Friday, May 28, 2010

The Great Outdoors

This afternoon, my son and I played with water guns together...outside.  Earlier we went to the park...outside.  Yesterday, the boy ran around in the grass...outside!  This weekend, he played ball with the upstairs neighbor boy...again, outside.  Last week, we walked to the Piggly Wiggly (ugh), but it was outside!  Technically, we walk outside to get the mail every single day, but I won't count that.

I've never been more sure that this move was right for us. 

Monday, May 17, 2010

Country Living

Other than the silence, and needing a GPS once leaving the city limits, this country living has other hilarious effects on our daily life.  My child had his own commentary on our new location, giving his suburban 'roots' a kick in the pants:

While driving through an open, grassy area back to my dad's house we hear my son say, "Mom, I smell something stinky."  Now I don't have the best nose but my dad and I didn't smell anything odd or 'stinky'.  No farmland smells of manure or whatever, I mean, it's not like we're that rural...at least not where we were driving at the time.  So I'm really trying to figure out what he's referring to while I ask him 20 questions.  I can only smell fresh air, trees, and new spring grass when I breath in deeply!  It smelled wonderful. 

It then dawned on me that my child was calling the clean-smelling spring day...stinky!  Oh my.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Move: Complete

Life will always take you in directions you may never expect.  Four years ago, my dad was driving my newborn and I to stay with him and my stepmom.  My circumstances then were drastically different than what they are now, and it makes me thankful for how far I've come.  I never thought I'd move back up here since I prefer warmer climates and divorce often makes it difficult to move out of state, but life is funny that way.  I'm obviously meant to be here.

So we made it safe and sound to WI on May 2nd with all our stuff.  I've been trying to unpack and get us settled in without losing my mind in the process.  I have so much stuff to get to make this place ours.  For the first time ever, I feel like we're going to stay put for a while.  I've only been updating Facebook to keep my family up to date so poor Blogger & Twitter got lost in the transition.  The move seriously tested me to the point of breaking, and my mom totally saw me melt down when the movers were on the way to pick everything up.  Note to movers out there: do NOT tell your client who is moving out of state, when you are almost there, that a 10' moving truck will not hold everything and barely fits any boxes in it!  I was positive my stuff would fit until the driver said that.  I had even marked my floor and walls with tape in the dimensions of the truck so I would not go overboard with stuff.  I also did not have my couch or any large items, except my bed, going into the truck so I knew it would fit.  I freaked out, to put it mildly.  But they got everything necessary in the truck and were done in about an hour.  My stuff was on the way to our new home and they did a great job!  Hooray.

I would absolutely recommend using emove.com to find moving helpers.  I've used the service twice to find load/unload help while booking my Uhaul.  I would NOT recommend Uhaul, as their customer service and "calling with a pick up location the day before" is horrible.  I also thought it was ridiculous that the Uhaul check-in location in town made me leave and go get less than a 1/16 of a tank of gas just so it would match exactly the mark on the checkout paper.  They were going to charge me over $30 if I refused!  It took me that much gas just to get to the gas station and back.  Uhaul FAIL.  But did I mention how proud of myself I was for driving a big ass truck all by myself to pick up and drop off?  Feel free to laugh because everyone else has laughed at me for this.

Anyway, it's been an adjustment for us the past two weeks.  Not in finding our way around, but everything else.  It is SO QUIET!  Seriously, it freaked me out the first week and I had trouble sleeping.  The lack of traffic makes my heart sing, but it doesn't make their driving skills any better that's for sure.  It's still hard for me to feel safe when it gets dark and that will take a while to shake.  Everything is so close to us, but there's not a whole lot to be close to either.  Monday we go visit the 4-K Noah will attend in fall and we're both excited about that.  I'm thrilled to feel like I'm settling in and making a home for us.  We've also been checking out rummage sales to find things I need to decorate because there is so much space here. 

Oh the space.  The glorious space.  We both LOVE it.  It's so wonderful for my child to run and jump and just be an active boy child without getting in trouble all the time.  He stomps and runs through the house and tells me he can "because there's no one living under us"!  Not completely true but hilarious at the same time.  The washer/dryer is my favorite thing right now.  Noah has had some potty issues since moving and it's so much easier to get the laundry done.  No quarters, no stairs, no sharing with crazy neighbors who leave condoms behind.  Our stress level is so much lower here and it's immediately obvious to anyone who tried talking to me on the phone prior to the move.  Which is not to say it's perfect, but I'm not as overwhelmed and feel better equipped to handle Noah testing his boundaries and rules.  I think if my two big concerns are the people upstairs clomping around (which I can't say anything ever on this) and racist flyers being left on cars across town, then I'm beyond happy here.  Did I mention the garage?  Love it.  Having my own room? LOVE it!  Not having toys in my living room?  Bliss.  Now if only these boxes would unpack themselves!

I'll take some pictures later to share my excitement with you all!

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Happy Birthday Baby!!

My baby boy turns 4 today.  He's with his dad to celebrate his big day and he & I will be celebrating together after the move.  All his gifts are headed to the new house as I write this.

Happy Birthday my funny, silly, determined little boy.  I love you.

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