A new life.

We have been desperate to get outside lately and since the winds were back down today, we bundled up and out we went while Hannah was napping. Here was this morning's activity: picking up corn cobs in the yard. It's a hefty fee for trash pickup, so instead we're trying to burn what we can and recycle the rest. So the corn cobs help keep the fire going. Sorry to you environmentalists! I guess it's just an experiment for now to see if it will work.We don't have Eli's wagon right now so we just used Eli's Scooby Doo popcorn can.

I saw this right away when we were first looking at the house: a perfect tree for sitting, so it's about time we tried it out. About 4 ft off the ground, a perfect perch.

Eye update.

Wow, you all overwhelmed me with your kind responses and help regarding my eye problems! Thank you so much!!

I dropped the kids off at a friend's house and was able to go to the doctor today. The family doctor then referred me to an eye doctor and had an appointment set up for me for the next hour since he knew I was having someone watch the kids for me. Turns out I have a cornea infection (keratitis, I think it was), so it was very good that I got it checked finally before it led to scarring and permanent damage to my eyes. I was prescribed eye drops and given orders to wear my glasses as much as I can for the whole week. (sigh) But I'm sooo glad to finally get this fixed!! So, pray that I can get the darn drops in my eyes the next few days (that's sooo hard for me!) and that I'll be faithful about wearing my glasses even though I hate hate hate them. I was given a trial pair of contacts for when I do wear my contacts, so those should cover me until our household items get shipped to us and the rest of my contacts arrive!

Thank you all so much for your prayers! You've been so kind! Hopefully I'll have happy, healthy eyes again soon!

Prayer Request

Ever since we got back to Iowa 3, almost 4 months ago, I've been having real troubles with my eyes. About every 4 or 5 days or so my eyes get very very red, mostly just the left eye with a little bit in the right. When they're bad they burn a little bit, but mostly they get very sensitive to light, and even inside or with dim lights it just seems so bright and I can barefly open my eyes. Even with sunsglasses I'm squinting. It's hard to look upward, or they just sting. And I've noticed lately that when I take my contacts out after they've been red all day there's a white film of goo on them. I've tried and tried to connect it to something, to find some pattern, wehter it's a makeup or face wash or where I've been or just plain allergies, and I just can't figure it out. And like most pain, the more I think about it, the more it hurts. Clear Eyes drops help some, but it burns to hold my eyes open like that to get them in, plus the anxiety and anticipation of waiting for the drop to fall on my eyeball just about kills me in itself, or so it seems. But I have been doing the drops anyway. I can't not wear my contacts either. The most I can do is maybe two hours. Don't know why but I just can't see out of my glasses. Even with up-to-date lenses, everything's still so blurry, not to mention that I don't have any peripheral vision. For those of you who understand bad eyes, my prescription is -8, folks. I've got bad eyes. I'm used to that, but this red eye business I can hardly bear anymore. Now that we're finally moved and have insurance and an income, I'm going to try to get to the eye doctor this week. Not sure what I'm going to do with the kids, but somehow I've get to get this taken care of. So please pray that it will clear up for me this week, that I'll find some answers from a doctor, and that I'll figure out what to do with the kids. Thank you, hopefully there will be a good report soon!

Inside house pics

If you come in the back door you first see the kitchen.Off the kitchen are two small rooms: A pantry

...and a laundry room/mud room.But there is plenty of room in the basement for pantry and washer/dryer, so we want to combine those two rooms to make a dining room. Right outside this laundry room and the next room from the kitchen is the living room with a built-in hutch.Through French doors then is the office.Go back through living room and then into hallway area and you have a quarter bathroom (no sink). Behind that window is a closet so we want to take the closet out to make room for a sink.Next to the bathroom off the hallway is the kids' playroom.One of the four upstairs bedrooms. They all pretty much look like this.The cupboard in the upstairs hallwayThe upstairs bath (tub is behind front wall)And the attic. It's actually pretty nice, with a staircase up to it.There's an unfinished basement too, but it's not worth any pictures. haha

So that's the house!

No more waiting, here we are!

After we closed on the house Monday we camped out overnight, just so we could enjoy our house for a little while before departing again. (that and I didn't want to make the 3-hr drive with the kids twice in the same day). Kevin, however, did get to stay since he was starting work. The kids and I hadn't planned on moving in until furniture arrived, but after seeing how fine it was to camp out that first night, I decided I didn't want to wait anymore, and we'd come anyway. I'd rather be together as a family than have a house full of conveniences. So I gave Kevin a day to have a peace and quiet so he could get himself settled into his new job, and I got busy packing up the house where we've been staying for the last 3.5 months. I loaded up the van yesterday, left at nap time, and three hours later we arrived, stopping at a grocery store on the way.

