Ok so now that we have Internet, I can give you a run down of the last 6 days.
Wednesday- we left Waco for Houston after a brief stop at Nanna's and GrandDad's. We enjoyed seeing the Kennedys as well. I love my family! Then we headed in and stayed with Scott & Katie, Todd's brother who lives in Montgomery. It will be nice to have them close. We stayed the night and then got up early to get the girls registered.
Thursday- we got to the school alright and I began to register the little ladies. Man, that is such a pain- filling out the same information over and over again for each kid. So redundant and almost seems ridiculous, couldn't they computerize some of this? Anyhow, the girls managed alright, but by the time I was done I was frustrated and ready to get out of there. From there I drove to the house to show the girls; they were excited. Of course we couldn't get in yet because we hadn't been handed the keys yet. We could, however, hear a beeping noise coming from the inside- joy. So we went to pick up the Real Estate company who is in charge of our lease and they weren't sure what the noise was- but it worked out that the handyman left his drill there and went and turned off the noise. That is, of course, after I drove to HEB to pick up a few things including batteries in case it was the smoke detector. Once we got in, the girls had SO much fun running around in an empty house. I unloaded the van and began to clean. As I was cleaning I realized that the previous owners were cat owners, and there was cat hair everywhere. The place was clean, but it wasn't spic-and-span, so I worked all day to try to clean the house. The girls helped quite a bit, but I knew we had a lot to do still and I began to panic a bit. Todd is allergic to cats and I didn't want him to be miserable! After a while, we headed to Scott and Katie's to spend the night. I figured since we had beds there, we might as well stay there. I however, got lost in the process, and it was very frustrating. On top of this, Lucy was still fighting her sinus infection and was quite miserable to be around. I'm thinking Scott and Katie were ready to throw us to the curb. :)
Friday- we woke up and came over to the house. I had decided in the middle of the night that I was going to call a cleaning service so I wouldn't worry about it so much. And I did and its was the best arm & leg I've ever spent! Oh how it helped ease my mind. I did a little cleaning here and there, but nothing big, and I also spent time unpacking the few things I brought. Todd in the meantime was enjoying his time with the packers as they loaded up the truck. At 1:30 we headed to Meet the Teacher, which was a little chaotic. Balancing 3 children while maneuvering through all of the millions of people was almost more than I could handle! Can you tell I like having Todd around? We managed to drop off school supplies and meet their teachers successfully in 1 piece..well 4 pieces total. :) When we were headed out Sydnee raised her fists in the air and said, "I'm a kindergartner!" It was precious. Todd joined us by dinner, and we spent our first night sleeping on sleeping bags and air mattresses...but we were together and that's what was important!
Saturday- the gigantic truck showed up right on time, 8am, and the process began. As they unloaded, I unpacked. It was a tiring day, but we were glad to have our things. The Relief Society President in our new ward brought us cookies this night. Yum!
Sunday- we got up early, ate breakfast together, and waited around till church started. The sacrament meeting was noisy. There are around 125 kids in our ward under the age of 12. We didn't hear the 2nd speaker at all. The best part was having Todd sit with us, and I laughed and smiled as he struggled getting Lucy to sit still. It was pure joy, haha. Then we were bombarded with lots of friendly faces welcoming us to the ward and showing us where to go. All of the sisters whom I had been in touch with over the week met me face-to-face, which was nice- I'm sure they were busy! Todd and I hadn't attended Sunday school in a while- and especially not together- so that was also a nice treat. Relief Society was tiny with maybe 10-15 sisters. Most of the ward is helping out in Primary! Overall is was a lovely Sunday and we enjoyed meeting our new ward family and only having to drive 5 minutes to our brand new, beautiful building. That night we received banana bread from a family that lives very close to us in the ward. Hooray!
Monday morning- school! We enjoyed the banana bread for breakfast. Then we headed out with the girls all primped and ready. They were so excited. I forgot to mention that both of them did the running hug to me when they woke up, super excited that today was their first day of school. It was bitter-sweet dropping them off, but they were excited to be there, and so we left with a smile on our face and a little teary-eyed. We feel so blessed that we were able to make it to our house and be semi-unpacked before they began their school year. What a blessing. After we dropped them off, I headed to Ikea. I didn't know how to do it and I did it backwards. My darling Katie had told me how but I didn't get that post until I had left. I did get some cute things, though, and I've had fun putting them in the house. Next time, I'll bring a friend. When the girls got home, they had had good days. Whew. Does this Mama's heart good.
Tuesday- I was determined to spend the day at HOME since I had lost almost a full day at Ikea. I was able to get A LOT finished and that was really nice. Lucy also seems to be feeling normal now, thank goodness. I finished Ava and Sydnee's room, the upstairs bathroom, the playroom, the living room, the kitchen was finished over the weekend, & emptied approximately 1,000,000,000,000 boxes. That's my accurate count. We still have our bedroom, closet, craft room (yes I have a craft room!), and lots of random boxes that need sorting into rooms.
Today- I just got back from the grocery store. I shop at Kroger. I like it! I'm amazed at the variety. It makes me happy. I got all the things for my Daddy-o's party and stocked up on normal things. I have dinners planned for the next 2 weeks and life is almost normal. As a side note, we are feeling really blessed and happy to see what this adventures brings. Here is a list of some of the blessings we have enjoyed so far:
- Amazon.com delivers here too! And we've bought a lot of little things for the house that we didn't have before on Amazon. I love you Amazon. I also love my free shipping.
- Stores- there are a lot here. I love to shop...preferably with a grown-up or myself...Lucy is not the best shopping partner, but I expect we'll have to hit some stores here and there together.
- Restaurants. I grew up around the variety of places to eat, yes, but I have not lived around this kind of selection since I left DFW! I even passed a Wings N More! Todd and I plan to have lunch there tomorrow. :)
- Close-ness. Despite the fact that I will have to drive a distance to get to SOME places, a lot of places are fairly close. There are like 3 Wal-Marts within 15 minutes. I could shop at HEB, Kroger, Wal-Mart, and probably other places I don't even know exist! I haven't gone to Target yet, but I will. Oh yes, I will.
- Friendly. Everyone has been really great. We have a ton of ward members in our subdivision, and that is just rad. I've never lived so close to so many people that share my beliefs! Nice!
- Here-ness. I'm just glad to be here.
- Todd-ness. I'm glad Todd hasn't had to work yet and that we've been able to spend the week getting the house ready for living. Love him.
- House! The house is much larger than the one we came from and we have some extra rooms. I get to have a craft room, and the girls get to have a playroom. We even bought a futon for the playroom last night, so people can sleep over upstairs OR downstairs!
- Happy Little Girls. They've had their ups and downs, but they are doing well in their OWN rooms, and its been fun to see their faces as they've seen all that we've done during the day.
- Togetherness. Todd begins next week, but its been nice to have some quality family-time before he gets to work. We have no idea the time it will take to get to work, and how long his hours will be, so its been a blessing to pick-up kids, drop-off kids, unpack boxes, and just spend time together as a family. After all, that's what its all about! (Clap, clap.)
