Jet-Setting Morgan

WOW! Too much time has passed. I'm sorry about that. I've been running all around the country like a crazy person the last two weeks.

And it has been a BLAST!

Early last week we headed to Mystic Connecticut, and it was beautiful. We ran and played and enjoyed the first really REALLY warm day we'd had all year. It was fabulous.


Then Meem and I boarded a flight (two actually) for the great state of Utah. It was my littlest brother's birthday, and he's leaving for TWO WHOLE YEARS on his mission in a couple of weeks. So it was a sibling reunion. My kind, sweet, magnanimous husband stayed home with the boys.

They didn't miss me in the slightest. No, I'm not kidding. Daddy is WAY more fun than Mom. This I already knew.

I shall simply have to go away more often.

It was the first time ever in the history of my parenting that I went away (other than the overnight births, but that was work and I don't count it).

I got to see Stacy and crew, which was balm to my lonely soul. Oh how I love her and her family.
*sniff*



It was so much fun to be with my family. I have missed them terribly since leaving in January. We stayed up late and laughed until we cried.

I love them. So much. (Not enough to take any pictures, but you know... I was busy!)


And then I came home, and to ease the sting of leaving behind my family, my own sweet boys were waiting for me, with signs they'd colored themselves.

Then I couldn't believe I'd been happy all weekend without them.

Motherhood is a strange disease.

To keep life interesting, my dearest of friends, Maren and her brood of four boys that match mine quite nicely came to stay.


We chased boys, slapped bandaids on the MULTIPLE bloody injuries (BOYS!) and sneaked brownies when the kids weren't looking.

It was very very good.

The two (TWO) toilets that were clogged were remedied by a late evening trip to Walmart for a plunger (who knew I didn't have one??) and my superhero husband.

Derek has been running around nonstop and has to work all weekend.

Poor man is going to need his own weekend away pretty soon.

Here I am, in New Hampshire

Well.



Hello.

This has been one heckuva journey.

Yes. A journey.



(Nebraska)

Many many miles.

It all started with the seven of us loading up and heading eastward with an extremely sick Oliver.

By Cheyenne, Henry had the croup.

Urgent Care visit for Henry in Wyoming. WOOT!


(Hotel!)

Then, every single day we made it many LESS miles than we wanted.

Four days stretched to nearly six.

We were, in short, MISERABLE.

Much vomit (from coughing too much), much coughing, much fevers, much dizziness.


(Many meals in restaurants)

MISERABLE.

Derek got sick, I got sick.

EVERYONE GOT SICK.

We rolled into our new place late Saturday night.

Then we laid on the couches for four days.


(Underwhelmed with the new house. Too sick.) 

Awesome.

More urgent care visits.

Almost no boxes unpacked.

Which is fine because only 2/3 of our stuff made it form Utah so far anyway. The rest is SUPPOSED to be here tomorrow. We'll see. I'll believe it when I see it.

We didn't have internet for the whole week.

We seem to be on the upswing, except Spencer who got better and now not so much again? I see another urgent care visit in our future.

I love the house, Derek did very well. New Hampshire is pretty.

My cell phone doesn't really like our house.


(Me standing at the only spot in my house my phone likes!)

Really, I'm grateful. We avoided any road hazards, the car ran beautifully. We had warm hotels (only one that was "wth?". The dog had no accidents anywhere (until the first night in the new house, awesome-Dog). Miriam avoided getting the brunt of the illness. The hotels had coin-op laundries, there was plenty of Diet Coke to be found. Blessings.

I'm happy we're home. I'm learning a bit about where we live. It's an adjustment, and there are moments of "woah!" every day. We live here? In this house? In New Hampshire?

Weird.

But it's good. Very good. My kitchen is now functional. The classroom/toyroom is functional. The internet is functional.


(Picnic dinners on the floor.)



(Don't mind the trash bag, but I managed to get the kitchen done!)




(What do you do with your formal dining room, when you're a homeschooling family? Turn it into the classroom.) 


