Joe and Kathy and Babies: A moving post

Greetings from Southern Illinois! We (Joe, Kathy, Calla, Chloe (dog), and Lily(cat)) have now safely relocated from Chicago to Carbondale. It's been a little over a week since our furniture and moving boxes arrived, and we're almost done with the unpacking and furniture arranging. Well, maybe not almost done, but we'll get there. We have sheets, clothes, dishes, internet access and have now figured out how to get Cubs games, so we have the basic necessities.

Calla's enjoying our house with lots of stairs, plenty of places to use those walking legs inside and out, and a wonderful pool. She's getting more comfortable in the water and is having fun with new water toys. Pool time has been an afternoon highlight for all of us since we moved in. And we (Calla and Kathy) started our Wiggles -n- Tunes class last week. It's fun, with singing and dancing and playing instruments. Today's class was a little less spectacular than the first one because Calla decided to exert her independence and free spirit (i.e., temper) every time we needed to give up a noise-making toy for the next activity. She was less than pleased to give up her fun jingle bell bracelets or maracas and made sure everyone else in the class knew it. She's never been afraid to express an opinion, so I shouldn't be surprised!

Looking back at the past few weeks, we're so grateful for the support of all our family and friends during our transition. We had so many enjoyable evenings/afternoons with friends before we left - so fun! And we're so thankful for sister Jessica (Aunt Jess) who played with Calla while Joe and I cleaned and packed up the temporary apartment. Jess did her job so well that Calla slept in the car for the first two hours of our drive to Carbondale. And then so very thankful for sister Jeri (Aunt Jeri) who stayed with us for nearly a week, helping with Calla, unpacking boxes, and serving as kitchen organization consultant. We wouldn't be nearly this settled without her help. And we had such fun, too; we managed to take a break from unpacking to visit a local southern Illinois winery. It's true - they make wine here!

I suspect we need to post a few more pictures of our new house, but these will have to do for now. Thanks for staying with us in our internet hiatus - our access was terrible in the apartment, and if we knew from whom we were "borrowing" wi-fi, we would have let them know of our disapproval.

Below: Here we are just before leaving for Carbondale. What you can't see: Calla having a melt-down because Aunt Jess wore her out at the playground; Kathy and Joe all dirty and dusty, and Chloe (already in the car), about to launch her kibbles on to the front seat from all the excitement. What a day.