Family time

We went to the Brewers / Reds game. It was quite entertaining for everyone even though the Brewers lost that time. There were amazing fireworks afterwards. Hans wasn't half as impressed by the veggie dog!



Here are some photos of the birds in our back yard. Hans thought it would be a good idea to get a bird feeder and a hummingbird feeder. I liked the idea but hesitated thinking of all the other things we need or want to buy, but he was right. It was a great purchase because everyone in the family like to look at the wildlife in the backyard and we have even had hummingbird visits already! It is a challenge to get good photos since the birds fly away if you go anywhere near. I hope you like the ones I posted.

Putting our mark on the house

For those of you who asked me to send photos of the house . . .
Here is our family room at it's best (so far). It is the room we have done the most to. Hans took out "decrative dowels" that made it very dated and built and installed the lovley IKEA TV cabinet (it is styaing there forever, hope we still like it in 10 years). I painted around the family who wanted to watch TV (that took forever but they were cooperative for the most part.) And installed the room darkening shades (we get ne windows in about a month too). In the meantime I am in search oif stools to creat a coffee table and extra seating and the perfect curtains plus maybe doors on the craft cabilet and a glass topped table too (yeah I'm probubly dreaming).
We are having a garagesale tomorrow to reclaim our Garage and hopefully meet a few neightbors.

Keeping perspective. . .

It can be a challenge to keep perspective when in a brand new situation. I find as a 35 year old it takes me longer than it used to to except a "new normal." So I am realizing things are going pretty well and I am happy to admit we are having a good summer.

I have included a photo of the yard signs the girls earned with 18 hours or reading. They have finished the local library's summer reading challenge! They are now in the drawing (along with literally 2000 other kids) for the bookmobile to come to there house and have a street party.

There are a lot of new and fun things to do here and we have a lot of exploring to do. One of the new things we did this week was go to the local park and play in the splash park. Tim took some good photo's for us. I did my best to stay in the shade. This month we also saw amazing fireworks right from the van on the 4th and today was Annelise's 10th birthday. We went to the movies yesterday with a new friend and to lunch at Mommy's new friends house who has a hobby farm and we got to hold baby turkeys!


I am having some minor unpleasant pregnancy symptoms. I am starting to swell and my feet look like sausages even when I did very little on my feet today. I didn't include photos of that!

I did officially finish painting the family room this week! I will post photo's next time I post something. Provided my camera is still working after I dropped it again! (I need to install the wrist strap.)

If you read this let me know and tell me how you are doing too! -Erin Joy

Vacation!

Going on vacation is a great way to feel like your new house is home. It feels good to be home after vacation. We had a good time in Chincoteague and our favorite part was when Aunt Carol came for the last three days. She took these photos and mailed them to me so I have something to show you. Hans didn't go with us this year but hopes to go next year. It is a 10 hour drive now. We drove it all in one day on the way home. The kids have been wonderful. . .

We have been in Ohio a month but have only been in our own home for less than 10 days with the late closing and then vacation. I keep trying to tell myself it hasn't been long so I am not lonely. But i am lonely just the same, and so are the kids. We did invite a family over from church who have two girls close to Gabriella's and Annelise's age. They got along great and I enjoyed visiting with the mom. Now to find Tim a friend. . .

Hans is home today (vacation day)! Fun! He is putting together a huge TV cabinet we got from IKEA. It is a challenge for me not to help lift and stuff. He is building it all on his own. I took photo's I will post them when the rest of the room is finished as well. I hope to paint tomorrow. I relaxed almost all day today. I went garage saling with the kids this morning and then took a nap, watched a movie and then made dinner. I got a pair of roller blades for the girls and they each took a try on them, I found the roller blades at one sale and the safety gear at another one. They were excited to try them since Tim uses his roller blades that Aunt Carol and Uncle Dan gave him last summer. We talked about missing the Tulps while we tried them.

I hope you are all well. Feel free to call or write us to tell us how you are!!!

June is slipping by . . .

The kids and I couldn't pass up an opportunity to spend a week on Chicoteague Island in VA. Even if there is more work at home than I can ignore.

