Did you miss me?

Test, test, test. Is this thing on?

I bet you thought I forgot about you. I bet you thought I was never coming back. Oh, no one reads this tiny little blog about the funny things my girls do? Right...

Well, since my last post in APRIL (and the only one this year), Jimmie finished his post doc in Connecticut and we moved back home. Sort of. We are now living in Stillwater, which is new to both of us, but we are so incredibly glad to be close to family and longtime friends again. We are about an hour and 15 minutes from my parents and sisters, 2 1/2 from Jimmie's parents and about 45 minutes from his sisters. Not to mention that we are about 3 1/2 hours from our "family" in Lawrence. We really miss our friends in Connecticut, but we are so thankful for the opportunity that we have here in Stillwater.  It is truly a God thing that Jimmie has a job at all, and for it to be one where he is doing exactly what he wants (teaching and doing research at a university) and so close to our family, well that is simply amazing. 

Readers Digest version of our move:

We got rid of a lot of stuff

We packed up what was left 

The movers came and picked up our stuff

We had to say goodbye to a lot of people that had become very special to us

We loaded up the car (I will explain my "road trip plan" for the girls in another post)

We drove across the country, stopping to see friends and family along the way

We finally arrived and learned our belongings were not coming as quickly as we had earlier anticipated

Jimmie had to head on up to Stillwater to start teaching a summer course. Meanwhile, the girls and I stayed with my parents.

I headed up to meet the movers (and some amazing friends from my home church came to help)

The movers got there and they were very unprofessional

Our boxes were CRUSHED. Literally! things were missing and poking out of the sides of boxes. Not pretty!

I spent the next couple of weeks finding all of the things that broke in the move

We started to get settled. We are almost done, except for a few boxes of things that we don't use all of the time and we still have to hang pictures on the walls!

I can't explain how glad we are to be here. It has taken some adjustment, and Ella and I have really missed our friends, but we are getting into the groove of things around here. We are going to have to learn how to be Cowboy fans. In the first world problems category, I lament the fact that there is no Target here. Stillwater is a much smaller town than I am used to, but it's growing on me. We are starting to make friends. Ella is in Kindergarten and I have done some volunteering at her school. Jimmie is teaching and setting up his lab. He just submitted his first grant. Aubrey is one of the funniest kids I have ever met and just rolls with the punches. She also gets into a lot of trouble. 

Here are a few pictures of our move:

All packed up and ready to go

Last family photo at our New Haven house

Having fun in the car

Almost home!

Our sad boxes. Most of them looked like this.

So many things broke, even with bubble wrap and towels.

Who needs toys when you have boxes?

The lake behind our house