Settling in and settling down

Still getting settled in the new place. It's only been 2 weeks and most of the rooms are together. Still left to unpack: 5 "mirror packs" of things from the walls of the old house and 2 boxes of books, papers, and "stuff" from the schoolroom/office. Being that there isn't a "schoolroom/office" in this house, I am holding off on those items until I am able to sort through all that is already unpacked and get it organized. I'll be reboxing some books and storing them in one of the storage areas here or in the garage in order to make room for our school things. I'll probably be looking for some kind of drawer-type storage I can keep here near this table/desk, since my old computer desk is in storage (too large for these accommodations).

One of the things I have done a little of and hope to finish up is cataloging my books with Library Thing. I think I will wind up getting a paid account. $25 isn't bad for a lifetime of being able to keep track of all my stuff. This thing just speaks to my anal side (Eww. That doesn't sound right.)

The house phone finally works. Took over a week for Comcast to fix it. Part of it had to do with them not disconnecting at the other house for some stupid reason. I still have to call and talk to them to make sure we don't get double-billed and are credited for the 10 days with no service. I think a month free would be great compensation for the frustration and inconvenience.

Rory is settling in very well. She is learning the routine quickly and knows that right after she finishes eating, she is supposed to go outside; she heads straight for the back door after she's done. We keep the door to the laundry room (where the dogs' food and water are kept) shut, so she will go there and sit (and alert us if we don't notice her) if she gets thirsty during the day. Campbell is learning the fine art of doggie play and the two of them can often be found chasing each other outside or rolling around on the floor in the living room. Rory is growing quickly and is almost the same height as Campbell now; it will be interesting to see how things change as she gets bigger than him!

Can't believe this summer is almost half over. Just 6 more weeks until Emily goes back to school. I've really enjoyed not having to take her to school every day. I guess I should savor these days while they last.

New house, new addition

If you're reading in a feed reader, you won't see the blog header change. You have to see it... so go look. I'll be here when you get back.

Questioning my sanity yet? (As if none of you were before. Yeah, right.) So yeah, we have a new addition in our scaled-down home.

Here's how it went down: the movers came to pack us up last Monday and decided that they would be able to get it all done that day and move us into this house the very next day. Packing went quickly, moving day not so quickly. The guys didn't finish up until after 7pm. Thankfully, we all had beds to sleep in, even if the rest of the house was a mess. I worked feverishly on Wednesday, trying to dig out from under the boxes in the living room, most of which were books. Brian worked in the morning and got home just in time to head to Sacramento to pick up the new addition from the airport.

Meet Rory. She's a 10-week-old merle Great Dane, and the entire family is in love with her. Even Campbell likes her. He's learning how to play... they are a lot of fun to watch. (Please ignore Campbell's shaggy do... he needs a groom; that's on my list of things to schedule this week.)

Earlier today, Rory climbed on top of him and laid down on him, with nary a complaint from him.

Crate-training and housebreaking are going well. She is a total doll and I'm already totally attached to her.

Anyhow, so far we have the kids' rooms all unpacked and together, and I finished the kitchen today. Tonight we had our first home cooked meal in over a week.

We are without a landline phone right now. When it works, we have the Comcast Digital Voice service. It worked for 3 days and then Saturday it was no longer working. When someone calls our number, they get a recording that says it is not in service. Comcast is "working" on it.

The kids are in heaven. There is no shortage of playmates... good ones, ones I don't have to worry about. They spend so much time playing and not sitting in front of the television, video games, or computer. It is *lovely*.

There is still much to do here, but just having the kitchen done reduces stress levels considerably. My goals for tomorrow are to get laundry put away, unpack the boxes still sitting in the living room, and work on the master bedroom and bath.

I'll leave you with a few more pictures of the "baby."

Down to the wire

So the movers are coming to pack things tomorrow. Are we ready? Uhh..... kinda sorta maybe???

Brian and Noah are off to the races today. Brian's boss at his moonlighting gig volunteered to reimburse him if he bought good seats for them (Brian and Noah) to go to the Nextel Cup race at Infineon Raceway today. They'll be sitting in the front row at Turn 7, so look for them. Poor Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson had some bad luck earlier this weekend with failed inspections, so they'll be starting at the back of the pack today. Terri, where's your Tony going to be??

The other kids and I will go out for lunch after church and then do a little shopping. Yesterday, we were able to get the washer, dryer, and microwave picked out. So the big stuff is taken care of. Brian also took quite a few things over to the house already.

We will probably be unhooking the computers tonight or tomorrow morning, so I'll be without email access unless I go to the library (which I may do...).

Birthday recap and weekend plans

Thank you to all who sent birthday wishes. I think I received more greetings this year than ever before. I had several e-cards in addition to the comments, plus a few of those old-fashioned cards that come in the mail. *G* One of those even came with a Starbucks card... Thanks, Grace!

We had a very nice time last night... It was great catching up with Rick and Virginia and hearing about things over in Antioch. We were a little late to the Won By One concert, as Friday night traffic on the interstate was backed up a bit. Thankfully it was only by about 5 minutes or so. The Won By One kids did a great job, especially considering they were short one person. They had less than a month to rework their songs written for 6 voices and modify them for 5. Not an easy task! It was good to see the familiar faces and meet some new ones. That's the thing with the college groups: the faces keep changing. Afterwards we were able to chat a bit and then the group surprised me with a beautiful chorus of "Happy Birthday." Matt chatted with me and Emily about Harry Potter and the upcoming book and movie. Noah really enjoyed hanging out with Darnell afterwards; they found out they share a common interest in playing NCAA Baseball on PlayStation and have decided they are going to use the "Create-a-player" feature to make each other on their games and see how many homeruns they can hit with each other.... using the Pepperdine team, of course!

