Update on life.....

We have been in Michigan over a month now, hard to believe! We have unpacked all the boxes on the first and second floor with the exception of the picture boxes. We worked on getting the garage organized so that we could finally park the cars in there. Next up will be the basement (yuck).

This week D and I spent lots of time at the park, the zoo, and school shopping. Only a few more things to get and I think she will be set to start her new preschool on the 13th!

We contacted the local agency for foster care/adoption. We have to attend two orientations and two training classes in October. We gave them the contact information for our caseworker in NY, so hopefully they will get all our stuff sent before October. They are in desperate need of homes in our county (and Michigan) because of the economy, so hopefully we will be certified fairly quickly.

Today we went to the Dragon on the Lake festival, it was a lot of fun. There were some local food vendors, police/fire displays, bounce/slide fun, entertainment, and boat races. D got her fingerprints done, she thought that was pretty cool (she has been with us when we have had them done for foster care/adoption).

Visit from the parents!

My parents came to visit this past week. We were able to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday, do some unpacking and lots of shopping.

We visited the Detroit Zoo on Thursday. It is a very nice zoo and not a bad drive from our house. The highlight of the visit was seeing the polar bear swim and D feeding the giraffe! We decided to become members, so hopefully we will be able to get in a few more visits before winter.

Nathan took my dad to the Woodward Dream Cruise. It is a local event for people to show off their old cars/classic cars/muscle cars.

Mom and I spent several days trying to find bedding for the master bedroom. After 3 attempts, I think we have finally find a color combination that I like. I still need to find a better coverlet then I bought initially. I will be back out on the search this week.

We are almost all unpacked on the main floors. We have a few boxes left in our room, one of the guest rooms, and the dining room.

Some playroom wall ideas.....

Thoughts?

Busy, Busy

We have been busy unpacking, arranging furniture, running to Home Depot, etc..... Did I mention I hate moving!?! The house is coming along, we are slowly finding everything and putting it where we want it.

My parents arrived today to visit and help do a few things. I left the dining room boxes for mom to unpack, aren't I a great daughter? We will probably do some shopping; need to find a bedding set for our room and some curtains.

In an attempt to become healthier we have begun to shop at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, I was very happy to find that many things are priced around the same as the big grocery stores. There is of course many things that are a lot more expensive! We will have to find a happy balance. For the most part we want to make sure we are buying hormone free meats. I hope to do some freezer cooking soon! I have lots of new recipes I would like to try. (Just wish my freezer cooking girls were here!)

Unpacking is no fun!

All our stuff was delivered yesterday! We are very happy to have all our stuff back, but really dislike unpacking! They finished unloading the truck around 2pm yesterday, I started to find our bedding and towels so we would be able to sleep in our beds and take showers this morning. I worked most of today on the kitchen. We took a few breaks to go to the Secretary of State (DMV) for our driver's license and swim at our gym. Delaney has been a trooper, keeping herself busy and out of the way. She rocks!

Working Hard

We have been hard at work since Thursday on the house. We got D's trim and ceiling painted and will hopefully get the walls done today. We had two women come yesterday and clean the whole house for us. It took them an hour to get the shower tiles cleaned! They worked hard for their money. We worked outside on the jungle in the flower beds, we filled 8 lawn bags! It still needs a lot of work, but looks so much better.

We are looking forward to getting our cable/phone installed today and our bedroom furniture is being delivered as well. The rest of our belongings will come on Tuesday.

Home Again, Home Again

We closed on the house today! Let the cleaning and painting begin! We got the carpets cleaned today, we will start painting D's room tomorrow.

Joined a gym......

In our quest to become healthier and to keep D happy we joined a gym right across from our subdivision. It has an indoor and outdoor pool, so D is very excited! It has a great child care area, that is free while you use the gym. They offer lots of great classes and the facility is beautiful and clean. Hopefully we will take advantage of all it has to offer.....

We visited the pool today!

Indoor Playing on a HOT day

It was very HOT and HUMID today, so after running errands we decided to go to the mall to play. We plan on joining the gym right by our new house tonight so that maybe we can go there and swim tomorrow.

Weekend of shopping and a 1st birthday party!

We spent Saturday afternoon at Ikea, wandering around and getting ideas. We enjoy seeing how they set rooms up and the way they organize things. Plus there are always fun gadgets to buy and cheap food to eat! We made a list of things we would like to buy once we get the house, so hopefully we will head back to Ikea in a couple of weeks.

D and Daddy went to the movies Saturday night, they saw Toy Story 3 in 3D. D had already been to see the movie, but daddy wanted to see it, and she was more than happy to go again. I was able to walk the mall (Great Lakes Crossing) and pick up a few things for D and a couple of things for myself. It was nice to shop alone!

Sunday we went to a friend's son's first birthday party! D had a lot of fun playing with some new friends.

We also decided to go to the furniture store to look for new furniture (I hate looking for furniture!). We need a couch (couches?) for our great room, as well as bedroom furniture and new mattress. We had our sleep position analyzed and tested out different beds. We think we found one we can both agree on. Nathan found a sectional he likes, brown leather......I, of course, found a different one that I like. I am sure he will win out. We also found a bedroom set we like (I am not in love with it), but we have been down this road before and still have yet to buy one!