We have now been in Georgia for 3 1/2 weeks. Kenneth's moving package provides us with a three bedroom apartment and a daily stipend for food. The apartment is great! Perfect for us. It is actually a handicapped apartment ,which means that the counter height in the kitchen are lower than normal. Emma and Arianna can very easily help with the dishes, which they are enjoying. (Well, I should say Emma is enjoying it, she's like that.) I am enjoying it, too!
Our apartment complex has a great pool and it has been really fun to spend time there as a family. The first day I took the kids to the pool it took me 20 minutes to get everyone sun screen and floaties on and by the time I finished all that I was tired! We prefer to go in the evening with Dad- then we don't have to wear sunscreen!
The kids have all made great progress in the water since being here. Emma and Arianna are becoming much more comfortable in the water and are swimming all over the place. Grant has probably improved the most. When we first got here Grant was nervous swimming even with floaties on his arms. One time he got so nervous I had to jump in and pull him out. Last night, he jumped in all by himself, no floaties, and then swims all around. He can even swim the entire length of the pool! The pool at the aquatic center near our new house has a water slide, but you must be able to swim on your own to go on it, so he has some major motivation to improve! He wants to be able to go on that slide! Kate wouldn't leave the large 6 inch section the first few times we went to the pool and now, with her Puddle Jumper on she will jump in, even going all the way under the water and will swim all around. They just love going to the pool and really have a blast!
To say we were overwhelmed when we saw the house empty for the first time in an understatement. We realized that even with a 'professional cleaning' the whole place was filthy with animal hair and 5 years of inadequate cleaning and maintenance. We also realized upon seeing it empty that the walls and trim were in a worse state than we had originally thought. This meant that instead of painting just the bedrooms and laundry room like we had originally planned, we felt that the ENTIRE house needed panting. And it needed to be done before we moved in with all our stuff. After a good week and a half of working our tails off to even prep for the painting, we realized we could not do this by ourselves. We got some recommendations for painters from people in the ward and even from the original homeowners (who built the house, but moved out 5 years ago) (hid dad and brother still live next to us, so they came to introduce themselves and meet us- they are great! They even shared original paint colors with us so we could more easily match colors) It is hard for us to spend money to pay someone to do a job we are capable of, but in the circumstances, time was of the essence and we simply did not have enough of it! So, after prayer and thoughtful consideration and an amazing answer through the scriptures, we decided to pay the money and hire painters to do most of the painting. (I after praying to know that we were doing the right thing by hiring painters, I opened the scriptures directly to this scripture: "He should also employ an agent to take charge and to do his secular business as he shall direct." WOW.)
It is amazing what 5 guys can do in one day!!! We couldn't be more pleased with their work and the colors I agonized over! Kenneth and I are still working to finish the dining room, living room and kitchen before the carpet are installed on Thursday. Oh, and we decided we needed to epoxy the garage floor, too. No big deal right? Well, as everyone knows all home improvement projects take longer than you initially think they will. So, at this point we are racing against the clock to finish these projects before the carpet installers come and before the moving truck comes a week from tomorrow. (Besides all that, this baby is due 2 WEEKS FROM TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!) Well, the good news is, by the time we move in it will feel like a new house!
We were blessed to find some amazing garage sales days after we got here and so have supplied the kids with fun toys to keep them busy while we work away on the house. I have been sick for the entire time since we left New York; with a bad cold, then while I was still clearing out from that, a bad cough- probably the worst I've ever had. So, with being pregnant, sick and having four children to care for, I don't feel like I get a whole lot done. But, the last few days we have definitely seen progress. It's all that blasted prep work that can make you feel like you are in the doldrums!!!
We are trying to also enjoy this time with the kids, so we have tried to make it fun as well.
