Paint, Paint, Paint

After our KC Realtor mentioned to us 5 TIMES that we really should repaint our living wall I did just that. While the packers were there today packing everything up I went to work repainting my lovely red living room a blah light tan color that matches the other walls. I have to say that I DON'T LIKE IT!! But, I guess if it helps the house sell then so be it:) I go back tomorrow to do the second coat while everything is loaded onto the moving truck and then that project is DONE. Joan and I were there yesterday and cleaned everything and Ryan and I will head over this weekend to work on trimming bushes and shampooing the carpet. Then it's good-bye to Riley St:(

This week has been harder than I anticipated...

One Step Closer

We closed on our "new" home last Friday and immediately went to work repainting a few rooms and ordering blinds for the windows. Katie and my cousin Anne came for the afternoon and helped paint the kitchen and the boys' room - we were able to pretty much get both rooms done before they left and then I touched up the kitchen on Friday night and the boys' room on Saturday morning. We checked out of the hotel on Saturday morning and spent the day painting, cleaning, and installing blinds. Ryan's family came and helped us for most of the day on Saturday. We are blessed to be able to have such great help:)

Our appliances and beds were delivered and set up so we were able to spend at least one night there before packing up and heading out AGAIN - this time to Kansas City! We drove down to Forrest for church on Sunday morning (it was fun buzzing in and out of there!) and then met up with Joe and Joan's in Lincoln for the drive to KC.

Another busy week is planned here packing up the house, meeting up with old friends, getting pictures taken, and shopping:) I will try to get pictures of our home posted next week once I have my computer back and the Internet is set up. If you want our new phone number and address you can e-mail me.

Moving On

Thanks for the comments from my faithful readers! I was just thinking today that since I probably didn't have anyone left reading it was time to retire the blog. Guess I will bore you a little more with my wonderful life:)

Everyone is better (for now) - gotta love when an illness is bacterial so that it can be treated with antibiotics! Mostly this week we've been busy with running errands, filling out loads and loads of paperwork, finding appliances (needed washer/dryer and fridge), shopping for blinds, and picking out a bunkbed for boys' room and a king size mattress for us. We need a new mattress so I convinced Ryan to upgrade to a bigger mattress - this way we have room for the kids:( The hotel is starting to feel a little small so I'm glad for some fourth of July plans this weekend!

It was so surreal going to Wednesday night church in Elgin - it still feels like we are here on vacation and will be heading home soon - where ever that would be! I'm sure we'll get used to it with time and moving and settling into a house will probably help.

Here are where things stand so far with the whole house thing. We are hoping to close on July 10th. We have a carpet cleaner lined up to be in the house the day before we close so we don't have to worry about staying off the carpets and so they will be done before any furniture gets moved in. Hopefully we get in early enough on the 10th that I can work on getting the kitchen and bathrooms cleaned. We have an air shipment sitting at Ryan's parents that is most of the kitchen, toys, bath towels, etc that we can start unpacking. I would also like to start taping the kitchen and family room so that when I return from packing up the house in KC I can start painting. On the 11th the appliances and beds will be delivered. The kids and I will head down towards Tremont on July 13th to pick up Joan and Collin and head to KC for the week. Our house there gets packed up on the 15th and delivered the next week. It's mostly storage and some furniture that we didn't want to haul all the way to Singapore. Our sea shipment from Singapore will be arriving sometime between the middle of July and the middle of August.

It's hard to answer the question "Are you settled yet?" Seems like the answer "yes" is going to be a few months in coming! NEVERTHELESS God is faithful and we know that all things work together for good for those who put their faith and trust in Him!

Happy Fourth of July to everyone and I'll try to get pictures posted of our new home soon!!

Need New Name For Blog!

If there is anyone left who is still reading this blog: I need suggestions for a new name.

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We had a great, relaxing two and a half weeks down in Forrest and are now settled into our temporary housing up in Elgin. Lord willing we are here for only 2 weeks before we move into our "permanent" house. The kids and I checked in on Saturday night and Ryan arrived from Singapore at 7:00am this morning. He took Kaitlyn and Ethan to church while I stayed home with Kenton - after a second trip to the doctor this evening he's finally on antibiotics for strep. After church Ryan rested up while I ran out to stock up on a few groceries and to get a few things for supper. After an early supper we headed out to drive by the house and spent some time at a park before heading to Ryan's parents to grab a few things from our air shipment. They are kindly storing all 20 boxes until we close on the house in a week and a half! By the time we left there Ethan was sick so when we took Kenton back in on our way home we also had E checked out - he has an ear infection and a sinus infection. Poor guy! At 12:00am everyone but the mom is safely tucked into bed and sleeping.

Off to bed I go!

Goodbye Singapore!

In about 30 minutes we head to the airport. The twins are ready for the flight and have been asking for the past hour if it's time to leave yet. They don't have the same fear of flying as their mother, thankfully! Ethan has a horrible diaper rash so I'm hoping that we don't have too much trouble on the flight. Cream and Motrin helped him fall asleep for his nap. We all woke up early this morning. Ryan took Lovel to her agency because we've run into a major problem with getting her to Norway and I took the kids and met Karen and her two kids one last time at the pool. Before we left Kenton and another neighbor boy, Levi, were running around playing with a cockroach...YUCK! Since then we all took showers and finished up our packing. Kaitlyn was asking about plans for later this week and it was very surreal to look at my calendar and see Singapore activities and US activities all planned for the same week. We are looking forward to getting our trip started (and me to getting it over with!) and meeting up with my parents in LA. We get the straight through flight from here to LA and then we will be spending Monday night there before flying out Tuesday morning for Chicago.

Looking forward to seeing everyone soon!

Wacky Hair Day

Kenton and his friend Grant on a recent play date after school. Grant has a twin sister Gracie who is a friend of Kaitlyn's. They came in January and are both in Kaitlyn's class.

Recently the twins had wacky hair day at school. This day goes along with a book they read in school, "Stephanie's Ponytail." They all have fun with this:) I tried suggesting wackier hair for Kenton but had to settle as this is the most he would do. Still wacky!

Kaitlyn was fighting me as she had a different style in mind. She and Gracie were going to match but I didn't think it was wacky enough. She ended up being voted wackiest hair in the class so I guess mom was right after all:)

Ethan

Ethan's been an expert on giving us sad looks lately! So I finally grabbed the camera this morning and snapped a quick picture. It's a little blurry but it shows his lower lip out and the sad eyes! He wanted Kaitlyn's DS and I had told him no:)

Not quite as sad anymore but not yet happy!

I will post more from the twins' parties at school but I this was one of my favorite pictures from the day! In a sea of white and navy school uniforms sits a little boy with a bright red shirt. Now, from the looks of things you would think he's being a REAL good listener! The truth is that he stayed like that for about the amount of time it took me to take the picture and then he was off creating chaos and havoc everywhere he went!

I came home one day at noon to find that he had fallen asleep in the chair rather than in his bed upstairs. Guess he wanted a change of scenery. Please don't pay attention to the fact that he is still in his PJ's and its noon!

Our budding tattoo artist! He had even managed to draw on the bottom of his feet. Thankfully it was all with dry erase marker which came off very easily. That was something to be thankful for!