Off and Running

So, after breakfast on Thursday, I called Joni, got directions to our new house, and off we went. (Jim and Joni are letting us borrow their Durango until our cars get here.) Joni met us at the house with Sammy, and the key. Wow, is it nice. It’s a lot bigger than the pictures Joni sent. I trying to decide if I should take some pictures of it empty and put them on Flickr (if I do it won‘t be for another week when we have our own internet instead of using the Starling‘s). I’ll put new ones up after all of our stuff gets here sometime in September. Ooooh, yeeaaahhh. September. Anyhoo. After checking out the place, we walked over to Jim and Joni’s (that’s right, walked, they live that close!) where the boys and I hung out while Josh went out to figure out water, gas, electricity, etc. You know, those minor things.

Josh made it back by 11:00 when Joni and I took the kids to gymnastics! This was too much fun, and great for my boys. Basically, this lady has a little gym that she lets little ones come in and just run around and use the mats and trampolines and things for an hour (it costs $5, and is so worth it). There’s also balloons and hula hoops and bubbles. Oh, we all had a blast. Another woman I knew from Germany was there with her 2-year-old daughter, Claire, too. It was nice seeing her again. Until Zeke tackled Claire. As bad as it was, it was kind of funny. Claire took the balloon Zeke was playing with so Zeke ran up behind her, wrapped his arm around her neck, grabbed her shirt with his other arm and pretty much threw her to the ground. I think we might have a problem on our hands. Claire got upset, but she was okay. Zeke was too excited to even realize he had done anything wrong, but by this point, the hour was up and we all left anyways.

Then we went back to the Starling’s house, picked up Josh (who was taking a nap this whole time), got some lunch then went back to the hotel to put the boys down for naps. Well, I took them back for naps, Josh stayed at the house to wait for the water company to come and to move packages we had mailed to the Starlings to our house. Since then it’s been getting things set up, getting all of those utilities going and making constant trips to WalMart for this and that (we live pretty much right across the street from one - I think that is going to be a very dangerous thing), and just hanging out, getting acclimated to the time change, our new house, our new surroundings and everything like that. Oh, and being sick. How could I forget about that? Yeah, nothing says, “welcome to your new home” like throwing up! I got sick Friday night, Zeke threw up Saturday morning, then Josh was icky Saturday afternoon. Sunday Joni had it, then Monday it was Deacon’s turn. I seriously hope it’s all behind us ALL of us now.

Oh, yeah. And then, on Saturday I found my way to post and then found my way to the commissary and did some food shopping. And by some, I mean a LOT. You want to talk about overwhelmed? That post and the commissary are HUGE! I walked into the store and it was like I was Madame Blueberry walking into the StuffMart on VeggieTales. I was feeling woozy. But I made it through in under two hours and headed back home. I cooked dinner that night. I tell you what, nothing helps to make you feel more at home, in your new home, than making dinner for your family. Granted, it was just a box of macaroni and cheese with some apple sauce, but still. I think it went a long way to giving some sort of normalcy to all of us.