I know I promised apartment pictures but to be completely honest, its still not even done yet! AAARRGGHHH! We can't seem to stop running around for more than a couple of days. Not to mention running around takes us longer now since we live far away from things we still need to get to, but not for long!
And when we do have a couple of days at home, we have so much work to catch up on from our business that there's not much time to work on the apartment.
And when we do work on the apartment, we have been working on our "yard." Since we have a first floor now we were given permission to plant in front of our porch. It's been quite fun actually finding our green thumb and getting outside for a little while in the evenings and playing in the dirt. Though I am not allowed to play in it much once the ant killer is put down! We just realized today that we should have been taking pitures the whole time but haven't been. We've pulled up old dead bushes and planted a lot of new things. Thanks to Andy's mom, Phyllis, we got a ton of great plants. She likes to work in her garden and took clippings from her own plants that she has grown and helped us replant them in our beds. They take a lot of water to get going so we water every night, but they seem to be growing for the most part. We will take some pictures starting now and show the progress from here on out as it continues to blossom!
One of the many things that has kept us busy this month was a family reunion. It was Andy's stepmom, Lorna's family and they hold it every year out on the family farm. That's where she and Andy's dad, Paul, live as well on thier own plot of land on the farm, and we stayed with them at their house overnight. It was nice to get away and be on a mini-vacation! I got to meet a lot of family members I had never met before and everyone was very nice and welcoming. Most of them hadn't seen Andy in at least a decade and hardly recognized him. Some even asked his dad how Andy was with Andy sitting right there!
Here are the pictures we took from the weekend. I won't go through each one but introduce them all at once. The first ones are of Paul and Lorna's farm. It's so beautiful and peaceful out there. Then there's some good pictures of Paul, Lorna, Andy's sister Rachel and her boyfriend BJ, and Andy's brother TC and his wife Lindsay. There's a few pics mixed in of the area where the actual reunion is held Many of the atendees camped out there. I am not camping at 6 months pregnant and was very grateful for the use of Paul and Lorna's bed and home and especially shower - it was quite hot! The last few are some pics of a bird's nest we found on Paul and Lorna's driveway.
I will updating again very shortly. I have a lot of baby news as well and I am sorry it has taken so long to get even this far!!! Hopefully we will be caught up soon and it won't take me this long again!
Friday, June 30, 2006
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Really Long Week
It's been an exhausting week so far. We moved to Sanger last week. Thankfully we had the help of our friend with a truck and his two teenage sons, but it still took us two trips, one hour drive both ways! We keep wondering how we accumulated so much stuff in our 7 years living together!
We got most of the 'stuff' moved on Wednesday, but the apartment was chaos with furniture and boxes everywhere. We actually still have another car full of stuff left there, but we have that place for two more months so we'll pick it up when we go to pay rent next month. The first night was just spent trying to get things into the proper rooms and furniture in the proper spots, computers hooked up and running (without internet), and putting our bed together. Then a few hot baths to soak our sore bodies - I actually can't get in too hot of a bath. But we didn't sleep well that night because of all the back, leg and feet pain! Since then we have unpacked almost all the rooms, and it has taken the WHOLE week to get this far. Still not done!
It is very exciting to be closer to all of our family on our many sides out here, except we are no closer to my mother, which is sad. She is the only family I have in this area, but she recently got a new job in Denton - the big town right near here - so she will be close to us now anyway too! We haven't had the time or opportunity to contact anyone since our move. We still haven't finished unpacking! Did you know life doesn't stop for you when you are moving? You still make dirty laundry, dirty dishes, need to eat, a business to run. And we were without internet for about 3 days and lost a lot of work time that we had to try and make up for over the weekend between the emptying of boxes and attempting to rest.
We LOVE the new place! No pictures yet, but I'll take them as soon as we finish unpacking the baby's room. Right now that's the room where we've been throwing empty boxes and all the stuff we aren't sure what we're doing with yet, so it is a total disaster! I have finished everywhere else as of last night, so I'll be starting to tackle that danger zone today.
The cats love it too! They sure didn't love the car ride, but once we got them here and let them out of the bathroom where we had them locked while we got stuff in, they adjusted very quickly. It was the fastest adjustment I have ever seen! I figured they either love it here as much as we do or they've gotten used to being moved every year or so. They have a huge window in the living room that we put chairs in front of for them to sit on. That's their favorite spot! We have gotten our bed back now too because they have other things to do around here besides wake us up. We miss them sometimes though, but as I get bigger and bigger, I am grateful for the space! This place also has hardwood floors through out the main room and they can shed all they want without it sticking! It's so easy to clean. Not to mention the fun with sliding games. Chasing a toy and catching it in a slide is a good one, or just flipping the fat Tyler on his back and sliding him around the floor! That one's for us.
