Surprise! A Blog Post...

Well, well. Look who is avoiding doing a million things and sitting down at the computer instead. We finally have Internet hooked up and 90% of our stuff unpacked so I hope to be able to sit down and document our month of April soon. It has been a CRAZY one.

Overall, we are here and settling in. Some things have been easy and great, some hard and not so great. Here is a brief overview of our first 3 weeks in Ohio.

Week 1 (April 8-14): I posted a bunch of updates and pictures on Facebook but we made it up in one piece and humane towards each other. The trip took 10 hours and the twins did very, very well. Caden lost it towards the last 1.5 -2 hours but out of 10, I'll take it. Ryan had done a great job getting most essentials out and ready for us. Beds were up, sheets washed and put on each bed, plates and cups accessible etc... He did a great job finding a home for us (remember I had only seen a few pictures - that's it!). It meets all of our needs and some and it could not be in a better location. Our neighborhood is a "planned community" full of families, great sidewalks, lighting, and 2 park areas. AND we are close to a Tornado Warning Siren - oh joy!:) It went off while Ryan was up here alone and he didn't know what it was so while everyone else took shelter in their basements, Ryan was do-bopping around unpacking boxes! :)

The first night we were here ( the 4 of us,  my parents and sister), it got down in the 20's...we couldn't get warm all night! The twins kept waking up cold and we were all looking for more blankets. Ryan kept trying to turn the heat on. Long story short...the heat was broken - not a good first impression for this beach girl. My dad came up the stairs with all of his shirts layered and his famous orange toboggan he had slept in. Ahhh! But thankfully, we have a great landlord and he had someone out here the next day to fix it.  We worked on unpacking boxes and finding places to eat and recycle pounds of packing paper while Ryan was at work. My family left on Thursday which was a rough day for all of us. We miss our family so much! :(

Jenna transitioned beautifully as expected - found her toys and went off exploring. Caden... oh Caden. I couldn't leave the room for anything. He cried and clung and fussed most of the week. Pray for him to continue to settle down here...its been a rough transition for my little cuddler.

It was cold all week and crazy windy! Like 40 mph winds all day people! It rained all weekend which didn't help my impression of the weather "up north." (sorry Jenelle!) :)

That Saturday was my birthday and while it was very strange and different, Ryan, my parents, in laws and friends from home made it special with calls, texts, notes and packages in the mail! I certainly missed a week's worth of special birthday lunches with friends that I was used to being at home surrounded by friends and family.

Week 2 (April 15-21): We tried out a church that was recommended and liked it alot! C and J were the only ones in their class which was good in a way - they got lots of attention in their new environment. The pastor at the church said "welcome to the MidWest." eewwww, I guess we are here now, huh? I keep working on getting the house unpacked around spending just about all wake time hours playing on the floor with the twins so they see I'm not going anywhere. Our insurance is a joke up here so I spent many days searching on my phone for doctors for the kids and what hospitals we can go to. I have to go to Panera to use their Internet on Ryan's computer after we put the kids down at night since we still don't have Internet at this point. We have a spurt of a beautiful day or two so the twins and I find the Walmart, Target and get miserably lost trying to find the Dollar Store. We also go to the Greenway and take a nice walk outside! It doesn't last long, it gets super cold again (high in low 40's and with our Chicago-like wind, it feels like its in the 30's a day or two). The twins decide, yet again, to teethe at the same time: Jenna, finally her last 1 yr molar which is WICKED. She has a horrible time sleeping. And Caden: the beloved I-tooth. Thanks kids, great teeth to choose at the same time.

Week 3(this week): started off with me trying to take the twins to their 18 month appt by myself yesterday. Disaster. Epic Fail. Mistake. Complete confidence destroyer. Horrible. All you need to know is that I hardly heard anything the Doctor said, we didn't get to talk about my concerns with Caden (reflux is back..ugh), I had to basically drag the twins, one by the arm, one by the leg to get them both to the car and the whole ride back home, all 3 of us were crying. I'm sure we have every red flag possible marked on our charts there now. Anyway, we have Internet now so I hope to be able to find some things to do with the kids although I'm slightly horrified at the thought of taking them anywhere by myself - not a good age to have 2 the same age:1 adult ratio! Anyway, I'm hoping for better things this week, my goal is to meet someone - anyone. Our neighbors work during the day so I haven't been able to meet them yet.

Thanks for your notes and texts....sorry I haven't returned all of them. We miss you all more than you know! And to save this post from absolute boredom: a sweet pic for you....enjoying our peeps: