Imported to Illinois

I just finished the cycle of getting all the kids down for nap/rest time, and as it goes, Meg woke up just as I breathed a deep sigh of relief at having a few minutes of quiet. No fighting, no yelling, no one-upping, no crying- just silence. My stubborn, strong-willed, loud daughter whom I am sure I will enjoy the pleasures of sharing many a shouting match with one day just sat in the chair opposite me in silence. In the quiet I opened the refrigerator, pulled out leftover nachos and chips, put them on the table, and we sat there not making any noise other than that of eating. At one point she dropped her nachos on the floor and looked at me like I would yell or even speak, but I didn't, I just picked it up and smiled, and she smiled back. It was lovely.

I am ever so anxious. I have many worries, but Pete says there isn't a whole lot I can do about it, and in time it will all work itself out. Of course, being me, I say- What if it doesn't? So without focusing on the stresses, here is a bit of our life in Illinois.

Our living room doesn't have a couch. It is pretty empty as you can tell. It does have a lovely large window though.

 Our couch is in the tv/kids room. This is totally fine because it is about the size of our whole downstairs at our last place, so we feel more comfortable sitting on top of each other.

 

One day we will have a couch in the living room, and we will be able to sit on it and enjoy this view, which is pretty awesome.

We decided, that in order to help the boys have a bit of fun in our new city, we would explore the Morton Arboretum, which is only like 10-15 minutes away. It turns out they were having a Cultural Festival that day so our time was accompanied by music, story-telling, and face painting. We spent the whole afternoon there and truly enjoyed it.

We have enjoyed our backyard. Having a backyard where the boys can run around without the police showing up to ask if I know that my boys are running around is a blessing. *Yes, the police showed up at our front door more than once in West Lafayette.

We found out that there is a really huge park area in town. It has the water park, basketball courts, tennis courts, frisbee golf, playground, baseball field, soccer field, dog park, and what Jack calls the cool rock with flags. While, I think we are all eager to make friends, none of us really wanted to just be surrounded by strangers, so we decided to go to the park quite early to avoid everyone. It was all ours and just as we were leaving the cars started pulling in. So perhaps, when we are ready to face the strangers we can go a bit later.

 

As I am writing this Meg is actually sitting in this location where she was sitting a few nights ago. I guess when there are no chairs, a toy box will do. 

Oh and since I have no pictures of Robbie on here I figure I should just throw one in. Not a great one- Sorry Robbie. He is really interested in his hands, he stares at them for minutes. He is just now starting to get interested in toys in front of him. He will grab at them and stare at them. He is still a super good baby. So chill and laid back.

 That is our life in Illinois so far. Just taking it one day at a time.

A new state means new adventures

Hello from a new state. A new state means new adventures. We have been mostly just unpacking boxes and realizing we need new furniture like a couch for instance. Um... really about the couch. Oh well, in time. Still, we have made time here and there to see a little bit more of town, besides our house and backyard. Oh, did I mention we have an actual backyard now?!

The moving crew came to Indiana and helped load up that big old Uhaul and then they even followed us to Illinois to help us unload. A big family means lots of love and muscle. Thanks guys and gals!!!

They moved stuff through thunderstorms, a flooded driveway, and no AC!!! Bravo!!  We did see a rainbow on the way to Illinois, so does the mean good luck on our new stage of life? I hope so.


Let's see. Things about our new house. There is no central air. Something we didn't really realize until it was really hot in the house. There are a few window units in the basement we can install, but after two hot days it has been really cool actually. I am wearing jeans right now and a little cardigan. There are these awesome skylights in the, we will call it the kid's room or tv room or some such thing, but it has been raining and we noticed there is a little drip drip happening. Not a lot and we just stick a pan underneath and that is that. We had super bad flooding and it only dripped a little so not worried. One thing to be worried about or at least cautious of is the flooding that occurs in our driveway when it rains. I walked through it two days ago and it was past my ankles. It pools but then it does drain away to the storm sewer. Our landlords and their maintenance guy know about it, but it seems that it isn't an easy thing to fix so maybe best to avoid driveway when it rains heavily. So those are the uh-ohs we have come across while settling in. It isn't all bad news because we have an awesome view of this pond, which also has a walking path.

We have a nice big backyard with a nice big patio. It came with a little table and chairs for us to use immediately- awesome.

We went into town to get a library card and sign up for summer reading-a must for the kids. The library is located next to Lilacia Park. The town of Lombard is nicknamed the Lilac Village because of the lilacs, they do smell really great. So we were able to check both of those things off our list.

Then after the library/park visit we went to the old-timey Dairy Queen. It was great. Blizzards are always a win.

Then home again to hang a few things up and unpack clothes from suitcases. Unpacking and organizing when you have little kids making a mess isn't great. Meg has already found a marker and written on the door. Luke decided to lock the bathroom door and close it when no one was in there. I had to get a paper clip out and unlock it. The toilet downstairs was running, and that noise drives me bonkers, so I decided to fix it myself and I did. Thank you very much You Tube. The stupid whistling arrow came out again and once again Tigran went MIA. We checked the gates and they were all locked, we checked the doors and they were all closed, but still no dog. Finally, we found him. It is a tight squeeze, I don't even know how he got in there.

Pete has been having a few adjustment issues as well. I guess riding the Metra isn't as straightforward as he thought. He had one day where he actually went into downtown Chicago and ended up having to take the L to work from there. There have been other adjustment issues that come with just getting used to a new work environment, but here's hoping everything gets smoother from here on out.

Today we went to the public school to register Jack and Luke. It is within walking distance so public school it is. It is a lot bigger than their old school--so it might take some adjusting.

I suppose more getting used to the city is in order for the near future as well as getting an Illinois driver's license so I can stop carrying our lease around with me as proof of residency. Still, we are well on our way to calling this place home.

Fun in Florida

We were able to go to Florida for a week, it was the celebration of a graduation completed and a rest before a new job. Of course, I wouldn't say rest, we have 5 kids so as much as the adults wanted to rest just getting us all to the beach was a lot of work and had to be promptly rewarded with adult beverages. In the end it was quite a success. We hadn't been to Florida since Luke was a baby and before I was even pregnant with Thomas. Overall, I would say success.

 Jack was so brave and went boogie boarding and body surfing everyday. He would go out so much further than I was I comfortable with, so I just tried not to look and had to trust Pete was paying close enough attention. Luke's favorite part was building a sand dalek and watching movies with Granny. Thomas loved just running around the beach. Meg did not love walking in the beach or getting very wet, but she did love digging with the sand shovels. Robert loved sleeping.



Almost all of us took a turn getting buried in the sand. I think Thomas loved it the most!

We enjoyed beach walks and beach finds

Everyday beach fun was also enjoyed

Robert had a lovely vacation sleeping almost the whole time.