The New House

Welcome to our new house!

Still working on unpacking, so there are boxes everywhere, but we get more done every day.

That's Phil's new TV Jeremiah is watching. We have some pictures on the wall, but most aren't where they will end up.

We're starting to decorate for Christmas a little as well. That fireplace insert actually heats the house more efficiently, which is nice.

This is the wet bar. A little psychedelic now with the mirror and the red light, but we're hoping to bring it into the new century while we're here.

I've actually hung pictures in here now. Just wanted to give you and idea of the room.
Sad news on my piano was that it won't play since we got it put together. Hopefully I'll hear back from the company soon and we can have someone fix it out here.

The kitchen is way bigger then it seems. This picture is taken from the dinning room table and the door off to the left is the living room. Directly to the right of this shot is the hallway that leads to the bedrooms.

The spare room is more a holding room for now but that will change soon.

The spare bathroom has developed the most noxious smell I've ever encountered. It's not outright bad like sewage so we haven't been able to figure it out. We have an exterminator coming tomorrow hoping it's something dead behind the wall and nothing more major.

This is Joshua and Jeremiah's new room. It has two closets that are adjoined so they each get their own. The horseshoes are cute, but I'll paint over them eventually with something more fitting. The bunk with slide is technically Josh's since it's a twin, but Jeremiah definitely feels it's part his with his little toddler bed underneath. He loves having his own little cave under there!

This is our new room that also now has more pictures then this. Still looking for our bed skirt if anyone has seen it...
The sliding glass doors lead out to the deck and to the backyard. Makes for a pretty nice view. Bathroom is off to the left at the end of the dresser.

This is the master bathroom that we've all been using due to the monstrous aforementioned smell.

This is our pitiful little backyard full if landmines from the old owner's pets. I'm hoping by spring they will have gone away. The shed is off to the left with the ramp.

So that's our new house for the most part. Kinda hard to take pictures in small spaces. As I've mentioned before, we have quite a bit less room then our last house, but we're making do. We are loving the kitchen. It's laid out really well. Eventually we'll be loving the garage, but it's full of boxes right now. We're starting to feel a little more at home here each day as we get a little more settled in. And to think... we might be doing this all over again in 3 1/2 years. We won't talk about all that quite yet. Focus on the task before us first.

A Little Out of Touch

We've moved into the new house and even had our first holiday here! We still don't have internet, TV or phone (other then cell phones). We're making do and making headway with unpacking. Phil's Mom and step-dad were able to come down from Maryland for the holiday which made the whole day so much better. The boys love visiting with them. We had a couple of people from Phil's work come over as well. Jeremiah's new word from yesterday was, "pie!"
Now that the holiday is over and we have a bit of a break before Christmas, we can begin to tackle the millions of boxes that are hiding in our closets, garage and shed out back. We're comfortable for the time being, but would like to find things like our toaster.
I'd forgotten how much I dislike this part of relocating. It's easy to forget how much junk you've allowed to collect in your home when you don't have to sort through it all, pull it out of boxes and find a place for it in your new home. There's now a large line up of boxes in our spare bedroom of things to get rid of.
We hope all of our friends and loved ones had a great Thanksgiving this year, even though we couldn't be with most everyone. We definitely would have like to be! Have a great season and remember when you're out buying so much this next month that you'll eventually have to find a place for it all. Trust me, I know! Happy Holidays!

Church Shopping

I think this is my least favorite part about moving. It is impossible to take with you the church you've come to know and love. You have to start from scratch for the most part.
Hunting for the right church makes me question all I expect to find in a church. Is finding a church with music that I'm comfortable with important enough to be a make or break issue? What if the pastor that one week happens to be less-then entertaining that one week we visit? How do you judge an entire church on just one week? Ideally you could visit a church several weeks to get an overall feel, but with the number of churches here, we could spend our whole 3+ years here just trying out different churches! That seems to defeat the point. Last night I was up well past everyone else worrying that we'll never find a church that will feel like home again. It's an ungrounded fear since that has never happened, but my brain seldom works logically when it comes to fears. This morning, I still have no idea where we're going to "try out" this morning. I know that no church will be perfect since every church is full of imperfect people. I guess I'm just looking forward to this part of our settling in to be... well... settled.

Welcome to Our Humble Abode

We finally closed on our house today! The little blurry spot is where our address numbers are. Trying to keep things safe. We're down about 400 square feet from our old house, so we'll be consolidating a little. As you can tell, the truck isn't exactly going to fit in the garage. Monday is when our household goods shipment will be delivered and we'll actually be able to start moving in. I'll put up more pictures as we get more settled in. This weekend we'll be setting up Josh's new bed and hopefully picking up our new washer and dryer to take over... and a lot of cleaning so it really feels ready when our stuff arrives.

The Way Things Are

No fun pictures for today, but some news.

Found out yesterday our house appraised for $2,000 more then we're paying for it. Our realtor said that never happens in a market like this, so we're excited and grateful at the same time. We are so anxious to close and move into our own home again!

