Finally done and some time to relax!

Hello! So yesterday, we went to the farmer's market and got lots of fresh, local fruits, veggies, flowers, cheese, and even some bread. Then we went out to lunch. By the time we walked back to catch the bus, then waited for the bus, then got home, no one felt like going to the grocery store. So the kids took naps, and Judd did some stuff with the computers while I rested too.

I still wasn't feeling well for the rest of the evening, so the kids had a light dinner, and I bribed Judd to finish unpacking our room. (He got a new router) I was around to help tell him where to put things, but I just didn't have the strength to help. It is finally done though! We still have a few stray things that need homes, and we are still waiting for the entertainment center, but generally, we are done.

This morning, we went back to Target, for the third time this week, and we finally went and bought food! The hostess for tomorrow's BBQ asked if we would mind making potato salad to bring... She's expecting 30-50 people! So after shopping, we made 10#'s of potato salad! While cooking, Aunt Donna "called" on the computer, so we were talking while I was cooking. I also carried my laptop around to give her a tour of the apartment without all of the boxes around.

Then we got the kitchen all cleaned up and managed to fit the bowls into the just-restocked fridge when the bus went by. It goes in a big circle, so we know if we leave immediately when we see it, we can catch it when it loops back around.

We took the bus back to downtown, where they were holding A Taste of Madison. It's a really great thing where like a hundred restaurants set up booths around capitol square, and they sell samples of their dishes, for like $2-4 for most of them. So we tried foods from Indonesian, Ethiopian, Mexican, and Thai restaurants. We also, of course, couldn't pass up the hot wings from one place too. For dessert, we had chocolate chip cookie dough egg rolls! Who woulda thought?!

We got home, and Emily showered. Then we called Mom and Dad K. We also tried to call Al and Josh when Emily came in and asked, "Can we call Uncle Josh?" I called Mom Y back too, to confirm that the potato salad turned out to be pretty yummy! (I did not tell her we had to use 3 pots to cook all the potatoes, that the eggs exploded when I tried to hard boil them, and that it took 4 bowls to hold it all!!) After all of our calls, we played a game of Memory. It was really close between Madison and me, until the last few pair came down to me. Sorry girls!

Oh, and we ran a test morning today, and we ended up 15 minutes late for school. Gotta set our alarms earlier!

AIM and keeping in touch.

Hi everyone! As I mentioned before, and as we have told several people,

If you have a camera on your computer, we can use video chat through AIM. Mom and Dad Y. got to talk to and see the girls this morning. It was really fun. Send one of us an email for our screen names.

The internet is going to be the best way to contact us in general. We are going to try to avoid getting a land line, and unless you have VerizonWireless, we really don't want to talk on the phone too much during the week so we don't go over our minutes. And not just the minutes, but we also don't have great reception at home, except maybe in the kitchen! (Ask Mom Y... she keeps getting my voicemail!) Obviously if there is an emergency, or if a baby is being born, we want you to call! :-)

Still more unpacking and exploring.

Thursday was still more unpacking, and more errands and stuff. Friday, Judd had off. We took the girls on their first ride on the public buses. They ran through a fountain downtown. Then we worked really hard to get the living room almost done. We are still waiting for our entertainment center to arrive so we can set up the TV and all the components.

Today we are going to the farmer's market. Then we have to go grocery shopping. And our plan is to finish unpacking our bedroom. Then we will finally be done... Only a week later! That way tomorrow and Monday we can just relax and such.

It did end up raining, but it was Wednesday night and again Thursday night. The days were still nice. It is supposed to be a beautiful long weekend. The girls had their first-day-of-school outfits set to go, but now it is getting warmer again, and they are saying close to 90 for Tuesday! So they had to pick new outfits. Well, I guess that's all for now. I'm still taking pictures and will eventually get them up.

Bonfire, Kindergarten Orientation, and More Unpacking

The bonfire last night was fun. We met a lot of Judd's classmates. We also had fun making s'mores. I must say, Em was the center of attention for a large part of the night.

This morning, we went to Emily's orientation. She made several new friends. One in particular, Ana. She lives near us, and her mom and I hit it off too. We all walked home from school together, so that was fun.

After that, we had a picnic lunch outside (only because there's no where to sit inside!!), then we got back to work. Madison put away several boxes of books, as well as her art supplies. Emily put away 2 boxes of movies. Together, we emptied a lot of the living room. We can walk down the hall without tripping now, too!

