Not a whole lot to report back on. We are almost completely unpacked...yeah! Just a few more living room boxes (pictures & such). Alex's room is coming along fabulously. I am very proud of it. I've drawn patches of sea grass all around the room, added a starfish, some small fish, a whale, a shark (peeking out behind his door) and 2 sea turtles. We will fill in the big scene with more fish wallies (just wanted to see how it would all work) and finish painting the sea grass. Morgan's dresser is in place and she has accessories, all her books are unpacked and her room is coming along as well. She has put up a bit of a fuss about decorating so it isn't as far along as it could be. Tomorrow I'm hoping to get the picket fence part done and maybe some flowers or bunnies in place. Both kids have specially painted letters spelling out their names above their beds. My mom painted them and my brother hung them for us this weekend.

We have started some projects as well. My brother helped us remove the old patio doors and replace them with new ones. It was quite the project but they look great. Now to get the rest of the framing and molding in place. LOL! He will be back over on Friday. I put together our new grill (no need to pay $40 for them to put it together) with a tidbit of help from my brother and Corey at a spot or two. Sometimes it really does take more than 2 hands to do something even if you know exactly what needs to be done. LOL!

We've decided on a color for our bathroom but I'm not going to start peeling off wallpaper until after our 4th of July/house warming party. But after that...look out!

This weekend we are having a girls day out and my mom, Morgan and I are going to get pedicures. We wanted to do lunch at a local tea room but they are booked for the day & then closing for vacation for one week...so we will make reservations for a weekend after they are back.

We've found the convenience centers (for recycling) and it feels good to be recycling again. Corey has come up with a solution so we can store the recyclables until we take them in. They even do construction stuff so we can take the old doors,etc.

While my brother was over on Saturday he brought one of his dogs with him, Stoli. We had such a good time with him and I think it made us all realize that we really do want a dog but we need to get ready for one. I'm also not sure the cat would handle it well at all. Sooo...more thinking on that one.

I'll get pictures of the bedrooms as soon as they are done.

Progress is being made. The house is starting to feel like home. Our new dining table and chairs were delivered today and we got to eat a nice home cooked meal (thanks Corey!) all at the table this evening. It was so nice. Ooh and as a bonus, Alex ate chicken without it being in NUGGET style. LOL! See...progress!

We got several boxes unpacked and broken down today, the kitchen is completely unpacked now and Morgan is almost unpacked. We still need to get her new dresser from my mom's house but for now we hung stuff up and put all her folded clothes on one of the many shelves in her closet. I got her homeschooling evaluation and our closure letter in the mail to Hillsborough County schools. So we are all set and clear with Florida on the homeschooling front. I also got the notice of intent to HS and attendance sheets for hs'ing in TN. I have to mail in the notice of intent to our local school district and I got their address this afternoon. That just needs to be filed by August 1st so no biggie. I also got a lot of work done on Alex's room. We are putting patches of sea grass around the whole room so I worked on that...from his dresser and around the dormer window area & back to his bed. I also drew the whale that he wanted on one of the walls by his dormer window. Tomorrow I am hoping to get the rest of the sea grass drawn and then do the sea turtles by his bed and the shark behind his door.

Morgan got upset with me today because I've been working on Alex's room and not her's. I told her that I thought she was working on it with GC (my mom) and she said she wants something special painted in it by me like Alex is getting. Ack! :-( I didn't know. So now I feel compelled to find something to draw and paint in her room that will fit into her theme and make her feel good. She has a backyard garden theme...her headboard looks like a white picket fence and she has picket fence wallies that she is going to put around the bottom of the walls. She has butterflies, dragonflies and fairies (all wallies & stamps) flying around her room. And she has flower wallies to put on. We have briefly talked about painting some flowers growing up behind the picket fences but I don't think that is what she is talking about from her upset conversation earlier today. Any ideas??

