6 Weeks to become a "masshole"

I feel like a new mom. I can't believe it's already been 6 weeks and yet it's been the longest most tiring 6 weeks... 

We got our license plates this week. So- as the people who live in New Hampshire would say- we are officially massholes. I think that is a direct link to your car, too, not just by living here. The drivers here are um, colorful (to be kind).  There is a lot of aggressive driving and a lot of defensive driving. If you are somewere in the middle like me it makes for witnessing some interesting traffic.  When people complain about the traffic here, they aren't kidding. It's awful. But what makes it the most awful is that there is no rhyme or reason for why exactly it's bad. It makes no sense.  Oh well- I've already learned to just plan on it taking twice as long to get somewhere as it should. :)


The issues with the house are ongoing, but I won't dwell on that.  In addition to solving all of those we have decided to do some "fun stuff" to the house right away and not wait 7 years like the last house. We want to enjoy some of the personalized changes we are making. Some built ins are coming down, the weird roman columns are getting an appropriate update, some landscaping is getting done- it's great!

I will post pictures once more progress is made- but they are definitely awesome changes and I want to be real life besties with my general contractor and his son. They've been so incredible!!

One thing I've posted about on FB and not here that I'm super excited about is that the beach (the real Atlantic Ocean beach) is less than an hour from here!!! We've only been to one of several recommended beaches, but we went there twice. We tagged along with my new friend Tina's family the first time, then just our little family unit went the second time. I'm super excited to probably go to that beach a 3rd time when my sissy comes to visit in a few weeks! Don't fix what's not broken, right? 

It's called Wingaersheek Beach and it's in Gloucester (Glousta), Mass. It's an inlet so it's very very shallow for really far out with sandbars and tons of big rocks the form tide pools. Great for catching crabs, shrimp, hermit crabs, etc. So fun for the kids (and us)!

She actually wasn't scared at all to catch and hold the crabs- but this one was pinching her right as I took the photo. oops!

One of the bigger crabs she caught

We also have found a babysitter thanks to our nice neighbor- she asked around to some friends and found us some contacts. Nicole came last week while Matt and I checked out our little town on an afternoon date.  Here are a few pictures taken from the deck of the restaurant we ate at.  Isn't it quaint?

They don't sell Yueng-Ling in Mass so I've had to switch to Sam Adams. In this pic have seasonal, Matt has regular. 

ghThis is the town Center- and behind that white church is the town "Common".  You can't tell from the picture but where the grey and white cars are stopped is what I refer to as the "25 way intersection". I think it's only 5 or 6 way- but it's a lot for busy roads to converge. And I've been told that until recently there were not stop lights there. whoa! 

Softball has been a godsend for us. We've met some really nice people and it gives all of us something to do a few times a week. It is wrapping up this weekend with a tournament. Back to back games right now; so I am catching up on blogging while Finn catches up on some sleep and Matt holds down the fort at the game.  

Until next time--- 

Tourists!

 

Since the 4th of July (which was probably my last update) we have decided that being Tourists in our own town is fun! We have since gone to the local hotel pool, visited the nearest emergency room, hung out at the pond in town, driven to New Hampshire to a state park and spent the day in Boston.  Above you can see Myrtle the Turtle swimming around in the New England Aquarium! 

It's funny- we spent the day Saturday in Boston. We went on a Duckboat tour 

The kids all got to drive the boat in the open water. So fun!

 Visited Faneuil Hall, went to the New England Aquarium and went back to Faneuil Hall! We've had several people who grew up here (almost everyone who lives here grew up here it seems) tell us that they've never been on a Duck tour! Too funny. We loved it. I'd definitely go again!  The kids loved the street performers at Faneuil Hall and of course the food! yum!! 

While we've met some people here and even have made some friends- everyone knows it's not the "same". Not for awhile at least...But, I had the fortunate experience of meeting up with 2 women yesterday that I've known for 11 years.  What is odd about this meet up is that we don't really know each other in "real life". They are both moms I met online 11 years ago while we were pregnant with our "December 2002" babies! We met on a due date forum and have been friends ever since.  There are about 20 or so of us moms that are still "together"- but it's not often that any of us get to get together in real life- as we live all over the country (and even have a few moms outside of the US).  When the opportunity came up to meet two of these wonderful women- I jumped at the chance!! One of them I have had the pleasure of meeting before, when the kids were around 3 years old, the other I just met for the first time.  But since she lives only 1.5 hours from here- I hope it's not the last time!! We had such a lovely day and the kids really hit it off.  Plus- I got to hang out at the beautiful Wellington State Park.

