Moving on up......

to Wisconsin that is!  We have officially changed our address and joined our cheeseheaded roots.  I have to admit that being an air force brat I have always thought that roots were a little overrated.  Things that people clung to when they didn't embrace adventure.  When they didn't understand the beauty of the next move.  I fell in love with a man who has a hometown.  A single place.   For his entire life.  In the beginning of our relationship I had a hard time seeing that a a positive, it made me instantly claustrophobic.  I couldn't imagine one place...a single place....FOREVER. Fast forward about a decade and a half and my feelings have changed.  Jeremy is retiring from the Navy after 20 years and we were searching for a home town.  We have moved into a rental as we are settling into the area and will start shopping for a house in the fall.  If you know me at all the fact that I am eagerly looking forward to house hunting is, in itself, an amazing thing. 
Picking a place to live blindly is a huge gamble.  Before if we moved someplace and didn't love it we knew there was always the option of moving in just a few  years.  And if we were stuck at least we were stuck at the hands of the Navy and could lament and complain and blame and it wasn't OUR fault.  There is something to be said for not having to own the location choice.  We have prayed for our post Navy location for years.  We wanted to be in Wisconsin for the veteran benefits.  We wanted to be roughly the same distance from my family so they could come and visit (read: my Momma could still come for the weekend OFTEN).  We wanted a job for Jeremy at a place he would love.  God answered all of those with our move to Janesville.  We decided to wait a year to buy a house so we could find the neighborhood we wanted and get our bearings a bit.  That meant we needed a place to live in the interim.  3 bedroom rentals that allowed pets were REALLY hard to find.  We made THREE trips to house hunt each turning up empty.  On the 4th trip we found our house.  It was a little difficult to see the potential as it was filled with another persons belongings.  And then it was a solid month before we saw it again empty to move in to it.  In that month it got bigger, shined in the sun as the clouds parted and birds chirped. When we got the keys I had tears in my eyes.  Not from the fact we were finally in a spot after almost 8 weeks.  Not that we were officially starting our new adventure.  Not that 'home town' was just around the corner from us and our roots were starting to spread.  No, I cried because it was filthy.  We saw the true house, empty w/o the distraction of belongings.  Seriously, it was horrible.  I don't have much of a poker face and the schilldren saw the first raw reaction to the filth.  They saw the tears and frustration.  

"...watching....always watching...." 

If you've ever seen Monsters Inc you too will hear Roz's voice.  Usually it's a voice I reserve for people who annoy me or are frustrated with something I've done when I tell stories.  I sometimes forget that the schilldren are like a double dose of Roz as we walk through our everyday life.  Their personalities are definitely their own but I can see the impact my opinions and attitudes have made as they develop.  Sometimes it makes me wince, like this time.  Kaity teared up.  Jp got frustrated.  Then I exhaled.  I looked around and took inventory of what needed to be done.  Jeremy assured me that it would be okay, that we could make it work and I believed him.  The schilldren looked around in disbelief that it would be anything other than awful.  Jeremy was working during the day and then would come home to an evening of work to get the house ready for our personal property delivery.  I tried to get our personal property delivered early but they were not able to arrange the change because it is such a busy time for moving.  I am so thankful for that!  We had the time we needed to clean before we put our things into the house.  As we were getting started Kaity looked at me and said "We can clean dirty Momma, this house will work"   Joshy put on disposable gloves and unleashed serious elbow grease on the baseboards and braved the cobwebbed basement with us.  We spent HOURS cleaning. We scrubbed walls and floors and ceilings. We had the carpets re cleaned. We bought a new (to us, thank you craigslist) stove because the one left was beyond words and I simply couldn't cook food on it. We replaced light covers. We had the lawn tamed. We painted. We replaced hardware. Cleaned the fridge.  Hung blinds because no window had a covering.  Mostly we invested into the feeling of family.  Of roots.  Of building something better (yes we *did* spend quite a bit of time at Home Depot).   Our household goods arrived yesterday and we are engulfed in boxes that are being tamed. We are home and looking forward to getting to know our hometown..