A small list of adventures.

As of Thursday of this week, we will have been here 4 weeks! Sunday marks the 1 month since our abrupt move from California. For those of you who don’t follow my obsessive posting of photos on Facebook, here is a small list of the adventures we have had since arriving.

• We moved here! Family and friends helped us enormously, and I’d like to take the time to thank them publicly: my in-laws, Daryl and Laurie; my best friend, Jackie; our former roommate and “uncle” to our kids, Dan; and to our very good friend and “uncle” to our kids, JT.
• We bought a fridge! I felt very grown-up going into Sears and buying it with the help of Jackie and Dan.
• Our rental house is huge, and it’s great. We had some issues when we first moved in, but they have mostly all been resolved now.
• We weren’t able to go to church the first Sunday we were here because both kids hurled at the breakfast table! But they recovered quickly after that. However, the next day, I injured my back! It came on slowly, and got worse and worse throughout the day. I’m not sure if I injured it earlier in the move, or what, but I was incapable of standing up straight and had nerve pain, tingling, and numbness down my arms and legs. I spent most of that first week on the couch with an ice pack. 😦 It still twinges and twitches, but I do sciatic nerve stretches every day and ice it occasionally.
• When we finally did make it to church, we were welcomed warmly, and encouraged immensely. I joined the Christmas choir, and Byron is enjoying his Sunday School class. The church (Westside Bible Church) is set up very similarly to our old church, with The Lord’s Supper in the morning, then Sunday School, then Family Bible Hour. An energetic and loving assembly of the Lord’s saints! It was very soothing for my soul.
• Preston is really enjoying his job. It’s hard work, and long hours, but he’s getting along with the team and learning lots. He comes home exhausted and FILTHY every day, but after a shower and some dinner, he relaxes with me and the kids and hears about their daily adventures.
• I’ve started up “school” for Byron again. He’s able to write his name now, and can write all the letters of the alphabet from memory, although he often mixes up his M’s and N’s. (Seriously, though – WHO THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO PUT THEM RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER?) He does puzzles, shape matching, coloring, tracing, deductive reasoning, among other tasks.
• We got library cards! Byron got his own, and he’s very excited about using it. We will be going to the preschool story times during the week. I will update later with that.
• We celebrated Byron’s birthday last week (9/14). He turned 5! I’m not sure when he got so big. 🙂 Uncle Dan came up as a surprise for Byron (which honestly, was a bust. Dan got in at 11PM, so Byron was already in bed when Dan got to our house. The next morning, Dan walked out of the guest room, and Byron took it all in stride: “Oh hi, Uncle Dan. Look, I’m playing video games with Daddy!” No shock or surprise whatsoever.) and I decorated his door with balloons so that when he opened his door, they would all fall down on him (another bust! He woke up 15 minutes before my alarm went off, and crawled into my bed. “Mommy, why are there balloons all over my door?” A plaintive whine. Sigh.). We went to the Warhawk WWII Air Museum. A beautiful collection of WWII artifacts and memorabilia! Some WWI and some Korea and Vietnam artifacts as well. Very cool. Then off to Cabela’s in Boise. HUGE. LOTS OF STUFF. The amount of things that would not fly in California’s politically correct environment were present as well, and I honestly was a little bit culture-shocked. 🙂 Afterwards, we went to dinner and then home. The next we went to church, went home and hung out, ate dinner, then presents and cupcakes (brownie cupcakes with marshmallow frosting. More on that later.)
• We have a really great farmer’s market here. Lots of organic and chemical-free produce and meats. Very fun.
• Edith has gotten 3 teeth since we got here! She was pretty crabby the first couple of weeks we were here, just adjusting to everything and the pain of her top two teeth coming in. One tooth poked through, but the other was stubbornly still covered by gums. She dramatically sliced open her gums by smashing her face into our coffee table on the 13th. At first, I thought she had only bonked her head (which she is doing constantly) and thought nothing of her crying, murmuring comforting words as I went to pick her up. As I lifted her, blood was dripping from her face, all over her nose and lips. My initial thought was that she had broken her nose! However, once Preston had helped me clean her up, we realized that only her mouth was bleeding and it slowed down quickly. A few days later, another tooth poked through unexpectedly! She is up to 5 teeth now.
• We went to an air show this past weekend. Beautiful planes, amazing aerobatics, and a wonderful time with the kids. Edith slept most of the show. Pictures to come soon!

I will write some more detailed posts later. For now, a summary!