Well, it's about time for an update, isn't it. We moved into our new house on Saturday, October 29th. Miciah and Elijah had been with Rob's sister, M, for the week, so it was nice to have them back and be into our new house all in the same day. Miciah instantly loved the house. She was able to tell that I'd set up her room much like at our apartment and that seemed just fine with her. And then I showed her the play room downstairs and that was all it took for her to like the house.

When she showed up, her cousin, M, was with her. She proudly said to M, "Come on, I'll show you my new bedroom!" Then she looked at me and said, "Is it this way?"

Elijah was a little harder to win over. The first night was the time change. We gained an hour, but lost that same hour with how many times we woke up with him. I think he'd just wake up a little and then not know where he was. After the first week though, really the first few days, he was sleeping better and now he sleeps better through the night here than he did at the apartment, on the average. He's got a cold now so that gets him up a little bit with the coughing and stuff. Elijah's also been spending some time throwing fits when I tell him he can't touch this or that, but it occured to me, during one of those fits, that he's just figuring out our new house and our new rules, so that made things better for me. He seems to be over most of that now and has things figured out.

We are not completely "settled in" here, but I feel like I can sit down on the couch and relax without feeling guilty, so I guess that's settled in enough. Moving is work, work, and more work. But it's already been worth it. Most of the things are organized, or at least organized enough. We've had a lot of help from family and friends, and I'll have a whole stack of thank you notes to write real soon. R & C, of course, have been a big help. I've made a ton of trips over there to ask for something and then more trips than that to return it (I keep thinking I've returned it all and then find something else, and by the time I return that something else, I've borrowed another thing). They've been very gracious and act like it's all not a big deal. I guess they weren't using the stuff right that minute anyway, but it's still been very nice. I'm going to go rake their leaves today, since I borrowed their rake. :)

We've had a few adventures with getting this house working the way we want it to. Rob and R and V (Rob's dad) did the fence, and one side of it has to be re-done (there's a slope and we're going to need to dig a little trench or something). That's okay, since we had to buy 50 feet of fence to cover 10 feet of yard. We have enough fencing to re-do the fence another 98 times, so we're good. We also have been testing the washer and dryer down here, since we already had a washer and dryer that work fine. We've been trying to figure out which one to keep. Well, the dryer wasn't doing squat and took forever to dry. So we replaced the dryer hose to see if that would work. It was an old plastic hose. It was so full of lint that I don't think we could have even cleaned it all out. We just took it off and threw it away. And then, drying the clothes the same way we'd been doing (on high heat and for the longest time), Rob almost burned his hands off taking them out of the dryer. So I think we'll keep the set down here and give away the set we'd been using (or give them back to who gave them to us).

On Saturday we'll acquire a few more pieces of furniture, given to us by Rob's Mom and Dad, given to them by someone in their ward. We've been truly blessed in our marriage to have many things that we need, and even lots of things that we want, given to us. On this move we received an entertainment center (it's huge), a piano (from Aunt S), the old owners had left several things that were nice or at least useable, including random iron trinkets in our kitchen, and we're about to get more stuff in a few days. A bookshelf, a chest of drawers (so our clothes won't have to be in clear plastic bins in our bedroom), a weight lifting bench and some weights, and a few other things.

I remember now that I promised pictures of our house with our stuff actually in it so you could get a feel for how our house is. Those will come as soon as I get pictures from Dad of his bookcase that he made. No, I'm not bitter that I don't have them yet. :) We love you all.

Tamra, Rob, Miciah, and Elijah