Remember me?

I think I hit a record for "longest time without writing on my blog".  I did it so everyone will appreciate when I DO write.  :)

The last month has been a real blur.  Today has been the first day that I have sat down and opened my computer since the June 4th, when we moved in.  Since then we've had soccer playoffs, end of school things, field trips, traveled to California and had house guests.  So back to the beginning.....

Our move in day was a bit of a blur.  Paul took a U-haul and four moving guys and moved everything from the storage unit to the new house.  I was in charge of clearing out the furnished house.  We only had one day to get it all done and it was quite the day.  We even kept Michaela home from school to help with Andrea and other random things.  It was a fun day.

No.  It was not a fun day.  It was miserable.  It was long.  It was pouring rain because it pours rain every time we chose to move all of our personal belongings from one place to another....  I think the only people who had a worse day were the people who were moving out of our house.  They were a bit behind and when we were done we let them take our rented U-haul to use for the rest of the day.  They spent the next week coming back to get more of their things.  I think we found the only family who could make me feel better about the amount of stuff WE have.  :)    Okay, it wasn't miserable, but it was really, really tiring.  We were happy to finally be in our house.

That night our friends showed up with some Taco Bell and all the kids ran through the house spilling their tacos' contents.  Ahhh.... home sweet home.  :)

Everyone slept in our new rooms that night ...and in the morning I woke up to a giant mess.  :)

As I wandered around our new house I realized boxes had been put everywhere, rooms were mixed up ...it was ....ummmm ....less than motivating.  :)  Paul set up the TV and a couch and the Wii and we were in action ...except we couldn't find the Wii games.  Of course Andrea was thrilled because the only game we had was the one that was in the Wii and it was her favorite Kirby game.  It took us a full week to find the other Wii games.  They were in a box labeled "Games" and I thought they were board games.  I'm still too scared to open the "Board Game" boxes.  Somethings are better left in boxes...

A week or so later, once we had the house in somewhat of a working order and things kinda in control, our storage unit from Oregon arrived.  Super. 20 cubic feet of stuff I hadn't seen or thought about in five years.  Paul was happy to be reunited with his tools and I was almost scared to see what I had to deal with.  Sierra and I opened a huge box to see it stuffed full of toys.  I counted eight barbies on top and quickly closed the box making Sierra swear to secrecy.  If Andrea finds that box of plastic China products I'm in real trouble.  I'm not prepared for that quite yet.

I'm pretty sure those storage boxes will provide some entertainment.  I wore my high school Lettermans jacket around the house the other day and today I pulled out seven cute hats for Andrea to wear.  I also found a box with every trophy I ever won. OUUUU....  even my math trophy!  Scotty will be so impressed!  I think those trophies are headed towards the fireplace mantel....  :)

So there is my super update on the move in.  I'll catch up with life now that I'm back into the swing of things... maybe.  :)

Memorial Day!

My first Memorial Day in five years!  It was an awesome weekend!

Saturday:

We went to the beach with our friends.  I'd almost go as far to say it was better than Santa Cruz!  It's so close... only an hour away and it was an easy drive... no traffic anywhere, those Santa Cruz Mountains are nice and all, but I strongly dislike driving through them.

At this beach the parking was close to the sand, and the sand was close to the bathrooms, and the bathrooms were close to a small place to buy ice cream.  There were also tide pools where all the kids could torture small aquatic animals.  :)   Wheeee....  

I'm kinda excited about this because we LOVE the beach and this one was really nice ...AND it just might save me from a $500 trip to Santa Cruz this summer.  :)  YAY!!  The beach being so awesome is a HUGE bonus for New Hampshire.

PS.  The water was so cold it REALLY hurt to stand in it.  There was no "getting used to it".  I would do a flamingo move and stand on one foot, alternating so that each foot got a turn at hypothermia.  I was thoroughly impressed the kids got all the way in.  I really don't know how they did it!

