Sunday, March 30, 2014

Our Second Sunday (A Snow Story)

Yesterday, we heard talk of (and saw reports) that predicted our area to get 5-8 inches of snow through last night and early this morning.

When Nik woke up to start snow-blowing, he had to push the door open to even get outside!

We had more like 10-12 inches of snow this morning!

Yikes! After almost an hour of snow-blowing and us running late to church we finally piled into our car to head out to church. And we barely made it out of the driveway! And then we got stuck!

We thought that if we could get into the street, we could make it to church because cars had already driven on the streets making track marks for us to follow. But the way our driveway slopes, we could not get enough traction to even get all the way on the street. Plus, our car sits really low…and there was just no way!

Nik had to ‘shovel’ us out, to even get back in our driveway.  It was an experience! At one point, I did not know if we were even going to make it back into our driveway or not. We finally did. I snapped a picture of our car, back in our driveway. It’s hard to see…but you can see the street is completely covered in snow!


At that point, Nik put on his snow boots and headed out back to walk to church. It is not that far…a football field or so in distance…but the field is covered in snow. At one point, the snow was up to his hips! He finally made it though. I knew Jaxen and I could not walk through it, so I called a friend and asked them to pick us up on the way. 

Before they arrived though, the snow plow came through. After I saw it go by, I went outside to shovel the snow that the snow plow dumped in our driveway. Once I cleared it out, I loaded Jaxen back up in the car and we made it to church! Whew! What a morning!

After church we were invited to a couples small group time. We all brought something to contribute for the lunch meal; we eat; the kids then go with a babysitter to play in another area; and the couples do a study together. We had a great time! We got along well with everyone and I think we will enjoy this study. 

Here are a few pics from our drive there. Everything was covered in snow and it was beautiful!
  

And I know that no post is complete without some Jaxen pictures! All I have to say is when did my little boy become a big boy?!?! Seriously, he looks like he is 4 in these pictures, and it hurts my heart just a little bit!

Watching TV, eating an apple and chewing with his mouth open.

His daddy walked in the room and I caught a cute smile he gave his daddy!

My two boys. Love.


Thursday, March 27, 2014

Settling In

Before this post begins...I want ya'll to know that we signed the papers on our house today! We overnighted them back to Texas and we are on schedule to officially close tomorrow!!! It is still a bit surreal how quickly everything happened, but I give thanks to God for the way this has all worked out!

Now, on to my regularly scheduled post...


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Here a just a few tidbits of our time here, settling in…

Two days after we arrived, we had snow! We had planned to get out that day and run errands…and I was determined not to let the weather get in our way (it was only like 3 inches) so we had to shovel our driveway!


This is my “We did it! We shoveled the snow, are dressed warm and out-and-about” picture!

 And here is Nik and Jaxen - they did not quite have the same excitement as I did!

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Some of you may not know, but we sold “Gunther” (our 2 door blue car) before we left Texas. And that just left us with our white Toyota Scion. I know it is a funny looking car, especially if you are not used to seeing them. Apparently they are not real known here. Multiple people. I’m talking more than 10, have asked us about our car, “What kind of car is that” “So what do you call that thing” “Is it a van or a car”….and on and on. It is a hot topic of conversation here! We just laugh at it all. We love our little car!

The other day we were in a parking lot, going into a store when we saw another white Toyota Scion! I was so excited to see one! As we were walking through the parking lot the owners of that Scion spotted us and said “Hey, we like your car!” It made my day!!! We have seen that car once more…close to our home. One of these days I’m going to stalk them and invite myself in and make them become my friend. All in the name of Scion!

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The very first meal I cooked here was on the Saturday after we arrived. My kitchen was pretty much in order, it was cold outside and I wanted soup! So I fixed Taco Soup for lunch. That day, I mentioned that I had made Taco Soup to two different people and their response? “What is Taco Soup?” Are you kidding me?! Who does not know what Taco Soup is?! Oh well. We ate it and enjoyed it!

Yes, I documented the first meal made in our new home!
(this is just the ground beef, onions and bell peppers)


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I think Jaxen realizes this is now his home. I think! The first few days were spent exploring.


Speaking of Jaxen, we tried to put some old mittens on him…


It was pretty funny watching him - they were a bit too small and he had a hard time trying to do some things!  I finally went to the store yesterday and purchased a new hat (that covers his ears) and mittens that fit.