We were able to get the keys to the base house yesterday afternoon, so this weekend we'll be seeing what we want to take over ourselves before the packers come on Monday. We'll probably do some shopping as well. We need a washer/dryer, as the base house doesn't come with one. And we also need a new microwave. Brian took our old one to work to use in his office when the one there died, and this house has a built-in.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

One day closer

We've been doing a little bit each day to get ready for this move. Dusting the bookcases, taking unwanted items to Goodwill, getting rid of the bleach spot... Yes, you heard me right. That bleach spot I mentioned this past weekend, the one that used to be a yellowish color, is now gone, thanks to this. I wish I had taken pictures so you could see the difference. I am one happy camper now.

We've had time to visit the base swimming pool a couple of times this week as well. Just $75 got us a family pass for the summer. Sure beats what they are asking for the community pools! ($280!!) I am sure the pass will come in handy once we are actually living on base and the weather begins heating up a bit more.

Tomorrow night, we are going to dinner at Olive Garden with friends from Antioch, then taking in a Won By One concert. Sounds like a nice way to celebrate being another year older, doesn't it?

Once we get settled into the new place, I plan on having a book giveaway like some of my other blogfriends have done. I have a group of books I put aside just for this purpose, most of them fairly new. So if you're a reader, be prepared to put your name in the hat for one!

And while I'm talking about future things... keep your eyes out for an announcement of something new here. (Mom and Pam, you already know... and Larry, if Mom hasn't told you already, just ask her.)

Let the fun begin

Emily is officially done with school until August. What better way to celebrate than by tripping over her siblings' toys? I'm not sure exactly what the damage is yet, but we'll find out later today when I take her to the doctor. She has one ankle that is swollen nearly softball sized and a bruise on the side/bottom of the other foot. I guess some folks will do anything to get out of cleaning their room and bathroom (I am totally kidding.... she'd never injure herself on purpose. I think...).

Brian and I spent a couple of hours last night directing traffic at the school's graduation ceremonies. Amazing the feeling of power one gets wearing an orange and yellow "Security" vest. I was charged with guarding the access to the handicapped and elderly parking. I was really hoping I'd see someone I knew so I could tell them I had to pat them down.

We might be heading out to see Ocean's Thirteen tonight, although I may just send Brian and the 2 oldest; I really don't think the little ones will be too interested in it. Then tomorrow I'll be hosting Garage Sale: Part Deux while Brian spends the weekend moonlighting in Sac.

The only other thing on tap for the next few weeks is cleaning and organizing to get ready for the move, at least one more sequel to Garage Sale, and the usual gymnastics classes and orthodontic appointments. Oh, and there's a birthday in there somewhere, too. 2 weeks from today, in fact.

Off to eat my breakfast and then do something productive.

Stayin' alive

We're still here; it's just been an incredibly activity-filled few days. Lots of errand running, plus an impromptu garage sale on Saturday... without advertising, we had a fairly good stream of customers and parted with a lot of items that had just been taking up space (bikes no longer needed, Noah's loft bed (his and Joel's bedroom on base will be too small for 2 beds), etc. We'll probably do it again the next couple of weeks to see if we can get a few more things taken care of. We have pack-out dates of the 25th and 26th, and a move date of the 27th, so we need to get rid of as much as possible before then.

Today we left the house a little before 9, going to 1st service at church and then Emily, Brian, and I tried out a new adult Sunday School class on the Sermon on the Mount during the 2nd service (the other kids went to their usual classes (called "Growin' Up Groups"). Headed out to lunch after that, then made a few more stops (Kohl's, Target, furniture store, convenience store for sodas) before finally getting back home between 4:30 and 5. I finished up a load of our laundry and am working on 2 loads of laundry for the lost-and-found area of the elementary branch of Emily's school. It's one way to earn service hours (every family is supposed to earn at least 20 hours a year, or pay $10 an hour for the deficit).

The stop we made at the furniture store today yielded a bunk bed set for Noah and Joel. It's a twin-over-full, so they will each get to keep their current mattress. We'll have the bed delivered to the base house when we are getting ready to move in (on one of the packing days). We'll already have the keys to the house, so we can at least get that much of the boys' room ready before the movers start bringing in everything else.

This week will be a little crazy; Emily is on half-days because of finals week, so it will seem like we have barely been home before it will be time to turn around and go get her (in reality, it will have been about 3 hours, but still...). One nice thing about this is that having her home by noon frees up my afternoons to get stuff done (like grocery-shopping sans munchkins). She is done with her finals on Wednesday, so once that is over, she will be more available to work on de-nastifying her bedroom and bathroom before our landlord does a pre-moveout walkthrough of the house in a couple of weeks.

Yep, there will be plenty of stuff to keep us "entertained" (I'm trying really hard not to use that 4-letter "B" word that rhymes with tizzy) over the next few weeks.

More on the move

Our move date has changed... now instead of the middle of July, it is the last week of June! We actually are taking a different house than the one we were originally offered. We decided upon this one because it is located on a cul-de-sac and the back yard is bigger. We actually know the folks who are in it right now; the husband is a nurse at the hospital and the mom is part of the base homeschooling group. There is also a playground on the other side of the street, plus a bike path right there as well.

A few people have been asking about how we are going to manage the transition from 3400 to 1400 square feet. We do plan on selling/getting rid of some pieces of furniture. Anything we want to keep that won't fit into the base house, the government will pay to store it for us until we move. We'll probably be having a couple of garage sales between now and then as well.

I'm looking forward to getting settled in the new place. Thankfully, we don't have to move ourselves; that will all be handled by the pros.

Oh, and Joel's tooth came out just after I posted last night; Brian "helped" it out.