on the path to normal

We're finally starting to get settled here enough for me to pick up posting again to my very-neglected blog. We've made tons of purchases and our place is really starting to feel like home. Much of our furniture and household items were shipped from our 0ld city, so when we sit down to eat at our dining room table, it feels like catching up with an old friend. We had initially told the girls we'd take them on a Toys R Us date (there's one here in our city, can you believe it?!) but they've been so preoccupied with the toys that were shipped from our old city they've forgotten about going. So we'll save that date for another time.

Our apartment complex has a lot of buildings that encircle a common garden/play area. It has nice shaded paths and a central area with asian-style exercise equipment.

It's on a busy road, so there is some background noise. Fortunately, for the last 5 years we've lived next to highways so we're accustomed to it.
This is the view from my kitchen window. I love that from the kitchen and other windows, I can see almost the entire garden area downstairs. There will come a day when I let my big girls go down and play by themselves, but that day hasn't come yet! I want their language to get a little better and for the people in the complex to be a little more familiar with them as well.
Just across the street from us is another apartment complex with a beautiful swimming pool. Abby wears this awesome Puddle Jumper and jumps right in the deep end. All the locals are amazed at how fearless she is!
Emma has become a pretty good swimmer with all the practice she's gotten. We bought a 30-use pass and have been swimming about five times already.
Samantha loves chilling out at the pool and floating around in the swim ring. The older girls love playing with her and floating around with her. She's probably the most popular girl at the pool.
We had to buy new couches and furniture for the girls' room...and we're now enacting a spending ban and are putting off all future purchases! There's a local saying that says, "Move homes once, you're poor for three years!" We really identified with that statement after this recent move.

But now our home is really feeling like a home. There's noise and laughter in the living room, giggles and singing and still a bit of fighting in the girls room. There's the smell of fresh baked bread from the kitchen, candles from the bathroom, dirty diapers in the trash can...hey, I'm just trying to be real. =) Books are unpacked and line the shelf, just waiting for little hands to grab them up:
We're even settled enough for josh to go buy a replacement guitar (he left his good one in America). Silas loves grooving to the music!
So. Getting settled took a lot of time, but we're so thankful for this wonderful place the Lord provided for us. We've talked to a little preschool about the girls starting to go there a few mornings a week. An older lady has started working for us, making lunch and doing some cleaning. The girls and I even started easing back into the school routine last week.

We're all glad that things are starting to feel a little more normal.