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Okay…I did it! I am an official iPhone user! Exciting, I know. My favorite things are the easier-texting-capabilites, the good camera, the weather app and the map app. And I'm excited about Face Time.

And by the way, when we moved here we did not know if we would have to change numbers or not - and we did not. So our numbers are the same!

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Yesterday Jaxen had a fever. It reached 102.2, but went down after some medicine and finally broke this morning.

I realized he was sick when he fell asleep while out eating lunch.

And this is how we spent the rest of the day. Laying in bed or on the couch.

I actually missed our first Wednesday night at church, because he was still not feeling better.

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We are furniture shopping. So our home is not completely unpacked and we are not completely settled in yet. I can’t hang curtains or things on the wall until I know how all the furniture is going to look. I’m hoping we will purchase what we need soon. We are looking, it is just hard deciding what we want!

We do have a few curtains up where necessary - and I’m just hoping there are no ‘peeping toms’ in our neighborhood!

Also, along the lines of furniture and arranging things - we are having to arrange everything around heater vents and outlets. There could be 1 outlet in a room. Or more. And there may or may not be a heater vent. We are still trying to figure it all out!

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Have you ever lived in a house with stairs before? I have not. I can’t even tell you how many times a day I climb the stairs! It’s getting better though…I’m getting a system. I pile things on the stairs that need to go up and each time I go up, I carry something. Same with going down. I have also got down some ‘stations’ that are both up and down (example: Jaxens diapers and wipes). Nik is almost trained. He came up the stairs the other night (empty-handed) and I (nicely) scolded him. He went back down and came up with a pile! It’s a good system!

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I have also been staining a dresser for our bedroom. So right now, our clothes are sorted in boxes, and lined against the walls of our room. Not the easiest thing…but it has to work for now.


I am doing this downstairs in the basement, with a heater and a de-humidifier going. So far, so good. I have no idea really, what I’m doing…but I think it will turn out okay. Although I have made a mental note to myself…sometimes the money saved is not worth the work! All I’m saying!

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And that’s pretty much a glimpse into us settling in. 

Over all - all is well! 

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Our First Sunday

This past Sunday was our first Sunday at Life Church of the Nazarene. 

It started bright and early with the first service beginning at 8:30. Which meant we were out the door by 8:10...it was normally closer to 9 for us in Texas - but we managed! 

It was hard to get a good picture of Jaxen...but he was looking adorable in his sweater vest!


During both services Pastor Chad brought all three of us to the front to introduce us to the church. And then he gave us some gifts to open. All the gifts represented something that the North Country is known for. Which I thought was pretty cool!

pancake mix, maple syrup, baked beans, jam & apples

franks, croghan bologna and great lakes cheese curds

and….

a day of boating and exploring the 1000 Islands

The church services were great. The two are different, but we enjoyed each one. After the early service and before Sunday School, they have an 'eating time'. I'm sure there is another name for it...but that's what you do...eat and drink coffee or tea! This was pretty fun because you can sit and visit with people. 

Then we went to Sunday School and the late service. Nik and I went to different Sunday School classes. He attended the Boys Youth Class and I attended an Adult Class. For the first few weeks I'm sure we will try out different classes - they offer a good variety on Sunday morning, and also offer other classes throughout the week. 

During both services and Sunday School Jaxen went to the nursery (minus the times I pulled him out to be introduced to the church). And he did really good. Apparently there was an issue with him throwing things....but I think it got settled! Ha! They said his favorite time was when the music was on. He would dance and ‘sing’ along!

After church, there was a potluck to welcome us….


sorry for the upside down pic!

…and we had cake! During that time, many people came to talk to us and introduce themselves. It was a lot of people, but very fun! I'm looking forward to getting to know our new church family. A few of the youth girls took Jaxen and played with him most of that time. He had a great time with them!

It was kind of a long day...but we enjoyed it so much. 

After church our friends, the Chandlers, came over. We asked Jim if he could show us how to use the snow blower. That way...we are ready when (if) we need it.

I'm so glad I caught this moment on camera....it cracked me up! Nik is outside working the snow blower in his dress shoes and clothes. For some reason, it still makes me laugh!


That Sunday night we hung out with the Pastors family and had dinner. We enjoy hanging out with them and getting to know them and their family better.

It was a great first Sunday and I'm looking forward to many more!