Now for the part I am sure you have all been waiting for. . .the pictures:
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| Here's the temporary apartment. The kids having fun playing. |
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| Here I am relaxing after sunscreening and getting everyone suited up! Phew! |
One day I took the kids to a splash pad nearby:
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| Emma and Kate having a ball! |
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| It was so hot! I should have brought my suit this day- at least there was some shade for me to sit in. |
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| Happy girls! |
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| One Saturday morning we let the kids pick a doughnut to bring to the new house to eat. They were delighted. I don't think they'd had a doughnut in the past 3 years. |
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| Going across the bridge to say hello to the neighbor's horse. This is just to the side of our house. |
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| View off the back porch to the side. |
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| Playing with the $1 bucket of Legos we snagged at a garage sale. |
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| They do a lot more of this than I would like. Watching tv (the apartment comes with cable). I've had to make a number of phone calls concerning painters and carpet, etc and need quiet time. Good thing we don't normally have 'tv' in our home. They'd be addicted! |
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| Playing in the new house while I work. This is the old color on the walls. Not bad at all, but pretty dirty and damaged if you look up close. |
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| Kenneth working on the schoolroom crown molding. You can see my paint samples there to the right of the window. |
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| Before color of the girls' room. This is where Kate napped when we were here working in the afternoons. She is so adaptable- thank goodness! |
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| Happy Father's Day, Daddy! All the kids piled on top of him! |
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| Night swim in the pool. These kids have a very late schedule this summer, let me tell you! |
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| Eating lollipops with Dad after church- this little wall is right outside our apartment door. |
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| Building forts and playing tea party with the apartment dishes. |
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| I love Kate's smile in this one. |
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| With all of our eating out right now, we try to make healthy choices on the nights we do eat at home and I have time to cook between all the house projects. I love this meal! One of my absolute favorites right now. |
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| The big kids playing in the creek to the side of our house. I believe they were working on catching water striders. Grant is constantly catching different critters and coming in to ask us what they eat so he can provide them with what they need in their cages. |
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| It is so muddy from construction on a new neighborhood upstream a couple of miles. |
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| Hanging out on the old carpet rolls through the open window. Funny kids. |
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| Kate's first french braids |
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| Such a big girl! |
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| Forts filling the apartment! |
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| They each set up a shop to see things: toys, water, blueberries, nuts, etc. |
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| Daddy checking out the shops and forts. |
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| Blueberry picking! |
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| Besides a red ant scare and the screaming along with that, the kids had a great time blueberry picking. They worked for over 2 hours. I was proud of them! |
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| More creek exploration. |
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| Looking out at a blue heron on the bridge! If you really enlarged the picture you *may* be able to see it. It was so cool!! |
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| Sneak peek at our new kitchen color and the dining room transformation. |
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| Kenneth working on the dining room. We thought about keeping the red, but I am so pleased with the new color- it is very regal and calming. |
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| Everytime we go out to eat, the kids want lemon in their water just like mom and dad. Little cuties! |
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| She will eat 2-3 lemon wedges some evenings! |
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| Fourth of July breakfast- yogurt and fruit with granola. |
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| On the fourth, our neighbor, Joe, took the kids to actually meet the horses, learn their names and feed them. |
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| Kate helping to feed Cappucino. |
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| Arianna having a turn sitting on Mousy. |
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| Emma's turn. |
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| Kate's turn! |
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| Grant's turn |
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| Helping Dad remove the last piece of old carpet from the house. |
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| Kate thought laying on it would be helpful. See the new dining room color- isn't it beautiful! Just like the color we had in our Liverpool home. |
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| Here I am in all my pregnant glory working on painting. |
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| We let the kids help paint Kilz paint on pet urine spots on the subfloor. They were delighted to have a turn painting after watching us do so much of it. |
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| Grant takes after his dad- he's a good supervisor. ;) (Oh- there's the new wall color on the girls' walls. We did the same color in all the bedrooms, actually) |
Most of the Fourth of July we spent working at the house, but we did have corn on the cob with our dinner and root beer floats for dessert. At dusk, Kenneth took the kids in the pool for a little while and then we went back to that same splash pad we went to the other day which was lit up red, white and blue for the holiday. We were also able to see some fireworks from there. Nothing spectacular, but enough to make it feel like the Fourth without having to deal with the traffic of going to a more spectacular show. Maybe next year we'll go to Stone Mountain!
So, there you have some of our adventures here so far. We are really enjoying the area. Our ward is great!! So friendly and helpful. We miss our dear friends in Kansas, but we have been welcomed here with open arms, which is nice. Once the carpet is in, I will share before and afters of each room. and not too far from now we'll get to meet this new babe! We can't wait to meet him or her!
