Finally Back Online!

We’ve accomplished quite a bit the last few days, including finally getting our high speed Internet connection up and running. So, I am back to posting again, and thought I would give a quick update.

The movers brought our stuff last Friday. Everything arrived like we thought it would and we have unpacked a good 30 of the 100+ boxes so far, and partially unpacked another 30-40. I am guessing we will still be unpacking for a good while, but we have the essentials down, such as the kitchen, the master bath, the master closet, and the office. Maybe by Christmas we will have the place the way we want it.

All of the rooms are painted except the master bedroom. We also need to wallpaper above the chair rail in the dining room. Stacie wants the kitchen painted, too, but that can wait a bit. I just have a few small areas to touch up throughout the rest of the first floor and we can decide then what to do with the playroom and upstairs bedroom.

A couple of things I discovered this week about our new home/area:

Fire ants! Ouch. I was attaching a hose and put my hand down to steady myself. The next thing you know I feel a stinging pain in a couple of places on that hand. I look down and there are several small ants locked on to me in a crouching position. I decide to take a quick revenge on these little knuckle biters and throw them in to a garden spider web next to the spigot. But then, quite suddenly, I get that same burning and stinging sensation on my feet. I look down and discover another dozen ants biting anywhere my flip-flops didn’t cover. Ouch! About the same time I discover they have taken a good hold of 6-year old Ethan’s feet, as well. So, being the good and protective Dad that I am I … no wait… I got them suckers off of my own feet first, and then helped out poor Ethan, who was clawing at his own feet. I told him to step away from the little dirt area and run and get me the ultimate revenge maker. That can of sprayed death… RAID! And took our revenge we did. Hearty these suckers were. We sprayed the entire area, and came back an hour later and discovered that they were making a mad yet valiant attempt to crawl up the wall of our house. Splash! I hit them again and sprayed a good five feet in diameter (being careful not to hit or affect the aforementioned garden spider) and gave them a sense of shock-and-awe. The carnage was displayed quickly as more and more ants piled out from the hill to meet their doom. Soon there was nothing but a patch of ant bodies, three and four ants deep. As we walked up the steps of the deck, madly scratching our hands and feet, we felt a sense of pride in killing off our new found enemy.

The cows! There is a cattle farm behind our house. We moved our two labs up over the weekend and they had a difficult first night. The cows only come up to the pasture behind our house at night, so when they dogs began barking like crazy at midnight I knew that had to be the problem. I grabbed my flashlight and went out and discovered two of the cows sitting right up on the fence as if they were taunting the dogs. I walked over toward the cows and they took off running. I think it was good for the dogs to see that I wasn’t afraid of these large beasts, as they have barked very, very little since then. I like having the farm out back. It reminds me of the country, and with a couple of horse farms at the beginning of our street we do feel like we are out there a bit. It is nice out here, even when the breeze brings the very faint smell of cow-patties into the back yard.

We like Sanford. It has some issues like any big city or small town, but we like what we have seen so far. I am especially glad that Stacie and the boys are happy to be here. That makes a big difference, and allows me to focus on some other things. We’ll be seeing you around town!