I am excited to write. I have my computer back, although something is still wrong with our internet connection or our computer, and it is SUPER slow. Super, meaning UBER slow.
Sydney used the word uber today and I liked it.
Anyway, I have a few pictures that I will post here. The rest I will take tonight or tomorrow once we hang pictures on the wall and then post them.
I can't believe we live here now! It has been an interesting process. Days 1-3 were complete chaos. Notice the kids hands and faces in these pictures. I felt like that too. We all wanted to scream and faint and then punch each other. Brett had to go to work and so we were all totally lost trying to scoot around boxes, etc. When he came home at night, for a few days he was greeted with blank exhausted stares and silent "YOU! You made us do this! You have been gone all day!" from everyone.
Finally, around day 3, we turned a corner. I was able to apologize to Brett on behalf of all of us. We had a little family council/meeting and decided we were not going to be negative anymore. Things were going to get better if we decided to make it work. Then it really did happen. I can't explain what it was other than enough stuff got put in enough places to get enough boxes out of the way that we could function. We finally had a table that was clear enough to eat on. We could find forks, sheets and Kate's toys. Enough to live.
Then the girls went to Youth Conference and Spencer found a job. When I picked the girls up a few days later, they were happy. They had met great girls who they really liked and they have been facebooking, going places, texting, etc. ever since. The girls in the ward here all hang out together and have welcomed both girls right off. Sydney has two instant "cousins" her age!
Spence works at a baseball camp throwing balls to little kids. Luckily, the main requirement is being fun with little kids, so even though he never played baseball, he is qualified. Brett is trying to get used to the commute. It takes an hour. He leaves at 8 and gets home about 7:30. He is still coming home and attacking the boxes, setting up internet, or other non-relaxing stuff. I can't wait until he is coming home for a swim before dinner or to swing in the hammock with Kate. I can't wait to have a hammock.
Then Darcy came. Cue angels singing as sunbeams break through the cloudy sky. Every day this week has been organizing, throwing away, decorating, cleaning, more organizing, and then swimming. We also have been to Santa Monica Pier and 3rd Street Promenade and the "best hamburger place in L.A." dubbed by Brad Kofford. To get there, we drove through South Pasadena and San Marino, which has the most picturesque homes and streets I have seen in California, maybe even America (minus the horse farms of Kentucky on the Blue Grass Parkway or the homes in Lexington, MA).
Our house seems so much bigger now that our furniture is in it. I know that seems opposite, but it is true. I am being creative with storage, with Darcy's immense help, and things are fitting. The yard is the best part. The first layer has a patio for eating and grass for more outdoor seating. The picture below shows the stairs going to the second level, which has the swing set and slide, and then the pool is on top. In the front yard, there is yard enough for the tramp and lots of parking. I love it. One funny thing....upon perusing the grounds, I have probably found 30 various yard um, objects? yard statues? peeking out from under bushes, around trees. These have included ducks, frogs churning butter, porcupines, wheelbarrows, kneeling deer, a bear and little people. You name it, it's in this yard. It has made me so happy to stumble upon find after find. The only thing missing was a gnome. Most of them are now happily in a pile in the garage.
Finally, the ward has been awesome. We have had food from the very first day, playing invites, dinner invites, visitors with brownies, etc. There are lots of great families close by who I know we will get to know better. A lot of the guys in the ward go surfing on Saturday mornings, kind of like guys playing basketball in Utah. Brett and Spencer want to do this, maybe starting this Saturday.
I realize this sounds so cheer and happy. Believe me, there are moments of loneliness, mostly when I'm driving in my car in this new town by myself listening to a song that reminds me of home or memories, which is pretty much any song on my playlist. Those are melancholy sad little moments. But the human spirit wants to be happy and I am happy.
Just a creepy baby picture on some vegan baby munchies I saw while perusing Whole Foods recently. Seriously, I want to meet the owners of this company who signed off on this photo. I think I would like them, because I think they would have to be quite funny--the type of people who just don't take life too seriously. "Wouldn't it be funny if we use THIS photo as the cover of these munchies?! Ha ha Bob, let's do it! Oh man. har har. No, make his eyes bigger. Ha yeah that's good! ha ha"