We were planning on going to play volleyball with Judd's friends tonight, but there's just too much to do. My goal for tonight is to make the kitchen usable! Oh, speaking of which, we just ate a wonderful quiche that our neighbor, Beth, made for us.

Tomorrow should be a quieter day. Judd only has a half day of orientation. And we don't have anything else planned. The weather has been absolutely beautiful all week, so hopefully it will continue to hold up. We would like to be finished unpacking by the weekend so we can relax and finalize getting things ready for the girls for school. No one has work/school on Monday, and we were invited to a cookout, so it would be nice to go to that without stressing over the state of our apartment.

Well, I better get back to work.

Tuesday the 26th - Finally caught up!

I had my second interview today. It went really well. They are hoping to make a decision by the end of this week because ideally, they want people to start next week. That wouldn't give me much time for unpacking, but would be good. The idea of getting up and going to work seems strange after working from home for so long.

Madison got her bike out and was riding around with her friends for a while. After her third fall, she gave up. But she did really well and is getting better.

Emily and Madison both got to sit in a fire truck today! The fire department was here to do their annual inspection of all the buildings, and they took the time with the kids to show them things and let them in the truck. The one man even opened the water tank and sprayed the kids!

We got our health insurance today! So not that we want any trips to the ER, we are ok to now. Oh, speaking of which, Em had some asthma issues the other night, but she is ok.

I met a new neighbor today. She wasn't here last week because she was visiting her sister in Quakertown!! How funny is that??

Tonight we are headed to our community center for the annual ice cream party. After that, we will be going to a bonfire being held for Judd's department. We are looking forward to the s'mores! We are not looking forward to the mosquitoes! Judd says that all of his new classmates are super excited to meet the girls...and me too. That's all for now.

Judd's First Day of Orientation

Monday the 25th

Judd's orientation started at 9AM. Again, I will have to let him tell you about that.

For me, the day started with the kids running out to play. Before Judd left, one of our neighbors also brought us some waffles! We had already eaten, but we will have them tomorrow. I had some phone calls to make, including one to the elementary school. They told me that there was some paperwork I needed to come pick up. So I went out and told the girls we would be leaving in five minutes. I came back in to get dressed...

The girls came running home, with Emily screaming her head off! She apparently took her shoes off and stepped on something with her bare foot. She was bleeding a lot, but wouldn't let me touch her foot. She also told me she pulled something off. I thought for sure that she stepped on glass and we would be headed to the ER (sound familiar?). Luckily Madison grabbed a popsicle for her, so Em calmed down and was able to tell me she had pulled the skin off. She also let me clean and feel her would to make sure there was nothing in it. As soon as she had a band-aide, she was fine. We did make a new Socks and Sneakers rule for playing outside.

So anyway, after that, we walked to the school to get the paperwork. They told us we could check out the kids' classrooms, too. We didn't have much time, but we did look. We also met Emily's teacher. She has orientation on Wednesday from 10-12. The first thing she said when she heard that was, "What am I going to wear?" Oh Dear!!

After that, we had to head home so I could get ready for my interview. It went really well, but I was not impressed with them. Hopefully the other interviews will go better...

By the time Judd got home, the last few days had caught up with me, and I really didn't feel like unpacking. So we went out to buy some of the things we need for our apartment. We had also gotten the school supply list, so we got that stuff too. Then we went out for dinner. We came home, and the girls and I got ready for bed while Judd got ready to go out. This week, besides orientation, there are evening activities too. Last night was at a bar, so the kids couldn't go. He got home late and never even woke me up!

Sunday the 24th - More "Goodbyes"

Sunday morning, there were too many people and too many boxes to really try to do much. Ryan had to catch a bus at 10:00 which took him to the Milwaukee airport. FYI: If you ever come to visit us, it is much cheaper to fly to Milwaukee, which is only 1 1/2 hrs. away. Then I showed A. Donna how to set up a video chat. If you have a camera for your computer and AIM, we can see each other!

We also had an almost-emergency room visit with Madison. She had been coloring with double ended pencils and stabbed herself in the eye! I checked to make sure she hadn't scratched her cornea before deciding we didn't need to go. We can't register for insurance until Judd registers for classes. They will pay retro to the 15th, but we would prefer not to deal with that hassle!

Around 11:30, Mom, A. Donna, U. Ken, and John left. They had hotel reservations in Youngstown, OH, and would finish the drive on Monday (Ryan had to work on Monday, so that's why he flew).

