laeroport

Starting over

We have traditionally taken our first day of school photos in front of our house.  This year, our new school started on Tuesday and we didn't close on our new house until Friday.  So for the first week of school we camped at the lake in my parent's trailer. 

 
And we were suddenly known by all the school staff as "the camping family."  That's one way to make a first impression.

 
We are making our place at our new school.  Parent - Teacher conferences were yesterday and both kids are fitting in well, making new friends and excelling in all subjects.  Eliot, who is making the transition from Montessori to public school, is doing well with the change, although he is a little shy when it comes to speaking in front of the whole class and he can't manage to keep his shoes on.  His teacher said he was very creative and could think out of the box.  I've been going in and reading with the kids in his class once a week.  At this point I'm rather sick of Biscuit books, but I love getting to know his new friends.

 
Aidin's teacher loves that our girl is such a bookworm.  They have a monthly reading requirement outside of school - the first month Aidin exceeded it by over 1200 pages.  And the school has a 4th grade girls American Girl Club.  Talk about someone being over the moon.  I'm helping in her classroom too, and got to accompany the class on a field trip to the KSU Agronomy department.  Mudballs are fun!

 
 
On the downside, Aidin's wonderful teacher has cancer - again- for the 4th time.  She is undergoing radiation and will start chemo soon, so keep her in your thoughts as she fights this disease once again.

So starting over isn't so bad.  Now if I could just finish dealing with that other house in Lawrence.....

new digs

So Tim got the job offer on July 1st.  My last day of work was on July 14th.  On the 15th, we had our first house hunting trip.  We looked at 30 houses.  We sort of liked one.  Upon looking at that house again the next week, we decided we really didn't like it at all.

It was a little overwhelming looking at so many houses.  In the end, we probably looked at 70 houses - in our price range and well beyond. 

There was the 100 year old stone farm house.  Charming, but there was not a level line in the entire house.  And a  20 minute drive from town.

 

There were brand new houses, that looked just like every other house on the block.

 

There were funky finishes,

 
and basements with funky smells.  Trust me on that.

Miles of panelling and shag carpet.

Nothing struck our fancy.  Until this one went on the market.

 
We liked it from the start....  The stone around the entry,

the retro entry lights and the deck with porch swing off the living room,

 

the light-filled living area,

 

the ample kitchen workspace,

 
the shaded back patio,

 
and the family room 1/2 a level below and open to the kitchen.

 

We were not real crazy about the miles of wallpaper upstairs in two of the three bedrooms, both bathrooms and the hall, but that can be changed.

 
And the avocado counter top will need replacing.

 
but overall we loved it, and now it is our home. 

The kitchen and our bedrooms and baths were set up right away, but the basement is still full of boxes. Now, back to unpacking....

peeking in.....

 

What a summer we have had!  Did you think I dropped off the edge of the earth?  It felt like that at times....

In a nutshell, Tim found a new job in a new town where we bought a new house and put the kids in a new school with new teachers and new routines and started with a new Girl Scout troop and found a new Tiger Cub den. 

But we still have our old house which needs a lot of fixing up, which is my job right now since the move forced me to quit my job of 12 years.  So moving and packing and settling in and unpacking have taken up most of my time since July, along with a bit of belly dance in there, a bit of crochet and very little sewing.

I am trying to get caught up on my 365 project on flickr, and then, I hope to get back to regular blogging and reading blogs.  I've missed you!