We are sitting in an ice cream shop (because they have free internet). I am furiously typing away before they loose interest in the ice cream and the seaguls outside. This is our third time here in Chicoteague, my Aunt lets us use her vacation home, she will be joining us Tuesday. We tried to sleep in but I also put the kids to bed on time last night so sleeping in was 6:45 am. Oh well. I don't have pictures because we are not done setting up the Study so I don't have to tools to get photo's off of the camera. Maybe in a few weeks.

We closed on the house on Tuesday and left for Vacation on Thursday. A little crazy wouldn't you say? I am not overdoing it here though so that is a plus. I am trying to come up with decorationg / organizing ideas, but I desperatly miss the internet. I sat and played a game on my I-pod for over 1.5 hours today. We tried to get books at the librbay, I figured a tourst town like this might have some way to do that but they didn't. I used the internet there for a few min and the girls read one book each and then we left.

Hopefully in the next month we can get the house undercontroll. We can't wait to have company too. Thanks for reading.

Still seeing how this is going. . .

Five hours of Disney channel today (without Tivo to fast forward). Do I love my family or what!!!???

I am praying that God would let us close tomorrow. (That is not just a figure of speech). I think we have done the Hotel thing long enough, don't you? They are giving us a discount tonight because they didn't clean our room today. I am really not sure it is worth it, but I like to save a buck when I can. . .

We checked out a church today, it was a good message (all about being patient and waiting on the Lord) and the music was wonderful, but we probably won't go back. There are a lot of churches to check out around here. We could probably find a new one every week for a year.

Missing my family (I love you Mom, I hope you really like your new place) and friends quite a bit (I love you Rose, and I promise I am not jealous that you sold your house in under a week and now you might not even visit me this summer because you need to pack and move! I hope the house buying goes as smoothly too.)

Except for the really stressful stuff going on - the weekend was pleasant. We went to this shopping plaza that has a fountain the kids can run around it. They even offer complimentary towels and sunscreen! It is pretty neat. They sell the tastiest snow cones right there too. We like the Blue Raspberry the best so far. Saturday we went to a nearby town that is known to be hippie friendly and it was lovely. We listened to a live band, bought strawberries at the farmers market, picked up another house plant, found a fun kids clothes resale, and Hans even found a mandolin available for coffee house guests to ticker with. Next time he is going to make sure that he has a pick with him. We also met some new families at a back yard potluck that was being held by a local MOPS group that I am hoping to be a part of next year. They meet during the day and have childcare!! Yeah!

Writing this blog is therapeutic. It makes me remember the fun stuff not just the stressful stuff.
When we get a house, get our stuff off of the moving truck, find the can opener and screw drivers, and set up the computer, then I will download updated photos to add to this. For now I hope I made great word pictures for you.

Let's see how this goes

I had typed an entire whole nice long message. But then the internet connection went out and I lost the whole thing! But just for you people whom I love very much, I am starting over....

SO, as I was saying...
I am not promising anyone anything. I am not sure I should be taking on another thing. But since I love Rose's and Elizabeth's blogs so much. I thought I would give it a try.

It has been a bit of a roller coaster around here. We are supposed to close on our new home tomorrow and when the underwriters called to confirm Hans' employment, someone told them he was self employed (which he is not) so the underwriters went into a total panic mode and said it would be at least two years before they would give a home lone to someone who just started to work for himself. . . After much diligence on Hans' part and a little praying from me, we were told tonight at 6:45 that we might still close tomorrow.

We have been sleeping in a hotel since May 30th and even the kids are tired of the swimming pool and continental breakfast! We are trying to explore our new town a little at a time. We like the many choices of restaurants and the many opportunities for entertainment. We even toured the schools today. Although they are literally twice as big as we are used to, they seemed smaller and more approachable. Tim had some positive opinions about his new school, although he did note that it was even less diverse racially than his old school. We have a lot on our plates and we know we have a lot to be thankful for. With a lot of Gods grace, we usually feel at peace. But I also feel like a swimmer who keeps swimming toward the surface only to be pushed back down after just one breath. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

I don't have up to date photo's since the tools I need to do that are on the moving truck, but I think a blog is more fun with pictures so I included some March photo's.

I hope I have a lot of fun stuff to share with you in the near future. -Erin Joy