The Townhouse

We decided to rent a house, at least initially, so that we can get to know the area and determine where exactly we'd like to settle. Peter found the house with the help of our friend's mother, who just so happens to be our new next door neighbor. The house is nice little 3 bedroom, 1½ bathroom townhouse. There is an amazing park down the street but with the recent snow we've essentially been home bound. Since we are still working on meeting people, the girls and I are seeing a whole lot of one another. This new house is very colorful. Very, very colorful compared to our old house. 

We have a lime green bathroom, a three color kitchen, and a master bedroom with a blue accent wall. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of accent walls but since it's a rental my opinion of the wall color is irrelevant. The house has three stories which means lots of stairs. The top floor has the bedrooms, the basement is all storage, so we live on the second floor which is the living room and kitchen. Our living room is a soft yellow with three purple accent walls and curtains to match. I call it the purple room.

The purple room is our living space and playroom. There's no television (because there is no where to put it) so it's all toys all the time. And music, we've got to have some music. Life in the purple room isn't so bad.  It's a bit crowded, since the dogs like to hang with us, but we're making do. Odds are we won't be in this house for more than a year or two, if that, but it's a fine pit stop. 

First Haircut

The day finally arrived: Cole got her first haircut! While the baby curls were adorable, her hair was a million different lengths and she'd developed something of a rat-tail. Two days after we moved, I noticed a children's salon by our new house. Saturday, on a whim, we got a walk-in appointment. We took a risk and let Cole sit on one of the animal chairs rather than on my lap in a regular salon chair. The stylist said she could even out Cole's bangs and cut her hair into a bob. While Cole was a bit skeptical at first, she went along with it without resistance. The movie that was playing on the television three feet from her face probably helped encourage the passive compliance. We'll be back.

Two Weeks In

We've been in our new home for two weeks now. We're unpacked and settled into the house. I'm still adjusting to life without a fenced-in yard and the million set of stairs in this house (really it's just five: three inside and two outside). As far as settling into the town, that is a work in progress. We've been to a couple of churches and have another on our short list. Hopefully we'll find a home church soon so that we can start building relationships with people in our community. It's a bit odd to go from our very scheduled, very social weeks to weeks with blank schedules and no planned socializing.  I've met a few people at the park and mall and Target but that's it.
 
I'm grateful every day for Memphis and our time there! Our friends, church, and neighborhood were all so special. I'm working diligently not to compare things here to there. It's just very different! One thing we all miss is Mother's Day Out! As far as I can tell, it does not exist in the mid-Atlantic. And it seems that the local preschools don't take children until they are at least two or often three. We're looking forward to putting down new roots though admittedly not necessarily the time it tastes to grow those roots. It's a lesson in patience but fortunately we're all still above water.

It was great to be able to spend Thanksgiving with my family and not miss but a night sleeping in our own beds. Skipping the hoopla of holiday travel made Thanksgiving so manageable. I can only hope and imagine that in the coming weeks there will be exponential growth as far as our feelings of being "settled" are concerned.