Hello...from Oklahoma

So it's been a crazy month (or so) but we are officially IN Oklahoma.

{And sorry for this very lengthy update!}

Our house in WV closed in the end of April. Thankfully the transition out went smoothly. We were extremely sad to leave.

Right before our packers + movers came, we discovered our decorative birdhouse was actually not decorative and became the home of a bluebird couple + 5 eggs. Having had disturbed the nest, we were concerned we'd ruined this little family, but I'm happy to share the new owners report frequent sitings of the bluebirds. According to an article I googled, bluebirds are extremely forgiving of human contact with their nests/eggs, I was so happy to hear that because I was so upset to think I had ruined this family's home!

{aren't they just beautiful?}

Before shipping out, we had a wonderful final visit with my brother + his family. They leave for Europe this summer, and will live there for a few years, so it was great to see the cousins together for one last visit.


We also had an impromptu {half} birthday party of Callum. I'd been feeling super guilty that I had never had all of his friends over in the fall for a birthday party. Coincidentally, his half birthday fell right in the week we were planning on moving. So, we had friends + cupcakes. And newts. One of Callum's friends had found a bunch of newts: it was seriously the best entertainment ever! The children were so enthralled. It was amazing.




We said our {very sad} goodbyes to the wonderful people we'd met in WV. The children had their final days of pre-school. We had the packers + movers at the house while we attended school. One of the highlights would be the "condiment swap..." I knew we couldn't bring all of the condiments and random items from our freezer and fridge for the long trip, so I brought it to our pre-school and gave everything away...it made me happy to share + thankful to not have to throw so much away!

After 2 days of packing + 2 days of loading, the moving truck pulled out.


The new owners to our former house were moving in over a weekend, and so we quickly cleaned and hit the road in the mid-afternoon. We made it into Ohio, stopping about 4 hours out...and then completed the trip to Oklahoma the following day, probably like 18 hours. I never, ever want to do that again. We hadn't planned on making the second day so long, but things just kind of worked out that way...and we felt like we'd rather push, otherwise we'd have to stop find a dog-friendly hotel somewhere in Missouri, and then have hours and hours of travel ahead of us the third day.

We spent about 2 weeks in a temporary house that my husband's employer provided. It was perfect. And had a king sized bed. Somehow even in a bed so big, it seemed like someone was a bed hog...


We had a total headache with closing and our bank. Long story, but it was miserable. Thankfully everything worked out, but it was a huge, huge headache.

We closed on our new house about two weeks ago. That night we headed out to purchase appliances! {Yay!} And our household goods arrived the day after closing. We had something like 200 boxes. Thousands of pounds of STUFF. No basement, but usable attic. We sort of tore through whatever we could during the first few days, but the following weekend the news was advising of some bad weather.  Thankfully, my husband had been paying attention to the warnings, and he urged us to move into our new house that weekend instead of waiting until we had to be out of the temporary housing.

Thankfully we did!!

The first night we spent in the new house was also my baby's 2nd birthday. How did he get so big? He talks. He blows bubbles. He has the most heartwarming giggle. This week he decided he wanted to use the potty {which we still had no washing machine delivered...so thankfully that stalled!}



That was Saturday.

Sunday we woke up to some alerts of severe weather. And that afternoon we had to use our brand new storm shelter for the first time. It was all strange and slightly scary. We were hearing alerts and they were saying whatever was happening was very close. My husband + I kept looking out every window, the TV, the Internet, each other, thinking is it time? Do we go to the shelter? The baby was in his bed napping, and the second he woke up, I put him in the Ergo and was urging the dog into the shelter for the first time. We had grabbed a few things we anticipated being really important and irreplaceable...we had the iPad and my parents on the phone reporting locations...and only a few minutes later came out to a pile of hail and news reports that a tornado touched down about 10 minutes east of our house, with severe damage further to the northeast.

Yowzer.

The following day the tornado in Moore touched down.

Quite the welcome to Oklahoma.

I was near tears on Tuesday when I had to purchase food for the first time. I saw countless people filling shopping carts with food, drinks, and supplies for victims and recovery workers.

I keep reminding myself that every place on Earth has something. Volcanoes. Earthquakes. Flooding. Sandstorms. Hurricanes. Freak blizzards. Tornadoes...

The local TV has a catchphrase "be weather aware" and I feel like I'm probably weather obsessed, but I'm sure after some time this all wont be so alarming...or we'll move...again...

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