Welcome, foolish mortals...

A tour of the new house is up on my flickr account. You can view it in slideshow mode by clicking that option in the upper right hand corner. However, while that's awfully handy, it won't allow you to see the captions that describe what you're looking at.

So, if you want to know what each room is, you'll have to view them one at a time and read what's beneath the photo. When you see the large picture off to the left, there will be a small "thumbnail" of the next picture on the right. Click on that to see it larger. It will change as you go, letting you get a preview of what is next. There is no "next" or "more" that works to just flip to the next large picture. Sorry - kind of a pain.

You may also need to cut and paste the URL into your browser. For some reason Blogger doesn't make links clickable.

Okay, without further ado:
http://www.flickr.com/gp/25593327@N00/650823

Stand in the place where you live...

We're on the tail end of one of the most stressful months of our life. Right now it feels like everything is up and down, the relocation company who is handling our closing has rescheduled four times, and the finance company is throwing side projects at us every day (as if we have nothing better to do).

The kids are going completely insane with almost all the toys packed, and we haven't had a seriously healthy meal in days. All the take out and drive through have taken their toll on our physical and mental well-being, no doubt.

I keep having to remind myself that it is worth it - it is worth it - IS IT worth it??

It is. I know it is, and very shortly all of this will be a distant memory. But today, this week, it's rough. We're just ready to be done, settled, home. The images of our children running laps in the glorious new backyard carry us through, the memories of my own childhood spent running around the backyard at dusk with the clang of washers hitting a pipe (or the fence, depending on who was playing!), catching lightning bugs are forever embedded in my mind, in my soul. I mourn for the years that our children have been deprived of that, and await, anxiously, the moment our lives transition into that place - the lifestyles of our parents, our grandparents, hidden away from the evils of society and tucked neatly in a backyard lawn.

Bunny Boy

As we prepare for the move, we find ourselves struggling to get through the day. The combination of 90% of the house in boxes and the excitement and anticipation of a new home are enough to send the whole crew into chaos. With so little to do, and yet, so much to do, we are constantly trying to find humor and joy in life. We have three weeks left in this home. And, though it is just a house built of sticks that we've never particularly been fond of in the structural sense, it is our home, our first house, and it is the place where we brought home our baby boy. This will be his first, and our third Easter, and it will be celebrated in this house amongst the boxes and bags. And, I'm sure, in the coming years we'll remember this house fondly, not for the exterior shell that was a house, but for the memories and soul that were our home.