Settling In

Our first week in our new home started out exciting as we opened box after box of things we hadn't seen in 9 months.  The kids thought it was Christmas as they unpacked boxes and boxes of stuffed animals and toys, while I wondered why I hadn't just gotten rid of some of it when I had the chance.  After all, they hadn't missed most of it until the exact moment when they saw it again.

If I wasn't unpacking or picking up toys that had been strewn around the house I was probably cleaning. Let's just say Lysol and shelf liner have been my closest companions these first few weeks.  Prior to moving in, my mom had watched the kids for me a few times so that I could start the cleaning process, but there was just too much to do.  So, when we moved in I basically had tackled the kitchen, one bathroom, and had had the carpets cleaned.  Needless to say by, I think it was Thursday, we were all pretty exhausted and I was in a major melt down.  The adrenaline was gone, I was over feeling productive, I didn't want to open or break down another box, and if I had to scrub one more sink or tub or floor, that regardless of my effort was never going to look clean, simply because it's old, I seriously thought I might loose it.

So it was that Thursday afternoon Brandon came home to a very emotional wife and Melinda got a call from a slightly hysterical friend.  It simply all felt too much and I was missing home more than ever.  Among the many things I was missing, I was missing my friends the most.  I unpacked box after box of decorations and desperately missed having Melinda close by to help me decorate and to take me out to do something fun, and as the kids woke up from their naps and I thought the last hour before Brandon got home would never pass, I missed being able to walk across the street to brave these last minutes with Courtney while the kids played together and us mommies talked or being able to call Candace to walk down to the park.

Saturday came and it was out to work in the yard.  Brandon wanted to tackle the pasture and I figured I would tackle some weeding while watching the kids.  By middle of the day, once again, I wanted to cry as I was pretty sure all of my free time, for the rest of my life, was going to be spent working in the yard.  Brandon reminded me that we just needed to get on top of things, as they haven't been taken care of for a while, but it was all just a little to overwhelming for me.  Funny how when we moved the Saturday prior I had only seen the beauty and newness of it all and in only a week the reality of how much work this would be had me totally overwhelmed. Thank goodness my husband remained level headed.

Week two was better in a lot of ways, mostly because I remembered to take some breaks to enjoy this new life that we were making, and because I remembered to laugh and play a little more.

The kids favorite thing to do right now is to ride down the little hill in our front yard on their bikes.  I'm pretty sure we are going to have some injuries at some point, but they are having the time of their lives, and I love that I can leave all the doors open and be in and out of the house unpacking and working without having to worry about them.  The space they have here to play is amazing!

My favorite thing right now is picking fruit and flowers and watching the chickens from the kitchen window. We were able to pick a couple bowls of cherries from our cherry tree this year and the raspberries are out of control.  This morning I picked a huge bowl and I think I only got through a quarter of our bushes.  When I think of how expensive it is to buy them at the store this frugal mommy gets nearly ecstatic!!!

These are our chickens.  Little Red is a Road Island Red , Chick Aletta has some polish in her, and Skye and Zuma are the grey ones.  Most of the names are from the kids' new favorite show Paw Patrol, in case you're wondering, and we just collected our first dozen eggs.  Yay!!!!

 Chick Aletta, Little Red, and Zuma

Skye

Speaking of our chickens, I'll end with one funny story.  I think it was last Wednesday that we got them from Uncle Robert.  He had four of them stuffed in a box, and although I was pushing it to get them home before meeting Brandon at Costco I thought I could do it.  So, I raced home, let Sadie out to go to the bathroom, and then quickly made sure to seal up the exit in the coup so they wouldn't get out before Robert clipped their wings, before carrying the box into the coop.  Once in the coup I pulled the door closed behind me and slowly opened the box, expecting them to come tearing out.  Much to my surprise I opened it and they didn't move.  They just stared at me looking at me terrified.  I was like okay well I'm sure they'll be fine we gotta go.  So I turn around and attempt to open the door only to find that it's looked.  Yes, I'm locked in the chicken coup with 3 toddlers presumably buckled into their car seats ready to go find Daddy.  It took only a split second to run through my options.  I wasn't going to be able to crawl out because I'd sealed the other exit, I could be the crazy new neighbor and scream hoping someone would rescue me but I'd probably terrify the kids as I'd have to scream really loudly for anyone to hear me, or I could break down the door but then what was I going to do about the chickens.  As I'm thinking about all this I'm also thinking that Brandon is going to be so upset.  He's going to wait at Costco for me, call me a bunch of times, race home thinking the worst and find the kids crying in the car and me locked in the chicken coup.   Then, all of a sudden it hits me that I'd unbuckled Sadie to go potty and maybe she wasn't buckled back in yet.  So I yell for her and thankfully she hasn't buckled herself back in yet.  She comes to the coup, looks at me through the window like I'm crazy, and as I ask her to let me out she says, "Why can't you get out?" and then "I can't open it." I'm like no seriously you're going to have to try again Mommy really cannot get out.  Thankfully she rescues me and we make it to Costco without making Brandon wait to long.  I don't  think he laughed quite as hard as I did, he mostly just shook his head and said he didn't know what to do with me, but I still think about it and laugh at the absurdity of the whole situation.  Welcome to my new life!

