settling in

Ok, it's completely true that we were sad to leave our old home.

But....the fact that the new home was going to have a McDonalds was a real bonus.  [Those of you who live in America, don't judge us.  A double cheeseburger tastes 10,000 times better over here.]

I believe the first day we arrived, we hit the golden arches.  You can't imagine how excited our kids were! 

We had a lot of work cut out for us when we arrived.  [Part of the problem was due to the fact that the moving company got in a wreck and our stuff was delayed by several days...!]

The fabulous little playhouse we had on our old patio would fit nowhere in our new home.  So instead, we donated it to the common play area downstairs.  The kids seemed to come out of the woodwork to inspect the new toy.

Abby was so thrilled that the new play area had a swing.  The girl loves herself a swing.

Also adding to the fun of things, Silas' birthday came just a few days after we arrived in our new city.   To make up for not making him an awesome birthday cake, we took everyone to Dairy Queen.  [This is a major step up for us.]

As we settled in, we made lots of trips to the trash area throwing out boxes, trash, etc.  We've thrown out some crazy stuff in our time, but finding this orange-hand-chair at the trash area might just be the funniest thing I've seen in a long time.  It was a bright spot for me one day during unpacking.

Josh picked out our apartment for us before the whole family made the move, and I hadn't seen it at all (not even a picture!) until we got there with the moving truck.  He found us a wonderful apartment, within walking distance to every possible convenience you could imagine.

Even with his mad apartment finding skills, the place still needed some work.  Not wanting to spend a bajillion dollars gutting the kitchen and starting over, I decided instead to try using contac paper to cover the oil-stained walls.  Here's the before (sorry about the pizza prep you see there):

And here's the (almost-finished) after:

(I was amazed at what a difference the contac paper made!)

And here is the living room (before):

And after!

Just behind the living room is the dining room (before):

Dining room (after fitting in our enormous table!):

Once things were painted and furniture arranged, there were still lots of odds and ends to pick up....like this big basin (our makeshift bathtub) and a plunger.  Why Abby has the plunger on her head, I'll never know.

Our apartment complex is set up in such a way that it's safe for our big girls to go ride scooters and play by themselves outside, which is a wonderful feature!  This particular day though, the blue skies lured me outside too!

We quickly found our closest indoor playground:

And also made frequent trips to the nearby fruit and vegetable market:

We checked on a few places for Abby to attend local school: 

(but have since decided to hold off on that.)

We had our first fall picnic (and living in a place where Subway can make that happen? Amazing!):

And got our first package!

Shortly after getting that "settled" feeling again, we started a system of weekly "dates" that Josh and I do with the girls.  He does one afternoon a week and I do Saturday mornings, so each girl gets 2-3 dates a month.  That has been such a fun new routine to start, and we've all really enjoyed it!

Settled in.

Starting again.

It's gonna be great.

Family Pics, August, 2012

A few weeks before we made the big move, we asked a talented and generous friend to take some family pics for us. I wanted a tangible and photographic memory of the place we had come to really love.  

Thanks again, K, for giving your time and energy to take these pics for us!

Another Goodbye

In September of 2003, Josh and I were fresh grads from the University of Oklahoma.  Full of excitement, conviction, and a bit of naivete, we started a journey that still surprises us sometimes today.

In these (almost) ten years, we've moved 5 times.  That's a lot of packing tape, a lot of boxes, and a lot of phone calls to shady Asian moving companies.  It's a lot of changing phone numbers, lots of fixing of hot water heaters, lots of saying hello, but also a lot of saying goodbye. 

Admittedly, the catalyst for my long absence from blogging was because we were in the middle of move #5.  It happened quickly, and perhaps its speed gave me little time to process through the move.  Though I was absolutely certain this move was the right direction we were take, this goodbye was so hard for me.

We'd only lived in "our" city for a year, but I feel like the Lord took that one year and made feel like five.  I had more local friendships there than I did in four years where we'd lived before.  My kids had great friends.  I loved our apartment.  I just *really* loved where we were and what we were doing.  

And honestly, blogging in the middle of that move was just too raw.  It felt so superficial to post pictures and say, "Here's the cute thing my kid did!" when my heart was saying, "Man, I'm really just so sad."  So instead I just didn't blog at all.

On this side of things - nine months removed from the city we left - I still miss it, but I'm able to see many of the good things the Lord brought us into.  The blog will feel stuck, though, until I give a proper tribute to the city and home we loved so intensely for that one year. 

I'll never forget the day I took this picture - it was our second day in our city and we were walking around looking for an apartment.  We stumbled upon an interesting looking apartment complex and went inside to take a look.  It wasn't on our radar at all, but after going in and checking it out, we knew that was the place for us.  This picture reminds me so much of the Lord's guiding hand, at work even when we are unaware of all He is doing on our behalf.  

In this home, our oldest lost her first tooth. 

In this home, our girls operated their first lemonade stand.

And then watched the neighbors stare in wonder at the Carrot Cake muffins.  

         

In this home, my youngest child had his first birthday.  

In this home, we made hamburger buns for trick-or-treaters.

In this home, school drop-offs were a family affair.  

In this home, friends were made, cookies were baked, friendships were born. 

In this home, we joined our first homeschool co-op.

In this home, we celebrated school dance performances.  

In this home, the story of the Pilgrims was heard by the littlest of ears.  

In this home, a host of friends gathered to be thankful together.  

In this home, friends stuck together and helped out.  Even when it meant a lot of present-wrapping.

In this home, Abby joined the Family Fun Nights.  

In this home, good news of great joy was proclaimed.  

In this home, every heart prepared Him room.  

In this home, the CGB (Carollo Girls Band) was formed.  Samantha was the whistler, Emma was the piano player, and Abby was the drummer.  

In this home, we celebrated our first ever Chinese New Year.
                                      

And we invited friends over to celebrate the madness with us!

In this home, we painted.  Often.

In this home, we played in the snow. 

In this home, Abby stopped sucking her fingers forever.  

In this home, we shopped like locals.  Sort of.  

In this home, we welcomed spring!  [We were amazed by the beautiful flowers all around us!]

In this home, we had our first neighborhood Easter Egg Dye!

In this home, I may or may not have spilled blue paint everywhere.  And then flushed it down the drain.

In this home, we worshipped.

In this home, we continued our love of water balloons.

In this home, we read lots of books.

In this home, we learned "The Star Spangled Banner".

In this home, we crafted.

In this home, we LOVED our huge patio!  (and the view too!)

In this home, we jump-roped with our neighbors.  Every week.

In this home, we cooked together.

In this home, we made lots of music.

In this home, we really hit our stride when it came to school.

And in Chinese, too!

In this home, we enjoyed the summer heat - and cooling off from it in the pool with friends!

And in this home, we were sanctified even more.  =)

In this home, our second baby girl lost her first tooth.  [And she actually lost it, too!  Once it was pulled, it immediately disappeared!]

In this home, we considered buying a pet.  Instead, we decided to just play with all our neighbors' pets.

In this home, goodbyes were hard.

But with all we had done in this home, it couldn't have been easy.  

[For privacy reasons, many of the people we love very dearly who still live here are not pictured.  If you're one of those people, please know that I'm only leaving out your awesome pictures to respect your privacy!]