Home

As I mentioned in my previous post, the wedding we went to last weekend was in the same church where Justin and I got married, in my hometown.  As we were traveling there, Justin commented about how long it had been since we had been there.  Aria and I had been there in May for Jena's wedding shower, but before that I'm not sure when it was.  You see, my hometown is no longer home.

Aria already has two homes under her belt.  She's passed me by just a little.  At 17 years and 51 weeks, I moved away from the only home I ever knew and into the college dorms.  Four years and seven dorms/apartments later, I moved into my second home; the one we most recently moved out of.  So, when I was 19 and my parents told me they were moving, I wasn't too happy.  How could they leave my house, the only place that I ever lived (besides those temporary dorms and apartments)?  They weren't going far, just a few miles outside of town to a really beautiful, wooded, country home.  It was the perfect place for them.  They built a pond and jeep trails, got their dog CJ, and loved living in all that nature.  I wasn't too keen on the place at first.  In fact, it was really hard for me to go 'home' and visit because it wasn't 'home' anymore.  The first time I remember being excited about the place was the first time I took Justin home with me.  We actually went with a group of our friends and all spent the weekend down there.  It was a blast and I grew to appreciate that house a lot. 

The really strange thing happened seven years later when my parents decided to leave my hometown altogether.  This time it was a bit different for me.  Both of my parents had become pretty stressed out with their jobs and it was time for a change.  I knew they needed it.  I was also married and had established myself here, calling it home.  Plus, they wanted to move closer to us!  I was excited for them, but it was still very bittersweet when we packed everything up out of that dreamy house in the country for them to leave the town they'd called home for all of their 34 years of marriage.

Then, going home became traveling to a new, unknown town.  A place where I don't know anyone.  A place where I don't know where anything is.  A place where I don't have any connections.  It was super weird at first.  Sure, I know people now that my parents have met them.  And I can find my way around.  My parents are really the only connection I need (you would especially understand if you knew my mom).  It's a pretty great place.  It is a nice in between us and my dad's job.  It is closer than the old home.

But back to the original occurrence, when traveling to my hometown this past weekend, it just felt weird.  I don't know very many people there anymore.  The kids that were in kindergarten when I was a senior in high school just graduated this past May.  People have grown up, moved away, got married, had kids.  The highway goes around the town now instead of through it.  Actually, this past weekend, we didn't even go into my hometown because the church is on the outskirts.  I don't remember how to get places or the way has changed.  Buildings have changed.  Some have been torn down, some have been built.  It is almost as foreign as my parents' new town was when they first moved there.  Almost.

It is still my hometown.  I still grew up there, went to school there my entire elementary, junior high, and high school years.  I made memories there.  And there is one family (that just married off their first daughter) that I am particularly fond of there.  In fact, I would know A LOT less about my hometown if it weren't for them. 

But home is now here.  My school pride now lies in the district I taught, where Aria will go to school.  My familiarity is with this town, these grocery stores, these high school sports teams and players, these parks, and the church we attend.  I love it here!  I couldn't imagine leaving.  Of course, I couldn't imagine leaving my hometown, either.  And, it was really hard at first.  I cried almost the whole way to college on move-in day.  I'm a little apprehensive about change.  Then I never left. 

Of course, home is always where you make it.  Home changes throughout your life.  But the memories you made in each place never change.  I like to think that is part of my job these days, making memories for Aria in, now, her second home.

Routines...Or Lack There Of

About a month or so ago I had some pretty good routines going in my life.  Every day I was:

• reading the Bible
• praying
• exercising (except Sundays)
• eating healthy (avoiding dessert, pop, and eating out)
• flossing

Weekly I was:

• searching for coupons and the best deals for grocery shopping
• actually doing the grocery shopping on the same day of the week
• cleaning (okay so we had to for showings)
• keeping track of our spending and being very frugal
• setting goals for myself
• writing something on this blog

And then we moved.

And now I feel as though I have no routines.  Slowly, we are more and more settled and I feel like I am returning to where I was, but gosh it is hard!  I once heard it takes 3 weeks of doing something daily to establish it as routine and only 1 day of missing it to break the routine!  Wow...so true!  All it took was one nap time spent packing instead of exercising and it was so easy to do it over and over again. 

Even after a few days of throwing routine out the window before we moved, I was missing it.  And, even when we were in our new house with a myriad of things to do, I missed my routine.  I know there is something to be said for living on the edge or flying by the seat of your pants and I really used to be much more like that.  But my child has caused me to live very differently.  She didn't tell me I had to become more scheduled, but I choose that for her.  I am confident that Aria does much better in a day when she knows what's coming.  When she was very little it was eat, stare at mommy or the ceiling for a bit, change diaper, sleep, repeat.  It worked for us.  Now that she is a toddler, we have a lot more going on in our day, but meals are generally at the same time, naps are almost always at the same time, and bedtime is a very specific ritual.  There is definitely something to be said for routines when raising a child.  Do we vary from our routines?  All the time...well within reason.  I'm not afraid to change things up for special events, but I'm also not afraid to say no to something because it doesn't mesh with Aria's routine. 

