Slowly Getting Settled

It has been a few days, well four to be exact, since the movers dumped a gazillion boxes inside our new house.  We are still surrounded by boxes but making progress every day.  It feels a little slow going because, for a housewife, life has to continue whether boxes need to be unpacked or not!  I keep plodding along doing laundry, making lunches, buying groceries, taking the dog for a walk, making the bed (yes, that's right, among all the chaos I am still making the bed....it makes me feel normal!),
cleaning up messes, planning meals, cooking meals, helping with homework and in between all this, every once in a while, I successfully unpack a box.  There are many half unpacked boxes around the house with their flaps open, begging to give me a cardboard cut across the back of my legs!

My husband, on the other hand, has been an amazing whiz at unpacking boxes and getting things "set-up".  We had Direct TV connected within hours of the TV being unpacked and the server was up and running by Sunday night (the Cox guy was here hooking up the Internet connection while the movers were unloading the truck).  The speed at which he is able to get things done is amazing.  If it wasn't for him, I would be washing the same three pairs of underwear (that we packed for the trip) over and over again.

We have been a little challenged because in some rooms, for every box we unpack, we have to repack a box of my Mum's stuff......especially in the kitchen.  Somehow, around all this chaos, I have managed to cook semi decent meals.  You see, one of the advantages to this unpack/repack situation is that we had a kitchen full of cookware from the very beginning.  When we unpack a box of mugs, we repack it with my Mum's mugs.  Unfortunately, we have had a few slips.  For example, we repacked the utensils, including the can opener.  We have yet to find the box with OUR can opener in it.  I think it was one of those items that you cram in the last empty space in the top of a box.  Knowing my luck, it is probably in a box labeled, "winter clothes".

We registered Madison for school on Monday and her first day was Tuesday.  I am absolutely thrilled with Patterson Elementary School and her teacher Mrs. Alann!  The entire staff at that school seems so happy to be there and the enthusiasm appears to start at the top with the Principal, Mr. C.  He personally greets all of the students as they arrive at school and apparently, knows all of the students by name.  Madison hugged her teacher "goodbye" at the end of her second day, she also hugged the Principal "goodbye" today........that is a sign that things are going to be okay in 2nd grade!

Madison in her brand new $4.96 outfit

In addition to the awesome staff (even the office staff and school nurse have gone above and beyond to make us feel welcome), there are all these positive little messages nestled among trees and bushes all over the campus.  I feel they are a daily reminder for the kids that they have the potential for greatness!

I have also been scouring the area for a decent preschool for Connor but have been unsuccessful.  There may be an opening in the preschool program at Madison's school and it comes highly recommended.  Fingers crossed, we are looking into that.

The dog seems to be adjusting well and has successfully marked every bush within 100 feet of our house.  Her presence is now known to the other dogs in the neighborhood that are lucky enough to go out for walks.

I have been working on ways to earn some extra money and have been exploring the option of online freelance writing.  I have also been more aggressively seeking Mystery Shopping jobs (this is something that I did in California a few times).  I have my first assignment tomorrow at a major department store and for this I will be paid $60.  Woo hoo!  I am pretty excited because the jobs I have done in the past have been at restaurants and have been reimbursement for food only.   The more paid jobs I do, the more jobs I will be eligible for.

All in all, we are getting things accomplished.  We are not in a race, we just need to make a little progress each day and eventually we will be settled.