new month, new home, and new adventures.

I was originally going to title this post "how starbucks saved my day," but it's a new day.

My baby girl is 9 months old already, and for the first time in her short little life, she has her own room. I thought it was going to be harder, but I am thoroughly enjoying being able to have my room back. I missed being able to put laundry away, get clothes out when I wanted, and to just have a space that is ours again.

Our bedroom is probably the biggest one we have had since we moved from Grandville. We were able to put two dressers in there with plenty of room to move around the bed. What a luxury.

I finally feel like I made some progress on finding homes for all of our things. The kitchen was the hardest. Can you believe that there are no drawers in the kitchen at all?  One whole shelf space was taken up by a silverware tray, so I found a pencil holder with three slots in it, and it just sits on the counter. I think it's great!  I found places for most of our plants which really helps to make things feel more like our space.

We have a sun room which is HUGE and so great, but right now it is filled with all of the things that still need to either be put in storage (there's a shed in back) or books to be put on bookshelves that are yet to be assembled. (Oh, and we can't forget my craft stuff)

Our living room has a great bookshelf in it, where I put all of Bea's toys and books. She will just pull everything off the shelves anyway, so it works great to use that as her space. I'm sitting on a very old couch that is very comfortable, but has a strange odor that I can't quite place. Maybe I'll have to see about a couch cover.

It's so nice here. Our street is a dead end, that is off of a street that is a dead end (into a salt pond!). It's very quiet all day long, and most of the houses on the street are empty or will be after this weekend. We have a huge yard, and a backyard where Euchre can hang out. She is doing good too. I think she likes it here, I think she is still trying to figure out what's going on, but it helps that all of our stuff is here and we won't be leaving her and going anywhere anytime soon. Our house has so many windows and gets such great sunlight all day long. Most days there is also a breeze that comes through all of the open windows, and just plain makes me so happy.

Jason had to be at a meeting the day after we arrived here. The school is only 9 miles away, and yet because of the roads it takes him 25-30 minutes to get there. He's been in class planning classes 9-4 Wed-Fri, and then school will officially start next Tuesday. He seems to like the school and I guess that campus is huge. He tried to find the school off of the bike path last night, but it got too dark, and he had to turn back before he found it. He's currently claimed the sunroom as his office and doesn't seem to mind the piles of boxes everywhere, but I'm sure he'll feel more settled once everything gets put away.

I have been furiously putting things away, so I haven't had much time to think about being here and starting over with friends and grocery stores, and post offices, and all of those simple things you take for granted when you have lived somewhere so long. I had my first outing yesterday and it didn't turn out exactly how I thought it would. I needed to make a MAJOR walmart run to get some organizational things and groceries so we could eat something other that road food and protein bars. I got directions to the address of what I thought was Walmart and mapquested it from my house. Well....there was no walmart at that address, and I drove a good 20 minutes in the wrong direction. I guess it was good to sight see, but I was starving, needed to pee, and felt bad that Bea was sleeping in her carseat even though she had just gotten up an hour ago. *side note: she's been in the car so much in the month we were home and the ride here that I hated to put her in the car for ANOTHER long car ride.) I made my way back to where I had gotten off of the highway, and I made a quick decision to drive through starbucks. I am so thankful I did. I asked the girl where the closest walmart was and she says, "oh, just turn right out of here go through three lights and turn left". Really? Really? I was so thankful. I find walmart and I get out of the car and realize that I had forgotten my very large, very extensive list. Then I realized that this was not a super walmart, and although Bea was due for a nap, I needed to get groceries so we found a store and power shopped for food.  I nursed Bea in the car before we left and somehow her diaper wasn't on right so she peed all over herself and me. I just had to laugh. It really was the perfect way to end our outing. I left the house at 10:30 and got home about 2:00. I'm hoping that grocery shopping doesn't take that long every time.

I think it will just take awhile to get the hang of things and where everything is, and get used to the time it takes to get there. (lots of traffic) I want to find a mom's group and hopefully make some friends and I think finding a church will help the most. I'm so thankful for Bea during this transition. She makes everything a little easier, and she makes the days pass quickly and joyfully (well most days).  She is having a ton of fun crawling EVERYWHERE, getting into EVERYTHING, and pulling herself up on EVERYTHING. Last night she even slept through the night!!!!!  Oh my gosh what a relief. I really don't mind getting up in the middle of the night, but I know that she needs her sleep and she's so much happier that way.

Today I think we are going to brave another outing (if I don't, I'll stay in my house on my street for forever).  We are going to check out the beach (beautiful, and very New England-ish), and find the post office. Then I'll need a nap. :)

I'll keep posting our adventures and I'll keep taking pictures.  Here are a couple from Monday when Debby and Denny left for Grand Rapids.

WHOOO HOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our first night here and she didn't want to sleep, so she pulled herself up on boxes instead.

Papa and Yai Yai on the day they left. We wouldn't have been able to make the move without them.

Bea's first meal out in Rhode Island. I love this look on her face. She makes it a lot.

Saying goodbye at the (very cool) train station.