Camping

So, our first night of camping went fairly well. God bless our friend Angela, who provided us with air mattress, sleeping bags, bedding (have you all tried those T-shirt sheets = love!), lamps, pots and pans, dishes, etc. The air mattress was pretty comfy, but it made a lot of strange, farty noises whenever we rolled over and when one or the other of us got up, the shift in the bed's air about toppled the other person out!

We did get up last night. Three times. And not with the baby. Nope. Annika was up three times last night, for extremely important reasons, such as: her sleeping bag was upside down. I keep taking deep breaths and trying to remind myself that this move has been a major life change for the kids. And exhale.

One more note about sleeping arrangements and then I shall stop blabbing about them: due to the fact that we aren't going to get our household goods until approximately November, we went out and bought William something called a Peapod. Those of you who have babies, toddlers even, throw out those cumbersome pack & plays! You can thank me later. The Peapod is this little tent with an air mattress inside of it...it has a net like a tent and zips shut to keep baby from wandering off in the night. It's like a cocoon. And it all folds down into a tiny little circular package. It cost $40 and it's so much nicer than dragging that darn pack & play around. I know someone (you know who you are) who refuses to use hotel pack & plays...get one of these, they are great!

I can tell that stainless steel appliances are going to become my new nemesis, especially the fridge. I no sooner get it all wiped up and shiny and then William comes along and puts his sweet little chubby baby handprints on it. My husband will find me one day, muttering incoherently, crouched in front of the fridge with a bottle of Windex and a wad of paper towels, my hand permanently crabbed from spritzing Windex. What IS the secret to maintaining perfectly shiny stainless appliances? I'm leaving comments open and since Donna and my mom are the only people who ever comment (ahem, lurkers!) and they don't have stainless appliances, I guess I'll always wonder in vain...

Also, I do not have a vacuum right now. I haven't vacuumed in...exhale...almost two weeks. The crevices in this house are crying out for a good vacuum. I'm tempted to go over to the Salvation Army and buy an old one and just get going...but that's kind of gross. Right, Marg? To buy someone's used vacuum? I thought so.

Bought groceries locally yesterday. Uf da! The same Hormel roast beef that I was buying at the commissary for $4.50 was $7.19 at Farm Fresh. That is the closest grocery store and it's very nice--wood floors, a huge organic food section (not that I'm looking), selection galore. They do double coupons up to 99 cents and they do have good loss leaders, so I just have to clip my coupons and shop the circular. Go to the commissary for things like meat, cereal and pop. A 12-pack of Coke was $5.00! But our (fingerprinted) fridge is full.

Managed to bump up delivery of our table to this afternoon, so we'll have a REAL meal at our new table tonight.

DirecTV and the phone/internet were installed yesterday. No, I don't know our home number yet. Just call our cell phones if you need us.

No sign of the hurricane, though it does look like rain today. We bought candles and bottled water...which I am drinking right now. Maybe I should wait until it's actually hurricane-ing, eh? We should be OK. Hans says that the worst that could happen would be a power outage...I should probably charge the Nintendo right now.

We'll keep you updated!