Adjusting

Adjusting is what we've been doing since heading out west. Adjusting to new places to live, new faces, new friends, new churches, new job, new city, new parks, new (and not so fun) personalities emerging in our son, etc...

Telling daddy bye-bye one morning at the apartment

And, though we can certainly say Midland doesn't seem like a bad place to live, its been an adjustment! We love having family in town and it has been fun making new friends, but its really been hard not having friends we're used to seeing and sharing life with just a few minutes away. We know it'll take time to grow used to life here in Midland, but I think for David and I both it's been harder than we expected. And we feel like we can cope with things fairly well! Colton, on the other hand, - poor boy. He's having a tough, tough transition.

It may have something to do with moving out here and living in the apartment for 4 1/2 weeks, then heading back to Dallas and spending 5 nights in our "old home" (and getting to see all of his old friends), then finally moving to our new house in Midland, or "new home" as Colton calls it. We've been in our new home for a week and a half and our days and nights have been rough.

Throw in a horrible upper respiratory infection that took out both kids for a week, just days after we moved in. David has a knack for exaggerating just how sick he is (he's always "the sickest he's ever been"), but we both agreed Colton was the sickest we'd ever seen him. Sadie was miserable too - we ended up at an urgent care clinic with her one evening. Colton reverted to taking two naps a day for a week - that's how bad he felt! I am so thankful for healthy kids! They are both fully recovered now - and my back is starting to feel better too...I carried Sadie almost all of last week!

Little sickies

But, throughout all of our ADJUSTING - and the transition, sicknesses, & uncomfortableness of being somewhere new, we've seen God truly take care of us: the move was very, very smooth; our families have been a huge, huge help with taking care of the kids and helping us move; we've been able to spend time with some of David's friends from growing up; we've been to two churches that we like (and still plan to visit one more this weekend); we've met some very sweet people and have started making friends; David's job is challenging, yet new and exciting; we've spent lots of time together as a family; and we're having to rely on God for each and every step of this journey. Grateful for a loving God who cares for us deeply.

Here's a few pics of our time in Midland...

Picnic at the park one Sunday after church.

This is when he learned that throwing sand in the air isn't such a good idea when the wind is blowing.

Maybe he's praying for rain here? Actually, he's probably asking God to bring Mia to the park to play with him. Anytime I tell him we're going somewhere - library, park, church - he asks if his best friend Mia will be there! So sweet!

Sadie adores her brother and is always quietly chuckling while she watches him zoom around the house.

Excited that our boy still has his two front teeth and they haven't turned an icky color yet!

This was our apartment bath tub. Colton loves playing in the bathtub and Sadie loved crawling over and splashing in the water.

Playing with some new friends - Grady and Hadley.

This girl is always on the move, as soon as you take a shirt off to change her into another outfit she's off and crawling. Usually in search of something to pick up off the floor!

We loved getting to play in the snow a few weeks ago.

All bundled up for a short walk to the apartment office to buy girl scout cookies. :)

We love this silly, strong willed boy!

Sadie at 9 months

Some things that just seem weird living here:

• The wind is fierce, and I mean fierce...it can whip up out of nowhere and completely put an end to fun times outdoors. I bought a wind shield for our double stroller, but I'm not sure how I'll handle the wind while pushing the stroller.
• There's sand at all of the playgrounds. Still not used to this...it gets in all of our shoes and somehow (-Colton-) Sadie ended up with sand in her diaper today.
• You can get from one side of town to the other in 10 minutes tops. It's been pretty easy to be on time. And, its wonderful to live here after fighting traffic on 635 for years. :)

I think the highlight of Colton's week has to be church! Why? Because he gets to play with lots of other kids. We visited the same church 3 weeks in a row and one week actually went to two different churches in the same morning. :) It was a bit much, but when your kids wake up as early as ours do and you're living in 600 square feet it just made sense!

We've had a chance to hang out with some of David's friends from growing up. We've enjoyed dinners with them and for Colton to have some kids to play with. I'm also grateful for a couple of sweet connections through friends from Dallas. It's been lots of fun to meet new people and to imagine how things might feel here a year from now.

We're also very excited to have friends and family coming to visit us next week! :)