Friday, May 8, 2009

Bienvenidos a miami -- er Tallahassee

At least it's in the right state! :) It's been two weeks now since the movers arrived (2 hrs late) to pack our Raleigh house and we said goodbye to North Carolina. Obviously, it's been a busy 2 weeks which is why I haven't posted anything.

This move has been the roughest one I've ever done. Getting everything worked out was a total pain. Our movers were late, which meant we got a very late start out of Raleigh. By the time we left, I just wanted to go. We drove both cars down and said goodbye to our stuff (for the next 5 weeks) Chris took Lilli and I took Vivian and away we went. We stayed in Savannah that first night and then arrived in Tallahassee on Saturday to our new "home" -- the Homewood Suites. 1/2 an hr after unloading the cars into the room, we knew it wasn't the right place for us. There would be NO way we could function as a family of 2 adults, a baby, and a dog in a 500 sq ft hotel room for the next 5 weeks. Chris works at home now and I'm home most of the time, unless I'm on campus for class. It wasn't a good arrangement.

So, I called the apartment complex we thought about moving into originally and asked if they had ANYTHING available. Thankfully, they had a 3 bedroom. So, we rushed over (after business hrs) and signed all the paperwork and moved in the next day. Moved in with our 2 carloads of stuff and no furniture. We thought we could do it. But, after sleeping on the floor for 2 nights, we realized we had to rent something to sit on and sleep on!

We were able to get utilities hooked up and furniture rented, which made it seem much more homelike. We also shipped a few boxes down to the house with Vivian's stuff, my research, and other items we knew we would need.

I think we're still adjusting to apartment life. I haven't lived in an apt since grad school in Virginia (2003-2004) and Chris hasn't lived in one in about 9 years. Lilli has never lived in one and is freaking out from all of the sounds, and the fact that she no longer has 3/4 of an acre to run around. Vivian, well, Vivian doesn't care. She'll sleep anywhere. Thankfully, we bought a pack n' play and she's doing well in it.

We lived 3 days without a stroller (Vivian's stroller wouldn't fit in the car, so it's w/ the movers), before deciding we needed one. We bought a Maclaren. Best baby investment! It will last until she's 55 lbs!

Tallahassee is soooooo much smaller than the Triangle area. There's about 150,000 ppl here, but I'm not sure if that's just the full-time residents or if that includes the students too. From the outskirts of town to the other side of town, it's about 12 miles. We used to drive 20 miles (each way) to Whole Foods, the mall, restaurants, the ped's office, etc. Work was 37 miles (each way), so it feels a bit cramped here since everything is within a few-minute drive!

I've spent the last several days on campus in the library writing several papers. I'm trying to get back into the full-time student mode. It's been 5 years...and obviously a lot has changed since then! :)

We're hoping to get a decent routine down asap. Summer classes start on Monday and I have classes 4 days a week. In the meantime, we're also trying to find doctors, get insurance (which was a pain), and find our way around town. We visited two of the YMCA's and I think we'll be joining the Y here, although it's nothing like the Y in NC. Oh well, I need to get used to the fact that it's a smaller town and doesn't have a lot of the amenities that I'm used to (including a Whole Foods, any other grocery stores besides Publix and Walmart, decent shoe store, etc..etc...)

We visited one ped's office, which was definitely a no-go. Two months for a well-baby visit was ridiculous, considering how much developmental change is happening now. Thankfully, we've been accepted by another ped and I think that will work out fine.

Vivian learned how to roll over from her back to her tummy on the night before we left NC. She does it ALL the time now and absolutely loves looking at the world in a new perspective. We're still waiting for her to roll from the tummy to the back.

It's hard to believe she'll be 5 months old on Monday! She's such a sweet baby. I'm just concerned that it's so hot here (90 during the day and 60 at night), so she's living in a onesie or sundress all day and then a onesie with her sleepy sack at night.

I'm off to write another paper. I hope to be better at keeping my blog updated now that we're finally here and slowly settling in! :)

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