Call us!

Hi this is Chris. Spent the whole weekend (about 14? hours between Sat  & Sun) going through the garage. It’s maybe half way there, but does look better.  We have lots of stuff, so there might be a garage sale in our future.  Not looking forward to preparing for that.  Perhaps eBay or Craigslist would be easier to start with

I did get the phone working!  So please call us: 425 749 7054

The move

Sorry for the delay in posts.  I was told we had 17,000 lbs. of stuff and 210 boxes.  The movers were really competent and very nice guys too.  The packers, we discovered, were not as competent.  They crated only some of the mirrors, and the glass table top unfortunately didn’t get crated.  One edge was damaged.  So was the corner of the footboard on our bed.  A kitchen chair was broken, and ceramic waste basket totally broken. Things were taken apart that I didn’t even know came apart.  Screws were lost, an ottoman cushion, left unfound.  Overall though, the move went well thanks to the extremely HARD work of my parents.  We put the house together beautifully.  Well, actually they put it together while I wandered around aimlessly trying to sort the trash to the appropriate recycle bin.  The recycling here is rediculous…seriously out of control.  More on this later.

Unfortunately, we have an entire garage FULL, and I mean full, of boxes with no where to go.  THis is what happenes when you go from having an attic and basement to only having a garage.  It will take us months to sort through the garage contents and figure out what goes, what stays, and where to put it.  We are still struggling to get our Vonage phone service.  We are borrowing internet from a neighbor.  We are all exhausted, wishing we could get some uninterrupted nights of sleep.  Hopefully at least when my mom and dad get home tonight they will get some good rest finally after over 2 weeks of midnight wakings.

Moving Pictures

This is Chris. Here are some pictures. I’ll get Emily to post something later today. We’ve been without internet or phone for the week. 

http://picasaweb.google.com/chris.browder/Moving#

Moving Day

Yippie, it’s moving day!  Harry slept through the night in anticipation, luckily.  We got the keys yesterday evening and went over last night.  The house is in excellent shape, they left it clean as a whistle.  We can’t wait for the movers who will come between 8 and 10 this morning.  We don’t have internet yet at the house but we’ll post how the move went asap.  All for now!

Traffic

So, my promotion to chauffer is not going really well.  I hope to be fired or at least demoted very soon.  The good news is that the drivers here are VERY considerate.  they are the most cautious city drivers I have ever met.  They go the speed limit and almost always let you in when you need to change lanes.  Yesterday I was changing lanes and someone was in my blind spot and thank god they honked and swerved a bit so I didn’t get in an accident.  Defensive driving–lucky for me that guy was paying attention.  The bad news is that there is so much construction going on.  I spent at least 2 1/2 hours in the car trying to get everyone to and from school, and that doesn’t even account for the 45 min or hour I spent sitting in the car so that I didn’t have to wake Harry from his nap.

Elyse really likes her new school-her principal is young and lovely and greeted Elyse by name the first morning (she and I had been emailing back and forth) and her 1st grade teacher is young and cute too.  She has 2 new friends, Eve and Sidney.

Harry is still waking up at night and I think Chris is tiring of his new role as the ”get the baby back to sleep guy”.  It is super challenging because when we put him to sleep at 7:30 or 8 in the evening, we put him in our bedroom in a provided crib.  Then, around midnight we tire of hearing his noises and move him out to the living room in the pack and play.  Then, we have the creakiest hallway ever and when we try to put him back to sleep and then creap back to the room is is Squeek City!  This morning even if he wants to sleep in he can’t because Chris has to get his lunch for work and the girls and I have to get ready so he has to wake up at 7 regardless of the fact that he was up at 5.  Ah, the joy of apt. living.  boy will i miss this!

Bellevue Strike Ends

So, the strike has ended and this means that Elyse will change from Island Park Elementary here on Mercer Island, to her permenant school in Bellevue (where the house is) tomorrow.  This is a little bit complicated because we won’t actually be in our new house for another week, so I will have to drive her to school and pick her up daily, in addition to driving and picking up Camille.  Poor Harry.  More car time.  It’s no wonder the guy struggles to sleep through the night.  He doesn’t get a decent nap all week long.  Chris has been waking up with him in the middle of the night and putting him back to sleep and last night he woke up at 1:30, and Chris put him back to sleep and finally at 7:30 I woke him to feed him.  SO, we know he can go a long time without eating! 
The other difficult thing is that Elyse was planning on returning to Island Park (we thought the strike would still be going on this week) so she still has a library book she needs to return, and her school supplies to get, etc.  And she wants to say goodbye to her teacher.  All of this will be tricky to work in to a busy week!  My mom and dad arrive Thursday at noon.  This will be a HUGE help.  Just having someone who can be home so Harry can nap in peace will be a godsend!

