We've Moved...

Well, it's been a week since we loaded ourselves on an airplane from Seattle bound for the other side of the country... with little plans to return. The week has been a busy one. Last week Wednesday, the packers arrived and packed everything up into boxes. The following day, the moving truck arrived and the movers took all of our belongings away. Friday morning, bright and early, we went to the Seattle airport (with some friends who helped us get our luggage from the curb to the counter) to head to Baltimore. The airport was chaotic, with kids, and bags and dogs and laptops. It took us about 10 minutes just for our family of four to get through security!! We got to the gate just as they were calling our names over the loud speaker (as they'd just boarded everyone else). We carried ourselves, our 4 carryon bags, 2 dogs and 1 baby and 1 toddler all the way to the BACK of a fully seated aircraft where the dogs didn't initially fit under the seats of the plane (as it was a bit of a smaller plane than we thought it would be). But finally, we were all seated, and the door was closed, and the plane proceeded to take off and fly 4hours and 45 minutes to our destination.

Since Friday afternoon, we've been living out of suitcases, in a hotel. And what an adventure this has been in and of itself. Kids with little or no naps, and going to bed WAY too late. Finnegan seems to be growing like a weed, as he wants a snack every time we turn around (or this is his coping mechanism for all the change). And Penelope has developed a horrible enough cold for me to make a call to our old doctor who encouraged me to find a pediatrician here and have her seen before the weekend.

We've been busy preparing for our home goods to arrive as well. We took ownership of house #2 on Tuesday (i know, I own 2 houses, one on each coast of the country -- not my initial idea of what we'd be doing with our money at this stage in the game). We've been visiting it each night to do work and prepare it for our things to arrive. We had originally been told that the house had been cleaned. If it had, I don't want that person near it again! The house IS NOT clean, as the previous owner had a HUGE shedding dog, and there is dog hair EVERYWHERE!! On the walls, on the floor, in the corners... everywhere. And simply disgusting if you ask me! I suppose it's one thing if it's your dog. But if it's someone elses dog, that's where I draw the line! Ken has successfully taken down all of the wall paper boarders in 3 of the rooms and we've started painting. And oh, the amount of work that we CAN'T get done with kids around!! UGH!! I've already begun to figure out the finances to see if we can have someone else paint the rest of the house... these are bigger projects than I imagined! I had this beautiful dream that we'd get the living room/kitchen area painted before the furniture arrived, and that we'd be almost done with the kids rooms... at least one of them at least! And in actuality, we are only half done priming the living room/kitchen area! Oh man, this is really gonna be a long project. But the positive is that once we're in the house permanently, we won't have to leave at the end of the night, and the kids can go to bed and we can get some good work in while they're sleeping.

We're finding out more and more what REAL home ownership is about... This house needs so much more work. There is still a small threat of mice. We'll see if they return once there's food in the house EEWW!! The yard is in shambles, and needs a lot of attention (i think) and obviously, we'd like the painting to be updated. The basement could be finished for some extra living space. It also needs some new exterior doors and sliding glass doors.

I'll try to post some travel photos in a few days once we are in the house and have some internet access.

Move in day is tomorrow and we're pretty excited about that!