Basement Campout

 This past weekend some of the kids had their first basement campout downstairs.  It sounds like they had a great time.

New Tables

 We have two new tables in our new home and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THEM!

You might remember our dining table from past pictures.  I've never talked about it, but it was always a staple for events at our Rifle home.  We would pull mis-mashed chairs around, and attach high chairs, and it served us well for a number of years.

That said, the chairs were falling a part, and we did not have enough chairs for all the people in our family, and we definitely didn't have enough chairs when family or friends came to visit.  I had dreamed of a table with benches for YEARS, but it was never the right time and in our Rifle home, we were never sure exactly what kind of larger table would fit in the space.

When we moved to Rangely, we moved our well-worn table with us to the blue house, where it continued to serve as the place for meals, and homework, and projects, and puzzles.

Once in the big house, we were thrilled with the timing of our moving a few weeks before Thanksgiving in order to shop some Black Friday sales, because were able to find two BEAUTIFUL tables for our new home.  Our old table moved with us and held up for Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas Eve dinner and a Christmas party we hosted... but on December 26, the old table was moved to our sun porch so our new tables could arrive.

One is a very long, sturdy dining table with two benches, four chairs, and two removable leaves.  This is our everyday eating table with room to spare for family or company.

The second one we put in our dining room which is a little smaller, but has one bench, and four chairs.  This also has six drawers around the table -- which is perfect for children to keep pencils, calculators, and scissors inside for homework.  This is our new homework table and I am so excited about it.  We can still convert it to an eating area with very little warning because the children each have their own drawers where the homework gets tucked away, but for daily life when we don't need a second eating room, it works perfectly for the homework room.

These tables (and this home) is a long-awaited Christmas present to Hubby and me, and we are so excited for the way they meet the daily needs of our large family and allow us to plan for entertaining friends without having to pull up folding chairs and have children sit on our laps.

Thankful

 So much to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Settling In!

 We are in our new house!  

We are thrilled and exhausted and ready to settle in.

A Word from Hubs

 My hubby doesn't post things publicly very often, and when he does it is almost never introspective... but last night he did both.

Here's a word from Hubs:

God really does give us exactly what we need.

On the busiest week of my educational career, I left my 86 degree office yesterday and came home to change out of my sweat soaked clothes just in time to have our swamp cooler motor quit. It got pretty hot in the house last night, and we’ve only been in this house a little over a week. Houses aren’t supposed to have stuff break like this right after you buy it, so I was hot, literally and metaphorically.

RW came over this morning to help me figure out what was wrong with the swamp cooler (thank you R!). We went to Junction to do a Sam’s run and get all of our parts to fix it. I got the motors switched out, Howard helped me up on the roof tonight, which was a pretty great father son bonding moment, and it’s finally fixed!

After our swamp cooler broke last night, I listened as Brooke read a bedtime story to our kids. As she took a break from the story, my four-year-old asked her, “Why doesn’t Daddy live with us?” Brooke explained to her that I just had a very busy week with the new principal job, and I still lived with them. That broke my heart.

After I got the swamp cooler fixed, I sat down and reflected on today’s events and realized it couldn’t have been planned any better. If the swamp cooler didn’t break, I probably would have worked another 12+ hour day and gone another day not spending much time with my family. Instead, I got to spend all day with them making memories laughing, traveling, shopping, looking for animals, fixing stuff with my son, and just being together. I was upset when it broke, but I’m so glad it did!

Thank you God for giving me today!

Home on the Rangely!

 I wrote a little song lately...

Oh give me a home where the children can roam and the view’s a breathtaking display. 

Where fruit trees abound and cul de sac’s round, and children will not disobey. 

Home home on the Rangely. Where the six Mountain Miller kids play. Where often is heard a song from a bird, Thank God for this home we do pray. 

Oh Rangely we’re happy to stay!

A Break

 This has not been our average summer.  We had already made the decision to stay in Rifle for the summer to allow our kids to do several sessions of swim lessons, and sports teams, and we knew both sets of grand parents were ... but we did NOT know at the time that our summer would be FULL of painting our house, staging our house, putting our house on the market, showing our house, all while packing all our belongings and Hubby beginning a new job 100 miles away.  Then we took our house off the market and PACKED UP EVERYTHING and found a home in Rangely and closed on it 2 weeks after it hit the market.

And we moved into our new home three days before I start my new job.

Can I just say it?

Starting the school year (even with a new job... which is NOT going to be easy) will be a nice break from the summer of NOT taking a break.

Our View!

 I am in love with the view from our new home!

December 1

The journey of decking the halls of our new home begins with a single step... or a single mantle.

Welcome to the Christmas season:

 

So Thankful...

We have so much for which to be thankful this Thanksgiving...