We are going to have a house warming / Fourth of July party on 4th of July. My goal is to be unpacked and have things settled by then. I know...a dreamer! But the way things are going with the unpacking I think that part can be done.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!! We had a quiet day at home. I felt bad when I got up this morning...barely morning...because Corey had gotten up with the kids and they all let me sleep until 11am. Holy cow! LOL! I didn't think I was THAT tired. We got a few things unpacked, moved Parker bunny to where he will be living in our house (in the office & family room space), and received our new freezer. We played out in the backyard with the kids and Corey did a bit of pruning on some branches and bushes that were a little wild. LOL!

We just had a thunderstorm go through but we needed the rain so that's fine with us.

A very good friend of mine has had a tragedy in her family. Some family members lost their home & everything in it due to an electrical fire. Thank goodness they were away and no one was injured. Unfortunately they didn't have insurance due to a mix up and a very long illness. She is trying to help her family raise money to help get them back on their feet and they are presenting it on the couple's 58th wedding anniversary. Here is a link to her blog about it and a place to donate if you can or want to. Help Indigo's Family . Trying to replace my home and all the belongings with NO help would just feel impossible and add a long illness on top of it would just be too daunting to me. Please help if you can. Indigo is my friend that I was able to help out back when Alex wasn't even 2 yet. I kept her daughter overnight while her family was dealing with an emergency illness while out of town. Indigo and I hadn't even met yet.

Thanks!!

My goodness, what a crazy time it has been. We got a call last Friday morning from the moving company telling us that the movers would be there to pick up our stuff a day early...with all of 3-5 hours notice! We had planned on being finished with the packing anyway but thought we could do lunch with a friend and then spend a relaxing last evening with friends to say good-bye. Umm..NOPE that didn't happen. The kids were *very* sad that they couldn't see their friends to say good-bye, we had quite a few tears and anger moments. I was very sad as well but there wasn't much I could do about any of it. Thankfully Corey was working from home and we busted the remaining packing out and were ready for the movers when they arrived. The truck was loaded and we were on the road by 8pm Friday night. We were tired but figured since we would be spending the night in a hotel we may as well get a couple of hours down the road. Imagine our surprise when we arrived in Lake City, FL to find NO hotel rooms available. Ack! We still aren't sure what was going on but something with lots of boat trailers. We drive a couple more hours and make it into GA. The first exit in Valdosta turns up NO rooms at all the hotels we checked. This prompted a now frantic phone call to my mom to get some help finding a room. Alex was asleep in the van, Morgan was wiped out in the car, Corey was exhausted and we wanted to get the critters out of their cages/carry cases. My mom locates a room a few exits north and we take it. It is just a king bed but we've done that at home and don't care at this point. LOL! After a decent night's sleep and some breakfast we head out on Saturday morning. Just north of Atlanta the van starts to shimmy and freaks me out. We stop and check everything and all tires look fine. We kick ourselves for not insisting on all new tires from our mechanic before we left. He replaced 1 for us that had developed a knot in it. Anyway, the van handled okay as long as I didn't go above 60mph. Egads! So slowly we continue on until we reach Acworth, GA and stop for lunch. We decide to call AAA to get someone out to check the tire,etc. 2 hours later the guy shows up (after I've had a few break downs & we already have my mom enroute to meet us to pick up the kids). Apparently AAA dispatch assigned the wrong address to the intersection I gave her and the guy went to the other side of town,etc. During all the waiting we had to keep the a/c's running in both vehicles because there was no shade and we were worried about the animals & kids. Anyway, the tire was bad and he said it was a GOOD thing we stopped when we did because the radial was about to let go. He put on the spare (donut) and said not to do the mountain roads or highway speeds with a fully loaded van. There was a tire shop a block away & we headed there. But alas they closed 20 minutes before we got there. UGH!! Now if AAA dispatch hadn't messed up this wouldn't have happened. So we limp along heading towards TN and knowing we will eventually meet up with my mom. If nothing else the kids will be safe at her house for the night and Corey & I can deal with the tire,etc. We end up meeting safely in Chattanooga, TN. The kids and my mom eat dinner at Cracker Barrel, I hang out...periodically checking on the cat in the car (in the shade, windows cracked & with a bowl of water...and turning on the a/c every time I went out there). Corey found out there was a Wal-Mart SuperCenter and took the van to get the tire replaced. They were open, tire got fixed...WOO HOO!! Mom takes the kids in her car and Corey and I head to our house to unload the animals & stuff. We finally get to her house about 11pm Saturday night. What would have been a 12 hour drive...previously a very nice one...turned out to be a long,exhausting but thankfully safe trip to our new home. We stayed with my mom while waiting for the delivery of our stuff. During that time we came over and started working on the house. Morgan and I got drastic hair cuts. She donated just over 10 inches to Locks of Love again. I didn't have 10 inches to donate but definitely got a new cut. The kids also met several neighborhood kids and are making friends quickly. One little girl down the street homeschools so that is really cool. She and Morgan have hit it off quite nicely. Thursday the movers arrived first thing in the morning and we were all moved in by 1:30pm. We've unpacked quite a few boxes, have made significant headway in the decorating and set up of Morgan's and Alex's bedroom. We've been shopping and made some new home owner purchases...gas grill, lawn mower, etc. We've also done our first DIY project...had to replace the cord & plug on our dryer so it would work with the electrical outlet in the house (from a 4 prong to a 3 prong). Corey's office is set up and he'll be working in there starting Monday morning. I have put up pictures of my hair cut and the bedrooms we are working on in a photo album on kodakgallery. If you want to see them and didn't get a link then let me know and I'll send it to you. I need to get a picture of Morgan with her new hair cut. I'll work on that one.

