Where to start?

Soooooo much has happened. It's overwhelming to try and remember it all, much less compose it into a blog post. We've had a lot of help these days. A lot of family, too. I love our new house more every day we're in it. Robert is grumpy most of the time due to the untimely combination of a fighting a cold and cutting his 2-year molars. Poor, snotty, tired, frustrated little fellow. Two in, two to go, then he's done with teething until age 6. Woo hoo!

We're down to one car again. On Tuesday of this week we were heading to St. Louis for a temple trip and hit a patch of ice on the freeway. We spun around a couple times, went into the ditch, hit a freeway sign, and almost came spinning out of the ditch back onto the freeway before our car finally stopped. No one was hurt, thankfully, and we didn't hit anyone else, extra thankfully, or a concrete overpass (erk). Bobby's parents had Alice in their car and they were following us at the time and able to pull over and help. It's mostly a blur from that point on. The car was totaled from an insurance standpoint. We're at an awkward spot right now trying to figure out when/if to purchase a replacement vehicle. Do we get something bigger in case we have another couple kids (our current car won't fit three car seats in back)? Do we get something super small and efficient exclusively for Bobby's 2-mile commute and worry about the kid thing later?

Lots of thinking in our future, and a unique opportunity. When we were looking for a new home, proximity to the stores and services we used most often was a key priority. I even began secret plans to get rid of our second car altogether and use my bike and the bus more. It's a little earlier than I wanted to start the experiment, and December 31st is hardly the best time to start riding one's bike more in the frigid midwest, but if not now...when? So, we've decided to put the insurance check into savings and try this one-car-family thing again for a month. Work, school, shopping, medical clinic, dentist, pharmacy, and several friends literally live within 2 miles of our new home. As long as it's not actively storming or dangerously cold, there is little excuse for me to use a car. I wonder if a month is long enough to truly create a new rhythm. I want to get past "survivor" mode. Is a month long enough to generate a sustainable routine? Hmmmm. I might shoot for 100 days...April 9th, 2012. January, February, and March will probably be the hardest months. This week and the last week of the trial period should be perfectly sublime. HA HA HA! I'm crazy. And yet...

Anyway, I'm still trying to find the USB cable that will allow me to upload pictures from our camera.

I had a lovely time this week reconnecting with Bobby's parents and getting to know Jon and Brooke a little better. I stayed up way too late, ate way too much delicious food, and did way too little by way of real life (i.e. unpacking, laundry, house chores, email, blogging, etc.). It was truly a vacation! I appreciate all the Evanses who helped make it that way :) We are planning on a very, very, very quiet New Year's Eve celebration tonight with nachos supreme for dinner, a bath for the kids, movie and popcorn, and a regular bedtime. *sigh* Sounds divine. Can't wait to get started :)

If anyone has any Lowe's/Home Depot/Menards coupons or discounts they won't be using, will you please send them our way? The bathrooms are almost "done." We haven't even started with the kitchen. This house doesn't need many rigorous fixes that we can do ourselves, so we get to play around with details until help arrives later. Bobby would like to install remote-controlled ceiling fans in every bedroom. I'm looking into curtains and other decor (a new arena for me, to be sure). Then there's the yard and garden. Ooooo, I'm itching to get started. Lots more planning to go on there. Can't get a fence and garden beds installed until spring. The previous owners opted for landscape plastic and river rocks all the way around the house. They also nurtured a monstrous patch of poke weed (i.e. tap roots and beautiful clusters of purple poisonous berries) that I will be battling for many years to come. So, maybe I can start on one of those projects while the weather is still freakishly mild.

All that bus-riding and bike-riding will toughen me up for outdoor work anyway :)