Feathering the Nest

Things are finally unpacked enough that I can start decorating.  We've still got to put up curtains and paint a bunch of stuff, but that's farther down the road.  (Well, the curtains can be done now, as we finally have curtains and curtain rods, but it's a matter of time and priorities.)  In the meantime, I've had a chance to get a few things on the walls and the built-in shelves in the living room.

These are hanging over the couch.  I've had them for nearly 2 years and never got them up in the old house.  New house, new decor--finally!

Self explanatory

I've never had so many flat surfaces to do stuff with.  I had to go to Hobby Lobby to buy a few tall things to fill the space. I also pulled out the Mod Podge to finish a project I'd started probably a year or more ago.  It's the D monogram in the upper left. 

It's not all done, of course.  There's still the pile of pictures sitting at the top of the stairs:

And Alex is still in his dreary temporary room (the previous owner chose the most unhappy shade of taupe for all the rooms) and sharing space with my craft-room overflow:

But blessedly, we're closer to getting him into his own room.  My parents were here last week, and my dad removed all the painted-over wallpaper and repaired the torn up spots in the walls:

Now we just need to do some sanding, some other minor repairs, then paint.  I'm looking forward to having Alex back in a sunny, happy-looking room. 

And of course, there's still my disaster of a craft room:

In my defense, it hasn't been a priority.  It's also my office space, so I've been having to sort, shred, and file three-months worth of paperwork.  My former shredder died a screeching death before we moved, and I decided to wait to buy a new one until we were in Oklahoma.  So paperwork piled for a few months, in part because I just didn't have time to deal with it.  Nightmare.  But it's slowly being taken care of, and I hope to have this space finished (minus painting) by the end of the week.  

Then there's our newest item for the living room:

The baby cage!  This thing has made my life so much easier!  I can set Alex down and get stuff done, knowing that he's safe and secure.  He enjoys it, too, as no one is pulling him off of things and telling him no.  And the cats adore it, as it means no one is speed-crawling after them!  It's a win-win for every member of this household.

Would you believe he's 9 months old already?!

I'm Starting to Like It Here

I was pretty homesick when we moved here and lived in VOM housing.  But after we moved into our own home with our own things (and our pets!), the feeling passed.  More and more, Oklahoma is becoming home.  I've made peace with the fact that I have to drive an hour to Tulsa to do any real shopping.  I'm still fighting an internal battle when it comes to grocery stores, as I have yet to find one that I love, but I'm learning to be content with the situation.  (And I've learned that just as all the frugal bloggers have been saying, ALDI is a pretty decent grocery store.) 

I'm still not unpacked completely.  We've been in the house just over a month now, but the daily-ness of life (cooking, cleaning, laundry), along with taking care of baby, means I have little time for unpacking and putting things away.  I naively thought this would be the faster part of the process of moving, but I also didn't anticipate my kid crawling the second we moved in.  Everything is harder with a baby.

Alex isn't even in his own room yet.  Well, he's by himself in a room upstairs, but technically, that's going to be the guest room.  His nursery has walls covered in painted wallpaper.  Steven tried to get it all off before we moved in, but there just wasn't time.  And after moving in, his priority has been to clear all the boxes and stuff from the garage.  We live in Tornado Alley, and we'd like to protect our cars from bad weather by being able to park in the garage. 

I've done a lot of driving around town.  Mostly it's been because I was trying to get a baby to go to sleep.  I never had to drive him to get him to sleep until we moved here.  The chaos we've been living in has made it harder on him, although we've done our best to keep to his schedule and make things normal for him.  But in driving around, I've found a lot of stuff, including parks.  Alex sat in a swing for the first time on Memorial Day. 

Last night we went to a park that's just crawling with ducks and geese.  (It was a little gross, as we had to wipe down the wheels of the stroller before putting in the car.  Bird poop.  Ick.)

And I've been enjoying the wildlife in our own backyard.

We even have fireflies here!  Best backyard EVER. 

We also have the most amazing neighbors.  Alex came down with a nasty virus last week, then 3 days later, I caught it.  I was able to get Alex in with a pediatrician who had been recommended to me, but I wasn't as lucky with a doctor for me.  The physician who was recommended wasn't taking new patients.  However, when I went next door to ask my neighbor for a recommendation, she got on the phone and personally called that doctor and got me an appointment.  Turns out, she used to work for her.  (My neighbor is a nurse.)  Amazing!  Our new neighborhood is great.  I think I'll be pretty happy here. 

And on another positive note, we haven't been to the vet in a while!