Life in Rochester

The House:  

We arrived in Rochester on a Tuesday evening, checked into a hotel for the night, and then had our first and final walk-thru of the house.  Luckily, we still liked it and we closed on the house Wednesday morning and began moving in that afternoon.  The Young Men from our new ward (yes, we have young men!) came that night to help.  

The Yard:  

It's not perfect, but the kids sure love it.  Noah and Alex love climbing the retaining wall

I just hope no one falls off of it

They also love running down the hill  - all the way from the backyard to the front yard - and it's quite the slope.  I have to "catch" them at the bottom so they don't run right into the street.

But this is the view from my kitchen window - you can't beat that!  It's beautiful and it's private.

We also have a lot of wildlife.  Our regular visitors are these bunnies, which the kids have affectionately named Mr. Kadoodle and Donald.  They love to come out of the trees and munch on the grass while we eat dinner.

The Projects:

Ikea - Paul has decided this is the most stressful place we've ever been together.  Or maybe it's just stressful when you're on a tight budget and can't agree on how to spend the $ - or how much $ to spend - and you have a whining crying toddler hanging on your leg and screaming the whole time.  But Paul has been great about getting all of our new stuff assembled - from end tables to a couch.  Who knew you could buy a couch un-assembled?!?

The Decks - The front porch is new and unfinished, the back deck needs to be sanded and re-finished.  It's taken awhile to get some decent (dry) weather here but Paul has finally been able to get started - albeit a rough start.  He started staining the front deck only to find that the color looked much different on the wood - like RED.  Very very RED.  Which meant scrubbing it off and another trip to home depot for a new stain color.  And then it started raining : )

The wallpaper - All I can say is that I will never again buy a house with this much wallpaper in it.  Never.  Maybe it's good I didn't know what I was getting myself into with all this wallpaper removing because I really love our house.  Luckily, Paul has taken over, at least temporarily.  As of next week, we won't be seeing much of him.  Just to give you an idea though, this is day 3 of wallpaper removal from our bedroom and it's only about half done.  Then we still have to paint it!  And then all I have left to do (on my own) is the living room, dining room, kitchen, and hall.  Right - so I should be done in about 5 years, when it's time to sell the house.  Luckily the wallpaper is very neutral and subtle.  It could be worse.  Right?!?

The City:

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  We LOVE this place!  It's a great size, it's affordable, it's very family friendly/family oriented, it has everything we need, and everyone is so NICE!

Random:  

We now have the Discovery Channel (Paul is obsessed).  They're airing a series on Sunday evenings about space/going to the moon.  Noah watched some of it the other night with Paul.  Yesterday I found him tipped backwards in Alex's carseat in the living room.  He just looked at me and said, "I'm going to outer space mom."  

Noah had his first day of swim lessons yesterday!  He's taking them at the YMCA and he loves it.  He was really brave.  I was a little worried because even though he loves to swim he tends to be a little nervous and clingy in the water.  So this will be great for him.  After his first day he said, "Mom, I love the Y."

Alex won't stop taking her diaper off.  Every time she goes in her diaper she takes it off - this is especially bad if she's poopy - I'll spare you the details.  We've also had some pee on the floor because she was running around in the playroom naked for an hour or something before I discovered her like this.  I know this is a good sign that she's ready to potty-train.  But why did she have to start doing this THE DAY we moved to Rochester?!?  It's just been too crazy for me to take on potty-training.  But I don't think I'm going to be able to hold off for much longer...we can't afford to go thru that many diapers a day!  As for my personal feelings on potty-training - it's the worst thing I've experienced to-date as a mother.

Overall, life is good!