simply livin' it up
This weekend, my parents, the Donleys, and the Beinkempers ( sans Will) all made the trip to Des Moines. We spent most of the weekend hanging out at our house, but enjoyed a few outings to the East Village, Ledges State Parks, and The Machine Shed.
Mari and Andrew are both playing for mid-level competitive teams this year. That means a little more practice, more serious games, and an overall higher level of play. So far, so good.
Today all of the kids started school. The three older kids are all going to school this year at the local public schools. Lucia and Rose are still at home and Lucia is having some introductory kindergarten lessons with Susan.
In a week full of school supply shopping, open houses, and first practices, we kicked things off with Andrew’s first cross country meet. He has been training since July with the cross country team and really enjoying it. He looked good in his race and was happy to meet his goal of finishing in under 20 minutes.
Somewhat unplanned, we ended up having a very productive day today, getting our outdoor toys procured and set up.
After a crazy week where I ended up traveling to Cincinnati and having to drive back because my flight was canceled, Susan and the kids packed up at the Case Haubs’ this morning and we moved to our new house. That is actually not the biggest news of the day.
The biggest news is that we got a puppy! We drove a couple of hours to Barnum, IA to pick up Winthrop “Winnie” Washington Liesland. He is a 50/50 Golden Doodle, whose parents are both reddish and just under 50 pounds. So far, so good.
A few weeks ago we had a huge rainstorm in Des Moines that caused widespread flash flooding. We thought to check our new house after the flooding, but not our storage unit. When we went today to start moving some things into our new house we found some ruined mattresses, pictures, and towels.
We bought a new house! We found it a couple of weeks after we got back and closed on the 13th. Since then we have been painting, buying furniture, and beginning to collect our things from around the city.
