Here We Are

Well, here we are in our new house. And I must say that we're loving it. The moving in process was exhausting and time-consuming, but we had some great help, including some dedicated friends that helped me peel contact paper for four hours one night (and it still wasn't finished after that). If I never see another roll of contact paper in my life, it'll be too soon!

We busted our butts the first week to get through the maze of boxes downstairs and get the place organized for daycare. We were tired, grumpy, and sore, but we had daycare up and running by Thursday of last week. Granted, not everything is in place, but we are in compliance with all of the DCFS licensing standards. The kids have a pretend sandbox in the yard right now because we haven't had the time or money yet to dig a hole and fill it with sand (our sandbox is bottomless). So I've just told them to play in the pretend sandbox for now. We have a pile of wood in the garage that is a playhouse that we ordered. We had to wait to put it together because some of the pieces were damaged when it come. Of course we've had the replacement pieces since Friday and it's still not done. We've been busy and I admit we've been kicking back a bit now that we've had a few moments to breathe. So hopefully sometime this weekend the playhouse will be put together. I don't know when exactly, but I really really hope it's finished before next week rolls around.

I LOVE the new daycare space. It's a zillion times better than the old space. It looks nicer, seems better organized, and has a cleaner look due to the seller's tasteful wall colors and window treatments. I've changed some of our routines in order to adjust to the new space and definitely feel like those changes are working out great.

I love my backyard, fenced in with a patio area. Wally has made friends with the two dogs next door and they like to run laps along the fence together. So he gets a lot of energy out that way. He's had a complete personality change with having a backyard to run around in. He's mellowed out so much that he gets to join me and the daycare kiddos on walks and during outdoor play. He also gets to have space in the kitchen during the day when he's indoors. Of course he still gets upset that he can't join the kiddos in the daycare area indoors. But he's way too excitable for that. He'd be on top of all those little kiddos! He does great with them outdoors though. They love to pet him and throw sticks for him to run after.

Our family room is also awesome. It's pretty small, but I like to think of it as cozy. We've got a fireplace that the seller's left (a portable electric one) and we mounted our t.v. above it. I admit that we did splurge on a flat screen because we realized that trying to fit our huge dinosaur t.v. and entertainment center into such a small space would've ruined the room. So we love it. We can turn the fireplace on, watch a movie, turn the lights off and it's instant ambiance. I'm all about ambiance. It must be the Cherrington in me - must have candles for meals, that sort of thing.

Now, our upstairs is another story. It's piled floor to ceiling with boxes in pretty much every room. Our clean clothes are piled everywhere because our closets are due for makeovers before we can begin to put things away. So it's a bit overwhelming to look at for the moment. But we'll get to it!

I guess the next big thing on my agenda is to start making phone calls on my waiting list to fill one daycare opening. I admit I'm dragging my feet a bit because I'm enjoying the momentary lull and I also want time in the new space with my already established kiddos before adding a new family/child to the mix. But I will not be able to procrastinate forever on this. So I will probably start making phone calls by the end of this week. I will say that I think it will be easier to fill openings now that I have a much nicer space. I tried to do the best I could with the previous space that I had, but it just doesn't compare to what I have now.

So, now here we are and I'm just feeling grateful and happy and peaceful in our new home.