I am have my wireless internet hooked up and am a HAPPY mom again. Back to my email, online shopping, and blogging.
It's been a while, here's a quick recap:
Aug. 14, closed on the house, moved in with only our suitcases we'd been traveling with and some air mattresses, a porta-crib, and a few blankets from a very nice family we met at church. Thank goodness for a few church friends, I swear I'd have no friends this move if it weren't for church. Every other move I've always had insta-friends....Arkansas, I had other law school-wifes waiting for me, Japan, I already knew a few people and living on base it was totally easy, but this move I can tell is going to be a little trickier.....living on a country road with neighbors not so close (which totally has it's benefits).....but since I'm COMPLETELY engrossed in DIYing this house, I've been fine so far with out many friends, no time. I have however met 3 neighbors, one single woman across the street who doesn't help the skunk problem because she feeds them!! She's very nice though and tells great stories. The other two however were not as pleasant. One stopped by after we'd been in the house only 2 hours and had not gotten the boundaries down yet, and Jakey had ventured out into the road. She stopped by to yell at me. The other was a mother of a girl the girls met and played with.....long story short, she wasn't all that friendly either after she found out I'd mentioned to my "nice neighbor" that her daughter was disrespectuful to Adam and I, and rude to Isaac. She is was quite sure it was just that Adam is very "militant". Yeah, that was it lady. It couldn't have been your daughter.
So, 1 out of 3, not too bad, right? Can't win them all.

The yard has been very enjoyable. The kids have been having a great time running wild with no one but the horses behind to bother. The dog was LOVING the yard and horses behind, til a week and a half ago when we got the invisable fence hooked up and collar on, and she got zapped a few times. I thought we were going to have to get doggy couseling to get her through it. It would take her hours to quit shaking. She wouldn't go outside for anything. Not even to go to the bathroom. She wouldn't touch a ball. It was so sad! So then we watched the video to see what we'd done wrong. Pretty much everything...we didn't realize all the training that should have been involved first before she actually got shocked...so now we're trying to backtrack and redo it all...
So life wasn't quite chaotic enough remodeling a house with 5 kids and a big dog, so we decided to let Sarah get the kitten she's been begging for for years. 8 week old "Fiona" is running around amidst it all now too. She's very cute, grey with a white nose and white socks, and a little yellow and green paint on her paws as well.

Back to the remodeling....I took a ton of before pics of the house, and have been taking pics every step of the way... knocking out walls, adding support posts in the basement, removing and then re-tiling the bathroom, sheet rocking, adding lights, texturing walls, and painting walls. After 11 years of and watching DIY and H&G tv, but never being able to paint a single wall because we were renters, we are FINALLY putting all those useful skills we aquired to work. As soon as we get our other computer hooked up, I can post some pics. Only 2 weeks and it's already come a long way. This weekend's project is going to be leveling the kitchen floor, then retiling it. (Yikes, that means taking out cupboards and everything. )Then finally on to refinishing the downstairs hardwoods after that. THEN, we can move on the to upstairs. I don't know how long I can keep this up, hopefully a little longer though, because I don't see an end in sight for at least a month!!

Aug. 11, 2007
We made it!!

and I can honestly say it wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. The first 2 days we pushed pretty hard with as little stops as possible, and one hotel night from HELL, but the second 2 days weren't that bad, we had a few fun stops planned and fewer miles to count down. Don't get me wrong, we TOTALLY had our moments, a few pooppy diapers that took some real skill changing in the car, but, we all made it, even the dog attatched to the back of the Suburban. For all of you who thought we'd get pulled over or she'd hate it, we didn't get pulled over even once and she actually seemed to enjoy it, and would get in her crate willingly after stops.

Our first fun stop was Sunday afternoon at Kirtland, Ohio, a Mormon church history site we'd never been to before. Then that night we hit Niagra Falls from the US side. We didn't want to try to cross the border with Duchess. The next morning we stopped at Palmyra, New York, another church history site. Then we pushed on for the 4th and final day, arriving in Newport around 10pm on Monday July 30.
Before checking in to the Navy Lodge, we wanted to drive by our new/old house and check it out. As we drove by Isaac, who had worked his way out of his carseat and onto the console between Adam and I up front, said, "I think I'm going to cry". It kind of took us off gaurd, everyone else was bouncing off the car walls we were so happy. Then Adam asked him, "Because you're happy or sad?" He replied, "Happy".

From there we drove the Navy Lodge, and that's where we've been staying ever since...all in 1 room together. Hopefully only 3 more days though. We should close on the house on Tuesday. We made it through inspections, and more negotiations, and then back and forth a few times on those negotiations, but finally all should be set to go Tuesday morning. Today we've just got to get a few things like phone, electricity, and internet set up. I tried to stay busy this last week to make the time pass....I tried to make the kids sleep till 9 every Amorning, then we'd try to get out to let the maid clean our room...one day to the children's museum in Providence, one day to library and to check out their new school, several hours at petco while it was rainy with Duch, 2 days school clothes shopping. Memo to self, never take the boys school clothes shopping w/us girls ever again, it was painful, but our only option seeing that Adam is back to work and I don't know many people to swap with yet.