Moved In

We are finally moved into our own house.

For those of you who need/want a mailing address, remind me via e-mail.  

This house is the largest we've ever lived in!  The children love having an upstairs, and I am getting into shape "doing the stairs" each day.  :)  We have 4 bedrooms and 3 baths!  What a luxury!  The living room has a fireplace - a real one, not gas logs - so we're looking forward to using it this winter!  

Some of you have requested pictures, but from my perspective there's only one room that is presentable enough yet to take pictures of....and that's the kitchen.  So, here it is.....

a vast improvement from when we walked into the house for the first time.   

It was SUPER dirty.  

The whole house took a crew of 3 people two 8-hour days to clean.  I was extremely grateful that we didn't have to do the worst of it.  We just removed the bulk of the items left behind and then the crew came through as well as the carpet cleaner guy.  The kids rooms are pretty close to being picture-worthy.  And the rest is a work in progress.  :)  We have a small back yard which Johnny got fenced in this past week, and the girls put the trampoline up.  

Having never before lived in a subdivision, this is all new to us.....especially two things.....that the kids can't just roam like they always have on acreage, and the need to keep the noise down.  We tend to be a louder-than-average family (I think!), so we're working on that!  HA!  There's always someone singing, or someone else impersonating a fighter jet, or kids playing cowboys/Indians, etc.  This is a super-quiet neighborhood, and we hardly ever see people out....except at night.  People take their walks and walk their dogs in the evenings.  I suppose that would be a good indication of the general safety level.  

Those who passed our house tonight probably considered calling 911 with a domestic violence complaint.....Johnny was wrestling all the kids upstairs, and it was pretty rowdy and hilarious. Funny if you were there to see it, but then I realized what it must sound like to someone out on the sidewalk!  The word "frightening" comes to mind, as I think of all the growling, heavy thuds, and shrieks!  Oh well!  :)  We'll try not to terrorize too many of the nice people who live around here.

  

As much as I miss living in the country, there are some distinct advantages to city life!

For one, the ice cream truck comes right to your door practically!!!

Secondly, you can get to shopping and stores so QUICKLY!!!!

Thirdly, you can walk to the park if you want.

And fourth, the connections you can make via Freecycle and CraigsList are amazing!

When you live so close to a larger city/metropolis such as the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.....you are never far from Freecycle listers and CraigsList listers.  So far, we've been able to get new mattresses for two beds (amazingly clean, fresh, firm ones!) 2 vacuums (a stick-vac lightweight version for upstairs and a deluxe model with snazzy attachments and features for downstairs), and a microwave.  Total paid for all:  $50 for the full-size mattress.  The rest was free.  Tomorrow I am supposed to pick up some larger items, some of which we will use ourselves, and the rest we'll sell on CraigsList!  

I'm in the market for a loooooooooong list of other items as well, so Emelie goes through the listings for me each day online.  

One funny thing is that we suddenly find ourselves in need of a washer and dryer!  The folks who lived here before left several items in the house, and because it was an eviction, those items had to be removed from the house at a certain date/time, and the Justice of the Peace had to oversee the process  - due to the hostile nature of the previous residents....who were loathe to leave their abode (even though they hadn't paid their mortgage for about 8 months!).  Following this, all the stuff had to be left on the lawn for 24 hours (by law) - just in case they might really want to come back for any of it.  

So, a couple days before we were going to move in, this was arranged, and Johnny got everything out on the lawn.  The only things we cared to keep of it all were the washer and dryer (to keep or sell) and a beautiful new baby swing for Heather's coming baby.  When the 24 hours were up, some stuff had been taken, including the washer/dryer.  We assumed the previous family had taken them, and that was fine.  (Heather did get her swing though!)  Our own dryer will be sold on CraigsList because it's a gas version and this house only takes electric....so now we knew we'd have to buy a dryer.  However, we figured our washer would be fine.  Johnny installed it, and lo-and-behold, it won't drain.   Sigh.  Too bad we didn't still have the set that was left in the house!   Johnny said he noticed that the next-door neighbors had a nice extra set in their garage, so a few days later I talked to them about it, asking if they had maybe upgraded...and would they like to sell those(?).  The answer was so surprising and hilarious!  The man said he had taken them from the yard here when everything was out on the lawn overnight..................and he'd already sold them on Craigslist!  They had no idea we might want/need them.  Everything else was being picked through by people through the night - so they took what they liked too!  :)  Oh well.  I had to laugh.    So while those two items are at the top of my list of things to get.....I made my first trip to a laundromat this weekend!  It's really not so bad!  You can get 5 loads started all at the same time and then dried all at the same time....fold it all, bring it home, and that's it!  Maybe not as convenient as doing it in your house, but you're not doing laundry every day either!  

Since my last post, Savannah turned ONE!  

 I would love for her to stay little for a long time!  I am reeeeeeeeeeeally enjoying her baby stage.  

She loves ice cream as much as I do, so instead of a cake, 

we just had ice cream for her b-day.  

We had to sing "Happy Birthday" really fast to keep her from grabbing the 

cone before we were done serenading her!

Johnny and I were able to attend a Southlake Carroll High School Varsity game.  It was lots of fun.  As the town of Southlake is rather affluent, the school doesn't suffer for funds much.  Thus the super elaborate stadium!  We had been given tickets for some very nice seats (not bleachers) at the 40 yard line.  The atmosphere brought back all the memories of high school when Johnny played QB, and I took stats.  Good times!   The amazing presentations at half-time by the bands from both schools playing that night were way beyond what I'd ever seen on the high school level.  Then I heard someone say that the opposing team (from Richardson) was 2nd in competition in the entire state.  That helped explain it.  They did so many intricate formations, weaving in and out of each other, making beautiful new designs on the field, all the while maintaining the march they were playing... w/o ever a flaw!  Very impressive.  Wish the girls and Chase could have seen it all, but they were having too much fun at home!

Hanna loves to cook/bake/chop/slice/stir - anything in the kitchen.  She sees me reach for my recipe book, and she's instantly right at my elbow.  Almost every day she asks if we can make a dessert.  And she ALWAYS asks if she can help in the kitchen.  Sometimes I have to say "no", just so that I can work quickly w/o all the questions, but usually I consider it an investment in my future - as she'll most likely be doing ALL our cooking in a few years!  Tonight, she found some extra pieces of chopped onion from the spaghetti I was making, and before I knew what she was doing, she had ............

.........cut up some celery leaves, mixed in salt and ground some fresh black pepper, and proceeded to saute it all!  Her end result was this - yes the sprig of celery leaf was all her doing too.  

I did none of it.  I was hardly aware it was even going on!  And the concoction actually tasted pretty good too!  A wee bit SAAAAAAAAAALTy, but this girl loves salt, so I wasn't surprised.  :)  She watched a chef chop vegetables on tv, and has become pretty amazing at it herself!  Funny to watch the speed and intensity.....and if she didn't have such amazing FORM, it might be scary!  Someone who lacks gracefulness in other areas sure makes up for it in this.  Wish I had a video to share.  She'll probably have a restaurant or a catering business someday.  It is definitely her greatest joy.  

We're still busy settling in.  Most of our "stuff" is unpacked and in place, but there are still boxes in the garage, and things in the house waiting to find their particular spot.   Feels sort of "unsettled" to me, as I would love to have everything in place and no piles or boxes anywhere.  However,  we're plunging back into schoolwork this week anyway, much to the girls' chagrin.