The Best Part

I think Tracey Ann would contend that the best part of our continuing to unpack is the empty boxes...

... and of course laundry baskets with clean laundry are always fun. 

 

 

Favorite Things

The longer I am in our new home, the more favorite things I have about it.  

Some of them are:

• The view from our bedroom
• The size of our bedroom... and the fact we have our own bathroom
• Our front door -- especially with our pumpkins on the stoop
• The view from our street as we drive down the hill to downtown
• The fact our laundry room has a linoleum floor -- not a dirty, spidery, concrete floor (like our old place)
• Tracey Ann's sweet little room with her big girl bed and a FULL closet to hang her little clothes
• The twins' sweet little room... that still needs to be set up, but we at least know which room is theirs and their two little sets of outfits from friends are hanging in their closet
• Our backyard shed
• Our fireplace... which we haven't used yet, but we know it works and we're excited to use it when we can
• Our HUGE bathtub in our master bath -- it is amazing!!

Fully Appreciated

I have never fully appreciated my dishwasher before.  In fact, I think I've made a habit of under-valuing this modern, first-world appliance.

When I was single, I lived for a few years without a dishwasher, which was no big deal, and I adopted a philosophy at that time, that I would rather do without a dishwasher than laundry appliances.  In fairness to me, I adopted this philosophy in my mid-twenties and I really did mean it at the time, which meant, I foolishly thought this remained my philosophy for the past few years.  No dishwasher?  No biggie -- as long as I have laundry appliances.

This week I learned that I have been under-valuing the wonderful contraption known as a dishwasher.

The amount of dishes we generate as a family is so much more than I realized until I have had to do without a dishwasher for the past two weeks.  We moved in and didn't realize our dishwasher wasn't working until we had been here a few days... and then, I ran the (full) broken dishwasher four separate times thinking that the problem was me... I just didn't know how to work the thing before Hubby and I finally realized it was broken.

After washing dishes by hand (and switching to paper plates) for the past ten days, we finally had a working dishwasher last night, and I couldn't BELIEVE how MANY dishes fit into the dish washer -- after I have been washing sink-full after sink-full since we moved in.

Oh, Sweet Dishwasher, I have not appreciated you.

I still love my laundry appliances, and definitely appreciate not having to go to a laundromat... but, Oh, Sweet Dishwasher, I apologize for my apathy up until this point.

What Makes a Home?

As I've made an effort to organize boxes and boxes of belongings and unpack some, thus far, I've found myself wondering what make a home... and, specifically, what will make this house our home.

What I'm discovering, little by little, is that, in our incredibly blessed life of abundance, home is made by the superfluous, sentimental additions to each room.  Within a few days, Hubby and I had located most of the belongings that we needed to survive as a family in this new space... but that didn't mean we were home.  If anything, we were camping, or on vacation, living out of boxes and suitcase -- and yes, we had what we needed, but we were not home.

For me, home is made, not by the items required to live our daily lives, but the items that are extra and unnecessary to our daily lives.

Last night I found the box that contained the manicure set that I keep in my bedside table, and what a sigh of relief I exhaled.  I use that manicure set all the time, FINALLY it will be where it belongs, in the drawer next to my side of the bed.  The manicure set is helping to make this place home.

Last night, I hung white Christmas lights in our bedroom, probably an incredibly immature habit I developed in college -- but I think one strand of Christmas lights -- either white or colored is the perfect amount of relaxing light to have illuminating my bedroom in the hours before bedtime.  When I was younger, I would always have a strand of colored lights, but since getting married, I like white lights -- I think they are more romantic.  These lights are helping to make this place home.

Tracey Ann has sort of been in-between two bedrooms for the past week.  We chose her bedroom and moved clothes and furniture into that room.  Then, we began the process of moving her to a big girl bed... and the bed was set up in another room.  She has now been sleeping at night, and for nap-time in her big girl bed for over a week, and so Hubby and I had to decide which room would be Tracey Ann's -- the one with all of her clothes, or the one with her big girl bed.  Yesterday a decision was made, and last night I made big strides toward making the "big girl bed" room HER room, and the room with the crib, the twins' room.  Knowing that I'm creating specific rooms for my children is helping to make this place a home.

As I am unpacking, I am definitely learning how many meaningless belongings my little family has... but I am also learning that some belongings are anything but meaningless, and they really do help to make a house a home.

There is a reason many women, myself included, devote their lives to the position of Homemaker -- a house does not become a home simply when a family moves in.  A house becomes a home first by loved ones who fill the space, and then, in time, each person in the family feeling safe, secure and loved in that space.

