Taking a Break!

I'm tired of unpacking. I'm tired of trying to figure out where to put stuff. So I quit. Well, I quit for 2 days. One of my break days was yesterday. I had planned to take the kids to the aquarium, but I got an email from a lady from church who asked if we wanted to go to the Zoo's Splash Park that day. Um... yes!

We met up with her and followed her there. It was not the way the GPS would have gone, so I'm sure we got there faster. The splash park was awesome! It was packed as well. It was also fully contained, so if I was missing a child, I at least knew they were all inside the fence. And I promptly lost most of the children. They had a marvelous time.

Delaney went down all 3 slides over and over and over. Callie hauled Rylee around and forced her to go on the slides till she cried. I took custody of Rylee's adventures after that. Delaney is at the bottom of the slide and Callie and Rylee are at the top here.

Callie is dragging Rylee through the sprayers. Rylee was less traumatized than I expected.

Rylee enjoyed this part a lot more.

Joshua told me he was bored after 30 minutes. Funny thing though, he was the last one to leave.

Marian was like a ghost. I'd see her and then she would disappear. She would just slip from one thing to another. Very hard to get pictures of her.

Delaney was skipping from the slide to go on it again. Did I mention she went on it over and over and over?! She did!

Joshua was a good brother. He played with Rylee and she got so mad at him for using "her" water. She's becoming quite the little tyrant!

Rylee, dancing in the spray. The water sprayed everywhere, so it was very dangerous territory to take the camera into!

After 2 hours of fun, it was time to head home, but we got distracted by the little play area they had. So we played for 10 minutes.

Then we got distracted by something else...

And we ended up at the petting zoo for a little while. The animals were lethargic. I didn't blame them 95 degrees and nasty humidity makes me lethargic too.

It also meant the animals let Rylee come and pet them and she felt brave.

Here's my gang. All hot and cranky and hungry and tired. It was time to head home!

Yep, distracted again!

Fortunately, the flamingos were right by the entrance and we made it out with only a minor meltdown by Delaney and grumping by Callie, who wanted to see more animals.

So, I survived our first encounter with going into the city. Since I got year passes, I expect we'll be going again. Today I have unpacked some more boxes and am condensing the "Aack!" stuff. I'll eventually have to deal with it, but not today!

If you give a kid a cookie....

I gave Delaney a cookie. It was a kind she hadn't had in a while. She looked at it, then nibbled it. She beamed up at me and exclaimed, "It tatses better than a mouse!"

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!

See Charlotte Fly!

We went to the pool while at Andy's house. Kera may blog these pictures, but I thought this was just about the best series of shots ever! I particularly love Charlotte's huge grin, the way she just keeps going higher, and the way her legs flip out. It makes me smile each time I see these.

No, it's not going well

I thought the movers who packed us up were great. Unfortunately, they did not pack well. You have to stuff the boxes full so they don't crumple when they get stacked. Let's just say we have a LOT of crumpled boxes. To be fair, we do have a LOT of books! Probably 30+ boxes were books. And we have a million more boxes than that. I have decided that it is all in the attitude. On Monday when the movers were here, I wanted to cry. Then I realized I didn't, because it wouldn't do any good. I decided I was going to be happy and make it work. So no, it isn't all roses, but I'm not going to dwell (too much!) on the stuff that makes me want to cry. I'm going to focus on the positive and make happy memories, not depressing whiny ones. Here it is in summary.

The good:

- The house has lovely high ceilings.

- The house is bright and I love a bright house.

- The house looks nice- wood and tile floors, carpet in the bedrooms. Very nice.

- The dining room is big.

- We have lots of neighbors.

- We are right across from the park.

- We have a garage.

- The master bathroom is nice sized and has 2 sinks.

- I have decent counter space in the kitchen.

- We're the back end of housing so we are in a very quiet area.

- The kids made friends today - 5 and 7 year old girls, 9 year old boy, hooray!

- We have a phone, internet and tv that are now connected and usable (mostly!)

- I have unpacked more boxes than I have left!

The bad:

- We have no yard. One tiny stamp sized fenced in backyard. Too small to actually play in.

- Small living room and no playroom.

- The bedrooms are smaller than I expected, and no one is happy about sharing their room.

- We have zero space for food. Tiny pantry, few places to store anything else. I'll have to get creative...

- It is 84 degrees in my bedroom. (72 degrees downstairs.)

- There might be alligators lurking in the ditches (canals?)

- Its too hot to walk to the school or the library, both which are less then 1/2 mile away.

- Rylee and Delaney do too much screaming and fighting.

- I have too many boxes left to deal with!

- I have no friends..... yet.

The ugly:

- Delaney has already stepped in fire ant mounds twice.

- I have too much stuff and nowhere to put it.

- I have no hardware for my bed frame, or Delaney's bed so we're sleeping on mattresses on the floor.

- Rylee's crib is also missing it's hardware, so she's in the travel crib.

- The mail key doesn't work, so I can't check the mail.

- I can't find the cordless phone and the corded phone won't ring! Aack!

- It took me 3 days to find the tv base and the tv remotes, and 4 days to find my glasses and bowls. (Who on earth would label them under "plasticware"?!)

- I can't do laundry. I finally bought and changed out the 3 prong cord to a 4 prong cord, purchased the dryer vent hose, and got new hoses for the washer. But I cannot tighten the washing machine hoses enough that they won't leak, and I haven't got a wrench big enough to fit around them. Aargh!

- Have I mentioned that I have at least 30 more boxes and the house is already full? We have too much stuff.

- I fear that whatever isn't done in the next week is never going to get done. I'll run out of steam and just won't care anymore. On the plus side, I can just toss the boxes I don't get to!

This is how Joshua spent his time on Monday, waiting for the movers to arrive. Yes, the movers who said they would be here between 9-11am and didn't show up til 1pm. Not a great moving experience. To put it in perspective, it was not horrible- nothing was stolen and nothing invaluable was damaged beyond repair. But I certainly would like to find the screws for the beds! (I actually wonder if the movers swiped them just so they wouldn't have to put the beds together.)

This is what the living room looked like- and they weren't even done! Yes, that is all packed with stacked boxes. Going from about 2300 sq ft to 1650 is rough!

I have unpacked boxes all day long for the last 3 days. This is Delaney, conked out on the floor. I know how she feels! My entire body aches from the bending, lifting, standing, unpacking. It is exhausting!

Marian is thrilled with the wildlife here. She and Callie have chased and caught a number of lizards, frogs and toads already!

PS.... and almost all my family is heading to WA for a family reunion and I am so sad I can't be there too.