intermission over.

We've officially been in the house for 17 sleeps (can you tell I have a wee one?).  And holy moly.  In some ways it feels like we moved in yesterday.  Like the fact we have half-emptied boxes in every room.  And  paper blinds hanging on many windows.  And an empty refrigerator.  And a garage full 'o stuff.  And a basement even more full 'o stuff.

But, in other ways, it's already feeling like our home.  Like we've been here, making memories, for years.  I know that it's really our little family that makes this house a home.  That brings the love and laughter and warmth.  But I also know that all of our extended family that made themselves available to help us move, were really the ones that caused the house to overflow with love and support.  The majority of our family is four to five hours away, so building this house has meant so much more than giving us additional space and new amenities.  We finally have the room to welcome guests properly.  And to host special occasions.  And I can't wait.

So, as anxious as I am to unpack and hang things on walls and really get settled, I'm also okay with playing outside, sitting down at night to read a book or do a puzzle with E or to watch a show with my Hubby.  We're here to stay.  And all of the boxes and all of the stuff will eventually find a place.  The important thing is that we're already making memories in this house.  And it's feeling more like a home than our temporary house ever did.

As you can imagine, the past two and a half weeks have been eventful (umm, so much so that I haven't posted...whoops!).

- day 160:  Moving day!  A huge thanks to our parents, Kendall, Tootie, Donna and Connor, who came up/over/down and helped us get all of our stuff from points A (condo), B (storage unit) and C (IKEA!) to point D (lot 23).  We are beyond grateful.  And, I promise, when things settle down, I'll write a real thank you note to tell you so.

I've never packed and moved at the same time before.  I've also never allowed others to pack for me.  And I've certainly never moved a full house in a day before. It's exhausting!  Our morning started with a call from U-Haul at 6 am, letting us know that the truck we had reserved hadn't been returned because it was stuck in a field.  And, they didn't have a replacement because most of their trucks had been vandalized overnight (apparently it's the new 'thing' to break into these lots and steal catalytic converters - so sad).  Hubby was sitting for the police exam Saturday morning (perfect timing, right?), so my FIL and I loaded up and headed to the next town over, in hopes they could help us out.  Thankfully, they had a truck we could use for the day.  And I'm proud to say I've officially driven a 26' truck.  For a few blocks anyway...  The rest of the day was much less eventful.  Thank you, God.

- day 161: Started the unpacking process, installed a bunch of hardware, ran errands and did a lot of staring at boxes/cabinets/etc. feeling completely overwhelmed.  Do you know how hard it is to find things that you didn't pack?  It's kind of like Christmas every time I open a new box.

- day 162/163: I headed back to work to wrap up the quarter, but Hubby stayed home and managed contractors/answered questions.  They wrapped up the plumbing, did drywall repairs, replaced the master bedroom carpet and completed some carpentry finish work.  A busy few days!

- day 164/165: We both worked and did the best we could to continue the unpacking process at night.  A big thanks to my Dad who left behind enough food to keep us fed for the week!

- day 166: To celebrate the 10-Q being filed, I took a day off of work to work on ths house.  I really need a day off that doesn't involve work.  Like really.

- days 167-170: Lots of errands.  And more unpacking.  And a little bit of curtain hanging, pantry organizing and  laundry catch-up.  All made much more bearable by a sweet new neighbor that stopped by with a delicious plate of cookies.

- day 171: As we were getting ready to leave for work, we discovered our garage was wet.  Everything had stayed dry during the crazy amounts of rain we'd been getting, so this was quite concerning.  Upon moving back inside, we discovered that our laundry room was completely flooded.  And the powder room beside it was wet.  And the basement below was the most wet.  I'd put laundry in to wash the previous morning and was planning to switch it over to dry that morning.  But somehow, in 24 hours, a drip/leak had developed where the hose connected to the wall spiggot.  And oh.my.goodness was there water.  We're still trying to figure out what caused the problem, since I'd done at least a dozen loads of laundry without issue.  Everything is currently dried out and the washer is hooked back up, but I'm only turning the water on to do a load of laundry and then it's immediately being switched off.  Ugh.  We have to replace our wood floors in the powder room, switch out baseboards and quarter-round, and readhere the vinyl in the laundry room (and, yes, I'm now actually glad we switched from wood to vinyl in the laundry room).  Luckily, everything in the basement was in plastic bins and was salvagable.  It's always something..... 

- days 172-177: We've continued to slowly work on getting settled.  And figuring out what else needs to be done.  Even in a new house, the work is never done.

We were able to make some progress on E's room this past weekend and I'm loving it so far.  I'll do a full post soon, but here's a sneak peek for now.  My MIL made the quilt and it's absolutely perfect.

I think E's definitely getting comfy in his new space.

Our house cleaner came today and I can't tell you what a difference in makes to have the dust removed, the floors cleaned and everything shining.  Such a motivator.  She's been such a blessing to us -- and my sanity.

We've had a few non-house related distractions recently, as well.  Hubby had his wisdoom teeth removed on Friday so we tried to have a slower-paced weekend.  He did pretty well... until being diagnosed with a dry socket today.  Bummer.  While he recovered on Saturday morning, E and I went to hang out with some of our good friends.  They just welcomed another precious baby girl to their family.  And, oh my, is she sweet.  I had the lucky priviliege of taking some photos of her and her big sister and, as I've worked on editing them, I can't get over how incredibly perfect she is.  Not good for the baby fever.  Not good at all.

Also not good for the fever?  These sweet bows that I had a blast making.  I'm pretty proud of how they turned out.  And I only burned myself three times..and poked myself with a pin once.  Thank you, Pinterest!

I've also been working on reading the latest book for our neighborhood book club.  No showing up without actually reading the book this month.  Why?  Because I was silly enough to sign up to host this month.  But, I had a good reason.  I figured the ladies would give me a little more grace for having a half put together house now than they would in another nine months.  Right?  Right.  At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Now, I just need to find the serving platters, figure out a killer mixed drink and dig up some delicious appetizer recipes.  10 days and counting...