it's been a long, LONG time....

Okay, I know it's been like FOREVER since you've heard from me, or should I say 'read' about me and my family. Well, we are happy to say we are officially moved into our new house in the country and unpacking and getting settled in bit by bit.

It's been a long 6 months -- from having our house on the market, selling our townhouse, moving in with the babysitter's family and now finally moved into our new house and making it a home.

A lot has happened since I've last been on the blog and I'm hoping to share a LOT of good pictures and stories with all of you in the weeks to come. We still do not have internet set up at our house, we don't even have cable yet -- we have a very large antenna attached to the house that we are able to view the network channels -- good enough for me at this point. We are getting new carpet in the next week or two and doing some other projects around the house (we have a LARGE 1 acre lot now with LOTS of beautiful fall leaves......we NEED to buy a rake!!) So, I'm hoping by next month we will have some sort of technology in our lives again -- like internet and TV.

I will share this picture now -- it's my family. My parents just retired at the end of this summer and my dad's company hosted a retirement party. Here we are......

My sister-in-law & brother, my neice, my dad, my mom & my nephew. My husband, myself and our toddler daughter...a pretty decent photo, huh?

Hello again...

Okay, I know it's been well over 2 weeks since I've last posted -- this is week 2 of living with the babysitter and family. It's a LOT more activity than we're used to in life. You know there's just the 3 of us: my husband, myself and the toddler. We are used to one child talking ALL the time when we were a little family of three. Now, that we are experiencing joining a family of 5 -- so there's 8 of us total living in one house -- it's rather interesting at times!

I am learning about all the various stages of childhood and preparing ourselves for the path that lays ahead....

There's the pre-teen son -- he's stuck in that ackward stage of being too old and too cool to hang out with his family, but then at times still wants to play with the little ones and be goofy. He is very smart and kind, if you give him the time to 'warm up' to you and the fact that maybe you're a little bit cool too! He also mumbles a lot and you can't understand him most of the time -- I think it's a pre-teen thing?

Then, there's there middle child, their daughter. She is so full of positive energy and spirit. She's goofy, funny and very full of life. She strives for attention, being that she's the middle child, yet is very content playing with our toddler daughter -- as if it was her younger sister.

Then, there's the preschool-aged son, the third child. He's rather loud, but understandably so -- he has to raise his voice to be heard over everyone else! He is by far the goofiest -- doing anything and everything to get any sort of attention. The funny thing is, is that I think he does get the most attention, he just doesn't realize it!

Finally, there's our 2 1/2 year old daughter who has taken up whining -- overtime! She whines when someone looks at her, she whines when the kids want to play with her, she whines when she has to sit and eat meals, she whines almost 24 hours a day (at least her waking hours). I don't know if this is her way to get attention or just her way of dealing with the mass chaos that we've thrown her into! She's used to getting all of our attention and now there's 3 other children to compete with -- it's all a bit overwhelming!

We are surviving and we are SO THANKFUL for the gracious offerings this family has given us. We have been blessed with wonderful friends who have welcomed us into their house for 3 weeks.

We are half way there -- half way to our new home. So, we'll all put up with each other for another week and a half and we'll all walk away with lessons learned....