L'Opa gets a Lecture

 After being in a neighborhood for the last few years where our friends regularly came to us, the kids were a little bit at a loss that they did not have daily play dates.  Dom and Will quickly learned that if they stayed in their room and quietly played games or worked on legos, I would not conscript them into emptying out boxes or folding paper...granted, I did this anyway, but perhaps not as often as if they were always in my line of sight.  As a result, the two have remembered that they share many of the same interests and are really good friends.  Lucky boys!

Molly used this time to attempt to meet new friends in the neighborhood.  She would ask to go on walks alone.  I never allowed this, an instinct that was confirmed when she admitted she wanted to knock on people's doors to inquire if there were in little girls around to play with... However, one time she did leave the house unbeknownst to me and I saw her out our front window introducing herself to our neighbor.  They are very kind and more than happy to talk to her for a little while and introduce their dog to her.  But, after that, I started locking the front door.

Luckily, our first house guests arrived two weeks after we moved and the kids had something to really look forward to!

 Nana and L'Opa arrived on a Monday around noon (Molly does not have her days of the week quite straight).  And by 12:30, they were playing Harry Potter Clue and getting many lessons out of Hogwarts, A History.  Unfortunately, one of our resident experts was expelled from school due to a series of unfortunate events.  William was devastated, which overshadowed a bit that Molly and Nana one this first round of games.  (For the record, Dom was also expelled, but that had a little bit to do with a bitter younger brother taking some house points away for something that I can't remember) But, Molly did not let that dampen her spirits and we had another lesson in the house rules that you probably should not start a game if you are not prepared to lose.

 L'Opa greatly helped the situation by immediately challenging Will to a game of chess.  To be honest, I don't remember who won this round.  I know at least one of their games ended in stalemate.

 The rest of that day was spent playing other games and telling L'Opa everything they knew about Harry Potter.  Whether he wanted to hear it or not.  This continues a tradition that started a couple of years ago where the professor becomes the student in our house.  After 8 hours of lecture, reading excerpts from the book aloud,  and a film, L'Opa was just about done...until they broke out the spell book.  Now, we are into Latin Roots!  School is back in session!

 Unfortunately/Fortunately, the Tuesday of their visit was rainy.  Which made it a great day to play games inside.  I emptied out several boxes of books and Nana helped organize Molly's bedroom.  L'Opa played Star Wars Risk against the boys (we do have other interests from Harry Potter).  But, by that evening, John wanted a seat at the game table.

 I Spy Go Fish was his game of choice.  Naturally.  It was actually the first time he played all on his own.  And as it turned out: He won!  We played a couple more games of Go Fish, a game of Uno, Star Wars Risk, and one more game of chess the next morning before Nana and L'Opa hit the road for their next stop on their trip to visit family members.

It was a nice treat to have them visit when we were all a little blue from leaving our friends.  Then to make matters even better, shortly after they departed, the mail arrived with a box of goodies from Grandma and Grandpa to lift our spirits even more.

 John spent the rest of that day playing with the little sponge creatures that emerge from these plastic tubes.  And Molly was thrilled to get a bit of decor for her very own room.  All in all, it was a super exciting 48 hours.  Our kids are pretty lucky to have such wonderful grandparents and they love them very much and look forward to seeing them soon!

How I learned to stop worrying and love the iPhone

It has been over a month since my last post.  This is actually pretty good for post move posts spacing.  Though, the previous PCS absence of posts had more to do with a lack of camera, this one had the excuse that I was not looking forward to the hassle of getting picture of the new phone...

Turns out, the iPhone is not as big of a hassle as my previous phone.  Should have done this weeks ago.  A friendly email from Apple informed me that my storage was low, so it became a necessity to find a way to preserve the priceless images I (and John and Molly) have created over the last couple of months.  The biggest downside to this is that I have several to look through.  But, I will start from the earliest and move my way forward.  Mea Culpa for any repeats.

Eric and I decided to get new phones the weekend prior to our move.  The catalyst for this was that on an earlier trip up to Montgomery, we lost signal with our old provider and hijinks ensued.  Namely, Molly got carsick...I got a wee bit turned around...and missed switching passengers at a pre-determined location.  Let the record show, Eric said he would be in the McDonald's parking lot.  As I drove through the town, I scanned the McDonald's parking lot and did not see a large UHaul.  Ergo, I determined that he had driven on to Millbrook after waiting a while in order to meet our landlord in a timely fashion.  Because, this is exactly what I would have done if I had been in his position.  I neglected to factor in that he is not me.  And I missed the large UHaul in the parking lot directly next to McDonalds with three people that remarkably resembled my husband and eldest two sons sitting in front of it.  Something he will bring up for the rest of our lifelong pact to stay married. 

Eventually, signal was restored and all confusions and annoyances were hashed out.  That is all a very long way to say, we figured for the good of our marriage, we should be able to actually reach one another on the back roads of Alabama.

 While Eric was figuring out his new phone being tremendously helpful on all logistics pertaining to our move, I endeavored to keep our children out of the way of the packers and loaders.  We visited friends one last time (until the next time) and hosted kids on our front porch in the July heat of Florida.  I sprang for frosties for everyone.  I know...my charity knows no bounds.

As much as we tried to stop time, July 27th arrived and our house emptied out.  God helped us on our way by providing a nasty rainstorm that knocked out our electricity and made our leave less of an emotional one and more of a "let's get the heck out of here".  The rain was pretty bad for about an hour of our arduous 3 hour PCS.  Normally on road trips, we go at minimum 3 hours before pulling over for a rest.  We made it 90 minutes.  Again, I failed to see my husband...who was parked behind a large tractor this time.  Come on!  Thankfully, our new handy dandy cellphones had signal, so we could express our stress-induced irritation with one another before actually coming face to face.  My commitment to laugh off all our issues and hit the re-set button faded when I discovered my husband who loves me got soft tacos instead of crunchy...I'm telling you: WORST MOVE EVER!!!

However, with tacos in our bellies and clouds dispersing, we forged ahead with renewed energy to get through this together.  And a little over an hour later (nearly 10 at this point), we arrived at our new domicile.  Emptied everything out of the cars.  Moved unconscious children to their various rooms and crashed on the air mattress, knowing the morning would dawn and our moving truck would arrive with all of our worldly possessions.  Let's Do This!

But, first, a bike ride to scope out the neighborhood:

It took all day for the truck to unload.  Nothing makes you feel like you have too much stuff like seeing it all piled up in boxes throughout your house and knowing you will have to unpack all of it and find places for it.  The guys helping move our stuff remarked in wonder: 'You came from a smaller house?'  Yup.

Over the next few days and weeks, I unpacked our kitchen, office, kids rooms, and living room.  I had a couple of low days.  Eric came home to me one day sobbing and that night we introduced our children to Mexican Restaurants.  Eric and I had margaritas and it is amazing how much that lifted my spirits.  Or maybe it was the walk through Target with our kids that provided a good dose of normalcy.  Either way, life didn't seem so hard at that point and I was able to unpack a few more boxes the next day and the next.  And, now we are pretty settled.  And life is good.  I will share more, but that is enough for one over long post.  Happy Friday!

Just water