Changes

June was a crazy month, and I don't mean that lightly. A part of me is glad that I was (am) so sleep deprived that I'm not likely to remember much of May/June. A new baby, Jon finishing his dissertation, moving across the country and a thus-far-futile attempt to complete my own graduate degree have left me reeling. Right now I should really be sleeping, or at least unpacking another box. But I feel like I need to claim a minute for myself. So here I am. Ready to focus on the much-anticipated new month and a new start.

I love the house Jon found for us to rent, and he is really enjoying his job. Actually, we're all enjoying it since he gets to come home for lunch every day and his amazing flex-time options mean we get him home an extra day on most weeks. It is really great to be just a couple minutes from the beautiful beaches of the Florida panhandle (no oil here yet!). Aurelia would live in the surf and sand if she had half a choice in the matter. She might come out for some ice cream or to play on a slide. Blaise...well, I love his chuckles and smiles, but that boy still needs to learn how to sleep. Let's not talk about that though -- I'm almost as sick of thinking about sleep as I am from lack of it. (By the way, lack of sleep/new parent jokes are not even remotely funny. Really. They're not.)

Boxes and half-assembled furniture fill most of the rooms still, since our "stuff" arrived only a few days ago. Sometimes I look at the piles and think we'll never organize everything again. Then I just open a box and start working...unless a diaper needs to be changed or food needs to be cooked or a mess cleaned up or the dryer just went off...haha. I think I'm done with the kitchen, unless a box made it to the wrong room. So that's progress!

Money has been fun for the past month. Transitions are ridiculously expensive. We get our first new paycheck in 3 days. If I've calculated everything correctly, that's almost exactly how many dollars we'll have left then. Fortunately chicken and rice can carry a menu plan a long way on the cheap. We break it up occasionally with tilapia and tater tots. And broccoli. Because clearly those three things go together.

Which brings me to an aside (as if the rest of this post is perfectly coherent): living in a house with just some camping gear for over a week really shows you 1) how little you really need to get along just fine, and 2) how nice a real bed is! And a changing table. Oh, and a place to sit.

And with that, I think I'm out of random thoughts on our recent life changes. More will come later, along with some more pictures from the professional photo shoot I won back in Washington. Gayle Sholtz photography, thank you!!