Generations

Bryan got home from work early enough to setup the TV. It's been sitting in a box next to the empty TV cabinet for the last three weeks. Now we are having a good old fashioned movie night. Sophie and Phoebe are already in their beds. Cooper is trying to finish cleaning the playroom, so Peter is the only kid currently watching the movie. It was Bryan's pick and he chose a movie from one of his favorite fictional universes.

He and Peter are sitting next to each other, Peter asking questions about space travel and various alien species that he's seeing. Bryan has a look of delight on his face. I think this is how other dads feel when they take their sons to sporting events or take them fishing. Bryan is sharing something he loves with Peter.

I enjoy this movie, but the father/son show is even better.

Sitting at Attention

Fan Club

Bryan has been working very long days, which means I've been working long days as well. It also means that I don't get to shower before he leaves in the morning. Somewhere there are children that play nicely while their mother gets cleaned up, but those kids do not live at my house. So no shower before Bryan goes usually means no shower at all.

Tonight after Bryan was home and the kids were asleep I finally got to shower. While I was finishing I heard Sophie wake up crying. I came out of the bathroom to find Bryan sitting on the bed, holding a now quiet Sophie. He leaned over and whispered, "Sophie, look who's here."

She looked up and did three things all at once: she grinned, she waved her arms in excitement, and she stood. All together, it looked like she launched herself off of Bryan in her eagerness to get to me.

It's nice to be appreciated.

Missing

Has anyone seen my keys? I've looked everywhere I can think of here (including all the trashcans), so it stands to reason that they must have fallen into a tear in the universe. If you find them, please let me know.

That is all.

The Punchline

Continental

The number of things broken in this house is laughable. In addition to garage doors that don't work, a wall of mold in the basement, and an untethered toilet, the dishwasher is broken. This means that we've been using paper dishes for our meals. It also means I've been preparing foods that don't dirty too many items. We've consumed lots of chicken nuggets, French fries, and pasta.

Tonight as I opened a bag of frozen goodness, I noticed something. The brand, America's Choice, is not one that I was familiar with in the west. It appears to be generic, like Great Value or Western Family.  I realized the name America's Choice was a bit misleading though. Look closely at the picture and you'll understand why.

Toothy Grin

Someday I hope to have internet again. Blogging from my phone is a tedious process. We had lots of adventures on our journey across the country and I'd really love to record them, but it's simply not practical without the use of my computer.

Until then, I will tell you about Sophie's latest milestone. After months of teasing and swollen gums, she finally cut her first tooth. At eight-months-old she is my latest teether. However, she is also my best-tempered teether, so maybe doing things a little later is working well for her. I haven't been able to get a picture yet, but the kids are all witnesses to the existence of the pearly white.

Nature's Lullaby

It's raining. This isn't a Washington kind of storm that gets heavy for a minute or two them goes back to misting/spitting on you. No, this is an actual thunder and lighting storm with lots of heavy rain. The rest of my household is asleep for the night and I'm listening to it through my open window.

Lovely.

Recess

"Mom, Your Phone is Yelling at You."

The GPS on my phone has been working overtime here. I can now find Bryan's work, Home Depot, and the freeway... and that's about it. Part of the reason I'm having such a hard time (aside from my normal inability to find my way out of a paper bag) is that there are so many trees here you can't really see any landmarks. I love trees. I think they're beautiful. But wow, they are hard to see through.

A bridge is closed in town and my GPS doesn't know, so tonight we took the looooong way around to get Peter to cub scouts. I glanced at the route before we left home. A few minutes into the drive we heard the dreaded words, "GPS signal lost." I kept driving. He was late, but I did okay just remembering and guessing where we should go.

On the way home I decided to risk it and just follow the detour signs instead of the GPS. You know what? It was a much easier drive than the first one had been. That lady that lives in my phone and gives me directions doesn't always know what she's talking about.

Lucky Thirteen

My sister Paige flew out from California to help us move in. She has been wonderful. Because she has been here, we are nearly unpacked, the boys are registered for school, and we all got library cards today. Our house is still in chaos, but there is an end in sight.

Another great thing Paige did: she watched the three big kids tonight so Bryan and I could go on a date. Today we celebrated our thirteenth wedding anniversary. And for the first time since 2011, we were in the same state on this special day. Sophie, Bryan, and I patronized a delicious hole-in-the-wall Italian place while Paige and the kids watched a movie at home.

Thanks Paige!

And happy anniversary Bryan!

In Costume

"I'm the mom, so you have to follow my rules."

Fresh As a Daisy

We have hot water! And my kids don't stink anymore! And we ate dinner sitting at our own table!

I'm going to turn a blind eye to everything else that still isn't done and call today a win.

One Down

The playroom is unpacked. The kids' bedrooms are kind of unpacked. My room hasn't been touched.

This is taking much longer than we anticipated due to the fact that the house was not clean when we got here. My sister (bless her wonderful heart for coming to help us) and I have spent a lot of time scrubbing walls and mopping floors. And the list of repairs needed on the house keeps growing. It turns out, because of some health problems, the owner hasn't been to the property in five years. It shows.

Still no internet, but we are finally getting hot water tomorrow!

Update

We have our stuff!

But still no internet.

Or hot water.

Status

We're in New Jersey!

We don't have internet yet.

Or hot water.

Or most of our stuff.

I hope to have all three soon.

Left and Right

Focus

A Splash of Color

Black and White

Click

I had a hard time deciding what I wanted for my birthday this year. I'm not really into stuff, and if I really need something, I save my pennies and get it. Poor Bryan asked me several times before I came up with an idea. I take lots of pictures of the kids, and most of those pictures are taken on my phone. Sometimes the pictures turn out great, but sometimes they're a blurry mess. So I told him that it would be nice to have a camera that took better pictures.

About a week after my birthday, my new camera arrived. It's fancy, but sturdy. This is good because I tend to drop stuff and swing things into walls. I'm really enjoying it.

While we are traveling across the country this week, I'm going to share my favorite pictures from the fiddling I've done so far. Maybe I'll have some travel adventures to report next week, but starting tomorrow, enjoy four straight days of pictures.

And maybe send happy thoughts our way as we travel, crammed into our car, to a whole new coast.

So Long, Washington

Our time in Washington is over. That year flew by. As we head out on our new adventure, I've been thinking about what I'll miss and what I won't miss.

I won't miss

• The oppressive rain. I like rain, but the cloud cover here is kind of unreal. I didn't realize how much we all needed the sun until we were without it for sooooooo long.
• The loud and echo-y downstairs of our house.
• The skin-tearing jaggedness of our back patio and driveway.
• The stink bugs.

I will miss

• The upstairs of our house. The layout is perfect.
• The libraries. The library system here is huge and wonderful. And they don't charge late fees, which has come in handy a few times. 
• The mild weather. This sounds like it's in opposition to what I said above about the rain, but it's not. The weather is never hot, it's rarely too cold. Add some sunshine and you'd have Oceanside weather, which is probably why I like it.
• The smell of the trees and plants. It smells like the west coast, which I still think of as home. 
• The people. I will miss the people most of all. 

Thanks for the year, Washington.

New Jersey, here we come!