Making the best of things

We have been in packing mode full-force for a while. The kids have been thrown into such disarray. I am working on having (really) low expectations. We have piles of boxes in multiple corners of the house. Anne loves it.

Really loves it. 

moving

this is going to be a very quick one - and without any pictures (i just finished feeding andy and it's barely 6a - it's time to go back to bed!).

as it's getting closer and closer to our move date (31 jul for spencer and 2 aug for the little boys and me), i've been thinking more and more about going to oklahoma. i've been excited to move for a very long time and i still am. i've described it as the feeling owen wilson had in "armageddon" right before take-off ("i'm 99% excited and 1% scared. or maybe it's 99% scared and 1% excited."). this is going to be one of the greatest adventures of our lives (for now). going to a place where we know almost nobody and making a life for ourselves.

one thing i've been thinking about in particular is my desire to go to oklahoma and live. i don't want to go and be a student. i've heard of a lot of different med school families coming back home whenever there is an opportunity. don't get me wrong, i think it's wonderful to go back to family, but i also think it's important to build your own life wherever you are.

this past week we had spencer's family's reunion. it was wonderful! we made sure to join in on a lot of the festivities because we knew it would be our last one for a long time. we've been wondering what next year is going to be like for us: when we're going to make our trip back and how long are we going to be back. we've been thinking of two to three weeks. i don't think i want to be back for as long as a month (maybe i'll think diferently this time next year). i want ok to be our home, and a month is a long time to be from home! i want us to get fairly established where we are living. i want benny to have friends that he loves to see regularly. i want us to be involved in our ward. i want us to enjoy the place that we will be calling home for the next four years (at least!). i don't want to be a family that's only there for school.

what do you think?

okay, i know i said no pictures, but i'm really excited that this is the place we're going to live! (i'll definitely post kitchen pictures later. you'll know why when you see it... be excited!)