Epilogue

As I think about the past week or so that we've been here in Maryland I get a mix of emotions.  It's been real, that's about all I can say with any certainty.   I feel a strange disconnect.  I'm not at my "home" anymore.  This isn't "home" yet.  I'm not "home" with my family.  I feel like a dandelion that has blown away from it's stem and landed but hasn't sprouted yet.  Enough of waxing poetic today - moving is fun and also not and this isn't the first or the last time we'll do it, so be patient, Lana, while you sprout!
We got here in the first of the rain that was Sandy.  We camped out in the empty apartment.  I watched the entire 1st season of Downton Abby on Netflix and we played UNO.  The nice neighbors downstairs loaned us some games until our stuff got here.  I had not realized that my girls had never played UNO before.  It was a lot of fun, and Celee may just get that for her birthday soon.  The Firaxis Halloween party was re-scheduled so we just hung out and watched the rain and wind for the 1st 2 days.  Jason even had Monday off because a state of emergency was declared.

Tuesday the movers got here.  Bless their hearts, they drove through Sandy all day Monday.  But they did get here.  And it took them all day to unload everything.  Meanwhile I kept panicking.  How is all this going to fit?  We got the bigger apt. with the intention of the "den" being a storage room, but my my.  At the end of the day we were maneuvering around boxes, bicycles, and furniture in every room. The guys from Two Men and a Truck did a great job though.  (Thanks Dan and Renee!)  They lugged way too much stuff for way too long up to our 3rd floor apt.  And so far I haven't found anything broken.   -- I will say in hind sight, that it thankfully has gotten much better.  There are still boxes of things that I have no idea where to put out in the middle of rooms.  But it is getting better.  That's my mantra anyway.
We did Trick or Treat on Wednesday.  Lyla was a butterfly, Celee was Luna Lovegood, and Gwyn decided to be Athena, goddess of wisdom and just war.  Gwyn was cold so she didn't go trick-or-treating, but I took Celee and Lyla out to a nearby neighborhood.
Then Thursday was the Firaxis party, so they got dressed up again.  I somehow failed to get any good pictures of their costumes, but at least the lady at Firaxis did get us all in one photo.  Although, Lyla had seen a man dressed up in a scary costume as we walked in so she wouldn't let go of Jason or smile.  That tends to happen to her at company parties.  The Gumby at Volition did her in before and the scary monster man did her in at Firaxis.  Eventually she did get down and have fun.  But she kept an eye out for the monster everywhere we went.





Friday night all three girls and I headed off to Catonsville to a "Scouting Around the World" spend the night.  Gwyn and Lyla's troop had signed up so we all got to go.  I figured if there's any way for the girls to make friends quick, it's to spend the night with them.  That or we'll know who we don't like.  Thankfully it turned out for the best.  Celee hung with Gwyn's troop, and they had a lot of fun and did make friends.  Lyla had a fun time with her troop too.  She didn't even want me to stay with her and her troop.  It was, "See ya Mom!" the whole time.  Even when it was bedtime.  I got a chance to meet some great moms too and I'm looking forward to doing GS stuff with these ladies!

Sunday we went church shopping.  :) Just kidding.  That's what it feels like, but thankfully the worship service we attended didn't make it feel like that.  Not a show for church consumers, but a worship service.  I was truly thankful that during the service as I noticed others in passionate worship (please do not read charismatic necessarily in that) around me, I was reminded that there are believers all over the world praising Him and He hears and responds to us all.  The girls enjoyed the children's programming.  Gwyn was excited because they split the 4-5th graders away from the K-3rd completely and they had a popcorn machine.  Celee and Lyla got to stay together and play a parachute game so they were happy too.  And I was happy because they each could actually tell me the message and story of what they learned in Sunday School.  Lyla was even so cute trying to explain that the story came out of Enthusiateses.  She was very adamant about the pronunciation of this for quite a while until she finally believed me that it was Ecclesiastes.  We are probably going to keep visiting other churches for a while, but this one if definitely on the short list.


Sunday we also went for a walk down a rails-to-trails-type trail here.  We drove up to Monkton and followed it north for around a mile and a half.  If it hadn't been so chilly we might have gone farther, but it was a very nice trail and I would love to go again.  We all love that it is so hilly and rocky here!  The girls really needed to get out and run and climb and walk too.  We were too loud to see any wildlife, but the girls did find beaver tracks when they explored under a bridge.  And there were fuzzy orange and black caterpillars everywhere.  I also noticed that the trail is lined with rose bushes/vines.  I bet it will be gorgeous in the Spring.

Sunday was also Lyla's first meeting with her Girl Scout troop.  They had an Investiture Ceremony.  Lyla had already had hers in Illinois, but she did it again with her troop here.  We also made posters for a cookie booth sale.  They sell cookies here in Oct-Nov instead of Jan. like in Illinois.  The cookies here also have the real names (dosidos, tagalongs, samoas, etc.) instead of the names the cookies in the MidWest have.  So Lyla will get to at least sell some cookies at a booth sale.  And (yippee!) we missed the pre-order cookie sales here so we don't have to worry about that this year!  Although I will miss the cookie overload that comes with it.
So it's been up and down.  We've kept busy.  We're trying to get in a groove here.  I've only had one major crying episode.  The girls are very positive and upbeat about everything.  Jason is loving his job and the studio he works at.  I actually got out and ran today.  So the world is settling in.  And that's as good an epilogue as I can write.