Sunday, January 4, 2009

When we started our trip we told the kids we were moving to Chicago. Lil'Nathan has been looking forward to seeing a skyscraper for months now. The moment we woke up on our last day of travel he plastered himself to the window and kept asking, "Where are the skyscrapers? Can we see them yet?" Well, as we came into view of Chicago and he finally saw one he said, "WOW! That is so huge!" Then we kept driving. Mary asked if we were in Chicago yet. We told her we'd just passed it. Her response: "What?! All that work to get here and we just left it?!"

I guess we should have told her that we were really moving to Evanston, near Chicago.

This city is HUGE! I'm glad we aren't actually in the city. I don't think this country-bumpkin could have handled that big a culture shock. I'm reeling as it is. We live on the eighth floor. The eighth floor! The view is great, but every time we get out of the elevator I'm certain I can feel the building sway. We have to go down 9 stories to do laundry... but it only costs $1 per load--almost half off from our last apartment!--and there are two play areas for the kids within view of the laundry room. Sales tax out here is 10%. (Yes, you read that right.) NH has no sales tax. Talk about a shock. Takes all the fun out of shopping... but at least it's easy to calculate. :)

Lil'Nathan and Mary woke us up yesterday morning by throwing up in the hallway. Lil'Nathan recovered by mid-afternoon. Mary finally kicked it this morning. Tonight it hit Joseph, who is also trying to push through his two remaining eye teeth. (The first two finally broke through earlier this week. Why does he always do this when we are moving?) Nathan still has a lot of studies to finish off by the end of the week so he went to bed early tonight. Tomorrow the kids and I resume homeschooling. Lil'Nathan is actually excited. He grabbed his spelling book tonight and marked his lesson so he can "jump right in" first thing in the morning. Cool. We'll have regular school this week and then next week we may do field trips with Daddy before his classes start in Chicago on the 20th.

Church was really nice today. We went this morning according to the info given on the church website, not realizing until we were in the parking lot that they probably hadn't updated the website with the new year's time change. Yup, we were at the wrong ward. So, we stayed through Sacrament meeting and then drove up the street to the Temple (how cool is that?) just to see it and then came home. We fed the kids lunch, I called my grandparents, and then we went back to church. The right ward this time. Very nice ward (the other one was, too) and very many kids in Nursery. I'm used to that from Lebanon and Hanover. Joseph seemed more at ease, too, and didn't hang on my leg. He played and ran around and fought over toys like he'd been there for months. But I still couldn't leave.

So, yes, we are only a little over 10 mi from the Temple. We had grand plans of going twice a month or more. I say "had" b/c the Temple is closed for a least a month and likely longer. On Christmas Eve, just after everyone had gone home for the night, a pipe burst and flooded the entire (newly renovated!) first floor. The damage was apparently quite extensive and they only hope it will be able to reopen in a month's time. I guess the official word on what to do is due from Salt Lake this week. Oh, how I hope it will be able to open again soon!

Oh, and the fish is fine. Perfectly fine. He's eating, swimming, and trying to attack the other fish through the tanks. When I think how close I came to flushing him...

2 comments:

Stephanie said...

Lisa. Lisa. Lisa. 9 stories? What? Skyscapers? And I just read about the fish...huh? I don't think I could have any better entertainment than reading your last 3 posts!!!

Stephanie said...

You can tell I live in Lebanon, NH. I can't even spell "skyscrapers!"