I guess lastly for now- if you follow me on FB you already know- but if you don't- my poor Finny cracked his chin open poolside last week. A trip to the ER along with 5 stitches resulted. But, I guess the bright side is now I know where the ER is and I found the kids a pediatrician!!

You can see how traumatized he was by the ambulance ride and hosptial.

Finny Finn Finn hits his Chinny Chin Chin!

Our adventures continue... 

Celebrating our Independence... where it all began

Happy 4th Everyone- on the 5th.  I've been busy this week; actually not all on house stuff.  The week started with our usual barrage of contractors. We have a problem with our roof/gutters that is causing one of our plumbing problems- so I had gutter people here. Also had the irrigation company come and check all of their lines. The GC was here again measuring to see what we can do with our kitchen sink. The saga of this house continues- starting to verge on Money Pit.  But- we love the house- we truly do. So, hopefully we'll spend some money up front and give her love and she'll pay us back. 

Amelia had another softball game and we've been fortunate enough to hit it off with a couple of the families from softball. One was gracious enough to offer to meet up with us during the annual Fourth of July town fair.  They also invited Declan to their son's birthday party (which is going on right now). That made Declan more than thrilled. My little social butterfly was starting to get antsy with no friends.  

So- Wednesday night Matt actually snuck out of work early and we headed down to the "Common" (I have now lived in towns with Town Square, Uptown and Center or Common- but never a Downtown. Weird.).  It started out not so crazy busy- but as the night wore on- it definitely became more packed.  It felt a little like we were in the movie "Groundhog Day"; it was a very quintessential affair. Booths of food and games run by the local civic organizations, the band's majorettes performing on the Common- you get the idea.  Luckily our new friends met up with us and showed us around and introduced us to a few more people.  It was a nice evening.  

On our way home we noticed that the chairs were really starting to crowd the sidewalks.  As early as Saturday we started noticing people marking their parade spots with chairs.  As we got closer to home (and also the start of the parade) there were less chairs but the spot we were hoping for was getting crowded. So, in the spirit of the town we put down our chairs as well.

Now, understand that probably the first 5 people we met here asked us if we had heard about the parade. I guess it's one of the top ten longest continuous running parades in the country (the town is well over 300 years old) and it's a huge draw from communities around it.  Everyone raved about how wonderful it is.  Let me say- it was a very nice parade. It was a very long parade.  There were great handouts (not just candy) and several bands.  However it was also about 200 degrees street level and did I mention, it was a very long parade?  All kidding aside, it was great. Was it worth people putting their chairs out Saturday? Not sure- but glad we experienced it. Super fun!!  We also went to the pool and watched a movie. Today, we went blueberry picking. It's nice to just put chores aside for a few days and really just enjoy being a family.  More exploring to come- but for now, enjoy some parade pictures!

For the record, I did try to stick my foot out and trip "Pat". haha

More Photos

So... I cleaned today. That allowed me to take photos of the family room and butler's pantry (now... if I only had a Butler...) You will notice the "built ins" in the photos- we are having the ones in the living/family room removed and most of the ones in the dining room. Some people might think that is crazy, but really they are pretty useless. They aren't very deep and really seem like they were built for books and or VHS tapes.  I just see them as dust collectors, really.  For now I do like having the photo albums on them- but I can find alternate storage for those later. 

The dining room paint color will also be changed, and I'll likely be painting the built ins that do remain in there.

As for life- we keep muddling along. We turned on our air earlier this week when it went from raining to a thousand degrees and you'll never guess what happened... water in our basement! I am so tired of dealing with water issues.  We have the AC people coming next week, gutter people (as not having gutters is part of our problem) and someone to give us some options (finally) about what we can do with our kitchen sink problems.  

