My NEW HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alright already. I have been scolded. My first priority today is updating my blog!!!!!!!

My newest moving tips.
1. NEVER move at the same time as your mom. You can't help each other very well. And then EVERYONE is melting down with no safe place. :) Mom hands over her keys to her house today.
2. NEVER move at the exact same time school is starting. Too many changes at once causes the little people to melt down.
3. NEVER move at the same time a sport season is starting. I was already struggling to find clean clothes everyday for me...but to also find shin guards and soccer socks, AND cleats. Whew.
4. ALWAYS have an amazing small group to help you move. My small group from church came over...and in ONE hour had my entire townie emptied. And in the next hour had everything unloaded at the new place. And in the next hour...beds together and made...fridge pieced back together and cleaned...banister taken down put back up and repaired...pizza ordered...kids bathed and ready for school the next day. It is an incredible feeling to be loved. And I've watched many amazing friends swoop in and do similar things for my mom.
5. NEVER send your kids to your inlaws house to be babysat on moving day when they are about to come down with the flu. Having to rush over and pick up your kids so they can puke in peace makes your head spin. My house got moved and I wasn't even THERE!

Here are pics of what I have been working on...instead of blogging. :)
My front porch. Notice I covered up my address so that the whole world doesn't know exactly where I live. :) This duplex feels a lot like a house.


This is my favorite thing in my new house. It is a shelf that my FIL made from the door of a barn at the Hamm family farm. I just got it...and I think it is fabulous. 100 percent "me" and it is so special. It sits in my living room.

I have already gotten Neal to hang up my quilt. I have a really special one my mom made for me that goes up in the fall. I can hardly wait each year for fall to get it up.

I took this picture standing in the corner of my front door looking into the VERY open living room and kitchen!

My fabulously awesome kitchen!

The view from the kitchen into the living room:

A peek into my unpacked and finished bathroom:

Here is what the not yet worked on parts looked like. I'm working on this part today. Its the stuff on my desk in my bedroom.

Here is what the girls call their "Secret World" out in the back.

A view of the side yard and wonderful shade tree:

And a view pics of the biggest down side. Here is the major water leak going on under that shade tree-- that is on the city side of the water pipes. "It's on the agenda." Great...in the mean time we are like a mosquito factory.


I'm still super excited...and loving the new place. Neal and I both feel like we are living in a town for the first time in years. And that 5 minute drive...to school...practice...anyway...is amazing. :)