unpacking

even though our maryland furniture was still in limbo, our cleveland furniture came as scheduled.  it was a bit of an odd assortment, but at least we had some chairs and a (card) table.  we weren't sure what to do with the picnic table and benches that had been in our breakfast nook, but as it turns out, one of the table legs was broken.  neither moving company would admit responsibility, and I ended up disassembling it and paying $5 to dispose of the table top at the dump.  kind of a shame, really - we had lots of good times with that table.

the first thing ben wanted to do was clean up the yard.  thankfully, the lawnmower and saws and trimmer seemed to be none the worse for storage, once we located them all in the mounds of boxes =p

 

so much green space!



our neighbors gave the girls the green light to play on this set that their kids have outgrown.  these same neighbors noticed ben sawing away up on the ladder and brought over a saw-on-a-pole.  a few days later, they showed up with their trailer and helped us load all these branches to take to the dump (no yard waste collection here)!  what a welcome! =)

all this came from the first round of yard work!  apparently the previous renters didn't mind being overgrown =p

some shots of little guy in his new home:

I love how his hair is standing up!  it doesn't do that anymore, *sniff*

moving in is tiring business

our maryland shipment finally arrived, five days after the end of the delivery window (2 1/2 weeks after pickup).  as it turns out, they reimbursed us $125 a day, so it turned out to be a blessing in disguise!

I suppose it's rather telling what items we couldn't wait to get at:

daddy: coffee maker and trash can
mommy: le creuset pots (my bread bakers =))
c: her three-drawer craft supply storage
l: see below
s: the extra diapers! ;-)

such helpers

chicks at the depot

what you don't see is the massive amount of cardboard, packing paper, bubble wrap, etc. that ran knee-high for awhile.  in a way, it was like christmas for weeks - i think we'd forgotten a good half of what was in storage =p  I was once again astounded by the amount of kitchen stuff I've amassed, and couldn't wait to use it all again =D  I was also amazed at some of the things I packed - a bay window hardware set?!

so that's where we were at the end of june.  july and august will have to wait, as we skip ahead to the big news of the present day.. school!!