Three Days Until Move Number Four

It's Sunday. We FINALLY move into the permanant house this week. This will be our 4th move in 2 months. I'm more than ready for this part of the adventure to be over!

Before we leave this apartment that we've called home for the last 6 weeks or so, I thought it would be appropriate to reflect on what we might miss about this place. Although it's small for the 4 of us, it hasn't been unbearable, so to focus on the positive, here is what I'll miss.

The kids are always close to us! On Saturday and Sunday, while we're at home, the kids are never far from us. Since there's really only one area to be in, so we're all together. We spend lots of time together and I love that. I know what they're doing, who they're talking to, what they're talking about and how LOUD they are talking :-). I'm going to miss knowing (in so much detail) about what's going on with them.

The amount of conveniences within walking distance is something else I will miss. This can be a good/bad thing since it also means that if you go to the grocery store that's close by, you can't buy more than you can carry. Lucky for me, John can carry ALOT of stuff, but he has to be tired of that. In the US, we went through about 2 gallons of milk per week. Here, they sell milk by the liter. Yep, that's almost 8 liters of milk per week  and John has carried all of it about 500 meters. However, there is the amazing ice cream place close by and plenty of "butter breze" shops as well. It's nice and convenient to walk when we just need something quick, so I'll miss that. Just this morning, John and I wanted something different for breakfast, but we didn't know what (if anything) might be open on a Sunday morning, so we just took off walking to find something. I'll miss being about to just do that.

I'll miss the drive to the office. Of course, John will have a shorter drive to school which is more important since he makes 2 trips per day and I only make one, but it's been nice having a short commute. I haven't had that since we lived in Lubbock 15 years ago!

On the flip side, here is what I'm looking forward to in the house!

Our bed!!!  Wow - I never would have thought 6 months ago that John and I would happily sleep for 6 weeks on a Queen (yes, QUEEN) size bed. It's crazy, but we've gotten by just fine. I'm very excited for our bed (and our sheets, and an electric blanket!!) to be back.

Our bikes - it's an easy way to get around here and get some fresh air and exercise while you're at it. We're nearing the end of the season when I'll actually do it, but I'm looking forward to at least a week or so of being able to ride around a little bit.

Room to move! I can't tell you how many times I've bumped my knee on our bed. The door to our room opens with only about a foot of clearance from the bed and I've bumped it so many times I can't count. My knee has been bruised since we moved in! Also all of us sharing 1.5 baths and the kids sharing a room. It's cozy and it's been fun in some ways, but I'm ready for a little more space. The permanant house isn't huge either (it's still probably less than a third the size of our US house), but I think it will be a nice mix of cozy and comfortable.

More activities for the kids - right now, there isn't much to do here. Either inside or outside. As we've mentioned, the house has a really nice park about 3 houses down from us and the backyard is certainly big enough to play some stuff. Also, the kids will have their Wii and Xbox, so they'll have more options inside the house too. Of course the bikes will be available for them as well.

The kitchen - with our stuff! John really has cooked about 99% of the time here. He's doing great, but it is really difficult in a kitchen that's not very big and without your own "stuff". I'm excited that the house has a induction stove and that we'll have our pots/pans, dishes, etc.

Settling in. People ask us all the time if we're "settled" and I'm not sure how to answer. We have been as settled as we could be, but we haven't felt fully settled yet since we've known that we have another move coming. All of that, plus we're missing the biggest part of our shipment, so we're still missing most of our belongings too. I'm glad to be able to finally say, yes, we're settled in.

That certainly hits the highlights. Hope everyone is having a nice weekend and we'll talk to you soon!