I Like This Ship!

It's exciting!!!

What a whirlwind!
The two big boys (that'd be my husband and my oldest son) left for a "Take Two" on the cross country adventure the very same day we got our keys to our new home.  That means the girls (plus a lil bird) got to unpack our move all by ourselves with our super awesome new church family.  What a blessing it was to get plugged in right away!  They really made our transition warm.

So we got our stuff, and it was like Christmas.  We hadn't seen much of it in 18+ months and I must say, I was pleased at how little-what in the world do I have this for?-stuff we had.  After going through every box, I only had one large donations box!  Yeah! There is a place for everything, and everything actually means something.  That is very exciting.  We got almost everything unpacked in under a week, despite the nasty fever/snot/cold virus that attacked us as our welcome gift.

I always think it is fun to know the very first new purchase in a new house.  Sometimes it's a rug, sometimes a paper towel holder.  This time, it was a plunger and it wasn't me 'nuf said.

So, the boys missed out on all the unpacking (that means I got to put everything exactly where I wanted it) but the girls were all scared with no one to protect us.  There are no curtains on the back side of the house and our dog doesn't like (that is putting it mildly) the cats the owner of our new house was feeding  (They all ran away now, save one.  She is holding out that I'll let her sneak in the front door and then pet her mangey backside) and the dog sounds like a rabid wolf when she decides to inform the cats she wants them to leave the back patio. That is an alarming sound when you are almost asleep, but quite comical in the middle of the day (think Scooby-Doo running on wood floor).

I love it.  I absolutely love the new house.
I have been meaning to share pictures, but I was holding out for when it looked all perfect.  Perfect, like THIS. But then I remembered that would be a lie.  I have 6 children.  I am ok with that.  My house is a mess.  I am still learning to be ok with that.

Open kitchen.  Running hot water.  Amazingness.
I'll have to take pictures of the upstairs and the guest room later so that is all you get for now...

So the boys had a good trip coming back.  Minus the part where their van broke down.
In the middle of Nowhere, Texas.
On a Saturday night.
As in, auto shops aren't open on Sunday so you are stuck in the middle of Nowhere, Texas Saturday night.  I was stressed.
But, they are easy going, they slept in the van and made faces at each other

until Grandpa showed up to tow them (400 miles) so they didn't have to wait in Nowhere, Texas for four days while the van got fixed...

Then they got held up because of some snow. The snow that the Whidbey locals said didn't exist...

9 inches of-Whidbey doesn't get snow, and Whidbey doesn't have a plow-snow...

So they spent and extra day at Aunt and Uncles house near Seattle.  We missed them sorely. But the dog sure enjoyed it.

Moving to Whidbey has been very expensive.  Like, more than what the Navy pays us expensive.  Two broken vans, ridiculous gas prices, RV park rent... not what we had planned on spending our tax return on... but,

But we are loving it here! This place is great. and we haven't even gotten out yet.  We are so excited about what God has in store for us here.