Chris and I got a night out last night.  Olivia (our superbabysitter) is back in business–turns out we didn’t burn her out after all!  Thank goodness!   She is only in 8th grate but man is she competent!  She even puts dishes in the dishwasher!  Anyway, we went to Chris’ co-worker’s apartment in downtown Seattle.  She is on the 16th floor and her building has a wonderfully huge rooftop with kitchen, grill, workout room, dog walk area, gardens, etc.  A pretty nice setup actually.  Not to mention the views of downtown, Elliott Bay, and Mt. Rainier.  We have a picture we will post tomorrow hopefully.  He works with some very nice people, engineers, mind you, but nice.

I am really enjoying Amazon.Fresh grocery delivery service I have to say.  And, I believe they will deliver to our new house.  For example, I realized we were really running low on diapers, but didn’t want to interrupt a nice relaxing afternoon by going to the store, so we just had them delivered.  Awesome.  Today though, I brought Chris the the Whole Foods market in Bellevue.  Holy Cow.  The place is even bigger than Giant Eagle (Rocky River).  I could spend oodles of money there.  It’s ginormous.  truly.  Our grocery bills are out of sight!  All for now.  gotta get ready for my big day tomorrow as chauffer de jour!

Odd n’ Ends

Hoola Hooping at the Market on Mercer Island. Gotta see these videos

Elyse:

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Emily:

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Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/chris.browder/HoolaHooping#

House

More pictures of the house from the home inspection: http://picasaweb.google.com/chris.browder/HomeInspectionPictures#

Hurray!

Just a quick word to say YAY for my brother Ben.  He passed the bar!  Thank GOD!  All of us couldn’t be any happier.  This is the best news in a very long long time for Ben.  Wish I had a picture to post of him with a big smile and an enormous sigh of relief!!  This will have to do for now…

Harry weighs in

Harry had his 4 month check up and shots today.  Slim weighed in at a mere 16 lbs. 10 oz. which was 80% for weight.  In his defense, he is also a bit on the tall side, in the 75th percentile.  He has a pea head though, which he comes by quite naturally from his Pop Pop (and me).  Only in the 25%, but I’ve been told   that there is no correlation between head size and brain size.

So, we have a new house and we are super excited.  We are definitely getting tired of apartment living.  The one bathroom has been tricky, especially one morning when all 3 of us gals needed to go to the bathroom at once.  Also, a nasty grumpy woman accused us of “pinning” her in, meanwhile, she parked in between 2 parking spots and had at least a half a foot of room to get out.  Lastly, we had neighbors keep us up one night while they argued in the apt. next door.  It will be nice to tell the girls to go play outside in the backyard and to be able to just stick Harry in the stroller without having to lug the stroller out of the car  and unfold it while holding him in the other arm.  It’s the little things in life.

Now we just need to be able to move in to the new house while Gigi and Pop Pop are here (Sept 18-27) so we have help with the kids!  Keep your fingers crossed.  The house is in Bellevue School district (so yes, a new school for Elyse) but they haven’t started their year yet because the teachers are on strike.  SO, my plan is to keep Elyse in school here on Mercer Island until the strike ends, or until we move.  Then she can start with the other kids and not have missed out on all of the classroom routines, etc.  Camille’s preschool is going to be a 15 min drive (now it’s only 10) so I’m hoping to find a carpool.  Harry takes a cat nap on the way to Camille’s school and then wakes up early because he’s in the carseat instead of his crib, and isn’t his usual happy-go-lucky self.  There is a new Spanish immersion preschool closeby which would be awesome, except it’s just getting started and the kids are younger and there’s only  a few families enrolled right now.  Maybe she can go to the Spanish immersion K-5 which is part of the public schools next year.  There is also an opening at a Presbyterian school but Camille is so happy at the current school I’m going to have to really convice her to switch.

So our weekend was a real blast not having to search for housing.  Sunday we went to a nice church in our new neighborhood.  They have  a “cry” room which is an enclosed room that sits right at the back of the United Methodist church with front windows so it’s like you are sitting in church, but if your baby cries, no one hears.   There are speakers so you can hear the sermon, the songs, etc.  They also have a glider so I nursed Harry in private while sitting in church. AWESOME.  Loved it.  Not to mention the children’s sermon brought tears to my eyes, and the adult sermon was really good as well.  Good chior too.  Then, after church we went to the Mercer Island Farmer’s market which was wonderful.  They had all kinds of good stuff and they have an adjoining park.  IN the park were a couple of fitness instructors doing a demonstration of yoga and hoop fitness.  YES, hoola hoops.  Who knew how much fun HoolaHoops could be and what a good core workout.  I’m hooked.  Elyse and I loved it.  Camille couldn’t quite master it, so she got frustrated.  Chris and I also got to go biking (not together but tag team style) Saturday and Sunday and it was beautiful weather for that.  He took his camera so he may have some pictures to upload.  Also, he may have some hoola hop pictures:)