Catching up on 2009 - Settling in

We arrived in Virginia on August 24th after our drive across three-quarters of the U.S. and then found our new place and moved in on September 2nd.


Our movers packed us out from Shanghai on July 14-15, but it took our shipment three months to arrive in in our new home.


We had some items in long-term storage, but not much as we sold most of our furniture and electronics before going as this was a chance to start "new." We had our beds, a sofa and love seat, dishes, and Tim's entertainment center stored in a long-term facility while we went to China... not much, but at least the basics were covered -- so we thought. The couch cushions showed up, but the storage facility lost the sofa and love seat. While it can (and probably will) take up to a year for the claim to be resolved, we turned to one of our favorite tools... washingtondc.craigslist.org. We found a sectional that fit our needs. Tim found a new TV to fit his needs and this was our life while waiting for our furniture to arrive from Shanghai...
Delivery day was a wonderderful day for us!

This was our fourth move in our seven and a half years of marriage... and this was by far the best move that we had. The packers in China were so thorough that we literally did not have one scratch on our things. Our movers on this end commented throughout the day that they had never seen a better packing job than this (and that they couldn't imagine a better packing job). So if you're moving from Shanghai, we highly recommend Santa Fe movers. As kids do, they just loved the boxes.

It was like Christmas... opening so many "presents." Rediscovering bikes and scooters...

A good car wash goes much quicker when everybody helps...

Binx loves the new backyard...

and the girls love hanging out with Binx in the back.

...while Ryann like hanging out in Binx' kennel

One day Adayla wanted to learn to ride a "two wheel" bike (by definition they all are!)

Daddy gave expert demonstrations of how to coast on the bike for balance, without pedaling...

If you can believe, Adayla was riding on her own the next day (but with a helmet!)

Until the weather got cold, this was our daily life... riding bikes and scooters with the three neighbor girls. Our next door neighbors have two girls that match up perfectly with Adayla and Tally, and then a couple of doors down there is a seven-year-old girl whose mom is Chinese Malaysian... the family speaks Mandarin. So our rule is when the three girls are together is the have to speak Chinese, or they can't play with each other. It has worked out surprisingly well.

Everyday is a fun day with Tally...

Adayla would agree... usually!

Another new friend here in Virgina, Xiao Dan. She comes over a couple of times a week and speaks Chinese with the girls. Here they are on a "field trip" to the National Zoo where they learned lots of animal names in Chinese.

And just like that, we started to feel at home... again!