First Day

You can see Mopey McMopesalot hanging out near the house. She was scared and didn't want me to take a picture of her. But eventually she came down and smiled for me.

Today the girls started school.

Yesterday we went to the school to enroll them. We walked in and started talking to the secretaries who gave us packets to fill out. Rhayn's teacher Mrs. K came out and showed Rhayn her class while the other 5th graders were in specials. There are only two 5th grade classes (I think only two classes per grade, which is nice).

Gwennie sat by me while I filled out paper work and looked terrified. She seemed so small sitting there and I know she was worried about this. Eventually Gwen's teacher came out and introduced herself (and for the life of me I can't remember her name, geesh!) She showed Gwennie to her classroom and they talked for a few moments. I told her that Gwennie had been at a different kind of school and didn't know all of her letters or numbers yet.

Then we left and went home for lunch.

Last night Gwennie had a really hard time sleeping. She was worried about school, about having to do "hard work" to catch up. She was worried about making friends. Rhayn seemed less worried and more easy going about it all.

This morning I could tell that Gwennie was still tired and feeling stress. She was in a horrible mood. But we ate breakfast, and got ready for school. We took some pictures and loaded up into the Mazda.

At the school, you could see where the kids were being dropped off. We parked and I walked the girls in to the lobby. The secretary walked us back to their classrooms and explained that normally they will go onto the playground before class starts. Gwennie's teacher showed her where to put her backpack (that we had had to dig out of a box because she "needed one for school"). Then I gave her a hug, told her to have a good day and walked with Rhayn to her class. Rhayn's teacher was there as were a few girls. The girls introduced themselves to Rhayn. I gave her a hug, told her to have a good day and left.

I had to stop at the main desk on the way out to pay for their lunches. Today they are having cheese pizza sticks and both were excited about cafeteria food. Then I left. After school they will ride the bus home. Luckily they have each other, and since it is a small school the bus driver will get to know them and know where they live.

Also Thursdays are 3/4 days- they get out of school at 1:45. They should have about a 1/2 hour bus ride. I need to meet them at the drop off to meet the bus driver and to let him know it is alright for Gwennie to get off the bus even if I am not there.

So far this has been a good experience for us all. And I can not wait for them to get home and tell me about their day!

Settling in

We are all settling in just fine.
Thanks to sunsets like this one,
360 degrees of beautiful. This is to the northeast.The girls can explore, taking a walk around our property,
our home.
Our space.

While I unpack like a maniac in the house, to make it feel like home,
the stillness outside
as the earth rotates
is beautiful.

The last night

Tonight is our last night in this house.
This house, most of my marriage has been in this house.
2 of my beautiful children were BORN in this house.

I am going to have a hard time tomorrow, for the first hour I am awake. But I think that we'll be so busy that I won't really have time to think, until we are on the road.

For tonight I will keep packing boxes and hope that I have everything done I could possibly do.
Oh and of course I will try NOT to cry.

Gratitude

It is moving week and that means that I am going to be a mess. But I am grateful that we are able to use some movers. If we weren't this move would be a little more of a mess.

This last weekend I have spent some time on Freecycle attempting to rid myself of some items that we no longer want. Since one of the items is a California King latex mattress I have had a LOT of trouble getting rid of it. Grrr. I get that no one wants a used mattress. I do. But also there is not a place to recycle it or drop it off. And honestly I probably couldn't move the huge thing myself.

Today my dad is coming over to help out with packing. Tomorrow he and my mom are coming over. Thursday the movers are coming. YIKES! I need to get curtains and pictures down and packed. That is my goal for today- well I think I will leave curtains up in the dining room and master bedroom because those rooms face the street.

And can you tell I am stalling? I really should be DOING not sitting in my chair sipping my coffee while I type. I need to make my list.

As for gratitude- I am grateful for movers, who should make this all smooth (as soon as I figure out my pet situation!) If I am not posting much this week- next week you can be sure that I will be posting pictures of our new home.

