I met one of my new neighbors today. He was a nice guy, looked about 35 and is a stay-at-home dad. Their house is four doors down from ours and it is the largest house on the block. Mr. H was very charming and invited me to look at his home. So Wild Child and I walked over to take a look at the place. It was very nice. He was showing me where he had wallpapered the kitchen and bathroom and how he had added extra molding to the walls. He did a nice job and I complimented him on his work. Mr. H went on to say that he was from Texas and had been living here about nine months. The house was very well decorated and they had very expensive furnishings. Wild Child made herself at home by climbing onto the leather sofa and drifting off to sleep while we chatted. I think this guy is going to be a nice guy to live next to. He is very involved in his children's education and volunteers at the oldest child's school. We talked about parents lack of involvement with their children's education and he commented how different it was here compared to Texas.

This was my last full week of taking care of MsEm. I'm having mixed feelings about not taking care of her anymore, but I know it will be best for our relationship. I am really tired of being the bad, mean Aunt Kim instead of the cool, fun aunt I once was. Its hard parenting a child that isn't yours and I didn't want to become that type of person in her life. I wanted her to come to my house to have fun and play with Wild Child, and enjoy being here. Instead it ended up with me disciplining and correcting her. It was very frustrating, and some days I didn't want to deal with her at all. After we move I hope that when she comes over it will be more fun and enjoyable for us both.

I started packing today. My life in boxes. This will be the fifth move in six years. I am hoping it will be the last for sometime. I told Jeff today as I was wrapping up picture frames in paper that I hoped that this would be our last move for sometime. He agreed. I only have four boxes packed. I figure though that we have about 5 weeks before we can actually start moving our things in and I would like to get more than just packing accomplished. For one I would really like to paint the chest of drawers for Wild Child's room and recover the seats on the dinette I bought for the breakfast room. We also need to do some minor cosmetic work here before MsEm and her mom move in.