As for the movers... apparently our stuff gets transported from CT to Kansas (the midwest region). Then from there we have to contact them to get a date set up for the final move. Might as well drag it out some more. ugh. It will eventually get here, and we will eventually have our couches to sit on, dressers to store our clothes, and kitchen full of spices and pots n pans. Kevin did buy a card table the other day so we'd have a table to sit at when I got here with the kids. Bit by bit our house is getting put together.

First projects for this weekend:

• Change out the door locks. It is sooo sticky! The realtor says all the time to everyone, "just gotta work the key." But seriously, yesterday when I got here with the kids and I was outside in the cold jiggling that stupid thing around for a good 10 minutes, feeling like I was trapped out of my own house, I decided that I would not have that and it must be fixed pronto! I tried going around to the front of the house, but I think the screen door was clasped shut.
• Install water filter system on sink. The well water here tastes terrible, and even with our Pur water filter pitcher it tastes terrible. So we need to figure something out so we don't have to always buy bottled water.
• Fix sticky toilet. It continues to drain sometimes instead of plugging back, and especially with a septic tank that could easily get backed up we really need to fix that.
  
• New outlet and light switch covers for the some of the rooms.
• Find carpet company.

Until next time!

Homeowners!

We have a house now, as of about 4:45pm today!! We dropped the kids off with our friends who moved here just before us, put the kids down for their naps at 2:30, and headed off to sign a bunch of papers. Everything went pretty smoothly though a slow start, and off we went with keys in hand. We chatted for a bit with our friends then took the kids to see the house. Eli had seen it when we were first house-hunting, but the last few days we've been talking about how we were getting a house soon, so he was extra excited this time, running around from room to room. And all Hannah wanted to do was head for the stairs! We don't have much here at all, but we managed to find something to block the way. haha Since it was already so late in the day I decided that the kids and I would camp out for the night and wait to leave until tomorrow. Doing a 3-hr drive with 2 kids TWICE in one day really wasn't my idea of fun anyway. I should've known. All day yesterday I had contemplated whether we'd stay or not, and I had decided we wouldn't just because I didn't want to haul overnight bags and bedding and bathrom stuff and booster seats and extra diapers, etc (I am soooo tired of doing that after 3.5 month of that multiple times a week!). But in the end we decided to stay anyway. The kids are sleeping in their day clothes, and tomorrow they'll wear their "spare outfits", and I went to the grocery store for simple breakfast items that don't require any cooking or dishes since our house is EMPTY right now. Oh but it'll be fun! Because it's our house! Not sure when the movers will come--still no word. Somehow I'm not thinking it will be this Saturday. Bummer. So who knows. I think we'll just try to make it work for as soon as they can get here, even if it's a weekday and Kevin's not here and my parents can't help with the kids. Somehow we will get our furniture back, and boy, I can't wait!

As for pictures, I would LOVE to share pictures of the house for you, but unfortunately for security purposes I won't post any pics of the outside of the house, and it's really the outside that makes it so great--1.5 acres of yard, a screened in front porch, and just a nicely built house surrounded by scenic farmland. The inside is great though too, though it's in need of a little updating here and there. It has 5 bedrooms --1 downstairs (will be playroom) and 4 upstairs (one for each of us PLUS a guest room!), 1.25 bathrooms (downstairs bath doesn't even have a sink), another staircase to the attic, and an unfinished basement. It has a built-in hutch in the current dining room/soon-to-be living room and built-in pantry cupboards.

I was always a town girl, so it'll take some getting used to living in the country. It's only a mile from a teeny town, but about 10 miles from the town where we'll go for most everything. But I think we'll settle in just fine. I can't wait for the kids to have so much space to play in the summers, and to be able to sit out under the stars by a fire in the summer will be AMAZING. So quiet. So peaceful. And I can't wait to have a porch swing for the early mornings! Ahh... so many dreams...

There will be pictures of the inside later on as we start doing work and adding our touch! Thanks for all your prayers! It's exciting that piece by piece it's all coming together!

Simply discovering...

...BUBBLES!

Hannah loves bath time (well, both kids do actually). As soon as she hears the water start running she zooms her way straight to the bathroom to join the fun! Last week was her first bubble bath! Check out the pictures as she discovers what bubbles are all about! Usually she's all smiles and splashing about, but here she was very quiet and concentrating...

ooo, what's this?

can I grab it?maybe a closer look.