Settling In

This was written May 3rd, I just was waiting to put some pictures with it before posting, then forgot...

It's late Saturday night and I would like to go to sleep early because I am sick and need the rest. But Kenny is still finishing re-staining the deck, and I need to cut his hair so badly we can't go another day (because it would turn into another week...). But I need to catch up on here anyway, so I suppose it's a good thing.

Tonight marks 1 week that we've been in our new home here in Wasilla. I really, really love it here. The weather has been absolutely perfect. We cannot get enough of being outside, and that's good for the whole family. I watch the sun turn red and finally set every night from my bedroom window. You can really see a difference daily in the leaves on the trees--they are coming back! I have a big jacuzzi tub in our master bathroom that Kenny cleaned for me so I could soak my tired, pregnant body and I love him for that. There is more than enough room for all of us, which cuts down on my stress level because we're not all constantly on top of each other all day long. The backyard is big and we've got our trampoline set up again, which provides hours and hours of play for the kids each day. I love our neighborhood, and that we are at the end of a cul-de-sac and the kids ride their bikes and run around to their heart's content without me worrying that the second I turn my head one of them will be hit by a car (like I used to). I really have never loved a house like I love this one, and I just feel so very blessed that it's ours.

Of course, it's not all perfect. We're still getting things bought and set up. I do laundry at the laundromat because we don't yet have a washer and dryer. We haven't got blinds put up in the windows yet and the sun is up really early and sets really late already, so we have resorted to using our cardboard moving boxes and taping them up in the windows each night. It's like a really white-trash advertisement for Home Depot :). (That's where we got the boxes) And of course, sickness hit our family during all this moving shenanigans. The kids all started getting colds, then I woke up to Kelsey's awful cough on Monday night and said "Oh shoot--that's croup." It's so distinctive. Anyway a couple days of taking care of her and the other kids, it caught up to me and now I've got it bad too. I can't get through the day without many doses of Tylenol, and I'm just praying it doesn't turn into a sinus infection or something.

The kids have adjusted really quickly though. Kelsey was having the hardest time with all the changes, of course, being the youngest. For example, she was waking up at all hours of the night again, and wanting to sleep with us a lot. We had been playing musical beds with all the kids for weeks with uncle Andy staying with us, and then moving. But now she's finally settled into her new room (she still shares with the other 2 girls) and sleeping in the same spot each night. Also, she wouldn't want to leave my side for a while. No matter what I was doing, she just would hang out right by me. But now she'll go off and play with everyone else again, and just come back and check in with me periodically to get a hug and kiss, or just say hi. So I know she's feeling better about life again.

For me, moving is always a good opportunity to see mine and Kenny's different strengths and weaknesses, and how we can come together as a team to get the job done. We usually (or always) have different priorities of what we think should be done first, but we work together well. We've moved so many times now too, that we kind of know what the other will do and carry on. There have been many times in the last couple weeks especially where I stop and watch him while he's in the middle of working on something and feel a lot of gratitude for him and what he does for our family. I love him and his hard work ethic. He doesn't let stress bog him down like it does me, he just keeps chugging along and doesn't stop till he accomplishes what he needs to.

4/21: The only things we left unpacked were chalk, bubbles, and their bikes.  Madison colored this and told me she wished her hair really looked like that. Really big, and really colorful! 

4/25: We got our keys!!!

4/25: While waiting for the carpets to get cleaned (before moving in) we ran errands to utility offices, and then played at the park. They absolutely love this spinning thing. They all get so giddy and drunk-like from spinning so fast for so long. It cracks me up to hear them laughing and not even able to hold their heads up 

4/26: Our last breakfast in our house with no furniture :). We had slept on mattresses on the floor the night before. They thought this was like a fun picnic!

One nice thing about the laundromat is I get our whole week's worth of laundry done in about an hour! Then I fold it all at once. Brynlee likes to lay in the warm clothes :)

Kelsey was "helping" me mow the lawn. :) Thanks to Bryn for taking this

A few more details I want to add:
On Thursday, April 24th Kenny picked up the U-Haul. Sam and Andy came over and helped load it all up. The next night, Friday they took that load out to our new house and unloaded it. Then came back and put in what was left (except for a few things like my mattress :) I don't like sleeping on the floor at this stage of pregnancy.) We could not have done this move without the Westons and Sponsellers. Carmin made dinner for us adults and took my kids so I could work too. Shalee also watched the kids a couple times while their husbands were gone helping us. Then Carmin and Shasta just showed up to help on Saturday because they knew I was there cleaning (Shalee had my kids too!). We are so grateful for good family friends who help us out so much. We felt very humbled and full of love for them.
Friday we got the keys to the house, and Saturday the 26th we moved in, and spent our first night there. We had to go back on Monday to take care of some last minute cleaning things; mostly just the garage and spraying the kids' chalk off the driveway, the deck, filling in nail holes, sealing off the attic, etc. And Kenny was there almost every night after work showing it to people. But we were blessed to be able to rent it out within the next week, so for that we are very grateful.