I am so excited.
I am terrified.
I have so much to do!

Morning

The alarm goes off at 6:05 and I hit snooze. A moment later a light blinks on. The light makes it easier to wake up on these dark winter mornings. Natty fusses for a minute and I pull her close to nurse back to sleep. When she rolls over the alarm is just about to go off again, so quickly I move away from her small sleeping body and turn off the alarm.

Stretching I walk downstairs, turning on the baby monitor, putting on my glasses as I pass them. I pour myself a cup of coffee, stop to pat Lily on her sleeping dog head, and sit in my chair to watch the morning news.

This is my morning routine. When Will is home, he is part of it, though the alarm usually doesn't go off, but we still get up around 7. I love this hour I get before the kids wake up, before (in the winter) the sun comes up. From my chair I can watch the sky lighten up.

And this morning I am wondering what life will be like, in a few weeks when we are settled into our new home, settling into our new normal. I know I won't watch the same morning news, I may have to get used to a Tucson news show's team. I will miss these people, who have been a part of my morning for years.

But I can not wait for this change.

Wednesday night I didn't get much sleep. My mind was on overdrive because we are moving, and I needed to design my kitchen. I lay there all night dozing for a moment and popping awake to look at the clock and calculate how long I would get to sleep if I fell asleep right then.

Looking into the kitchen from the dining room.

In the morning I sat at my laptop on Ikea's website designing a kitchen, moving things around attempting to figure out the best use of the space. I finally had a decent idea, but didn't love it. Ok I know I probably won't love that kitchen. Not after the kitchen that we did our cook-a-thons in. Now THAT was a perfect kitchen.

I went to Lowe's and looked at the cabinet fronts. I did like a few and started to feel less stress about making it work from Ikea.

The island. Who puts an island like that in a little kitchen? It is a fire hazard!

Will and I spoke on the phone, going through a check list of things about the house that we needed to talk about. He has been working really hard to get the house livable for us. Carpet had to be removed, and the rooms needed to be measured for carpet to be laid. There were other thing that had to be fixed, too.

We made a few decisions that, hopefully, we will not live to regret. Now, I know the kitchen in these pictures doesn't look as bad as it is. The island is ridiculous. It is far too large for the space. The partition and half wall mean that in designing this space we need to get creative. We agreed that we'll move in and THEN deal with the kitchen. We won't move our things into these cabinets, living out of boxes for a few weeks.

But our move is still a few weeks away. I should continue packing and I have a list of things to get done. Will has drill this weekend. Monday the girls go back to school.

And through all of this, life continues on. We have to make food, and clean our house here. We have animals to care for, and diapers to change. But soon, we will be all together, and I can't wait.

Another quick one.

Just another quick update, since that is about all I can handle right now.

We signed the papers for our new home on Friday Dec 23rd.
The 24th we went to the zoo, as is our tradition.Christmas was spent in Coolidge with the family, after opening gifts at our house first.
Monday we had a nice family day at home.
Tuesday, the 27th, we headed up to see some SNOW! This trip deserves a post all to itself.
Wednesday we came home from the snow trip and found out that Will had the keys to our new home, which means the real work begins (for him- getting the house ready for us, and for me, getting this house packed up.)
Thursday Natalie turned 9 months old, and my mom came up to help me pack.
Which leads up to today- more packing, we actually have a few rooms nearly packed, a dent has been made in the super massive black hole o'crap we own.

Gratitude Day 15

I started packing today.

I am grateful that I have time to pack slowly while going through everything. We are downsizing quite a bit (from a 2500 square foot house to a 1900 square foot house). I love the idea of this. The main living spaces are about the same size, but in this house there is an upstairs living space that we don't really use. Also we won't have a garage to store things in, though we have 2 storage sheds- one that needs doors and one that is ready to use (I think). I only packed 5 small boxes of books, but have a pile that is half that size of books I no longer want.

Every box I pack brings us closer to our move and being together as a family again.