Sunday:

We planted stuff.  With the big move to our new house coming up and all of it's many acres; we will be obligated to become farmers ...and come November every farmer will have a pumpkin patch!!  I wanted to get our plants started so we weren't the loser family who was finally harvesting pumpkins in December.

  

Monday:

Scotty walked in the Memorial Day Parade with his Tee Ball team!  :)  It was cute and I'm glad he did it ...less happy I had to do it, but it was a good opportunity to check out everyone in Nashua; just line them all up and let me walk through.  At least I finally got a chance to walk through downtown.  :)

Scotty waved the entire time.  I had told him to make sure he waved at the little kids because they would really think he was cool in his uniform.  :)  He waved at every little kid he saw.  After the parade we went to a BBQ and met another family with four kids... one of her kids bit the other one, so I think we can be friends.  I don't like to associate with "perfect families" or those who try and pretend to be.  Gag.  

So the weekend was fun.  It was everything a "long weekend" should be!  :)  Go USA!!!

Our new house!

We.

Bought.

A.

HOUSE!!!!!!!

Isn't it pretty?!?

It seems as if we've looked at every house for sale in New Hampshire!  Over the past month we have looked at zillions of houses...  Every night we would search online, our Relator would take us out a few times a week for an "all-day-looking-at-houses" event, every Sunday we'd google open houses and drag the kids from house to house.  I'm SO HAPPY this part is all over!


AND....  I'm glad we held out until we found this house!  I think it's perfect.  I really like it.

It is on 2.5 acres... See the big field in the front yard?  I want a goat and chickens.  :)

It has a pond on the other side of the driveway ...not too close to the house, but still somewhere to catch frogs and fish and stick a paddleboat.

It's next to some conservation land (forest).

It has a huge heated garage, a big carport, and a shed...

It has a sun room and a screen walled room called a "three-seasons room"...

It has two living rooms, one for the kids and one for the grown ups to escape...

It has two fireplaces ...one is in the Master Bedroom which also has two walk in closets, a "dressing area", and a loft.

It has a fully finished attic that the kids are already arguing over.  It also has two other very big bedrooms.  Someone is sharing...  :)

It has a big kitchen with a huge eat at island .  OUUU...  and I just remembered!!!  It has a dumb-waiter to pull the groceries up from the garage!  :)

It has an actual mud room in the garage!

It has a fun doorbell that involves big long pipe looking things...

It has a dining room that needs a tiny wall removed, but I've accepted that the man I married will not be happy until he has successfully removed a wall from a house.  I'm a little scared, but he has several "home improvement" projects planned.  :)

It's a big house and I'm sure our family will fit in it just right!  :)

We move in June 4th!!

Go CUBS!!!

I love T-Ball!  I can't believe I almost missed this part of life by living in the baseball-free zone of Europe!  AND a special thanks to Kelly's husband, Matt,  for taking Scotty out in his yard a few days before we moved here.  Matt started throwing a ball to my son who was wielding a bat and little Scotty starting hitting home runs, seems like he is a natural!    (PS.  My blog.  My permission to brag shamelessly... Facebook or Blog and I pick Blog...  then I can print my "brags" into a book one day...)

Here is also where I have to tell the famous story of me being the only girl on a baseball team when I was younger.  When the boys would make fun of me, the coach would have us line up, race across the field and I'd beat all of them ...then they couldn't make fun of me.  :)  Scotty obviously gets his athletic ability from me.  :)

He's number 15...  See his big perfect throw?  :)

Adorable?  Yes, I know... thank you!

Here are T-Ball rules:  they don't keep score, you swing until you hit,  you can only run one base at a time, and nobody ever gets out ...but it's great fun to watch!

...okay, it's great fun to watch while your kid is the one actually playing.  Honestly it's 85 minutes of being bored and five minutes of frantic cheering.  :)  Watching small children try to hit and catch a ball does have it's amusing moments though.

AND... Scotty did so good on his first game that he was given the game ball!  So of course, like the supportive mommy I am, I rushed out the next day and we bought a case for it.  :)

It's happened...

I am a mini-van mom ...sliding doors and all.