Monday, March 24, 2014

New York Bound - Part IV

We made it! 

For those who are following our journey through this blog, I'm so sorry for the long delay in blogging....once we drove away from the hotel Wednesday morning, we have not had internet service until today!

But I am back online now....so keep following!


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Wednesday we headed to Niagara Falls! This was seriously the most exciting part of our whole trip for me. I was so excited to see Niagara Falls! Nik had seen them once before but I never have.

As we were driving across Ohio and into Pennsylvania, we finally saw some snow! I kept wondering when we would even see some. I guess they had warm weather earlier that week and most melted away. But from that time on, we saw snow scattered on the sides of the roads and in the fields.


Hello Pennsylvania!



Hello New York! Once we saw this sign...the whole trip became a little more real. We finally hit our destination state, our new home state, and that was it! No more states and no turning around to go "home". This was our new "home". 


So we finally arrived at Niagara Falls. The actual park there is pretty big with a lot of things to do, but most of it was closed that time of year. But that was okay with me, because we did not have to deal with crowds of people and long lines. I have said it many times....I love vacationing and seeing tourist sites so much better in the "off season". It's just so much more relaxed!

Here are the falls...



It was beautiful! It really is a sight to see! 

Parts around the falls were a bit frozen…


We really had a great time there!


And my favorite pic!


After we left the falls, we ate lunch and headed to Watertown!


We arrived in town and met the pastor and his family for dinner. Then after dinner we arrived at our new home! We had some help to finish putting our beds together and make them and then after just a little of unpacking and settling in, we headed to bed.

Everyone has been asking how Jaxen is doing....

The first night was rough. He cried a lot and did not sleep well in his bed. The days have been pretty good for him, but he was very tired from all the sleepless nights. I guess he still is tired because today he took a 3 hour nap! But after about 2 nights, he finally went to bed well.  No crying, just laid down and went to sleep. And for a couple nights after that, he was still waking up in the middle of the night. But now, he is doing much better. Going to bed like normal and sleeping about 11 hours. 

I know there are more things to share about our time here so far....I am going to try and play catch up this week. And then at some point, I will give you a tour of our home! 


Wednesday, March 19, 2014

New York Bound - Part III

So Tuesday we left Louisville, KY, and headed to Cleveland, OH.

Going through Cincinnati and Columbus.


We stopped somewhere along the way at a Target so I could get
some contact solution. While there, Jaxen talked us into a new toy for himself!

It is some kind of dog-guitar - and he loves it. I mean LOVES it!

He played with it forever in the car. This toy has already been worth the money!


Once we arrived east of Cleveland we stopped for the night.

We were all so exhausted. But before bed, we had to hit the pool again!
This pool was really cool because it had these ‘fountain’ things along side of it.
And Jaxen loved them!


We have really enjoyed hanging out at the pools each night of our journey.
It has been fun to spend some one-on-one time with Jaxen.

One more travel day…!
I think we  will arrive Wednesday night in Watertown - that is the new plan, anyway!


Tuesday, March 18, 2014

New York Bound - Part II

Monday we left Memphis, TN and headed to Bowling Green, KY.

Do you know what is in Bowling Green?

The National Corvette Museum!


So we stopped. Not only did Nik want to see some really cool corvettes, I wanted to see the sinkhole! And I have to say… we were both a little let-down about the museum. It is pretty cool…but we thought we would see more cars.

But we had a good time just being outside of the car and stretching our legs. And Jaxen had a good time riding around in his little corvette!



And he had fun playing in the Kid Zone.



So did Nik :)



And we did see the sink hole! They had a live cam on it, so you could see it better.


But we also got to look into the room. It’s hard to see in the picture, but it is to the right of the red thing.


This is one of the cars they pulled out.




And this is what it used to look like.


Here are some other cars from that were pulled out.




All in all, we had a good time! And it was really cool that we got to see the sink hole. It’s not like that happens everyday, you know!


We hit a time change after we left Bowling Green, headed to Louisville. That was not fun!

This trip has been tough on Jaxen. He is pretty good during the day, traveling and napping. And we make sure to get him out and let him run around a couple of times each day as we travel. But at night…it’s another story. He is not wanting to go to bed and is not sleeping that long. And it is taking a toll on him and us.

But we just keep on…!

That is all we can do. And besides nighttime, we are having lots of fun!