Already in St. Louis

Well, between all the stuff that had to get done our last week in St. Louis, I didn't get a chance to give an update before we left. The party was great. People ate all the food -- 2 hams and lots of snacks, a keg of rootbeer, and most of a keg of beer. We had a moon-bouncer and it was a great time.

The last week of school was hard. I don't like goodbyes, and I said lots. Albert got a nice present at 8th grade graduation to recognize all the volunteer work he did at school -- running the PTFA for years and doing lots of other stuff. Basically, spending all his free time there.

Karl had his 8th grade graduation, and it was lovely. He was the salutatorian (sp?) for his class -- just like me -- and therefore gave the farewell speech. And then the next day was the last day of school, and most of the 2-1/2 hours of it was spent in chapel, hearing the choir sing and having all the teachers present year-end awards to the kids. I held it together at graduation, but really started crying at the chapel.

By the end of the ice cream social on Friday night, we were all emotionally and physically exhausted (Albert was actually in LA working). We slept in a hotel, came back to the house to finish our own packing, and finally got out the door at 2:30pm. Although we had planned to leave the cats behind, the person who was going to take them said no at the last minute, and they came with. We were actually happy about that.

We've been here now for five days, and had help from Kat and Mark every day (this isn't the kind of help we were thinking about when we moved down here, but it's been terrific). They've cooked food (Mark), watched kids (Mark), cleaned floors, moved furniture, and offered lots of advice about where stuff should go (especially Kat). Tonight, we finally have a house that feels pretty much put together.

Countdown to the Big Move Day (and other major events)

I'm home from a super-busy week at work, and now we're in countdown mode to leaving. We're having an open house on Sunday. We invited pretty much everybody we could think of and have no idea how many people will show up, despite asking for a RSVP. I will shop for all the supplies on Saturday -- ham (1 or 2?), buns, chips, celery, carrots, watermelon, and cookies. Hopefully we'll buy just enough food to feed everyone and give us leftovers so we don't have to cook for the rest of the week. And of course we're getting kegs of beer and rootbeer.

The packers come on Wednesday and Thursday and the moving van gets loaded on Friday. I can't wait to all be living in one place. I've really missed being at home with my family most nights.

Eric is downright excited to be moving. He can't wait to live near his cousins. Karl is okay with it; he would have preferred not to move, but he'll be fine (and that's pretty much what he told another adult tonight). Lilly is either neutral or angry, but has slowly been moving towards neutral. Of all the kids, timing-wise, she had it the worst. But she starts a geeky math class on Monday, and that should perk her up (and maybe provide a source of potential friends). Karl also takes a class starting Monday, so he can free up some time during his school year. I have hopes that both of them will make some connections then.

I'll post again after the party.

Moving, Part 1

We are halfway through the process of moving, but it feels like we have a million things left to do. With any luck, we close on Monday, but we won't be in the house until June 10 or so. We're getting the floors sanded and hopefully will get lots of painting done before we move in. I think the house will be lovely when those are done. We've learned a lot from doing this before -- it really pays to sand those floors before the furniture is moved in.

We've had oodles of discussions with the kids about stuff that isn't critical, but gives them a little control over the process -- what our phone number will be, what color to paint the bedrooms, where to put the futon couch, etc.

So far, everything has come together in a way that makes it feel like this decision was destiny. Karl got into the high school of his dreams; we bought a house in my favorite neighborhood; we got the other kids into the neighborhood school; and we sold our house. I don't know how people do it when they move to cities where they don't have family -- we've gotten so much help from family along the way (Mark making me supper every night; Kat taking me to work each day and getting me set up with a bedroom; Mom helping out a million ways; and the most fun was house shopping with everybody). Gretch, how did you do it on all those moves?

I'll try to post some before and after pix. Here's one of the house from the outside:

Back from Iceland

Okay, so it wasn't much of a blog from Iceland. We're back. We have lots of dirty laundry, Eric threw up on the plane, and we haven't unpacked yet, but we're glad to be home.
Iceland was beautiful. I decided it was like Yellowstone -- kind of demands to be done a second time, so you take all the good knowledge you've developed and use it the next time. We spent three days in Reykjavik, and mostly went to the pool and the national museum and various show-related events.
The pools in Iceland are the bomb. They're outdoors and heated with geothermal water, and you can go from hot pots (aka hot tubs) to giant, warm swimming pools. It's just like every other metropolitan swimming complex, except the water is terrifically warm and you're outside on a chilly day. When we went up north to Akureyri (sp?), we went to a spa/thermal pool that was a milky turquoise blue and then to their municipal pool, and on both days it was snowing all day. It was extremely cool to hang out at the pool when it was snowing.
If I can figure it out, I'll post some pix. Bless! (Icelandic for goodbye).

Day Three in Iceland

It's day 3 in Iceland. All of our days have been sunny and warm, by Iceland standards -- at least 50 degrees.
We arrived super-early on Friday; I hardly remember any of it, but I know that we hung out in Reykjavik for a while so Albert could have a meeting about work. We parked at the tourist info place and walked around (I got a parking ticket -- I have no idea what I did wrong). Then in the early afternoon we met up again and drove to our cottage about 45 km outside of town. It was a beautiful setting -- just a perfect little scandi cottage that was tiny but just right.
On Saturday we did Geysir, the original. Yellowstone is much better. We also did Gullfoss, a huge & beautiful waterfall, and Thingvellir, a national park that was their outdoor parliament. Another gorgeous setting. It's all very dramatic and wild-looking.
Today we did a horseback ride on Icelandic horses (they look like ponies with arabian faces). Since we arrived, the countryside has gone from bare trees and brown grass to leafed-out trees and green grass -- it's really beautiful.
Tonight we go to the movie premiere. I'll try to post again before we leave...

Blog Launched

This is my first posting!