Well, we've moved

It's funny how the place you grew up can seem so foreign and so terribly exactly familiar at the same time.

We're renting a house, a big, huge (comparatively), old (comparatively) house that echos because of the hard wood floors and lack of furniture. The carpet smells like pee (how did I not notice that?) and all 3 of my boys have been congested and sneezy since we moved in. There are boxes on nearly every horizontal surface and it takes an awful lot of planning to take a shower. The internet wasn't really hooked up and I haven't been able to work. The kitchen has an alarming lack of cabinet space and somehow I can't fit anywhere near what I fit in my tiny townhouse kitchen. The swamp cooler blocks the view from the kitchen window and the bedrooms are already hot enough to make me want to run naked down the street (kidding. an old family joke.) The apples have fallen off the tree so fast I can't keep up with chucking them to the over-growing bad-apple pile on the side of the house. Tommy has yet to sleep longer than 8 hours/night. That child NEEDS his sleep. Poor thing is miserable. And so are we.

BUT.....

When we showed up with a truckload of boxes and heavy furniture we were greeted by no less than 10 (but probably more like 15) strapping men (strangers!) ready and willing to help.

I attended the General RS Meeting with my family for the first time in (4?) years. And it was lovely.

My boys have fallen in love with my parents. All 3 of my boys. Not that they didn't like them before, but living there has only bonded them more. In ways I never dreamed. Plus I (sortof) got over my ridiculously irrational fear of swings and even let my dad give them underdogs.

Tommy and I sit on the porch during John's afternoon nap and spray the hose at the bushes, or take turns blowing bubbles until we're light-headed, or scribbling on the sidewalk with no fear of an HOA fine.

Wood floors (while creating an echo) make an AWESOME race track for cars.

A cricket which, based it's volume, must be large enough to fill Noah's Ark entirely on its own, has a nest just outside our bedroom window. I didn't realize that we'd been sleeping in silence for so long. I've missed the nighttime noises of a house surrounded by nature. (Grass! Trees! Weeds! Sprinklers! oops)

Macey's. 8 minutes from home. True story.

So like most things in life - there's balance.