More pictures – as you can see we are sort of settling but it is still a work in progress.


The Dining room from the kitchen
Looking from the dining room into the hall and my homeschool bookshelf – wow – this view makes the red look really bright!


The kitchen


Front room looking into dining room


Front room to the left


Front room

Front room, opposite wall

That would be my brain short-circuiting!  Moving is NO fun!  And, in case I ever start to think I want to do this again – I give you all permission to come here and give me a good ‘talking to’!

So, what’s new?  Well, what isn’t!  My mind is so random right now I’d better use bullets, because a full sentence might put me right over the edge! 😉

  • The Doggie situation.  Well, we have a dog…but we’ve yet to meet her! lol  The night we went to the fair, I walked up just in time to hear Eric tell the youth pastor and his wife that we’d take the 7 yr old Beagle.  Well, at least this way I can say it wasn’t MY decision! lol  I think we’ll meet her and bring her home in a few weeks.  I hope they aren’t in a hurry!  Bless them – they are giving us a dog house too!!
  • The house – is beautiful!  Eric is just a wild man when it comes to moving!  Pictures are hung and things are really coming together!  We still have a mile-long list of things we need to do but we are getting there!
  • Today an adoption caseworker is coming to start our homestudy.  Sadly we can not just update our old one.  :(  She has 60 days to complete the process. sigh
  • Knitting – yes, I’m still knitting.  Not that I have any idea where my yarn stash is, of course!  But I had three projects on the needles so I had them handy.  Socks for someone special, Jayne Hats for my Brother and SIL (and kids?? we’ll see) and a sweater for me.

I’d better go wake JGirl so she can meet the caseworker!

I had intended to write daily updates of our move – but moving was much harder with 4 children than I remembered!  While we originally were saying “this is our starter house, we are excited to be in the ‘game’ and will upgrade someday” we are now saying “this is the house we will die in, we are so excited to never have to move again!” lol

The move went well, if not a little accelerated. We had planned to get in, paint and clean, continue to pack and then move on Saturday, the 9th.  However, our helpers were not available on Saturday…they were available earlier.  So we ran with it.  A bit more stressful to be sure, but now that we are here and the job is 90% done – it will be a good memory of great friends and family members helping us get here!

Still to be done:

  • Move the backyard – trampoline, shed stuff, swing set, etc
  • Clean the old house – we have until the 24th
  • I think there are 2 boxes still in the house.

The Red wall turned out GREAT!  However, it took 4 coats!  I’ve learned that you should prime it with a pink or red prime and just be ready to do many coats, but I love it!  Here is the result (first dinner in our new house with Grammy and Gr & Gr O):

The only real casualty of the move is our internet connection.  When I called to transfer our bundled phone, internet and satellite, I was told that we could not have DSL in this house.  We moved about 1 mile away!  We are NOT in the foothills or way outside of town.  I could not believe it!  I had the guy check 3 times!  I was so flustered that I had to end the call before I made a decision.  I could NOT go back to dialup!  Even if I didn’t work from home!  The next day I called the local cable company and switched.  I’m not used to the cable interface on my tv – but I’m sure we’ll adjust to it – but cable internet is SMOKING fast!  It’s so cool!  We did have to change our email address though. :(  If you have a sbcglobal.net address for any of us, you will want to contact me for the new addresses.  If you have our gmail account address, then don’t worry about changing anything.

Finally, here are a few pics of what the boys call “Elvis Baby” – her curls are really fun lately!

Yesterday was the first day we could get in the ‘new’ house.  This house was built in the early 50s and the last tenants lost their home. :(  So, it wasn’t in great condition…but it certainly isn’t as bad as most of the houses we saw in our price range!

Eric and his dad worked on the garage door first thing in the morning so it can be opened and closed – imagine that luxury! lol

Then, Eric and his friend, Jim, went to get paint while I started to clean the kitchen cupboards.  I was soon joined by Ruth – who ended up finishing the job!

After the paint arrived, everyone pitched in and we got the living room and all the bedrooms painted.  After cleaning the walls, we decided the bathroom, kitchen and hallway could wait.  Our helpers were my Mom, Eric’s sister, Anne & her oldest son, J1, Gayle, Cindy, Jim, Deb, Ruth and Eric’s Dad.  Eric’s mom watched Anne’s younger son, J2, J3 and JGirl.

The only bummer was the dining room.  I really wanted red walls – at least one, maybe two.  As we edged the room, the red was really icky.  Awhile later, it looked dry enough for a 2nd coat…and it looked great!  But then it started to run in afew areas. :(  We were trying to move to fast I guess.  Not sure what we will do about it…I’m probably going to be stuck here today packing.  We are a bit behind because we have people who are willing to help us tonight so we feel like we need to be ready for them.  We had originally planned on moving on Saturday and having a few more days to prepare.

The one thing I’m enjoying so much – my new bedroom – it’s actually a color! I am super excited about it – even in the face of continual “are you sure you want to paint the whole room that color?” lol  It is lilac….as in soft purple!  :D  I love it!!

Well, I’d better get up and pack something….anything!  Please pray for us!  I’m stressing about the dining room and the ever growing todo list!