Moving On Up...

Literally.  We are moving on up to the north!! 

D found out just before Christmas that he was getting a promotion and transferred to the refinery outside of Chicago.  To say that it was a shock, is putting it mildly.  Honestly he thought that his boss was coming to tell him that his boss was changing jobs, not Darren!

We are excited to have a new opportunity - and D assures me that it is a good job opportunity - in a new part of the country.  But we are extremely sad to leave where we are.  We have made some lifelong friends and love it here. Honestly I am having the most difficulty with the whole move idea.  D is excited about his new job.  The girls are excited about the snow (they clearly have no idea just how much snow and cold there will be!)  I am less excited.  So hard to make a new network of friends.

D and I went up to the Chicago area for our house hunting trip.  Since I am still on the fence about the move, the trip was a bit more stressful than previous house hunting trips.  Apparently I brought some negativity to the trip.  Hmmm.  Nonetheless we did in fact buy a house - which was both of our #1 house.

Here are some pics of the trip:

 As cold as this looks, it actually ended up being colder than this as the week went on!

 Here I am in front of our new house!  Well technically not fully ours until we close at the end of February.  The girls like this picture cause it looks like I am holding up the house.  I like this picture cause you can see my new snow boots and jacket - purchased just prior to coming on the trip!

Here is D in front of the house.  He is also rocking out new boots and jacket.

Here is a picture of the school that the girls will be going to. I was shocked to discover that there is no air conditioner in the school.  What??? The girls are super excited to learn that they will not be wearing uniforms.  I am less excited to learn that fact. Clearly I will need to supplement their regular clothes as they really have limited non uniform outfits and I am not sure I can convince them that it will be cool to wear khakis and blue shirts.  Also interesting is that there are only 3 kindergarten classes at the school.  So the girls should know about 2/3 of the entire kindergarten!

Another fun fact - the school mascot is the FOX - which the girls love as they love What Does The Fox Say.