Amelia has started softball- first game took an hour to get to and then we got rained out after 3/4 of an inning. The second game took an hour to get to and we played the bad news bears and won 22-2 or something.  The third game we played a well matched team and won 7-4. It's been nice meeting some people and having a purpose a few nights a week.  I signed D up for tennis camp for a week in July and hope to find some swim lessons. But, for now it feels like all it does is rain.

Thanks to everyone who reads and comments- now- if we'd just get some visitors! :)

Random Observations

My Boston kids- notice the RS shirt, the Celtics hat and the local softball team shirt. 

Some random observations in the 2 weeks since living here.  We live in Chelmsford, Mass- which is around 30 miles from Boston. We are less than 10 miles from the NH border... so maybe we live more of a NH lifestyle here- I'm not sure. So my observations can't be for "Boston" per say- it might be totally different there.

I grew up in Western Pa- went to college in NW Pa and have lived in Columbus for 16 years. Other than the fact that Western Pa has more "local" eateries and smaller towns, I never felt there was a huge difference in things there. Cost of living was similar, stores were similar, etc.  I have found that this area is very different from what I am used to in the Mid-West (can't speak for any other part of the country).

Nothing is BIG here. The grocery stores are small (even the ones that say Supermarket are smaller than the Westerville Giant Eagle, which I never thought was that big). The Walmarts are smaller, The malls are much more spread out and smaller... it seems most "big box" stores here are smaller by nature. It's very interesting- and causes me to go to more stores! 

Eggs are brown. In my local grocery I can literally only buy one kind/carton of egg that is white. I didn't even bother- I just bought brown. But, they are also cheaper. So, that's good. 

People talk funny. haha. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

No one swims apparently.  Well, that's not entirely true- but public pools are very few and far between. The ones they do have are TINY.  Most people who are into that kind of thing join private Swim/Tennis clubs. We don't play tennis so not sure that will be our thing. Not to mention the fact that there is a wait list at pretty much every club and it costs about 3x what I was used to paying in Ohio. ahem. Guess we'll see what we decide to do. There are lots of public pond/lake/river beaches. And, we are only about an hour away from an Ocean beach. 

They haven't really jumped on the fro-yo craze here. I remember when Orange Leaf opened in Westerville the line was out the door for weeks.  We went to the OL here when it was on it's 5th day and only one other person was in there. We went again last night- same thing.  Also saw a different Fro-Yo place on Friday near where we were eating that appeared to also be new- and also practically empty.  But- all of the farm hard ice cream places do a kickin' business.  Maybe it's all what you know.

They are really really serious about their garbage and recycling.  We got a SEVEN PAGE booklet from the town about our garbage and recycling rules. SEVEN PAGES.  Why can't we just put our trash out each week and call it a day?  Not to mention the fact that our driveway is about 1/4 of a mile long and our cans have to go the WHOLE WAY TO THE END. eek. Stuff you don't consider when buying a house. ;)

Everyone warned me about the price of things here- that it would be so much more expensive.  While some things (like property, utilities and insurance) are- the vast majority of things seem to be the same, or in some cases, cheaper.  Groceries and Gas I thought for sure would kill us and they are actually probably slightly cheaper than Oh (I guess no overhead for huge stores!) Kids activities and camps do seem a bit higher, but not hugely.  So, overall I am pleasantly surprised about that. 

I think that's it for now.  

We found a softball team for Amelia and games start tonight! Yay! Great way to meet people.

Also- I know people have asked to see pictures. I will take some. It's just that the house isn't nearly "ready" or how I want it to look, but it will be a long time before it is. Considering we keep having one problem after another to fix- we haven't had a lot of time or money for "details". Plus I want to live in it for awhile before I decide some things like paint.

One Step Forward, 2 Steps Back

I know it's only been a week- and I think I should probably be proud of what I've accomplished so far- but instead I'm feeling frustrated.  I feel like unpacking is a big case of one step forward, two steps back.  We had all of the boxes unpacked and yesterday they came with what was in our storage unit. What is the worst about that is that we have been living without that stuff since March- so I know we don't need it. It's just more crap to put away!!   With that said, there were lots of family photos in those boxes, and some other "personal" items- but there were also 3 boxes of my hoarder Amelia's "junk". So... more boxes to unpack- more pictures to find homes for.