(My favorite spot right now. Pellet stove, rocking chair. Delight.)

We good.

Post-Christmas Wrap Up

If I were to give you one piece of advice today it would be: Don't move at Christmas.

Okay, in reality, don't move at ALL, but if you MUST then don't do it at Christmas. 

Despite the running around, loading trucks in a blizzard (Not me, PROFESSIONALS!), and wall cleaning, and last minute document-notarizing, AND shopping for a car, Christmas was lovely. We've been staying at my parents' since our house is now empty, and they've welcomed us and helped us more than I can put into words. Their kindness and service is an example of how I want to grow up to be. 

Anyway, Christmas was lovely and simple since anything we opened has to be brought with us in a week and a half when we head eastward. 

The stockings were hung by the plug-in fireplace with care. 

Christmas PJs for the children and the child-less adults. (Miriam had already been sent to bed!)

Tablets and headphones for the boys. Red giraffe and stuffed llama for the girl. 

Done and Donesky. 

The Aftermath.



Christmas Dessert: Clothing optional

Merry Christmas!! 

An Epic Announcement

Lately I've been wearin' my paintin' pants.

Why?

Well, thanks to my friend, Swing, I've had a few snippets of time here and there to help my main man, Derek, with a project that has been on the list of things to do for oh, about two years now...

We finally FINALLY got motivated to do the darn kitchen table refinish.

This is a huge big deal. The table is mine from childhood, so I suppose it's my parents' table, but they gave it to us because we have boatloads of small, hungry people to feed quite frequently throughout the day. (You know that e-card floating around that says, "WHY DO THEY WANT DINNER EVERY NIGHT?" Yes, this is my life.)

Anyway, it's too hot in summer, too wet in winter and so we waited and waited and waited.

Until.

Derek got a job offer. A FULL TIME JOB. After so much trial and difficulty and opening a a business and praying and graduating, he has a full time job.

Oh exciting.

It's in New Hampshire.

And he leaves in 22 days.

The REST of us are staying here until we can get our housing sorted out. I will move ONCE and ONLY ONCE.

So, I'm going to be a single parent.

TIME FOR FURNITURE REDO.

I can't quite explain why it makes sense that is absolutely must get done now, I don't know. But in my mind moving/single parenthood=no time to redo furniture.

Priorities people. PRIORITIES!

But look how pretty it is now! Bright and white and oh so happy. 

Compared to this:


(Old pic from Oliver's birthday, but a nice one of how brown and beat up that poor old table was!)

I will mention that our eventual goal is to get all of the chairs done too, but come on, folks, let's not talk crazy.

A Space of Theirs

You know, this move is DRAGGING on. No, we're not out of the OLD house yet. No, we're not unpacked at the NEW house. We're functional but cluttered here. And the old house, well, yes it's good we have had all month, but I keep thinking, "If we hadn't had a month we still would have gotten it done."

Not to mention buying a car eats up a TON of time.

Did I remind you Derek is frantically trying to get that stupid effing dissertation done for a deadline looming ever nearer?

So, the move, it's dragging.

Every time I get a room "done" more boxes o'crap surface. I don't know! But a half a box of kids' clothes showed up today as did an entire box I needed LAST night. I tell ya.

So, today, I decided that I needed one "DONE" space. One place that we could see as progress.

The alcove became that spot. It's our school room. I love it.

From October 2011

Two seconds after I finished, Henry and Spencer pulled books off the shelves and began their "Research" as they called it. On bombs.

From October 2011

Oh boys.

So, tomorrow I won't get a thing done, but today! Today I accomplished the alcove.

YAY!

From October 2011

See Morgan

From Drop Box

See Morgan.

See  Morgan run around.

See Morgan feed her children McDonalds.

A lot. 

See Morgan clean walls and carpets.

See Morgan steam clean bathrooms.

See Morgan realize the city utility workers exploded sewage into her bathroom. Again.