Things have been a little crazy since the morning after we switched our living quarters for the time being, Josh woke up with double ear infections, refusing to even eat a waffle for breakfast. He's on a whole bunch of different medications and is just about acting normally again. He has a check up on Wednesday so hopefully he's totally better by then.

I was reminded last night that I needed to let family specifically know that the FRG (family readiness group) here is making hoodies and t-shirts specific to Phil's squadron. Let me know via email if you want one and I'll send you the information you need. I know we'll be ordering some. They even have toddler shirts, so I'm excited! Have to have orders in by the 30th so let me know early if you want one.

Other then that, in general news, Josh is still our little number whiz. Earlier today he wrote down from memory the numbers from our new house, our old house, Nana's house and Grammy's house. Crazy. Jeremiah is learning new random words all the time. The latest addition was "co-co" yesterday at the grocery store when I was pacing the aisle looking for cocoa powder. He's so impressed with himself.

I think that's all the new stuff for now. Hopefully soon we'll be more in a groove and I'll have pictures to put up again.

Enjoying Having a Fall

I'm a little behind these days with everything going on, but here are some pictures from a beautiful autumn day we were fortunate enough to enjoy on Sunday.
Last night I looked up to compare the difference in the weather in Illinois right now to here. I suddenly became utterly grateful for the 60 degree days we've been enjoying. I'm sure at some point the boys will miss the snow, but they haven't mentioned it yet!
We found out yesterday we will be closing on our house on the 21st and our things will be moved in on the 24th giving us the Thanksgiving holiday to really start to settle in. We are so excited for the timing of that!

A Trip to Maryland

Phil got a long weekend for work, so we went ahead and took the 3 1/2 hour drive up to Maryland so he could see his Mom and step-dad. The boys had a blast and it gave us a break from all the house hullabaloo. I think the highlight was bouncing on the air mattress every night.

I think the face and the shirt go well together.

Sorry, just a random one I took of Jeremiah that I really liked. In spite of all the craziness the boys have had to endure in the last month or two, they are still so happy and downright content. I wish I could be like that.

Homeowners Again

Things are going well today. Last night Joshua realized that they have Chuck E Cheese here too, which seemed to pretty much make his day. Then this morning we got the call that the offer we made on our favorite house has been accepted!

Welcome Back, Daddy... Farewell Daniel

Phil had barely made it in when the kids were giving him a hearty welcome... a round of Daddy wrestling on the floor. We love having Phil back with us!

We have been busy since he's been here, though! He's officially checked into his new command with the Riverines. We are so glad he doesn't leave until January for the rest of his schooling. We put an offer in a house and should get official word on the outcome of that tomorrow. Things are looking good, though! In the mean time, we're getting to know the area all over again. For me it's pretty much like the first time, but for Phil he's having to learn how to maneuver around all the things that have changed in the past few years. This is the carousel at the local mall here. It has all my favorite mall stores all in one place... I'm hooked!
We've also been able to catch up with some friends... and just in time! Some of our other friends from when we were in Italy, Daniel and Katie (and their baby Aubrey) are living here in the area as well. Daniel is preparing to deploy soon, so we stopped by to pray for him and wish him well on his trip. Please be praying for their little family in the coming months.

Overall, Phil and I were just talking tonight about how we are feeling really at home here. This feels like where we're supposed to be and we couldn't be happier about it. The speed limit just about everywhere around here is 45 and everything feels so convenient. Since I was the one from our family so opposed to moving back to Virginia, it has been nothing short of a small miracle that God could have changed my heart to feeling at peace with all of this! Hopefully more news about the house soon!

Happy Halloween!!

There is no better way to wait for Daddy to arrive then home something major to distract you... like obnoxious amounts of candy being handed to you from strangers as you walk door to door. Last night we went out with Laura and Tyler in search of a full bucket of candy. Ours were paint buckets decorated up for Halloween that Phil's Mom made. We had several people comment on them!
Jeremiah was still not feeling well, but with the help of some Motrin he seemed good to go. I think he enjoyed the evening the most even though I ended up carrying him the whole time.


Here in Virginia, lots of people decorate things up a lot for Halloween, so it made the day even better! Jeremiah loved all the lit up pumpkins and things that made noise when you walked by. Josh had a bit of a hard time seeing in his costume, but carried his little flashlight/lantern (the little green thing in the picture above) and had several big kids holler a, "hi, Batman!" when he walked by.

Last week we carved a pumpkin over webcam with Daddy which was cool, but since he pretty much died on us as the week progressed, we decided to carve a new one yesterday with Laura and Tyler. Josh did the eyes and nose, Jeremiah did the mouth. They really liked scooping out all the seeds, though!
Today has been a great day!! The boys slept in a little and were still in their PJ's when Daddy drove up. They were so excited to see him! We all took a long nap and now are just enjoying having time to be together. It's definitely relaxing knowing he's not leaving again anytime soon. Hope everyone else found something fun and festive to do for Halloween!