Wisconsin

Every evening before bed Scharae asks John if they (the girls) will see him tomorrow. I'm pretty sure at this point she knows the answer is always going to be yes, but loves hearing him say "that's why we moved to Wisconsin-so I could see you basically every day!"

This move has gone relatively smooth, despite some drama along the way. The girls and I got here the 7th...but all our stuff didn't even leave Oregon until the 12th. It finally arrived on the 20th. Tomorrow John and I will tackle the office and then the storage unit and we should finally be all settled.

Almost 18 months ago a very good friend of mine, Beckie, moved to a town just east of Madison. Her oldest two girls went to school at Bethany with my girls and they all got along quite well so Beckie and I had no choice but to become friends! Really, though. She got me involved with the Booster Club (I might hate her forever for that) and together we had just the right amount of snark to have a good time. I was pretty upset when she moved-my one really close friend in the Salem area, and right when we were just getting real good and close. But have no fear-texting allowed us to stay close, and actually probably become closer. I know lots of people will say that texting is the downfall of modern relationships, but I disagree to a point. For someone like me, who hates the phone, it's awesosme. Especially when distance is a factor (hear that, Crystal?)

So, the point of that story is to say having friends here already, even if they aren't at the same school and live 45 minutes away, was a big deal in the transition for the girls. They latched on to getting to see B, D, and T more than all they were leaving. And it's helped me, too. I'm not big on the social part of life. I kept a lot of people at arms lengthh in Oregon-I knew that "my girls" were just a moning's drive away if I needed them. That made it easy to not put effort into people. But they're not a quick drive away anymore. They're a 4 day drive. And so is my mama and dadddy, my sisters-in-law..everyone. So having a "ready made" friend so close when no one else is, that's made the move easier on me, too.

This morning the girls started Winter Break. They don't even get 2 weeks-they go back the 2nd-so we have to make the most of it. We took John to work and then I drove them out to Lake Mills to play with Beckie and Dave's girls. I headed back in to Madison to work on the apartment-presumably the office.but that was too intimidating. I ended up spending more time-and $$$-at Target than planned and ditched the offfice plans-don't want John to miss the fun! I did get the girls' room completely put away and organized. It just needs bed skirts and then stuff on the walls. It was so nice getttting that done without their brand of help, and I know they had a blast playing with friends. I think it was about -10 windchill but you couldn't tell by the fun they were having! 

I picked John up from work early and we headed back out to get them. Mazy sure got a lot of attention from all those girls. Q, 18 months, sure had a ball having someone around down on her level, but was quite frustrated that the dog wouldn't follow her whenever she yanked on the leash!

We enjoyed dinner at Uno's, they have GF for Keira, and then hot cocoa from Starbucks while we drove around and looked at lights. Tomorrow we are expecting 2-4 more inches of snow and are hopeful for some more to be falling on Christmas Day, too!