Monday, May 16, 2011

The Dust is Settling

Well, it happened... we finally moved! Actually, the move happened exactly one month ago, but for the first two weeks following the move I could not find the power cord for my computer. Thus I could not update the blog.


A lot has happened since we have been here, and there is still quite a bit that is still going on. I will say that living here has been one adventure after another. The day of the move-in, we tried to settle down for our first dinner in the new house. Unfortunately, we had temporarily misplaced the tray for the Butterfly's highchair. So, we decided to eat on the floor. But, because of the large perimeter of food that we typically find around the little Bug, we decided that it would be in the best interest of our brand-spankin' new floors if we put emptied, flattened boxes under the Bug. She loved it!


Dinner wasn't anything special, just some Subway sandwiches. But boy did they taste great (it must have been that "new house smell" that helped!).

Dessert is often fresh fruit. Mmmmmmmmm, strawberries!

One of the things we needed to do right after we moved in was check the smoke alarms. Because they were all new, they had little orange/red plastic covers on them which looked a bit like shower caps. The Butterfly thought they were perfect for her head! She proceeded to walk around the rest of the evening looking a bit silly, but enjoying every minute!

Checking in on the workers in the basement!

The huge vaulted ceilings provide tons of room for the Butterfly and daddy to have fun!

But despite all of the excitement, some of my favorite moments in our new place are the quieter ones.

One of the things that we are having completed (while we are living here mind you) is our basement. It should be completed within the next two weeks (cannot wait!). The builders have been working on it for a little while, and are only waiting for the bathroom vanity to arrive to finish the job. It is very exciting to watch the space go from bare nothing, to a skeleton of rooms, to rooms with walls, paint, and carpet. But, as anyone who has lived through construction knows, there is a ton of dust that is created daily. Recently the dust has settled down a bit, but those first couple weeks were just awful.

I remember when I was a child, my mother claiming that there was so much dust where we lived that within a week she was able to write her name in the dust. Well mom, I have you beat! I was able to write my name in the dust in just one day!

Although most people would probably hate all of the dust, and honestly I did in the beginning primarily because of my allergies, I found myself intrigued with it one afternoon. The Butterfly was wandering around the living room, checking everything out. I, knowing that she tends to get in trouble every once in a while (almost always) decided to follow her tracks to see what she was doing. As I walked up to our unplugged TV, which was sitting on the floor against the wall, I noticed something very special... a tiny hand print, so innocently placed on the back of the TV as she looked out the window. This tiny print made me smile. I realized that through all of this dust that was settling daily in our house, my baby's hand was temporarily preserved. I never realized before this point that her hands had touched so many things in our old house, but she never left a visible hand print. It wasn't until we moved here that I was reminded how special these little prints are.

So as I look out in my living room and see the dust everywhere that seems to accumulate so quickly, I now have a different perspective... I love the special memories that this dust is leaving in my heart.

~~Aloha!