1000 Words

1000 Words

 

Adjusting Expectations

This past week has been an exercise in adjusting expectations.  I'm not sure why, but I really had the impression that the stressful part of moving was packing up and moving out... never did I even remotely think that the process of unpacking and settling in would be equally long and stressful.

I have moved many times before in my life and unpacking was always so much fun -- settling into a new place, hanging pictures, organizing my room -- it was awesome.

It turns out moving is much different with a husband, toddler, and when pregnant with twins.  First of all, we have so much more belongings as a family than I ever had a single woman, and we're moving into an entire house, as a family, instead of my just having a room with other roommates.

The truth is, it has never taken me more than about a week to settle into a new place -- even when Hubby and I were first married, I think it took me maybe two weeks for us to settle in and figure out how we would make a home together.

Now, specifically this week, I have had to adjust my expectations as to how long it will take us, as a family, to settle in to this wonderful, big home, as a family -- its going to take some time... certainly longer than a week.

My new goal, is to be settled in our home, and ready for the twins in our home, before the twins arrive -- and to remain healthy and active and able to remain up and on my feet until we are settled in our home and ready for the twins.

That goal might be met by the middle of November, or the middle of December... hopefully not much after that.

Our home is wonderful, and we will settle in, in time, I just have to work on adjusting my expectations of the time frame.

Pause

Right now, Hubby and I are so incredibly blessed.  There is no two ways about it, there is no debate, we are 100% blessed by everything in our life right now.

We have a home, a healthy daughter, a loving marriage, wonderful animals, fulfilling jobs, a church community, a growing family, and extended family that would do anything for us at a moment's notice.

That being said, I needed this reminder today.  It is really hard to try to settle into a new home while working, raising a toddler, and growing two babies.

 

Moving Pictures

Here are some pictures from our busy moving days...

Officially homeowners!

 Tracey Ann learned the realities of moving... mismatched clothes, wet hair, and pizza for breakfast.

Rays of sunshine in our new yard.

Helping us shop at Home Depot

Daddy's little helper with home projects

She found Mama's fancy shoes in a box and played dress-up -- she walks in the heels better than I do

 

Preggers II -- Twins: 24 Weeks

Oh my goodness, I have not blogged in forever, which is TOTALLY not like me.  I missed a few days before we closed on our house... and then we moved and our internet was supposed to be on as of last Friday, but it didn't actually turn on until Monday, so there were a quiet few days there.  I will write all about our move soon, but I totally missed a pregnancy post for 23 weeks, and I will be 25 weeks on Thursday, so I don't want to delay my 24 week post any more lest it might not happen either.

How far along?  24 weeks

How I am feeling?  Well, exhausted because of our move, but very excited to be settling into our new home -- our FIRST home that Hubby and I have ever purchased.

How big are babies?  The size of cantaloupes (oh my!)... between 1- to 1.5 pounds and 10.5- to 11.5 inches long

Sleep:  Not as well yet in our new house.  I'm still getting the hang of this new place and we're definitely still settling in.

Boy/Girl, Boy/Boy, Girl/Girl Predictions: Oh, I have no idea... frankly this has been the last thing on my mind this week.  I'm just excited that I feel both babies moving at the end of our long days when I finally get off my feet.

Babies Nicknames:  Babies, or Twins

 

Weight Gain/Loss:  Probably gained weight... but I'm not sure where our scale is at the moment.

Best moment this week:  Spending Saturday night in our home.  We slept in our house Friday night too... but by Saturday night EVERYTHING had been moved out of our old house, and Hubby and I knew we were going to sleep in on Sunday and we poured sparkling fruit juice in Tiffany champagne glasses, and we cherished the fact that we now own our very own home.

Food cravings:  Diet coke, which is horrible, but I have been craving it (and drinking a few)

Missing:  Endurance... at the end of the two moving days I felt like my body was put together wrong, and each day that I'm unpacking, I can tell when my body is spent for the day and I have to stop.

 

Movements:  Yes, I love them

Labor Signs:  No, thankfully.

Comparison:  Here I am carrying Tracey Ann at 23 and 24 weeks, since I missed last week:

23 Weeks Tracey Ann

24 Weeks Tracey Ann

And here I am with the twins at 23 and 24 weeks:

23 weeks Twins

24 Weeks Twins -- at our new home!!

General Attitude:  So happy that our move is over... we still have to unpack and settle in, but we have officially moved -- that is such a relief!

 What I am looking forward to this week:  Well, settling in to our new home... but also we have another doctor's appointment this week to check and make sure the twins did well with our move

Milestones:  Well, my engagement and wedding rings fit last Thursday, and they did not fit by Sunday.  Also, my feet had grown several sizes by Sunday.  Both of these milestones, I expected in the course of this pregnancy, but I think the move definitely expedited both of these milestones and was physical evidence that the move took its toll on my body.