Two months ago today, we moved into an empty house that now feels like home. I am thankful not to be waking up in the morning forgetting where I am, I am thankful the kids no longer ask where rooms are in the house, I am thankful that all but 5 boxes are unpacked...and let's be honest, those boxes will probably never get unpacked.
I have avoided blogging for a few reasons. Obviously, we've been busy and fumbling to find our new routine. Secondly, I have been pretty blue for a lot of our time here and did not have the energy to whine on-line. I also have this ridiculous rigidity about random things, one of them being that I feel the need to do all things in chronological order. I won't fill out things in a baby book that are current until I fill in things before. I won't upload pictures to Shutterfly out of order. I won't order Shutterfly books out of order, etc. So when I blog, I feel like I have to tell the story of Christmas, moving, etc. before I talk about what's happening now. I know not really necessary, but, we all have our things. So here is the brief synopses of our last two months.
Our empty house. The move went as smoothly as it could have gone. I don't ever want to do it again. The night the movers left felt like the night of a funeral. I had held it together the whole day until I walked into the boys room and saw it empty. I closed the door and sobbed. The next 24 hours I felt like I was walking through a fog.
We drove to Columbia and stayed the night with my great friend from college Christina. The next morning Erin and her husband Charles (both girls in my wedding) who live in England came over to visit. These are all our kids! It is always such a treat to be in Christina's home and to be with my college girls. It was like water to my weary soul and a reminder that good friends last a lifetime no matter where you live.In KC, we were able to see more bridesmaids (Mandy, Steph and Cassie), the Warren's (friends in town from Texas), the Brock's (friends in from Colorado), and new friends Tim and Jodi. My dad and step-mom surprised as when we went to visit my Grandma Fulte. The rest of the family was all there too. It is a rare treat to be all together with the Fulte family and I felt like such a princess that my dad and kath would travel all that way as a surprise. I can't explain how happy I was to see them!
We celebrated Christmas with my mom and all my KC family. She made Christmas so special for all of us. The kids slept in her "secret room" that she decorated just for them. It felt like a Christmas hideout. They loved it!!Santa brought the much anticipated Huge Angry Birds with the surprise of a life size angry bird game. The kids spent forever knocking down and rebuilding the boxes.
The Watkins came over later on Christmas with all their angry bird dolls and joined in the fun. It was great to see them again. We soaked up as much time with them as we could get.There were two particularly hard moments while we were in KC. Saying good-bye to my Grandma was almost unbearable. She put my head in her hands and, through tears, whispered "you be brave." I love my Grandma.
The other was one night in the car with Brian when it all came crashing in on me. "What did we just do, Brian? We just left all our friends and everything we love?" He cried with me. We just held each other and cried. That has only happened one other time in our whole relationship. I am so thankful to go through this with him. He has been amazing.
So the day after Christmas we left for Seattle. We rode with the Watkins to the airport. After they gave the kids special photo keychains to put on their travel backpacks, we said a VERY tearfilled good-bye to them and to my mom.As hard as it was to say good-bye, I took a huge breath on the plane. I needed a break from all the
sadness and it was helpful to look forward to our new adventure. We had a great travel day and loved riding on the plane with the kids and watching them all through the airport.
We were all so excited to get to see the new house that night. Totally empty, the kids ran and jumped and screamed. We stayed in a hotel that night and were able to swim in the hotel pool and eat and the free buffet breakfast. It was a vacation. We toured the Seattle Aquarium the next day and drove around our new city. On move in day, the kids played in empty cabinets, helped open boxes, and Tyler proudly took the all important job of checking of numbers of boxes as the movers called them out.
The next month is a blur of excitement, sadness, exhaustion and sweetness. The kids came up with every game you can imagine with boxes until even they were saying "I'm so tired of boxes!"I am glad we are here. I love our house and I really enjoy Seattle. The weather is challenging, especially when everyone in St. Louis is at the park and zoo in record outdoor bliss. I really, really, really miss my friends. The two hour time change makes phone conversations difficult and I feel overwhelmed at times with loss. I love the slowness of our life now and all the opportunities we have to start new rhythms in our family life. The kids have all adjusted by now (Tyler the fastest) and they have developed such a stronger bond together. They play much more now then they ever have. Brian and I too, have appreciated our friendship more than ever. I'm glad he's the one I get to hang out with every night.
Now that I'm caught up, I'll fill in more often.
