So, here we are with a fresh start! My goal is to write once per month about the "happenings".
January 2019:
We started the year out still in Utah for the Christmas til New Years holiday. We love our time in Utah with both sides of our family right in Farmington. On New Years Day we packed up all the stuff, which includes all that Santa brought, including a bike for Heber, all our winter clothes and boots, and the clothes and food that was going to make us comfortable for the road. AHHHH! It is so much stuff! Good thing Zakary built us a hitch caboose to hold even MORE STUFF.
We headed out around noon, hoping that all the drunks and crazies had made it safely off the roads and we were off to a new life. The weather was great until New Mexico. The fog plus snow plus tiny farmer roads (which were the biggest roads for our route) made for a wheel gripping good time. We made it to Alburquerque and the next morning the place was covered in a good 8 inches of snow. My kids (and I) were totally disappointed. We were all so tired of cold and snow that we thought for sure this far south we would be free. Apparently, according to several guests and a manager at the Holiday Inn Express, Alburquerque had not had this much snow in 13 years AND they only had 4 snow plows for the entire city. 2 of which were dedicated for the Airport. There was nearly no cars out. Being from Wisconsin AND from Utah, no snow was going to stop our trip to our new home, so off we went. The good old Honda Odyssey drove like a champ, blasting right through the drifts and piles. We did run out of windshield washer fluid and stopped to get some.. guess it was a popular product that day, since they were all out. We eventually did find some and then felt much safer.. at least we could see!
We drove all day and finally arrived in Houston at 10 pm. The air was mild and THAT was a welcome feeling. The kids love hotels- in fact, Gretel told me today that hotels are her favorite place. Houston hotels don't have indoor pools though, so that was a sad discovery. The next morning, Zakary left early to be to the new house before the moving trucks arrived. The kids and I slept and slept and slept. Poor things were totally exhausted after all the Christmas fun and endless road trips. By 11am, we needed to check out, but our moving trucks hadn't arrived, so Zak came back to pick us up. By the time we got back to the house, the moving trucks had come, dropped off our two trailers AND driven over the main waterline going to the neighbors house and water was going EVERYWHERE! What a way to meet the neighbors!
Sadly, Uncle Jacob Welch was very sick at Christmas, and the kids and I caught it the day we were unloading the trucks! We had fevers, coughing, crying.. and members of the Ward were trying to be kind and inviting the kids to come play while we worked, or they were coming over to help and I was struggling to keep our germs to ourselves. I can't even remember all the people who came to help us. It's sad, but true. I was so sick and trying so hard to keep my kids feeling half alive that I didn't notice much else. All the while, Zakary is having a great time meeting all the great Ward members and neighbors and making new friends. People brought us dinner, we had the painters here to patch some walls, we lived a few days without a fridge or washer and dryer til that finally arrived. The internet guy came and the security system guy...all while we were too sick to really make eye contact. Good thing it was a pretty quick illness and we were able to attend Church on the first time of the new 2 hour schedule. The ward was warm, and kind, and inviting. My kids each enjoyed primary and we took a bike ride around the neighborhood afterward. It's a great feeling to play outside, in the warm air, in JANUARY!
The broken water line from the moving truck. It was going to cost $4-5000!
Glad it wasn't our fault!
This is what we call the Lake Land. It's directly behind our house, giving us the feel a giant yard!
Riding his new bike in JANUARY!! Unheard of in his lifetime!
In an effort to feel "normal" again, we dove right in to homeschool.
Gretel and Moses especially miss their dear best friends from Wisconsin. We have daily tears.
We decided to put Gretel in Dance!! She pranced around for hours in her new "gear".
Moses is especially excited about the prospect of seeing new wildlife.
January 21 we found out that Stapp Baby Number 5 is on the way!!
Lydia is convinced that all her owies are "super hurting"-- she says, "I need a bandaid!" There have been boxes of bandaids used up and wrappers and used bandaids are found everywhere. This time, she might have really been hurt.
