First Days...

The last seven days are somewhat blurry and run together. We enjoyed our last busy days in Peoria saying good-bye to friends and wrapping up the house. The closing on Friday went very smoothly. We are excited for the neat young family that bought the house. They were so thrilled with it and promised to take good care of it. Isn't that sweet?

We left Saturday morning for the long drive Way Out West. We stayed the night in Lincoln, Nebraska. Todd got us a super nice room and we enjoyed some time with just our little family, swimming in the pool and hanging out. Todd had to switch out the little U-Haul trailer we'd rented to haul out the junk we needed for the summer (the vast majority of our stuff is in storage in Bloomington, IL until we call for it when we find a house). The trailer had a break line problem. That took a little longer than planned but we were soon on our way.

The kids rode with Daddy most of the way so I had lots of nice quiet time in the Corolla. The drive was uneventful. From Cheyenne to Casper we enjoyed such gorgeous scenery. The sky was a mix of sun and rain clouds and everything shone golden. The land here is far more beautiful than I had remembered. The mountains still have snow on them, the hills are now green and the clean, wide open spaciousness of it all makes me feel like I can breath here!

We got settled in and organized on Monday. If you don't already know, we are staying in the camping trailer until we find a house. We are now pretty organized with systems in place for storage, dishes, toys, bathing, clothes etc. Todd rented a storage unit that is on the same property as the RV park. It's the size of a one car garage and acts like a really big pantry, closet and shed. The RV park is sandwiched between an railroad track (not as loud as I feared it would be before getting here to hear for myself) and an interstate (pretending that is the soft burble of a little stream!) The park is very clean with a super nice laundry area, small heated pool, a very MINI mini golf course and nice people. Many folks here are full-timers and there are some pre-tty nice rigs! Everyone seems to think that it's going to be tough living in the camper for this extended perioud of time except us. It really isn't that big of a deal and actually frees a bunch of time normally dedicated to housework, yard work etc. It's the simple life and one I'm all too ready to live for a while after the final busy days in Peoria.

I did look at some houses yesterday with our realtor and looked at one that Todd saw at an Open House a couple Sundays ago. Link is: http://www.realtor.com/search/listingdetail.aspx?ctid=3878&ml=3&mnp=25&mxp=24&bd=6&bth=6&typ=7&sid=de95add3f0284faf9d3dd41b75482d3b&lid=1099570491&lsn=3&srcnt=5#Detail
Anyone that knows me knows how I get excited about something right at first and then temper that first enthusiasm with the passing of time. I'm really excited about this place. We are going to look at it again this afternoon. It will either pan out and be our new home or... not...I will keep you posted (no pun intended). Don't be surprised if tomorrow I'm all excited about the next one! :O)

The kids are doing great. They've been playing all morning while I get caught up on some emails etc. They have lots of things they can play in the trailer. The weather was cold/rainy the last two days but looks better today so hopefully they can get out to play some.

Todd's hospital's grand opening is tomorrow. We'll all go. Hope I find something to wear! :O)

I'm very impressed with myself that I figured out how to do this blog. I'm not the most exciting author, but just wanted a way to share how we are doing with all my family/friends without typing the same thing over and over in emails. I will keep it up these first days out here in case you want to check back. Hope everyone is doing great! Miss you, Peoria!