Ringing Out The Old And Ringing In The New

With the move it seems like Christmas and New Years happened months and months ago. They were both fairly uneventful and we didn't do as much with the kids (teaching them about traditions and explaining the holidays to them) as we could/should have. Here are just a few highlights. (I wrote part of this several days ago so if it seems disjointed, well-it probably is and I'm just too tired to fix it. Keep your fingers crossed that the blog gets back to normal as the days progress)

Ringing Out The Old

It was a bitter sweet move, saying good bye to the apartment was fast and unorganized. Usually we are pretty organized in our moves and are able to pack in just a few days. This move was a whole different animal. The day after Christmas we packed up our decorations and started packing a little. Let’s just say that on Friday the 28^th at 3 pm we closed on the house and I think we had a total of 8 boxes packed, Jason stayed up all night packing and got the majority of it done by morning. A few guys from our church came over Saturday morning to help Jason at 9 am, while the kids and I went over to our new neighbor’s house to play. At noon Jason called it quits for a break and sent the guys home. At 3pm he started again, packing bringing stuff over to the house. I believe he finished around 4am. Monday we moved the last of the stuff and were glad to say good bye to the old place. That was the oldest apartment we’ve lived in but I have to say that the management and maintenance staff were better than any other place we’ve lived. We’ll certainly miss having a handyman to fix things with just a phone call and a weekly scheduled lawn maintenance as well as morning strolls from the staff to pick up all the random trash on the grounds. I’ll also miss all their bright faces and greetings of “good morning” every morning we met.

We also said good bye to a few bad habits, like having Abygail in the bed with us. More news on the NEW STATE OF THE NIGHTS to come.

Ringing In The New

Along with the New Year we are now enjoying MUCH, MUCH more space. I am acclimating myself to the small kitchen (it’s bigger than the old one but still too small for more than one person to occupy at one time). Upstairs we have a HUGE master bedroom, with a tiny nursery next door, a large storage closet in the attic and a space just for Darwin (the cat). Downstairs is our kitchen, breakfast nook, dinning room, library, large living room and mud room. Our car was finally able to spend it’s first night in the garage on Friday (the 4^th). In the basement we have a workshop, laundry room, storage room and a future play room once we finish cleaning and complete some repairs.

On the third night after move in we finally had all the beds in their proper rooms and set up. That night Abygail slept in her bed, it was a very rough night but we all made it through. It’s been hit and miss since then, never making it through a whole night with out waking up but she’s stayed in her bed until morning. It’s nice to have the extra room in our bed. (any guesses on how long it will take us to get pregnant? it also seems that it's in the water around here, while disconnected for a week and a half I am reading blogs and finding out the two of our friends here in Buffalo have announced they are prego!)

Jackson is no longer just pulling up to things, he has figured out how to get back down and he’s just getting everywhere. It’s just a little bundle of joy. He loves to laugh and smile all the time. He also climbed up two stairs so far. (we’ve got to get some gates up on those!) Abygail fell half way down the stairs on the first day. We’ve set up some rules for the stairs but they are still a big temptation for her.

Plans for the future/Wish list:

• Replacing all the insulation (well, really there is none so we’ll be putting some in)
• Scraping and painting EVERYWHERE (the upstairs hasn’t seen a fresh coat of paint since the place was built 60 yrs ago and the downstairs was painted very sloppily)
• Remodeling the kitchen (set for March, during spring break)
  
• Changing the large storage closet in the attic to a master bathroom
• Removing all the nasty brush along the fence line in the back yard and by the house
• Plant a garden in the back
• Clean and repair gutters and down spouts
• Clean siding and paint as needed
• Remodel basement
• Replace all windows
• Update windows in basement to glass block (security and energy savers)
• Remodel downstairs bath
• Install carpet upstairs
• Replace carpet downstairs
• Put addition over garage
• Extend out the nursery

So far Jason has been busy with things everyday: installing a new thermostat, fixing light switches, installing a garage door opener, learning from the electrician how to install a 220 line, cleaning, unpacking, demo-ing part of the basement, installing washer and dryer, installing dryer vent. He's been to Home depot 3 times now and still has at least one more trip planned before school starts on Monday. AND we still have to get the car into the shop for it's $6,000.00 repair job for the accident (3 days before Christmas!!!).

Additionally we said goodbye to a speedier internet and downgraded to a slower connection because it's cheaper so videos and pics are taking a bit longer to post, I'm quite inpatient so you may see less of those.