Take care and hopefully we won't have these huge gaps in posting now that we are moved in.

With all the dance recital stuff behind us the packing like crazy has begun. LOL! Yesterday I got 2 boxes packed in the kitchen and a lot of stuff sorted out. The kids got their car totes packed so we can work on getting their rooms done. Corey and I went through more stuff last night from the kitchen, pantry, hall shelves and the living room. Tomorrow a furniture consignment shop is picking up the dining table & chairs for us, Thursday is Morgan's homeschool evaluation and then Friday we are saying good bye to friends. The movers will be here sometime on Saturday...hopefully Saturday morning! We should hear from them soon with the time.

Yesterday the kids were horrible but today they are being good. Thank goddess! I tell ya, I know they are having a hard time dealing with it all but man it is hard dealing with the behavior. We did some talking, some screaming (unfortunately from me & them), and some quiet time to get through it. They got to watch Chicken Little and as he says "Today is a new day" and so far today has been. ;-)

I can't believe we are almost out of here! Wow.

Dress rehearsal and recital performance #1 was successful! Morgan and I got up early this morning and got her stuff all ready and her hair up in a bun (yea mom!). We headed out at 8am to be at dress rehearsal by 8:30. It was really fun getting to see the first half of the show (during blocking we only saw the second half because they split it up) plus seeing all the costumes. We finished up about 12:30 and headed home to do lunch with Corey, Alex and GC (my mom). Alex got to pick lunch since Morgan was getting so much attention due to the dance recital. We headed back up to the auditorium at 5:30 and performance started right on time at 6:30pm. The show was great, Alex handled it all very well until the *VERY* end (literally the last dance & some introductions & thank yous) and even then he was doing pretty good. Morgan's class did so good and they all looked like they were enjoying it (the most important part). I have a few pictures and will be taking more tomorrow. We didn't get home until just after 11pm because we went out afterwards. LOL! Tomorrow it will just be Morgan and me. The boys are going to hang out with my mom and then take her to the airport. She has to be at the airport before Morgan's done.

Gotta go get some sleep. But at least I don't have to get up early in the morning. Yeah!!