HOWEVER ...I'm a cool mini-van mom because I can push a button to make the doors slide open and close.  :)

(In my mind I've never owned a mini van.  A mini van has to have cheesy sliding doors and I've never owned a sliding door car.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

Anyways, when we moved to Denmark five years ago we couldn't bear to part with our trusty, blue 98 Honda Odyssey.  It was our favorite little car so we kept him safe and sound at my grandma's house where my Uncle loved him for us; washing him off every now and then and replacing a battery or two.  :)  We drove him during our three weeks in California every year.  What a good, patient, little car.  :)

SO ...when we moved to New Hampshire we had him shipped out from California to meet us here...  He enjoyed the trip and was happy to be with us full time; one of the family again.  :)

Our trusty little blue Honda was getting lonely though so we bought him a red friend to hang out with in the driveway, an updated version of himself  ...one with a sunroof, 15 cup holders, and fun seats that move all over.  The kids think it's great and so do I.  It's huge!  I can fit our whole family AND all the soccer and T-ball equipment we need every Saturday morning.  :)

No, the blue Honda hasn't become "Paul's car".  Happy has found a special car for himself ...in California ...so we are shipping that one out too.  :)  Soon the two little Hondas can hang out with an Audi of some sort.  I hope they play nice.

We do realize that this now means our family of two drivers will now own three cars.  The blue Honda will hang out in the driveway and if Michaela plays her cards right she could be the coolest 16 year old cruising around New Hampshire in a vintage automobile!  

Cape Cod Kids!

So on the spring break the kids had we went to Cape Cod ...the place us cool people living in New Hampshire like to refer to as, "The Cape".  :)  ...and while in "The Cape" one must visit the Cape Cod potato chip factory.  So we did, and it was good.

We traveled with the only other family we know here in NH, a friend Paul has had since college.  His friend thankfully has two girls and Sierra and their oldest have been inseparable within seconds of our arrival here.  I am sure this accounts for 80% of Sierra's happiness here in NH.

While on "The Cape", we stayed at The Cape Codder of course...  it's a hotel with a big wave pool in the middle.  We swam in the morning after breakfast and in the evening after dinner and during the day we drug the water-logged, wrinkled kids out on little trips to Main Street and the beach and the chip factory.  It was fun to get away and now we have officially been to Massachusetts.

I had decided that driving through Massachusetts on the way somewhere didn't count as visiting.  We are about twenty minutes to the border, but I think anywhere in New Hampshire is 20 minutes to a border.  It's a teeny tiny state.

PS.  In case anyone is wondering ...there is a rule on what places you can count as "having visited"...  You have to sleep there.  If you didn't sleep there, you just passed through and it doesn't count.  Sorry.

Here are our purple toes. (Me, KE, Pooz) Andrea is obsessed with purple...  reminds me of a Little Bear that once wore all purple to her purple decorated party where she had a purple cake and purple presents that were wrapped in purple paper.

Look Papa!  We went to Craigville Beach and played in the sand and thought of you!  It was so windy and freezing cold so we had our picnic in the car.  :)  I forgot to get some sand for my collection so we will take you back there when you come visit us!

Here's another new thing I've never seen before.  :)  It's a SWIMSUIT WATER EXTRACTOR!!  Stick your dripping wet swimming suit in, close the lid, and it spins it like a little centrifuge. Very cute, but very useless.

PROOF: USA is the nicest country on earth.

I found this sign at the library.  It says, "Interpretation Services Available".

Then it says, "Point to your language.  An interpreter will be called.  The interpreter is provided at no cost to you."

It is written in Arabic, Armenian, Hindi, German, Korean, Russian, Portuguese, Thai....  it is written in 20 different languages!!  I do wonder if someone would actually show up able to speak every language, but I'm sure a phone call could be made

...but, who knows, maybe they do have a back room full of 20 interpreters just waiting to speak to someone. After all, it is America, and America is awesome like that!  :)

HA!  Thinking back now, I should have pointed to the German to see what would happen.  :)  Maybe I will try that next time.