Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

So much has been going on in the last three weeks that it seems a shame not to keep everyone in the know about it. Here's the short version:

1. We moved in to a little duplex about a mile and a half from work May 16 and said good riddance to the hotel. We were all (including Star) happy to see our things again.

2. We took a break to go to a family reunion in Cincinnati over Memorial day weekend. Paela learned the difference between "babies" and "kids". We got to hang out with fun people. Paela got tired of hanging out with so many people.

3. We've got about a third of our stuff unpacked, and the other third is still waiting on the basement to be finished. Hopefully this week we can officially settle in all the way....

4. I found a project to work on at work so it's not such a struggle to keep busy. Things still feel quite slow, but I'm sure that will change shortly.

And that's the nutshell version. We've done lots of deep cleaning, lots of unpacking, and lots of little errands throughout the day (and into the night). The upstairs (bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom, front room) are pretty much unpacked and just need finishing touches like paintings and vases and whathaveyou. We're putting the desk (with all the computer stuff), the entertainment center, and a bookcase downstairs eventually as soon as the rec room is done. Walls are up, so we just need the ceiling and walls painted and flooring put in, with a few other odds and ends. We need to figure out seating for that room since the couch wouldn't fit down the narrow Boston stairs -- any ideas from the peanut gallery?

We found a delicious local ice cream shop and a great library and park nearby. Those are our good finds so far. We'll see what else we can uncover as we go along.

Star is very happy to have a scratching post again and so many fun windows. There are two doors she can try to sneak out of, and neighboring outdoor cats to spy on. There are places to jump up to get out of Paela's reach. There are spiders to pounce on. She's a happy camper. Her paw is almost healed....

Paela is happy to have her toys again, and to have a backyard. The neighbor's kid is letting her borrow a toddler-sized slide and the tree swing so going outside is better than ever. Of course, she's obviously a city girl. She has to pick off any grass that sticks to her bare feet, and wipe off the steps to the ladder before using them so they aren't dirty. Hopefully she can learn about dirt now that she's not surrounded by city. She is also waking up an hour to an hour and a half earlier than she did in San Jose. I know the sun rises about half an hour earlier, but maybe her windows here just catch that morning light better than our last apartment? Either that or she suddenly decided 5:30-6:00am is a great time to get up and moving. We're not so quick to jump on that bandwagon, Paela dear. It looks like we have some experimentation ahead of us.

We were happy to have a sudden rainstorm yesterday with a hint of thunder. We can't wait for more. Thunder and lightning are among the things we missed while in the bay area! And lightning bugs. They're here somewhere, but we haven't seen them yet.

And the reunion last weekend was a blast -- swimming and the duck tour the aquarium, oh my! Paela adored her cousins, particularly Cameron and Megan. We'll post pictures eventually. Life still doesn't feel quite "normal" yet.