A Surprise and Some Progress

The secret's out! For a few weeks, Jaclyn and I have known that she was going to fly here on April 18th...as a surprise to my parents! After a few outright lies to my mother because of a little slip, she was genuinely shocked at seeing Jaclyn around 12:15 on Friday night. It was so much fun! I'm pleased that they have now met in person, and that I have now seen Jaclyn FOUR times in our entire friendship! Wednesday will make five. :-P We drove her up to PA to work a few days at OMF's retired missionaries home. We stayed there Saturday night and met several of the lovely treasure troves that live there. Such amazing women who have too many stories to count! We also got to go to SONIC (twice) because there is one near Lancaster, which is where we were. Matt was so excited he was twitching! The boys and I are going back up on Wednesday to have lunch, meet more missionaries, and bring Jaclyn back to the airport. Note: My dad can be very silly, and one of these pics is proof.






Progress! We have now completely finished one room in the townhome -- the little half-bath. But, hey, it's still progress! I LOVE this room, people. Very different from any style Matt and I have ever used. Even a touch of "southern." Watch out! But it is beautiful, clean, and just...just lovely to my soul. A simple haven with a touch of garden. Check out the awesome soap dispenser we found at Target!

From the Other Side of the 29

Translation for non-Californians: From the Other Side of 29

Well, we're here. :-P

Move Day was last Sunday, and boy was it amazing! So many people showed up with good food and muscles ready to work. Boy, Emily made some smokin' good pork BBQ. Yep, that's right. I enjoyed EVERY bite and want some now that I think about it. I've definitely converted from BBQ hater to BBQ lover (as long as it's not hard core BBQ). The men swept through our apartment and got all the furniture moved in just a few hours. Only some odds, ends, and all our books are left at the apartment. I know you all want pictures, but have patience. I want to get things a little more settled to create more shock-n-awe with before and after pics. ;-)

Some things I'm lovin' so far:

~Dropping something upstairs and cringing only for a moment, then realizing that the people who live below us are MY people. :-)
~An even, quickly heated FLAT top stove...I can crack an egg into the CENTER of my pan without it running to the back edge and cooking unevenly. ::sigh of relief::
~The masterbedroom. We went back to yellow instead of green. So sunshiny with three good sized windows with old fashioned wooden shutters that match the feel of the yellow room. I took my first afternoon nap in the yellow room yesterday. It was so warm, peaceful, cushy, and sunshiny. Did I mention we painted the room yellow? It's yellow.
~The masterbathroom. I painted it green yesterday. It is like a peaceful, simple bamboo forest now. If you're looking for a relaxing shade, use Behr's Mother Nature. I love it.
~The walking trail that runs behind our home and goes on forever is chock full of nature. I forsee many walks with my boys!
~No neighbor noise.
~It feels like we live in a park...lots of mature trees and flowers with squirrls, groundhogs, tons of singing birds, and even some foxes others have seen.
~The new antenna Matt bought...we get all the channels our shows are on for the cost of one month of cable, indefinitely! ABC, NBC, and Fox. What more do you need? Anything else would only mean a TV trap -- especially TLC.......
~The dishwasher and washer. Quietest electronic servants I've ever *not* heard!
~We have too much storage space. Say what? You heard me.

Some things to get used to:

~Oh my word, the flying bugs. GAH! Bees are everwhere. The Verizon guy came yesterday (very kind guy named Patrick from Kenya -- excellent customer service!). I discovered there is a gap in our screen door after I had to kill a bee on the living room window. Right after I killed it, I went to the door to check it out...to find another bee on that window. I made a frustrated sound, and Patrick asked if I was ok. So I told him I had just killed a bee and now there was another. He saw me with a shoe, and said I should just open the door and let it out -- and then he came and did it for me. ::blush:: Silly girl afraid of bees. I explained to him we had just moved from California where there are no flying bugs, just ants and spiders. So this is going to take some serious getting used to. If the bees and wasps would just promise not to sting me, I might be more ok with them flying around my 5' personal space bubble.
~A heating system that works well except that the upstairs is always warmer than downstairs. It'll take some time to figure out what temps are best.
~Some parts of the townhome are pretty run down looking and therefore affect me psychologically. I know the place has been cleaned very well by us and our friends, but I still have the willies when I give the kids a bath in the tub. That will probably go away over time.
~Trash pick-up. We actually have to remember when the day is, keep our trash in our trash cans throughout the week, and take our trash to the curb rather than a dumpster. Weird.
~Creaking floors.

