Getting settled into the new house

Rather than continue my previous Japan Blog I have decided to start a fresh one. I think this new chapter in our lives deserves it own Blog.

First, a bit about the move and settling in. Jed arrived in Texas on the morning of Saturday, July 7 with our car and the moving van (driven by my brother). The kids and I arrived late that night. The following morning we went to Ikea and spent four hours picking up our new furniture and the rest of the day unpacking. On Monday we had the cable and phone companies come to set up our utilities, our major appliances were delivered, and professional assemblers arrived to put together all that Ikea stuff. By Thursday we were completely unpacked and settled in, right down to having pictures on the walls. Five days may seem fast to put together a house, but then again we have moved so often that we are pros at it. Not to mention that we have been dreaming about being in our own house again for three years and couldn’t wait to make that a reality.

Jed continued working for Dell through the end of July and I set to work making new friends and getting the lay of the land. I now feel like I can navigate our city fairly well (which can be tough because there are lots of streets that don’t appear on Mapquest because they are too new) and have even figured out the how to use the one-way streets that run parallel to the freeway. I’ve joined several mommy groups and even started one for other California moms.

We absolutely love our neighborhood. All of the houses are brand new or in various stages of being built. In the time that we have lived here there have been seven families move onto the street, four of them from California. There is something really fun about all of us being new and building this neighborhood together. Everyone smiles and waves at each other. I put the sprinklers on in the front yard and the neighborhood kids came over to play with Jared and Laine. I take cookies to new neighbors and go next door if I need to borrow an egg. It is everything we had hoped it would be.