So Sad... "Just Kids"

Poor E is taking the move so hard. She asks at least once a day if we can either go to PoPo's (Gilda's Mom's) house or home (which she means to be the Davis home). She refers to the house we live in as Auntie Gigi's house... and wonders why we are living here. Even with all the packing and the bringing of her bed, her clothes, her toys and her family (us)... she still wants to go "home".

The saddest thing of all though is on when on Tuesday she had the following conversation with Ian while they were returning from the park just around the corner from our new place.

E: I want friends.
Ian: You just played with friends.
E: No friends.
Ian: What about the boy you played with at the park?
E (matter of factly): No friends, just kids.

I guess in E's opinion you just can't beat the parks and spontaneous playing with friends at Russell and Orchard Park. Hopefully we'll meet some new friends and the children at the park won't be "just kids".

P.S. I just loaded some pictures on to Flickr of our last days in Davis... and it's so sad to see pictures of E so happy swinging in Russell Park when now a days she is often seen crumpled on the ground having a tantrum or trying to climb on us to be held or crying when any extended family member comes to visit but then has to leave. I just have to remind myself, this too will pass and our high energy ear-to-ear smile toddler will return.

Spencers on the Move

So it's been a month and a half of silence on our family blog... mainly because we were busy prepping, planning, being sick and moving. (If you're wondering about the potty training, it's still going... but of course with more steps backward than forward with all the family upheaval... sigh). Yep, we have moved!

Ian is still finishing his dissertation (although he hasn't worked on it in a couple weeks) and he is still going to be up in Davis at least twice a week (for a class he is teaching next quarter), but our family has moved down to the Bay Area while we wait to hear back from the last of the job openings for the upcoming school year. The economy being what it is and with the opportunities being sparse, we decided to move to aid our finances and be closer to family. We're still hoping to get a position somewhere, but only God knows the plan for the upcoming year(s). Keep praying for us, either for a job or a good transition-stay in the Bay Area as we wait (for how many months long it will be).

This last weekend was the big load the truck, drive down, unload the truck weekend. Then Ian spent two whole days back up in Davis cleaning our really dirty apartment, while I waded through boxes to find all the stuff we needed and sort all the stuff to be left in storage. Now, the end of the week is here and we are basically moved in with our essentials, even if there is still a few boxes in the garage (oh, isn't it lovely to have a garage!) and a few in our closets too that need unpacking. It probably helps that we don't own too much... and the majority of it is (not surprisingly) games and books. And we've also done all the really important stuff like change our addresses for all our bills. But moving is one of those things that the more you do, the more you realize you need to do. Case in point, the list of things to pick up continues to grow no matter how much stuff I buy and cross off the list... and I've visited Target three times already this week. Sigh. No wonder it takes people months and sometimes years to get settled and unpack that momentous last box. No matter how long we live here though, we really want it to feel like "home", especially for the girls. So far E has taken the move the hardest of us all... it's quite sad. She misses our Davis home, her one and only home since she was born. We miss Davis too, but know we'll be back to visit (soon).

And now for pictures. Here's some shots of our old place during the days of packing. Pictures of our new place (where we currently reside with Gilda's sister) will be coming soon.