Things NOT to get used to:

~The carpets were cleaned, sure, but my allergies are still picking up on the cat dander. I vacuumed yesterday and then proceeded to have quite the allergic reaction. A few people have commented that there is still a faint scent of cat, and I agree (esp. in Judah's room). Pray with us that the owner will be amiable to replacing the carpet when we approach him with the idea. Cat or no, it's about time anyway.
~The cat closet. Yep, that's right. There's a closet under the stairs that opens to the dining room that actually has a cat door in the door. Open it and cat scent hits you like a wall. I can't clean it for obvious reasons, so Matt is going to try and tackle it today. Best case scenario: the owner will let us drywall and finish the area off for a nice pantry or hobby closet.

We are so lovin' livin' here! Can't wait to post some pics!

TownHome Update

After much confusion amongst the carpet cleaner, property manager, owner, and us...the carpets did get cleaned yesterday. We stopped by last night to have a looksy to find out that we were completely locked out of our own new home thanks to a thorough carpet cleaner. :-P But, because of that, Matt got to meet the owner -- an Indian chef at a local Indian restaurant. Matt said he is very nice and friendly. He even asked Matt if we wanted food! I wish I was able to meet him, but I did get to see a picture on the door of the restaurant. He reminds me of what an Indian version of the big chef on Lady & the Tramp would look like. :-)

Once we were able to get into the townhome, we were SO relieved and surprised at what a DIFFERENCE the carpet cleaning made! Yowsa! As of yesterday afternoon, we were dreading the carpet and praying we'd be able to convince the owner to replace it sooner than later. This morning, we're totally fine with it.

A friend is coming over today for lunch/naptime. Once the kids go down, I'm gonna head over to play Cinderella in that house. I'm fired up and ready to clean counters, shine up appliances, sweep/mop floors, scrub bathrooms from top to bottom, and wipe all the walls down. Talk about exercise for a day! It'll also let me know if the cat essence in the carpet is gone -- if I can be in there for more than 15 minutes without allergy problems, the job was done right. (If not, mabye we CAN get him to replace the flooring.....I'm a dreamer!) Boy, I can't wait to see this place finished and show you all pics!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow......

TownHome Preview

Yesterday was the day we got the keys to our new home! We went last night to see it again. It's alot bigger than I remember, especially without the previous tentants' furniture in it. But they left it messy! There are a few things we get to sell and make money on (i.e. air mattress, nice high chair); others we plan to keep (i.e. corningware dishes, santoku knife, great blanket). The rest we throw out -- food, personal items, bottles, etc. It needs a good scrubbin' from top to bottom; and I really hope the carpet cleaning today will help the floors tremendously, especially because my allergies detect cat after 15 minutes of just standing in there.

Here are a few prelim pics to tickle your fancy! Just wait until you see the finished product -- it's gonna be lovely! Praise the Lord!

Nice, big kitchen! There will eventually be a door to hide the washer/dryer -- it's currently broken. * Foyer. * Foyer looking into dining room to see Lovely Laura and Excitable Elijah.


Elijah's future room which will be the future nursery for whenever we have another kid. * Judah's future room which will be both boys' room once Elijah has a similar sleep schedule to Judah's. I'm MOST excited about the plans for their room! ;-)


Master bedroom and bathroom. I love the wooden shutters -- they will go great with our bedding!


Elijah Note: This morning, Elijah made his way from the toys in the living room to his chair in the dining room. Matt and I were in the kitchen making breakfast, and I realized Elijah's voice sounded much closer than it should have been if he was at the toys. He did it so quickly we didn't even see it happen!