So when we moved, I wanted to keep Aria's routine as close to normal as possible.  And I think that is part of the reason why we had such a good transition to the new house!  Maybe I should have tried harder to keep my routines, but packing and unpacking were necessary evils.  I'm just realizing that I don't have that excuse anymore.

My body hurts from the return to exercise.  My teeth hurt from more vigorous flossing.  My soul is not feeling quite so lost, although there are days.  I got some good deals grocery shopping on our normal day and I vacuumed!  I'm getting there, but I have a feeling there will always be an excuse waiting just around the corner and my routines will constantly be a battle, moving or not.

The Virtual Tour

Here is a virtual tour of our new house!  We still have some boxes and collection of stuff in places and we don't have any decorations or pictures on the wall, but you can see the layout!

Hope you enjoyed looking at our new house! Please come visit soon!

Kids Adjust More Easily Than Dogs (Moving Part 2)

For many weeks leading up to our move I became increasingly nervous about how Aria would make the transition.  In my mind, the move would be very frightening to her.  She's too young to understand the concept by explaining it to her so I wasn't sure how to make her comfortable in our new house.  I spent many nights struggling to fall asleep and waking up early in the morning with thoughts of how awful it would be for Aria.

Yeah right.  Good thing I spent all that time worrying.

Aria has done fantastic!  I think it mostly just goes to show how resilient kids are, but there are a few other factors that helped.  We took possession of our new house 4 days before we actually moved in and we spent time there each of those for days painting, cleaning, and moving small loads.  So, Aria was used to the place.  On the day we did move for good, we set up Aria's room first, complete with things on the wall, to give her some sort of normal.  All of her toys, books, stuffed animals, and most importantly her mom and dad were at the new house, so what was there to miss about the old one?  The first nap in the new house involved a lot of crying and wasn't much of a nap, but after that it has been smooth sailing.  She wanders around like she owns the place, already knows where everything is, and is sleeping better than she did at our old house! 

On our new deck!  Like I said..as if she owns the place!

I think I put too much of my own sentimental connections on her when I was so fearful of the transition.  I was going to miss how she watched out the window when Dada left for work.  I can remember all the in vitro shots in her room and the first night we brought her home.  Those aren't her memories.  What matters to her is that the people who love her are there to take care of her and provide a safe environment for her to be curious and grow and learn.  It's not the house that makes the home.

On the other hand, our poor dog, who hates it when we move furniture to vacuum, really didn't know what was going on.  The first day we brought Augie over to the new place she ran around and sniffed everything out, enjoyed chasing the ball off the deck and thought it was great.  But when it came time to move furniture and boxes and mess things all up, boy that freaked her out!  And, when it was time to sleep at the new place, she was very confused and didn't even join us on our bed like she normally does.  This dog who usually eats her food in 23.4 seconds would leave it for hours for the first few days.  It is the same to her, as long as her people are here to care for her, she is mostly okay, but she just has been a little off.  I really wonder what she does when we are gone and she has free reign in the house.  Augie has finally returned to normal and I think we're all settled!  I'm just glad it was the dog and not the daughter who took so long be happy in our new place! 

Augie certainly enjoys the deck, too!

Thoughts on Moving #1

We moved!  Hopefully that explains my absence in blogging, but it definitely didn't create an absence of ideas for blogging.  Of course they are entirely unorganized, much like a lot of the random stuff we have yet to find a place for, but out they will come anyway.

1.  Whomever invented refrigerator on top and freezer on bottom...genius!  I am definitely missing my refrigerator as I've hit my head numerous time, pinched my fingers, and had a hard time finding places to put things!  Not a hard thing to get over, though.

2.  3 bathrooms means 3 places to supply toilet paper...that's a lot more tp than for 1 bathroom.

3.  A laundry chute makes life much easier.  I'm still going to figure out how we can make it happen in the new place!

4.  I guess this is turning into what I miss about the old house, so I must add the lilac bush.  I was hoping it would bloom before we left and it did just enough for me to bring a boquet over to the new place, but not to fully enjoy the wonderful scent.

5.  Air conditioners do work in May.

6.  Even though I've lived in the area for almost 12 years now, I have to think about where I'm going now.  I can't get from point A to point B the same way that I used to...probably because point A is not the same.  It's just kind of funny to have to think while driving. 

7.  Having a bathroom in your bedroom is really, really nice!