The Before Tour

Here are a few before pictures of our new place.  We moved in on Saturday, so it is already looking different just because it's furnished.  We have lots of updates planned for the future but even as is it's such a great space.

The door on the right brings you into our mud room/ laundry room.

The mudroom then steps up and there is a bathroom on one side and a shower, note the curtain, on the other. Not sure what I think about that arrangement. :)

Entering into the main part of the house we have the family room to the left

the kitchen to the right

and then behind them is the formal dinning room and living room.

This is the living room again.

Here is the front door and stairs between the family room and living room.

Upstairs we have the master bedroom

and bath, which by the way is carpeted.  Why do people do that????

We have an upstairs bathroom.

Doors out to the front balcony which is pretty but a little sketch.

and bedrooms on either side of the balcony doors.

Here's a picture of the front of the house.

Love the roses

and the blueberry bushes already loaded with fruit!!!

Here is our backyard with the back deck out of the kitchen below and a grassy area up higher.

We discovered when we got our keys that we have a chicken coop and chicken yard all ready to go.  I had no idea what it was so that made it a fun little surprise.

Inside the coop.

And finally we have some fruit trees.  I think this one might be apple

and this one is defiantly cherry.

Homeowners Once Again!!!

Well after 9 months of looking for a new home we finally closed on our new house on Wednesday the 21st of May and received our keys on Saturday May 24th.  Though we have thoroughly enjoyed our time at the dairy and will always fondly remember the year we lived with Grammy, we are also feeling tremendously blessed to have found such a great place!  We will have space for the kids to run around and to have animals and a garden, and I'm thrilled that it ended up being only 10 minutes away from the dairy.  That's 10 times farther than we currently are, as Uncle Robert reminded me, but still that's awfully close.  Close enough that hopefully Uncle Robert, Uncle Ryan, and Grammy will still stop by unexpectedly to say hello and to bring a little craziness my way during the day.  One of the biggest blessings about living here at the dairy has been the way that it has helped me transition to living here.  I tend to get lonely somewhat easily, even when I'm busy chasing 3 toddlers, so I have been so thankful to have had people in and out of our home constantly over the past 9 months.  I love how informal our life here has been and I hope that it remains that way

Here we are taking our first load over to our new house on Saturday.

 Here we go!

 Cooper was definitely less excited than the others about this expedition.

 Welcome to our new home and if you read this blog we hope that you'll think about coming to visit us soon.

 Checking out our front yard.

 We are located above the Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge which makes for a pretty view.

 Our New House

 A picnic dinner with Grammy and Robert

 Mac and Cheese

Yummy!!!

 Out for a walk

My Boys

A Late Anniversary Trip

Brandon and I had wanted to go to Seattle for our anniversary but decided to postpone our trip until the weather was a little nicer so that we could enjoy the city a little more.  It's been quite awhile since we've had a chance to get away like this and we were very thankful to all of our family who watched and entertained our kiddos while we were gone.  

Brandon and I left on Thursday afternoon and met up with Kendra and Andy at their favorite Turkish restaurant for dinner.  While we were there we were able to get an early sampling of the amazing humus they will be serving at their wedding.  Yummy!!!!  Then we drove over to see the apartment that they just leased together.  Made us reminiscent of our early days in our one bedroom apartment in Glendora.  Those really were simple and fun days just starting out.

The cute couple in their new place!!!

On Friday we spent the day doing touristy things.  We started the day with Bill Speidel's Underground Tour.  It was so interesting to learn about the history of the Seattle.  We learned that Seattle was first settled in the early 1850's but that in 1889 a fire destroyed practically the entire business district in the city.  Surprisingly, this may have been a good thing because the city had problems with flooding due to where it was originally built.  When the city rebuilt they decided to build retaining walls on both sides of the old streets.  They then filled in the middle and paved a new road on top.  So, basically now the shop fronts were a story lower than the street level.  Over time shops built up making this original 1st floor a basement and the gaps were bridged with the sidewalks that we now walk on.  Anyway, all in all it was a very interesting tour. 

There was a time when people actually used the tunnels beneath the current streets to get to stores and one of the ways that they lit these tunnels was buy installing skylights like the one in the picture above.  In the picture below you can see the skylight from the current sidewalks of the city.

After our tour it was off to Pike's Place Market to get some more flowers!!!

Then we walked to the space needle to check out some views of the city and to enjoy some coffee and kid free conversation before dinner.

On Saturday Morning we checked out the Gas Works Park before meeting up with Kendra and Andy for lunch and then heading home.  Gas Works Park contains remnants of the sole remaining coal gasification plant int he U.S.    

While at the park we met some friendly geese and took in some more views of the city.

Then it was home to our little clan who was as happy to see us as we were to see them.  It's so great to get away and also so great to come home.