"Let's Go Home."

It was all Jonah was saying Wednesday night as we were getting ready for bed.  I have to admit I have felt the same way.  It's been strange in this new place.  It helped that Genet, Mark, Brant and all the cousins were over and helped unload the truck.  We couldn't have done it without them.  My aunt and uncle, Aunt Connie and Uncle Russel who live in Tigard have stopped by and some dear Seattle friends, the Hickmans, have visited.  I love having familiar faces.

Aaron wrote our monthly Williams family update...

" Lucas starts sixth grade on Tuesday. In his old school he would've been king of the pile of a K-6th elementary school. Instead he's the bottom of the pile of a 6-8th middle school. He's pretty tough though and I think will do well in spite of the nervousness.

So yes, we've officially moved to OR, which is good but strange. I feel like the new kid who moves in and keeps saying "Well back where I used to live..." because I am comparing everything to our old house and our ward in Seattle. The new house is no comparison - head and shoulders above where we were before, though we're still buried in boxes. Just the sole fact that we have air conditioning and it's almost 90 out today makes things good.

Our new ward seems great, but we miss all our friends. And sitting with Jonah during sacrament meeting is horrible! I want to go back up on the stand so I can sort of hear him yell a little and think "Oh, that's cute." It's not as cute when he's doing the yelling in your ear or using your tie as a rope to wall climb up to your face. I don't think he's really that bad - it's just that my child-wrestling-during-sacrament-meeting muscles have atrophied. He did great in a new nursery though. I do feel bad for his poor Sunbeam teachers next year. He turns 3 on December 30th, so he will literally be the youngest kid in his class every year. Luckily he's cute, so hopefully he can pull it off.

Natalie was a force during our move. I was working much of the time while we were preparing, so she basically did all the packing herself. I chalk this up to the fact - not that her husband is lazy - but that she's like those gritty, pioneer women and can pull the handcart by herself. Anyway, we're slowly getting moved in. Brant was awesome - he came by twice to help unload stuff. Sean unloaded too, but it was with his pants and underwear at his ankles, freely peeing in the street directly in front of our house. To his credit, they had just been camping and he had been introduced to the concept of relieving himself in the open, so we cut him some slack. Allison and Samantha were a huge help as well. Allison hauled stuff and then helped watch the little kids. Samantha literally was directing the unloading and telling us which boxes to take and where (I mean, up in the truck, reading labels and positioning things). Anyway, it happened and we're glad that everything is at least now in the house."

Genet, the wonderful, also tackled our fridge which was left filled with black mold, old spills and rotting crumbs of food.  Made me gag.  But with her help, we cleaned that sucker out and it looks good as new.

I have a lot of painting I want to do so nothing is going up on the walls until I get get some of that done.  Right now I am spray painting the pink curtain rods the owner left to make them more Jonah -room appropriate.  Once we hang a new shade and curtains, it will be my first official project in the house. Give me a yea!  And now that it will be a little darker, maybe JB will sleep past 6:30am.  Give me another yea!

I'll post pictures soon.