How Fare My Oregonians?

They seem to be holding up.  Dylan continually bets me that he misses me more than I miss him.  I categorically deny that claim.  There is no way he could miss me more than I miss him.  I worry about Sadie making friends.  Ben is sad and misses us all being together.  It's not a fun situation in any way; I just don't see another way where I can have a full-time caregiver when things get really rough.  I've heard chemo #2 will be worse.  My friend Kathleen is taking me and I know she will be dragging me in there...

Ugh.  Don't even want to think about that right now.

So Gloria, my sweet mother-in-law, helped Ben and the kids get settled in, registered, find kids to walk with, etc. before she left, and I'm so glad.  On the eve of her departure, Ben whispered to me a frightened, "I don't want her to go..."  It made me laugh and reminded me of any time my mom came to visit for a week or two after I had a baby.  Whenever it was time for her to go back home, I had this major panic attack.  It's hard. Feeling like a single parent isn't easy.  I remember.  I was a single parent for 10 months when Ben was in China.  So now he gets to have a little taste of that.  It's a pretty easy taste, honestly.  He has only two with him!  Haha!  And it's only for four months.  With a visit once per month.  We can do this.  Easy peasy.

Here are some pics Gloria sent of the apartment and the kiddos:

 Kind of cool-looking.  And Ben says it's in a great neighborhood.

My kiddos on the first day of school.  Just a warning - you will be treated to like seven genuine smiles from Sadie in the following pictures and like seven complete fake smiles from Dylan (who should be smiling like a little leprechaun now that his braces are off).  He is horrible at smiling for pictures.  Like Chandler on Friends. :)

 Living room (teeny weeny):

That is a bathroom door.  That the couch runs into.  We're talking teeny weeny here:

 Itty bitty kitchen (sigh):

We sold our gorgeous, huge table and now use my old scrapbooking table for eating again:

Could she be any cuter?  No.

 Could his smile be any more hilarious?  No.

Master Bedroom:

I'll get Ben to send some photos of the master bedroom and the upstairs loft, where we'll probably put Gage and Micah.

It's a little place, but it looks decent and clean, and that's really all you can ask for, right?  I had my dream house for 8 months, but houses don't mean much.  What I've gone through puts a lot of things into perspective.  As long as I have my family with me, that's really all that matters.  I can have a tiny living room and a tiny kitchen.  Big love grows in small houses.