Laundry Woes

Well, here's another adjustment to city-dwelling. There's no washer/dryer hook-up in our apartment, but there are coin-operated machines in the basement. However, the machines are SMALL inside. Plus there's the issue of the dryer not quite fully drying our towels & jeans. Do I really want to pay for another dryer cycle to finish the job? Not sure.

Gonna check out a nearby laundromat to see what another option might be. If I'm already paying for coin-operated machines, why not see if a laundromat (which probably has larger machines) might be comparable? Plus, I could all of my laundry at one time.

We'll see ...

White chalk marks on our stuff

While I unpacked boxes (a total of 20 so far today), I've been noticing white chalk marks on a bunch of things ... yup, you guessed it ... mold. On our couch. So we'll be tossing that one to the curb, and looking for a new one eventually.

Now, I think I'm seeing mold on everything. (For those of you who don't know, I am VERY sensitive to mold.) So the Crockpot & ALL of the Tupperware is getting washed before it gets used.

And now I am off to open the boxes containing my scrapbooks. Praying that they are okay.

City Driving

Today, I decided to take the kiddos to IKEA. There is a fantastic, supervised play area for the kids to enjoy an hour-and-a-half of playtime, while I browse their small-space-concept, idea-filled store. Plus, Tuesday are Kids-Eat-Free days. All the more reason to go. Lastly, I needed some small-space containers & ideas from IKEA.

The only difficulty is that we live 45 minutes from IKEA. But does that deter me? Oh no, it does not! Because I have never lived this close to an IKEA before, AND because I have NO childcare here in our new state. Add all of this together ... and voila, a perfect morning, despite the drive.

So I had to drive from beyond the north end of Seattle to beyond the south end. Today, I learned to drive like a New-Yorker, and use the carpool lane like a Seattlite. Plus, I learned how much stop-and-go traffic I can avoid when I use the express lanes (when they're open)!

Hooray for my kids being in the car; that automatically ensures my spot in the carpool lane. Also, thanks to my hubby for my GPS on my phone!

Bathroom windows

Why, oh why do architects put windows in bathrooms? Especially in the shower stall? I mean, how does that make any sense? I guess it does provide some extra ventilation. But tonight, I had to take  a shower by the light of my iPad, so that the passers-by on the street below didn't have an unexpected, unintentional show. I guess we will be getting a blind for the strangely-placed window in my bathroom's shower. Oh the adventures of city living!

Oh where, oh where has my little home gone?

A week ago today, we left our home in Nevada. We didn't own the place, just merely rented it, but we had made it 'home'. Since last Saturday. We have lived in 3 different places; tonight will be #4. While I am super grateful that we have a place to put our stuff & lay down our heads, it is hard to not 'be home'. What is 'home'? I realize that possessions (stuff) don't make a home, but having some familiar things around the dwelling definitely improve the ambience. Think about it: why do we keep certain stuff around? Hopefully, it's because those particular items have meaning and/or purpose to us.(If not, clear out your clutter & have a garage sale.) A dwelling does not a home make, much like the building doesn't define the Church. And yet, the familiarity breeds a sense of security. And while I am thrilled that our family is able to experience this adventure together, yet I desire to give them a sense of stability, a place to call 'home'. I suppose 'home' might be a conglomeration of all of these components, the most important ones being contentedness & family. If my heart is content in all circumstances, and I am with ones whom I love, then the dwelling place and things fall into the lesser categories of importance. There's a saying "Home is where the heart is'. While that is true, and I choose to be content wherever we abide (even in a hotel room for the night), my heart longs to alight somewhere, take rest and create a home.

Adjusting to Big City Life, part 1

A few things we've learned so far in regards to Big City Life:
(1) There is no "I'll just zip over to ..." Nope, it takes forever to get anywhere, in a car at least. The traffic is pretty bad, lots of stop-and-go. But the trains seem to run on time. Haven't ridden a bus yet, so I can't comment on them.

(2) Rent is astronomically high. In Northern Nevada, we could afford to rent a nice 3 bdr/2 bath townhouse, about a 15-minute drive from Lennon's work. In Seattle, we can barely afford a small 2 bdr/1 bath apt. in Edmonds, which is a 30-minute train ride PLUS a 15-minute bus ride to Lennon's work. Wow.

Our move to Seattle

What to write about ... so much to say, and yet we're still processing.

We just moved from Northern Nevada to Seattle about 3 days ago.  From the day my Love was offered the position (while we were on vacation) to the day we left our friends in Nevada ... 18 days.

What a whirlwind of packing, telling friends about our upcoming move, downsizing, saying good-byes, having a huge garage sale, more packing and more good-byes. Plus we have 2 small kids - Ladybug (age 7) and Doodlebug (age 4). We had to help them to say good-bye to their friends; that was neither fun nor easy.

But we did it. This wasn't our first crazy move. We did a cross-country move almost 4 years previous, for a new job position with Starbucks; we just did THAT move in 9 weeks, not 18 days. (Oh my goodness, we are crazy!)

Except for a 2-day business trip that my Love had done a few weeks prior, none of us had visited to Seattle. So basically sight unseen, we moved here. 2 adults and 2 kids + 1 compact car with rooftop carrier + 750 miles + 2 days on the road = just how crazy we are. Oh, did I mention that we booked a hotel while we were on Day 2 of our road trip. Oh, and also we don't have a place to live yet. Yup, that's us ... the crazy Coffee Travelers ... welcome to our blog.