Getting settled

We're in the house, getting settled. I'd say the past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind, but I feel like I've been saying that for the past two months.

Oh wait, I have.

A couple weeks ago I attended the Pollinator Conference here @ PennState while J was a full-time papa. Met a bunch of bee folks here and made some good contacts. Presented a poster and did some schmoozing. Also hung out with some BeeLabbers, drinking beers and showing them what little I know of State College so far. After the conference J was scrambling to get his presentation for Botany ready, then took off to R.I. for 4 days.

He flew out on the 31st, the day we had to vacate the apartment, so I was scrambling to get all of our gear we'd unpacked repacked and back to the storage unit. The kids & I stayed in a hotel, then got the keys to the house the following morning. My brother flew in that afternoon and helped me haul beds and some essentials to the house. In keeping with tradition (tradition being that I traumatize my sibs by losing something large & important off my vehicle on a busyish highway), we had to reload & retie the mattresses after they slid off the Jeep just as I stopped on the shoulder. Lesson learned, and thank goodness for protective mattress bags.

(My sister got to experience a faulty bike rack dropping my bike onto the trailer yoke, inches from hitting the road, in an I-5 construction zone in Portland. I think my sibs may start requesting that nothing be attached to the vehicle when they ride with me. I wouldn't blame them.)

The next day we loaded up a BIG Uhaul trailer with 2 loads of our stuff and hauled it all to the house. Bro & I alternated between hefting boxes of books (holy hell, how many books do we own?!) and resting our arms while entertaining the kids. I am so very very VERY grateful for all his help, patience and endurance. I owe him big.

After The Day of The Trailer we took it easier, slowly unpacking boxes and scouting thrift stores for furniture. Both Doodle & Roo loved having Uncle T here and were sad to see him go. J flew in 16 hours before T flew out, meaning even more transitions and change for an already transitioned-out Doodle. So she's been a bit crabby with so many changes and all the un-fun house setup stuff going on. Hopefully soon we'll have her Very Own Purple-rific Room(!) set up and she'll start to feel more at home here.

In all the bustle we still managed to celebrate J's 31st birthday yesterday. I picked up a wet bottom shoofly pie at the farmer's market for dessert. Not the most appetizing name, but yum that pie was good. That plus a new-to-us comfy chair, some beer, and a movie on demand courtesy of internet! at home! made for a nice evening to celebrate my very favorite person. Happy birthday my love.