I don't consider myself a knick-knacky person- having trouble finding stuff for all the shelves for that reason. However I do have TONS of photos. It's my thing- I like displaying photos. However, with all of the windows and shelving (short and shallow) in the house I feel like there is no where to put my photos. So again- one step forward, two steps back.  I know we'll get there and we'll find homes for everything, but I'm an instant gratification kind of gal and I'm not getting it! :)

In other news- I love our hardwood floors- but geesh- I have to get area rugs and small rugs for everywhere! I feel like every day I go to the store for a new rug for somewhere. Thank goodness for Walmart being down the street- I don't want to pay a fortune for rugs I'll probably change out- but I need some since we are tracking dirt through the house.  Again, we'll get there.

And- in unrelated news- I went to Declan's school yesterday to see if he could go spend a day or shadow or something- and I got backed into in the parking lot! Geesh. If it's not one thing it's something else.  But, as luck would have it- on Sunday we sold the trampoline that came with the house. The guy we sold it to has a body shop.  He's already been called and will come by tonight to check out the damage.

Got one leak fixed- have another. Me and Ralph the plumber are becoming BFF's.  He gave us the name of a guy who can hopefully take out our kitchen counter to replace that sink and take care of that water issue.  There is definitely a very small town feel here. It's a nice community and everyone has been very friendly so far.  We hope to make it to church this weekend and hopefully it will be a good fit and we can meet some people.  I really want my kids to meet some other kids (all 3 close neighbors have grown kids) so I thought they could do the church's VBS. Alas- their VBS is 4 Sundays after church and this week is going to be the last day. Guess we won't do that.   Oh well- we'll figure it out.

Tonight some folks from the Powell office are coming over for dinner. So that's great- we get to show the house to someone- I get to talk to someone other than my kids and we can have a relaxing evening not unpacking....so while it's complicated and frustrating at times... life is good.

Getting Settled

I honestly don't even know where to start- I'm taking a break from unpacking- sitting here looking out at the rain (again). Poor kids- they haven't really been able to go outside at all. I'm pretty sure it doesn't actually rain here everyday- but so far it feels like it.  But, I digress.

The house is great. It is very US. I'm still very pleased with Matt's choice. But... like any house- it of course as come with it's share of problems. First being is that it is very common here to not have gutters.  So- since it's been raining and raining- the rain is falling straight down the house and going right into the basement in several places. UGH. Not sure what we can/will do about that- but water scares me.  We also have to have our sink replaced in our kitchen- have my sink sealed with silicon and we've already had a plumber here about a different leak. I hope this is just a flukey thing and we won't have long term water problems. That could be a nightmare!!!

Other than the water there doesn't seem to be any major things we'll need to do right away (we did have to have a 220 line put in for our dryer- but we knew that would be the case).

There is SO much storage in this house it's kind of funny. We are doing a good job of finding things to put away in those places- but I feel like there are so many empty spots. I can't imagine filling them and hope we never do!!! I guess the previous owners had stuff everywhere- but the only room I plan to fill is the kitchen (not hallway) and Butler's pantry. :) It actually will be nice to display some of the stuff that we've had in storage for years. The closets in the bedrooms aren't huge but I have a nice big walk in closet off of the laundry room I can use for off season storage. No more bins and bags- yay!!

As for settling in- we are getting there. I'm trying to do a little unpacking and exploring each day. Today we went and enrolled for school. That's a big step. Yesterday I discovered a shopping center just 5 minutes away and it has everything we "need"- so that was a great find. Best part? It has an Orange Leaf (Westerville friends will understand)! It has only been open 5 days. I feel like they opened it for us!! Of course- we already went!!  I've only met a few people (service providers mostly) but everyone has been very nice. The kids met the next door and back door neighbors yesterday. No kids or teenagers to babysit, but they said the grandma was very nice and the collegish age kid next door was also nice. They did not meet his parents or brother (and I guess maybe he babysits- lol). The kids here are in school until June 25th so hard to say if there are any kids around or not. It doesn't seem like there are any in the 4-5 houses kind of near us.

We do hope that Amelia is going to play softball starting in a few weeks. That will be a great way for her (and us) to meet people- so I hope it works out.

I realize this is kind of rambling, but that is pretty much my brain right now.  Hope to post more (including pictures) this weekend.