Pez!

I was pretty excited when we found out the Pez Factory is just a couple towns over. I was even more excited when I realized it was fairly inexpensive to go check it out. We went this week and had a good time. You can't tour the factory since they actually make the candy there (sanitary reasons) but they have windows so you can view the production line. The visitors center was full of Pez candy history (originated in Austria as a mint) and dispensers from every decade. It was pretty neat looking at all the unique Pez dispensers and how they have changed over the years.

I loved these little sets. They would make such a cute little gift for a fan. Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and Snow White. They also had U.S. Presidents sets and several others that I can't remember.

This motorcycle is hanging from the ceiling right when you walk in the door. There are also 2 walls of Pez dispensers on display just in the foyer.

They each picked out their own dispenser. Sarah got Minnie Mouse and the boys picked Jack Sparrow (they had just watched Pirates of the Caribbean the night before).

The boys stared at these space gun Pez dispensers for a good 5 minutes. They were in love!

Fireworks

Friday night was the Hamden Volunteer Firefighters fireworks display. I overheard some people talking about it earlier in the day at Walgreens. I'm so glad I was eavesdropping on their conversation! We got there early so we could get a good spot on the grass. We did pretty good except there was a tree branch that blocked part of the show. The kids didn't care though. They loved seeing the fireworks.

I love capturing her expressions. She is just so beautiful!

Noah showing off some of his dancing skills. I love his white boy dance moves!

I'm laughing at my kids. I love when I see a picture of myself with a true smile. I also really like my hair in this picture!

A selfie of me and Aaron. It was especially hard since it was getting dark and the tiny bit of movement resulted in a blurry image.

I love this kid! He was dancing up a storm to all the music. We've all had a minor cold and we kept hoping it was skip Eli. He started with the runny nose yesterday and today he's pretty miserable with a worsening cough. I know it's going to result in pneumonia. I'll be happy when I can finally get into some doctors (Aaron starts on Monday so we'll finally have insurance here) and start having some testing done. I worry so much about him. Please remember him in your prayers that we'll be able to find him the right doctors and some solutions to this recurrent pneumonia.

Our house

The downstairs.

This is the living room. The top picture on the left is the view from the front door. Half of the room is the office area and the other half is the living space.

This is the dining room. It's nice and big and will work perfectly for school during the day.

My favorite room in the house, the kitchen. The top left picture is the view from the dining room. In the bottom left picture you can see the door in the back that leads to the basement. The bottom right picture shows the half bathroom on the left and the pantry and back door on the right.

 The upstairs.

Sarah's room.

Noah and Eli's room.

Mine and Aaron's room.

So there you have it. It's a comfortable house, and we actually like it a lot. If we were planning on staying for longer than a year I'd probably paint and make it a little more me. For now though I'm just going to have to live with what I got.

Aren't they cute!?

Don't worry, I'm surviving

After all my complaining I feel like I should make sure everyone knows that I do in fact like our new house. There have been problems with some things since getting here but everything has cleaned up nicely and we are making it work. It's really nice having a bigger house. It is just so much more comfortable for a family of 5 to have all the bedrooms upstairs, laundry in the basement instead of in the kitchen, and an extra bathroom in case you need to go while someone is in the shower/bath. My kitchen is HUGE in comparison to my old kitchen. I absolutely love it. I do wish I had a gas stove but I'm adjusting to the electric (a few things may have been burned in the process). I really miss our big, fenced in yard but the plus is a smaller yard to mow. The kids love having an upstairs. We put the TV in our bedroom and they all cuddle in bed with us to watch Netflix (something they did all the time at Grandma and Grandpa's). I have a nice big dining room that will double as a homeschool room.

As far as the fridge goes, I had some wire, stacking racks that used to be under my kitchen sink. I put those in the bottom of the fridge to hold all the loose items (veggies, fruit, string cheese, hotdogs, etc.). It seems to work well. I discovered that the washer wasn't necessarily leaking but overflowing when I used the "super" load size setting. Now I know better and will just avoid that setting all together. I believe the landlord will be here sometime this week to fix the leaking faucet.

So there you have it. The world isn't ending. I'm getting adjusted. We've been enjoying having Aaron around. He doesn't start work until July 1st so we truly get to spend family time together. We have been enjoying going to the beach and exploring in the area. And as far as pictures go, I'll start taking some as soon as we get a new charger (ours got lost in the move), which should be here any day since we ordered one from Amazon.

I want to go home

Everything was dirty when we moved into this house. I was told by the landlord that they were going to get it professionally cleaned. That probably set my expectations too high. They definitely didn't get it cleaned and it was probably just "cleaned" by 1 or 2 guys. They left it so gross. Fingerprints all over the walls and doors, basement stairs and unfinished basement that has probably never been swept the whole time they lived here, a black bathtub that just needed some Comet and a good scrubbing, a stove top that was just caked in black, burnt junk, and an oven that looked about the same.

The refrigerator light doesn't work (even after replacing it) and there is no bottom shelf or fruit and veggie drawers, just a big empty pit at the bottom of the fridge. What do they expect me to do, just throw my food in there in a heap. Luckily I had some wire shelves that work to keep stuff somewhat organized. Did I mention that we bought a brand new fridge about 3 years ago and we left it at our house in Kentucky with our tenant?

The bathtub hot water faucet leaks all the time. It literally doesn't turn off. When I turn the knob right to turn it off it starts to slow down and I can get it to about a slow drizzle and then if I keep turning it turns it back on full blast. What the heck!? And the worst part about it was when I called to complain I found out that one of the homeowners/landlords is a plumber for a living. We have a promise that he'll fix it within the next week. I'll believe it when I see it.

The garage door is broken in half at the bottom. It's a wood door. The bottom beam is literally broken in half and the windows are about to fall out. We have a promise that they will replace that as well. It's been a week now...

The dryer was taking forever to dry. We decided to check and see if it was plugged up with lint. We pulled piles of lint out of the exhaust tube. Holy fire hazard, Batman! And the icing on the cake. We woke up today to a bunch of water all around the washer and dryer this morning. We thought maybe one of the plumbing lines above it was leaking. We tightened something and it seemed to stop. Then I did some laundry and the puddle reappeared. I finally discovered the water is dripping from the bottom of the washing machine. He's coming tomorrow after work to look at it. I have a family of five to do laundry for so he better fix that by Tuesday or I'm literally going to go insane. I forgot to mention that I also have a washer and dryer in our old house that was bought 5 years ago as a gift from my mom. I miss my mom.

I just want to go back home.

Last days in Kentucky

This is what they chose to wear to the mall. Pirate shirts, train engineer caps, superhero capes, and knives.

We are officially moved and settled into our new house in Connecticut. Our last week in Kentucky was busy and we filled every minute with either packing or hanging our with our back yard best friends. We have had so much fun with them over the past couple of years and it was so sad saying goodbye. Ginny and I have become the best of friends and our kids all love each other and have so much fun playing together. I already miss them so much!

Laura, Landen, Eli and Logan.

Laura and Sarah playing at the mall.

Noah and Eli helping us pack.

Aaron pulled our water barrel our of the shed and the kids had a blast rolling around on it and pushing it through the yard.

Ginny and I at McDonalds right before we left town.

We couldn't get them all to look and cooperate. Logan refused to look and smile at the camera because he was upset we were leaving. I think he was the only one that really understood what was happening.

The girls had on matching shirts and we didn't even plan it.

I love this one!