See Morgan weep. 

Weep Morgan Weep. 

See Morgan clean and clean. 

See Morgan's children track mud into the house. 

See Morgan threaten death. 

See Morgan spend Thursday-Monday at the old house. \

See Morgan sit. 

Sit Morgan sit. 

See Morgan ignore the boxes begging to be unpacked. 

See Morgan promise to unpack them tomorrow. 

See Morgan go to bed. 

Sleep Morgan sleep. 

Oh wait. 

See Morgan get up to tend Ezra in the night. 

Tired tired Morgan. 

(Writing my name that much makes it look WEIRD!)

Well Hello Internet!

Hi there.

Have I mentioned that moving is NOT my favorite? We got the internet today! WOOHOO! And I did not unpack a single box today. Nope. I made applesauce instead. It was of vital importance!

And we're not totally out of the other house yet either.

Oh awesomeness. All around!

The number of times I considered arson in the past few days... well, I won't say.

Here some photos for your viewing pleasure:

(You're welcome!)

Baby in a Box: A must when moving.

From October 2011

Every door had to come off the old house to get all our crap out!

From October 2011

Crap in the yard.

From October 2011

Boys riding bikes in the new driveway. People here drive by and SLOW down when they see my kids out in the grass or driveway. They are most likely judging me and my parenting for allowing them in the front, but I'm RIGHT THERE and I appreciate the slow driving nonetheless. 

So we're alive. I'm afraid tomorrow, I'll really have to unpack some boxes but for tonight, I'm going to bake and eat brownies while I wait for Derek to come home from his job... which is now only a few minutes away. Oh yes. that is OKAY BY ME! 

Over and Out.

From October 2011

Happy Tears

Today we headed over to the NEW house instead of packing boxes at the old house because I am trying to be organized. My goal was to UNpack the kitchen that I PACKED yesterday.

Keep up people, I move at the speed of the puma.

So, I'm unpacking and napping babies and letting my children watch more TV in the past days than they have watched all summer.

From October 2011

It's AWESOME.

So, anyway, I'm unpacking the kitchen, and I can't keep from smiling.

I have MORE room than I know what to do with.

Seriously.

Try to understand what I'm saying: I have too much cupboard space.

It practically brings tears to my eyes.

Yes, they are UGLY BROWN cupboards. But they are plentiful.

Yes, the rent is so high that I might have to donate plasma just to STOCK the cupboards.

But there are TONS OF THEM.

Also, please observe what happens when you ask your baby to take a nap in a strange place on the floor:

From October 2011 "Hey, who's that handsome dude over there?"

"I will now kiss that handsome dude straight on the mouth."

From October 2011

DO not be fooled. He only stayed that way for 20 minutes. Then cried all afternoon and my unpacking was DONE!

A HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT

If you have been a reader of this here little space for really more than a year, you know I'm always making HUGE announcements. 90% of those huge announcements are either pregnancy or relocation.

Which is it today?

Pregnant?
or
Moving?

Pregnant?
or
Moving?

Pregnant
or
Moving?



MOVING!

We're packing up and headed to a new house nearer (MUCH NEARER) to Derek's work(s) (ALL OF THEM!)

We're trading low rent for closer proximity.

It's all good.

I'm going to go cry into my boxes now.

Peace ya'll.

Phew!

Blogging on one's phone is not the best.

We have moved. It was ridiculously hot (114) the day we moved and incredibly exhausting.I have decided we are never moving again. I told Derek to just bury me on the back porch when I go because we will live in this little townhouse indefinitely.

We are all sick with summer colds. Also not my favorite thing.

My little sister came to help us move, and we were so glad she could come!

Then my dear friend Maren came through town with her boys and her dad. I hadn't seen her since Henry was six months old! We stayed out way too late and ate cheesecake. YUM!

All in all, we are alive, well except our 'puter. I'll keep you posted. Hahaha! "Posted" hahan get it? On a blog, posted! Ha!