anytime the unpacking fairies want to arrive is fine with me

Welcome to my new home! Pull up a box and make yourself comfortable.



It's nothing short of a peaceful oasis around here. It could even be compared to a tropical beach vacation.

Last time I appeared on this corner of the webosphere I was comfortably situated between 318 boxes full of my worldly possessions and a disassembled kitchen table. The view hasn't changed much, just the state.

Since then we've driven more than 800 miles with our cars looking like modern day Beverly Hillbillys. We've stayed in hotels across three different states and one who shall remain unnamed unrolled the toilet paper in them all.

I was so proud of this girl. She once cried ONCE the entire drive. 



Christopher made me the leader of our two vehicle caravan. As the kids these days say, LOL. I get lost in my own front yard. I kid you not, I got on the wrong highway less than three minutes after we left our Tennessee house.

Last family picture at our old house.

 The bright and shining highlight of our trek north was visiting Michelle and darling family. My car was broken into when we visited her last time so I was preparing myself for disaster to strike again. A car part flew off the car in front of me and left a dent the size of a basketball in my bumper but compared to a broken window it was nothing. Perspective is a funny thing. I had been talking to Annabelle about Michelle's baby Gracie for weeks. Every time I'd see a picture of Gracie I'd show Annabelle who would squeal and say, "Baby Gaycee! Baby Gaycee! Call Gaycee?" I was not disappointed when they finally met in person. They'll be BFF's forever. They have no choice.

 In case you're wondering where Gracie gets good hair genes, look no farther than her father.

 Sesame takes advantage of any opportunity to practice her princess wave.

As someone who likes to be fully prepared for everything in life, not knowing what our new house would be like caused me not a little worry and gray hair. We got here Tuesday but couldn't get into the house until Thursday. We drove over to see the outside and I'm not going to lie. I panicked. My first impression was we were about to live in a house the size of two postage stamps. I envisioned having to leave 3/4 of my furniture out on the front lawn.  It was such a relief to see the inside and discover that my beloved hutch wouldn't be banished to a dark corner of the garage after all. It's not big by any means, but we'll make it work. The kitchen doesn't have a space for a real table so we have to turn the downstairs bedroom into a dining room. The stairs and upstairs hallway creak like the bones of a 102 year old man and are guaranteed to wake a sleeping baby. Annabelle's room is itty bitty but she's itty bitty so it works out. We have 104 boxes left to unpack and we're waiting for the movers to bring us the rest. We'll be fully unpacked by 2017.

 

I should be unpacking but I think I'll go sit in the back yard instead. It's so much prettier than cardboard boxes.