One Week!

Well, it has actually been a full week that we have been here. Wow, it is a whole 'nother world! Right now it is pouring down rain and nearly everyone else is outside playing in it. Dan is impressed with how fast the canals rise from nothing to overflowing.

To report on our progress: there were 32 boxes downstairs on Friday that needed unpacking, and 11 upstairs. Currently there are a few boxes in my room (all Dans!) and 2 boxes of toys that I gotta figure out where to put in the girls room. There are only 25 boxes downstairs now. See... progress!! The problem is that we had about 50+ boxes labeled "basement" and we no longer have a basement. So I have opened most of them and thrown up my hands and decided to deal with those boxes last. Unfortunately, I think I'm down to those 25 boxes of "last"!

On the positive side, Dan miraculously found the box of bed hardware yesterday! I was out dropping 5 (yes, 5!) big boxes off at the thrift store and when I came home, I was surprised to see I had a bedframe put together! Dan and Joshua did a great job and I was so pleased. I was less pleased to discover that when they (the movers, not Dan and Joshua) broke the crib foot board, it dropped off the rail rods and I'm now missing one rail rod. No rail rod- no crib. I am grumpy that we had to put the beds together. I much prefer it when the movers do all that for us. But all the beds (other than the crib) are together. All the bookshelves have pegs and can be used now. Hooray for that!

Biggest grumpy-maker of the week is the telephone. We got phone, tv and internet in a cable bundle on Wednesday. It wasn't till Thursday or Friday that we realized the phone wasn't ringing in. We couldn't find the box to unpack our main phone, so were working off an old corded phone (which is such a pain!). The phone people said it must be our phone line. As I said, we have cable service. If my phone is plugged directly into the cable box, it will work fine, but no outlets in the house will work, just that one phone. If I plug the modem into the phone lines of the house, I can use 5 phones, but none of them ring if someone calls. Dan and I finally got a new phone, found the old phone and got a splitter, and the phones ring... mostly. It seems that the voice mail system likes to randomly turn our phone to "Privacy" setting, which means it will go directly to voice mail. So we have to check that each day. AND to make things even better, the line stinks. It is so staticky it sounds like you have a really terrible cell connection. I am so not happy about all this phone stuff. Any ideas on what to do? Is it the house lines or the cable? Could it be the wireless for the internet causing the issue? Oh, and just because it's not already bad enough, there are only 2 spots in the house where we can get cell reception either. Yay... not! So, my family, you may get random, unintelligible calls from us as we see if we have been able to correct the problem.

What nearly makes up for that was church today. They have been expecting us. It was flattering and quite intimidating to be so welcomed and anticipated. We were very warmly received and people were incredibly friendly and excited to see us. It was really nice. We have several families who live within a mile of us, which I find very exciting as well. Now we have the thrill of awaiting callings. I always get excited about that and once they call me to something, I think "What? That?!". I always end up loving what I do, but I don't usually start out that way, so we'll see what is in store for us.

Wow, I have been quite rambly. I should have saved all that for the family letter, which I have yet to write. See, this is what happens to me when I have no friends to talk to!