We're settling in!

We have finally started settling in to our house.  There are only two boxes that exist inside the house at the moment but if you look in the garage you will find a ton more.  It really is amazing that we have as much stuff as we do even AFTER the flood.  If we only had an attic/basement...  The house has some issues that need addressing and the landlady is working on it.  The worst probably we have is the wiring in the laundry room is corroded and if you turn on the light, it 'POPS' and trips the breaker as showers the room with sparks.  That was a lot of fun to figure out!  The rest of the issues should be easier to fix like bathroom faucets that were put on upside down (to get cold you turn it to hot) and the shower faucet is broken and needs to be replaced in the master bath.  There's no pointer to tell you where you are in the grand scheme of 'getting warmer'.

The past week really has been a blur but at least the movers showed up on time and were very nice.  It took them four hours to unload and place all of our stuff in the house.  For those of you in the military or have used movers you are familiar with the Household Goods BINGO game.  For those of you who are not familiar it is a a piece of paper with about 1000 numbers on it that correspond to stickers on your boxes and furniture.  If you are lucky, you get to play two cards because the packers have one color and the movers (the heavy lifters) have another.  Honestly, I'm sure this is just a way of placing the blame on someone for what is broken inside.  So Household Good Bingo is a fun game because the moving guys like to bring in 2-3 boxes on a dolly each time and they call out the numbers as they pass and ask you where each piece goes.  You don't want to halt the progress so you make a quick decision, and cross off the numbers that they called out only to find out that they meant WHITE 287 and not ORANGE 287.  Add on top of this the constant, "Mom what's in there? and What are they doing?" from the 3 year old and Household Good Bingo can only be won by a Mensa Society member.  The other fun game we got to play was, "This box doesn't have a tag anymore and they didn't label it game".  Every box was an adventure and we had to stop and open it to determine where it would go.  I will stop harping on the moving part (because it is in the past and I'm letting go...) as soon as I tell you that the packers were one sandwich short of a picnic.  My favorite 'labeled' box was one marked paper towels.  This box weighed about thirty pounds so I was assuming there was a case of paper towels in the box.  No, just one roll (on the top).  The game that the packers like to play, but never invite us to play, is that they throw a bunch of random stuff in the box and whatever the last thing in the box is, becomes the label.  The box I just described held odds and ends like an Iron, spray bottles, etc.  But it was labeled paper towels.  Very helpful. 

It has taken about a week to get settled in mostly because it is extremely difficult to unpack, organize, come up with a plan when a three year old wants attention and to 'do something fun'.  Doing something fun, apparently, does not include unpacking all of her toys and setting up her room.  Nor does it include such things as cleaning bathrooms, organizing the spices, or buying groceries.  So time is limited to what can be done during Toddler waking hours.

This was at about hour 3 of the movers bringing stuff in the house.  Samantha had already exhausted the options of stickers on the boxes so she decorated herself and laid on the floor.  She had to stay in the kitchen while the movers were here.

So our 'something fun' has consisted of going to a pretty awesome playground, the library, and the swimming pool.  Unfortunately, the last day of the pool season was on August 22nd which just happened to be the first day that we went.  I can see that we will be spending a lot of time there next year!

Great kid area!

We do spend at least an hour a day at the playground where Samantha has learned to climb just about everything.  She has really taken to the fireman's pole (though she still needs a little help) and anything that looks like a ladder.  This morning she found the rockwall and jungle gym and was at the top before I could get to her.  It made me nervous but she was very proud of herself!

The weather is beginning to cool off a little and the humidity has gone way down.  It was so nice the other day that Samantha and I took a lunch and ate at the picnic table after  we played.  The playground has been an interesting learning environment for the both of us.  There are always other kids around, some younger and some older, but the kids usually come with friends.  Samantha has tried to make friends, both successfully and unsuccessfully, while at the playground.  The easiest friends she has made have been with little boys as they don't really seem to care who they play with as long as you can keep up.  The little girls are very clique-ish and will often ignore Samantha when she asks them their names and one even told her NO! when Samantha asked if she wanted to play with her.  That just about broke my heart but I didn't step in (notice this is my learning environment too),  She came back to me and said, "Mom there aren't any friends here today" even though there were at least five other kids on the playground at the time.  Fortunately, about 5 minutes later another little girl named Emma came to the playground with her Grandmother and Samantha and Emma were able to play.  I was so thankful for Emma (Grandma helped push things together too!) and proud of Samantha for trying again with another friend after being rejected a couple of times that same day.  It was a good lesson but hard to watch.  On Tuesday, when we went to the playground we met a little boy named Isaiah and his little sister and his Dad.  Isaiah is Samantha's age and had a lot of fun playing with her.  However, he couldn't remember her name so he kept calling her Cowgirl Jesse from Toy Story!  It was so cute.  Hopefully we will see them again soon.

The library has been fun and Samantha has enjoyed the kid area mostly because there is a huge doll house and a train set.  We  read quite a few books while we are there but we also check some out.  Samantha was excited to bring home books and her first three selections were: Ducks Don't Wear Socks, How Do Dinosaurs Go to School, and I Feel Silly.  She was very disappointed to find out that she was not allowed to have her own library card and had to use mine.  She has to wait until she is five.  :)

Andy's job officially started on Monday and he is swamped already but I think things are going well.  The beginning of any semester is rough and it is especially tough when it is your first semester at a new school.  Not only do you have to get to know new students, but you have to become familiar with school policy, paper work, and co-workers.  Starting a new job is always stressful because you have to figure out a flow that not only works for you but those you are teaching (or managing).  However, it always works out in the end and I suspect things will begin to even out and quiet down in a couple of weeks.  Once the newness wears off.  Still no news on the job front for me so for right now, my job as Stay at Home Mom has started (and it is a lot of work!).  It's been a transition for me as well as Samantha because we aren't used to being together all day.  I think we are working out the kinks and I'm getting better at balancing "something fun" with "boring mommy stuff". 

Samantha dressed herself for the playground which included sweatpants and a purple flower in her hair.  The flower is courtesy of Miss Mary Lee.

The hair returns and it is getting ratty!  However, if you will notice she has added barrettes and other clips to fix it up.