friends and making this our new home at least until the Parrishs decide to move next door!