More Life in the South...

Mosquitos rise up out of our grass when we walk on it. Each kid has had multiple bites by now. Maybe it's b/c our grass is overwatered (see future post). William is fascinated with fire ants. He loves watching them and even proudly showed me his first bite. I think he was glad it didn't hurt as much as he had feared.

The churches are plentiful, and you should see the people dress-up at the big/old churches! Sunday best for sure! I thought I was at a wedding! (ok, yes re: us being Christ's bride and all, but I don't think He cares what you're wearing!)

These people in the South keep their cars clean and shiny! And I've seen more Mercedes and BMWs than I did in NH all the years I lived there. But I haven't seen any Subarus (thank goodness!)

Cockroaches. Houseflies. The biggest beetle I've ever seen (1.5 inches!)

The size of the BOWS in these little girls' hair.....

I'm bored.

Yes, I'm bored. There's not much to do when you don't have any friends, have no home improvement projects, won't go outside b/c it's too hot and you can't leave your precious A/C, don't want to go shopping b/c you have too much stuff and are still feeling the burn from the move (I helped the movers carry the boxes)....

I've started to look up recipes and make a meal plan/grocery list every week. THAT'S when you know it's bad. I've officially hit rock bottom. (in my world) ;))

But I'm not complaining! It's nice to (FINALLY; first time in my LIFE) have nothing to do. Oh, I'm filling my time - will start volunteering at the boys' school one morning a week, was invited to join a Bible study by one of Stephen's classmates' moms, and am trying to go to the gym three times a week. The childcare room is pathetic. The size of a large walk-in closet and they don't even play with the kids - just play videos the whole time. But it gives me a break and Lauren doesn't get to watch many of her own shows (unless you count LEGO-CHIMA as a preferred show for a two-year-old girl)....

And afternoon/evenings are definitely NOT boring. Soccer three nights a week plus Saturdays. The 6pm time slot makes dinner tough - if they eat beforehand, they will probably throw it up. It's soccer, not baseball. AND HOT. Yes, at 6pm. So we eat dinner around 7pm. It's a big trial-an-error process for me to figure out which parts of the meal to make/cut ahead of time and which meals are easiest to cook this way. Even store-bought chicken nuggets take 20-30 minutes, including preheating and cooking. Hopefully all this work will train me to be a fast, organized GOOD cook and I won't have to put this much effort into it once we buy a house and I get obsessed with my house again...  Bob and the kids are enjoying my hobby for now!

Emotional stuff

It's kind of nice to be really busy. You don't have time to sit and FEEL. Just do-do-do and deny-deny-deny. It's a great route to happiness - I recommend it!

The drive to Georgia didn't afford me much distraction, though. It was just me and my thoughts. Which, aside from anything that involves planning or doing, tends to look like Emmett's mind from the LEGO movie. I loved that part :))

I kind of went through a grieving process. I expected that I would cry for hours and hours. I thought each emotion would all run full power and then on to the next emotion. But it was really choppy. I only cried three times. One of them when a cheesy Shania Twain love song played.  I felt stunned and shocked sometimes. What did we just do?

It was WEIIIIIIIRDDDDDD to see our house empty. God BLESSED us by speeding up our timeline by TWO DAYS. I swear I was ready to walk through each room and cry. I'm SO glad I couldn't do that. Well, I did kind of do that as I made sure I didn't forget anything. The rooms I felt saddest in? My laundry room. I spent so much time in there while the kids were playing in the playroom. The lights were off in the laundry room but when I turned them on, suddenly I wasn't sad anymore. It was so stark. It didn't feel like the same room. The playroom was NOT a sad place. I would have thought it would have been. But it was empty/CLEEEEEAN. So not the same place! Lauren's room was hard. I walked up there with Megan and GASP! Saw the crib. I forgot to give it to Joel to take to the dump. So after everything they'd already done, I had to have Joel and Megan COME BACK and get the crib. I'm so sorry! I hope it wasn't hard for you!

Even now, I think about our house and it seems so surreal. So foreign, almost like it was a dream. Did we really live there? Or I think about how weird it is that someone else is living in our house. But that's our house! Are you taking care of it? Do you like it? What parts are you complaining about? ARE YOU TAKING CARE OF THE FLOWERS??!! ;)) A gargantuan task, I know. I forgive them if they aren't.

I LOVE MY FRIENDS. Can I tell you how blessed I am? From the hands-on work of Megan and Leslie who came and helped me pack MULTIPLE times. Those extra hands saved me HOURS of work. I think I would have been a basketcase or a puddle of exhaustion on the ground. They also helped clean my house afterwards. ALSO hours of work. And I know several friends took care of their kids so that they could help me. It did not go unnoticed/unappreciated!!