Another thing I love about Sanger is the small community. I am looking forward to finding a place to do some volunteer work to give back and meet some people around town. Also, because Andy and his family are from this area for generations, we have already run into a couple that own a cute little knick-knack shop "downtown" that knew his grnadparents. In fact the lady's sister dated Andy's dad before he married his mom and knew who she was too! What a neat experience to say your name and have people say "Oh yes, Buddy and Sue, we remember them!" Those are his grandparents on his dad's side. It brought me to tears hearing this lady reminise about not only Andy's grandparents and parents but his great-grandparents. I have been a bit emotional the last few days though! ;)
Overall, it is going well with only a few bumps in the road along the way. Andy and I have been through a lot together and we can get through anything, we are sure. This new challenge of parenting will be our greatest challenge yet. I feel confident that it won't be something we face alone. My mother is a rock for me and has been there for me, even when I didn't think she was, she was doing the right thing, and I know she'll be a great ear to hear my woes as well as offering advice and guidance. We're looking forward to getting reacquanted with Andy's family on both sides now that we'll be closer to them as well. It's been hard to not see people regularly, especially when I worked retail for places like Nordstrom that demanded all of my weekends and often 10-12 hour days even when I was just sales. Most people have events on weekends, so it was hard to miss all of those for so many years. Thankfully Andy works very hard and diligently on our business so I can stay home and help him and we can both be with our baby. I am grateful to his family for being so understanding of our difficult times and neglect. And forgiving. It was hard for us in ways some people could never comprehend. We are now looking forward to making up for lost time with those that we can!
Sorry again there's no pictures yet! We will get them done as soon as possible, and I'll make one big picture post next. Unfortunately we never got a belly pic for last week so I'll start again this week. Hopefully that will be the only week we have to miss! I am looking forward to not having to move for a while! We only signed a year lease, but we can save money here so may stay another year after, then maybe, who knows... a house?!!?!
We got most of the 'stuff' moved on Wednesday, but the apartment was chaos with furniture and boxes everywhere. We actually still have another car full of stuff left there, but we have that place for two more months so we'll pick it up when we go to pay rent next month. The first night was just spent trying to get things into the proper rooms and furniture in the proper spots, computers hooked up and running (without internet), and putting our bed together. Then a few hot baths to soak our sore bodies - I actually can't get in too hot of a bath. But we didn't sleep well that night because of all the back, leg and feet pain! Since then we have unpacked almost all the rooms, and it has taken the WHOLE week to get this far. Still not done!
It is very exciting to be closer to all of our family on our many sides out here, except we are no closer to my mother, which is sad. She is the only family I have in this area, but she recently got a new job in Denton - the big town right near here - so she will be close to us now anyway too! We haven't had the time or opportunity to contact anyone since our move. We still haven't finished unpacking! Did you know life doesn't stop for you when you are moving? You still make dirty laundry, dirty dishes, need to eat, a business to run. And we were without internet for about 3 days and lost a lot of work time that we had to try and make up for over the weekend between the emptying of boxes and attempting to rest.
We LOVE the new place! No pictures yet, but I'll take them as soon as we finish unpacking the baby's room. Right now that's the room where we've been throwing empty boxes and all the stuff we aren't sure what we're doing with yet, so it is a total disaster! I have finished everywhere else as of last night, so I'll be starting to tackle that danger zone today.
The cats love it too! They sure didn't love the car ride, but once we got them here and let them out of the bathroom where we had them locked while we got stuff in, they adjusted very quickly. It was the fastest adjustment I have ever seen! I figured they either love it here as much as we do or they've gotten used to being moved every year or so. They have a huge window in the living room that we put chairs in front of for them to sit on. That's their favorite spot! We have gotten our bed back now too because they have other things to do around here besides wake us up. We miss them sometimes though, but as I get bigger and bigger, I am grateful for the space! This place also has hardwood floors through out the main room and they can shed all they want without it sticking! It's so easy to clean. Not to mention the fun with sliding games. Chasing a toy and catching it in a slide is a good one, or just flipping the fat Tyler on his back and sliding him around the floor! That one's for us.
Another thing I love about Sanger is the small community. I am looking forward to finding a place to do some volunteer work to give back and meet some people around town. Also, because Andy and his family are from this area for generations, we have already run into a couple that own a cute little knick-knack shop "downtown" that knew his grnadparents. In fact the lady's sister dated Andy's dad before he married his mom and knew who she was too! What a neat experience to say your name and have people say "Oh yes, Buddy and Sue, we remember them!" Those are his grandparents on his dad's side. It brought me to tears hearing this lady reminise about not only Andy's grandparents and parents but his great-grandparents. I have been a bit emotional the last few days though! ;)
Overall, it is going well with only a few bumps in the road along the way. Andy and I have been through a lot together and we can get through anything, we are sure. This new challenge of parenting will be our greatest challenge yet. I feel confident that it won't be something we face alone. My mother is a rock for me and has been there for me, even when I didn't think she was, she was doing the right thing, and I know she'll be a great ear to hear my woes as well as offering advice and guidance. We're looking forward to getting reacquanted with Andy's family on both sides now that we'll be closer to them as well. It's been hard to not see people regularly, especially when I worked retail for places like Nordstrom that demanded all of my weekends and often 10-12 hour days even when I was just sales. Most people have events on weekends, so it was hard to miss all of those for so many years. Thankfully Andy works very hard and diligently on our business so I can stay home and help him and we can both be with our baby. I am grateful to his family for being so understanding of our difficult times and neglect. And forgiving. It was hard for us in ways some people could never comprehend. We are now looking forward to making up for lost time with those that we can!
Sorry again there's no pictures yet! We will get them done as soon as possible, and I'll make one big picture post next. Unfortunately we never got a belly pic for last week so I'll start again this week. Hopefully that will be the only week we have to miss! I am looking forward to not having to move for a while! We only signed a year lease, but we can save money here so may stay another year after, then maybe, who knows... a house?!!?!
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