It's Wild Here

cold Easter

So, I'm still waiting for my new battery charger to come in the mail. The charger was one of a few move-related losses. I'm sure it's going to turn up, but in the meantime, no camera?? I don't think so.  Since I have nothing new, here's my annual favorite Easter joke for your amusement.

In other camera news, we bought J a new camera yesterday, as well as some slacks, nice shirt, and casual shoes, so that he will be ready for his big trip to D.C. with Grammy.  Over the past several months they've discussed visiting many different places and I'm not sure exactly what's been settled on.

Since December, JJ has endured a dramatic emotional rollercoaster over a highly anticipated video game. Super Smash Bros. Brawl has been finally released after two very long postponements. For 3+ months, we counted the days - he, because he was counting, and I, because double-checked with me daily how much longer we had to wait. It didn't arrive as expected from Amazon for several days, at which point we finally decided to buy it at a local store and return the Amazon order. We all exhaled with relief that the game was here and the build-up was over. Sleepless nights could end (not kidding!). 

But no.  The game would not work in the Wii - it had some kind of common problem that needed fixing in order to play this game. J had to send the Wii and game back to Nintendo (at Nintendo's cost) and get it repaired. He had another week to wait. Fortunately, Nintendo was fast and offered detailed tracking of the progress of the repair and the shipping.  We stalked the tracking site. At 11:04 am on Friday, he checked the site, which said the package had been delivered at 10:56am.  He checked the porch, and voila! 

Do you think this story is over? Oh no.  The game  worked for about an hour. Then the Wii was knocked off the table and it no longer played any games. It was looking like the Wii would have to be sent for repair again. J and his sleepover friend rented a movie and consoled themselves. The next morning, sleepover friend came dashing up the stairs announcing "IT WORKS NOW!"  In typical weird-technology fashion, the Wii decided it would now work, and it has worked since. I hesitate to say this, but it looks like the saga might actually be coming to a close.

new house

On the one nice day we had, the boys discovered the overly-masoned back porch. Everyone who sees is has a very wow reaction to this porch. It is very large, and well, it's an enclosed porch which is a wow to begin with, but man... all that brick and limestone is just so permanent. So, we'll probably try to reuse the limestone benches for some other purpose and have them removed so we can use regular porch furniture back there.  The wood stove/grill is apparently quite a hazard.  I do hope we can find some way to use it as a wood stove so that we can extend the three seasons this room is useful.

This was the first little corner of the house to feel settled and tidy. It was a small oasis in a sea of chaos and boxes. 

Unfortunately, it remains one of the few picked-up areas. As soon as the moving-in status arrived at UnpackedEnoughToFunction, I started getting back into the routine I largely abandoned when this whole selling/moving ordeal began: bread-baking, knitting, cooking meals, playing with the children. And that has been wonderful, except that this moving-in status is quite unfinished and really must end soon. We are not the types who can keep unpacking  boxes for months.  So, this weekend...  focused box-emptying. But for now, it means more nice pictures.

Knit with knitpicks wool, using the Cisco pattern from Berroco. The little ears turned out more like tiny horns than perky ears, but I like it anyway.

First bread of the new house (made with a new stand mixer, woot! I love this thing)

The Buddha's (probably temporary) home in the front  bay window. The kids enjoy sitting up there with him (and they never, ever, leap from the window onto the couch, of course).  I happened to get this picture as the cross-country kids ran by; we have a steady stream of pedestrians on this road as we did on our old street. A decidedly different generation of pedestrians, however. We lived previously on the favorite walking street for seniors; now we're near the school.

moved in!

We are here! The kitchen is 95% unpacked, bathrooms 50%, upstairs bedrooms 50%, play room done but not well-sorted, and the living room and garage are disasters! We need for March 12 to come quickly! There is drilling and hammering going on in the basement, so that the big boys will have bedrooms. Pics to come, also an actual knitting FO! Must wait for it to dry (blocking) so I can put it on the recipient for the photo.

this time 4 years ago

We had just arrived home from a lovely potluck, went to bed as usual, expecting at least another week of pregnancy, but no...

Such a sweet surprise, on a beautiful morning, in the house we're about to let go.

updates

My blogging is badly behind.  I have so many unposted photos and updates that I'm kind of paralyzed with behind-ness.

Posting a little is better than none, I know, but somehow I can't move on until I can make it complete, which is really silly. So a little is what it will be.

Jamie starts school Tuesday. Today we're meeting with his teachers. Well, he's meeting with them.

Evan has a trip to Boston on Wednesday, and our buyers are visiting to plan for their remodeling on that day and the next.

Jeremiah is going to start tumbling and/or another martial arts class soon. I'd like to get him going asap, but it may have to be after the move. He is starting indoor soccer this Saturday.

Ryan is seeming closer and closer to 4, which of course he is. Still no real progress in the potty dept, but he's doing well with things like dressing himself, drawing pictures of people and other things, and his verbal skills continue to develop.

Kellen is talking too, saying a few favorite things - Daddy, Mama, Ryan, ball, boots, water, and also signing milk, water, poop, and no. There are more but I have to rush off now...

SALE PENDING

so reads the sign outside our current house, as well as the one we plan to move into within the month. yay!

As hard as packing and moving is, I don't think it can possibly top the work of getting this house sold. I am just so glad that's over.

so incredibly behind

I hate when I'm so behind in blogging that even a flip through the calendar and downloading photos isn't enough to feel sure I got it all. Still, those are the memory tools I have, so here we go. Make yourself comfortable (or hit the back arrow) because it might be long. [updated, days later, when the post is STILL not written: this isn't long after all. I've decided to just post what I got done and keep going when I have time, which is not now.]

We're moving. The sign is in the yard, and I'm turning out to be annoyingly slow at accepting this transition. It makes me a very slow "decider" of things, such as whether to fix xyz in the house to prepare for selling, how to set our spending budget for a new house, whether to buy or build, etc.  We have the world's most patient real estate agent who is willing to totally hold my hand, which is good, because I am decidedly wimpy about all this.

So, I say all of the above because it was true for a few months, but actually I'm recently feeling a lot more decided and confident, which is why I can finally blog about it at some length ("some" meaning more than a single line of text plus a cartoon).

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A couple of weekends ago, the boys and Evan attended a lake party with Evan's old swim team buddies and their families. Most eventful for Ryan, I think, was the boat ride.

I don't have a picture of that, but I'm including this one, because it is a classic Ryan expression - used whenever he is meeting a small child or other cute creature that he really wants to squeeze.

I'll have a few more lake photos to share in the next post.