The last few weeks...

Hello friends! I am back online. It is pretty crazy how far behind you can get in just a few weeks...
I thought I would share some thoughts I had jotted as we headed down to our new home and new life.
More pictures(other than the boring ones below) to come soon, I promise.


December 28- We pack up the car, say goodbye to my family until the weekend and head to Justin's parents for lunch and goodbyes. It was hard, I am not going to lie. There were lots of tears, and I already miss them all so much. Seeing the in-laws on Sunday afternoons had become a regular thing, and now is not. It is going to be hard for them to come here because they need to care for Jared, so we are going to have to make frequent visits to them and so that we can spend some time with him too. Jaimee (8) began to cry before we even had our stuff together. She loves Maxwell so much, and he loves her dearly too. They are quite the combo, Max is always talking about her. I sure am glad Mom and Dad are going to make the trip down, even for just a day. We rolled into Lexington at about 1 am, we stopped for dinner in Illinois with our friend Andy and had to stop a few more times for gas and to tend to the boys. The total drive time was about 7.5 hours, not too bad. I cried on the way down...what are we doing? It 's late, I need some sleep.

December 29- This morning we saw the house (for the first time) and while I was excited I was sad. I think the next few weeks will be full of tears for me. I have not slept much so that makes my emotions more unstable.
The house is great...our first home. I am excited to get settled in and I hope the boys love it here. I feel just horrible about taking them away from our parents and siblings. They will be find I know, but it was so fabulous to have them so close.
We headed to close on the house around 10am. I was not in the best mood, the house was a bit untidy. They could have cleaned it better for us, that was a bit frustrating. We signed our lives away not caring what the papers said, I was surprised because Justin is SO meticulous but even he was too tired to read the find print at that time. We got the keys and the house was ours. Our realtor was absolutely fabulous and took us to get some cleaning stuff and then we went back to the hotel to get Max and Jordan. I stayed at the hotel for awhile so the boys could nap while Justin and Jordan went to meet the movers with our stuff at 12. I arrived at the house around 2:30 feeling more excited about it. There were boxes everywhere and the movers were nearly done when I arrived. I began to survey what we needed to clean and we began to think perhaps we should have kept one of our former couches we had thrown away because we had only our hard kitchen chairs to sit in! Mom, Dad, Carl and Peter arrived around 4;30 and we gave them the tour and by now we were all pretty hungry, so we got some Chipotle and ate away. Afterwards Mom, Dad, Evan and I went to Target for some supplies for the house as tomorrow holds a lot of work!

December 30- Today was a full day. I got up early and headed out with Mom and Dad to search for a washer and dryer because I knew I would need one soon! My Dad had found a place online but we were not sure where it was. Justin opted to sleep in ( can I blame him?) and I would call to get the go ahead from him if I found one. We found the mall in a matter of about 20 minutes and headed into Sears and found some potentials but we still wanted to find a better appliance store. We called Jordan at the hotel to hop on the Internet and try and find it on a map. He found it and we started out for the store and somehow found it quite quickly ( must be because my Dad and I were together and we really are the only two in the family who really know anything about directions :) ) . So we head in and I get the guy right away, "can I help you?" and I am not messing around today and tell him I want front loading washer and dryers and to pay less than $1200. He takes me right over to a pair for $1000.00, I call Justin and the deal is done. I am es tactic. I love to do laundry, it could be a sickness, but I do enjoy it. We get to the house around 12 and start in on cleaning and some unpacking. Once again we discover more supplies needed for the house, so Mom, Carl, Pete, Evan and I head to Target once again! On the way home we pick up dinner and after Mom, Dad and the boys head back to Wisconsin. The beds are set up and I have gotten a good portion of the kitchen is set up. Man, that refrigerator was a beast to clean! (thanks for helping scrub it out Mom!)

December 31- New Years Eve. We went out to Target...again. We also asked about the liquor laws here. No liquor for sale on Sundays...just our luck, this New Years Eve is on a Sunday. I am making us sound like alcoholics, but luckily I knew where the wine ( I had to stock up on my favorite in case it was not around here) I had brought was at home. I finished cleaning and setting up the kitchen today, starting to feel more like our place now that our things are staring to fill it. Boy, do we need a couch...and bad. This folding chairs, kitchen wooden chairs thing is not going to work for much longer. We actually missed then New Year by one minute, we clanked our glasses at 12:01. Happy 2007! I have no idea what to expect this year.

January 1, 2007- Happy New Year!
I used my new mixer today. What else to make but chocolate chip cookies..except I did not have all the ingredients like I thought I did, but the raw dough still tasted OK. :) The mixer worked like a charm. I love that thing. :)
We went to Target...again.
My new washer and dryer comes tomorrow! Hooray for laundry!

January 2, 2007- The new washer and dryer came today! They are great...took up more space than I thought in the laundry, so my organization ideas had to be scraped but I will figure it out.
We also decided enough was enough on the hard chairs. We went out and bought a couch and love seat. We decided to just get whatever good deal we could find even if we were not in love and buy nicer stuff next year or something and move the current stuff into another room. The color is great, a dark chocolate brown. I hope it looks good when we get it on Thursday. We also went to Chili's for dinner. Yum.

January 3, 2007- More unpacking today. Danny arrived with tools in hand and the boys worked on some projects.

January 4, 2007- The couches came !! Justin was not sure if I would like them because the piping was a lighter brown but it actually looks pretty nice. It is so nice to have somewhere comfortable to sit. We also bought a small leather ottoman with storage from Target. Who knows how long that will look nice but it is good for now.

January 5, 2007- cable and internet were hooked up today. Yay. More unpacking, I cannot wait until it is all done.
January 6, 2007- Tonight I went grocery shopping with Evan and missed like 5 phone calls from Justin. I got home and found Max about 2 inches from the screen and the boys locked outside. It was pretty funny. They had gone out to fix some flashing above our deck doors and Max shut the door and turned the lock and they tried to get him to unlock it but he could not figure it out. They tried all the other doors and Justin said Max looked a little worried so they all danced around and entertained him outside. Our neighbors probably think we are nuts. He soon settled down though and found interest in whatever what was on TV. It was pretty funny to see when I walked in the door. Luckily my camera was handy so I snapped a few pictures just before my batteries died.

January 7, 2007- We all slept in late, it has been a long week. It is raining today and we are all sick of cleaninf and projects. Danny and Jordan left this afternoon, and now it is just the four of us, and Justin starts work tommorow. I probably will be doing a lot of cring this week too.


Well, so far this week I have not cried. Oh wait I did once. But it was late at night after Justins first day at work. We already miss have Jordan around. But things have been good. The boys and I have been doing some fun things and I feel fortunate to try and work on my culinary skills. I have made dinner every night this week, and it all has turned out good. I LOVE my new Kitchen Aid mixer. A great gift from my parents. Our room and the guest room look like tornados ripped through but the rest of the house is slowly coming together. I am trying to be uber organized...we will see about that. I am pretty organized for the most part anyway, but I am going extreme at this house.

I am glad to be back... and working on the full swing thing. :)