We were still without a stove, so we had cold pizza for lunch. (We also don't have a microwave.) Then we worked all afternoon and into the evening. The girls spent most of the day playing outside, making new friends. At one point, some of the parents were out, so I told Judd we should walk out and introduce ourselves. All of our neighbors are super nice and super friendly.

We had salads for a late dinner. Then Judd and I worked late into the night.

A Word from Judd

Well, Kim would like me to comment about my fall into the lake.  In fact, I did  quite well to stay as dry as I did.  I did not fall climbing out on the tree branch extending over the lake.  Fifteen feet out I commented that I ought not be in such a precarious position with our camera around my neck.  I then returned to shore and walked over to stand next to my good friend John Gross.  One of the rocks (on shore, mind you) slipped out from under my foot.  My leg quickly plunged into the quite deep water.  I was fortunate enough to find my footing on a submerged rock.  Ryan Hill commented that he believed that I was going all the way in (thanks for your faith, Ry!).  As I have said numerous times during the move-in process, "I'm clumsy, but I'm quick."

The only appreciable consequence being squishy steps for the day.

Saturday the 23rd

Ok, so we made it to Madison around 10:30 AM. We knew we had time to kill, so we emptied the car then went grocery shopping. While we were finishing at the store, the phone rings....

One of the tires on the trailer totally blew out!! Thank God everyone was ok and Ken was able to get the truck to the side of the road. That's why we wanted him to drive! But then the shoulder was really narrow, they couldn't jack the trailer up high enough, 911 left them on hold, and the tow truck never came! 2 1/2 hours later, they were back on the road. Unfortunately, the spare was almost flat too, so Ken had a hard time controlling the trailer until they could find a gas station. From what they tell me, it almost jack-knived at one point, and came close to pushing them over the embankment, which would have flipped them, but Ken kept control and kept everyone safe.

So anyway, we know at this point that we have a lot of time to kill, so we bake veggie burgers for lunch, then all take naps. Only, John was the only one who could actually sleep. We had internet already, and we all had our laptops, so we fooled around. Then we woke John up and went on a driving tour of Madison. After that, we were planning to go on a hike. 10 steps into the woods, and I already had 2 mosquito bites, so I decided to walk home. The guys went on the hike, and Judson fell into the lake!

But bigger than Judd's wet sneaker was the fact that when I got home, the oven was still hot! Yes, I had turned it off, but apparently it was broken. Ryan tried to play with the knob to get it off, and all of a sudden there was a bright red flash behind it, and sparks came out the bottom! It was smoking a lot too!!! Thank goodness the breaker switches are located in the kitchen, so I was able to throw the switch right away. Maintenance said we'd have to wait until Monday to get it fixed!

Around 7, the truck arrived! Yaaay, everyone made it! While we were unloading, we had to separate what needed to go in storage, so that stuff stayed on the front lawn. A. Donna and Mom started putting away kitchen stuff. When the truck was mostly empty, Ryan started rebuilding the futon (without instructions) and I started working on the bunk beds. Only, I wasted an hour trying to find the hardware! It turns out, it was in a box that was labeled... "girls' room: bunk bed hardware" and it was in the room, but turned backwards the whole time!

After it got dark, it came down to a big scramble to get everything inside for the night. Only, we forgot to leave enough room for the air mattress! So then we had to rearrange all the boxes to make room for Judd and I to sleep! We were on the air bed, John and Ryan were on the futon, Mom and the girls were on the bunk beds, and A. Donna and U. Ken were in our bed. Finally...Goodnight!

Friday the 22nd - Moving day!

Ok, so, 6:30 AM and I was wide awake! So on 4 hours of sleep, I got up to finish the last packing and start cleaning. Judd woke up not too long after. We finished all the stuff we needed to do at home and went off to run errands. We had to close bank accounts, and stuff like that. We got home around 3:30, I think. Um... we had to pick John and Ryan up at the train station at 5:30, so our sleep plan totally backfired!! We did manage short naps, but not nearly what we needed.

So we picked the guys up, stopped for refreshments (aka lots and lots of coffee), and to fill the tires with air. Then we were on our way. I drove for the first 7 hours. I got us into Ohio before I was done. The sunset was absolutely spectacular. We took tons of pictures. We also have a blurry picture of the "welcome to Ohio" sign.

Judd drove for the next 8 hours. He got us through Ohio and most of Indiana. He had the hardest shift though because the rest of us slept almost the whole time. And to make it worse, the sun was rising behind us, and we were driving away from it, so it felt like it took hours to rise. It was right about the time change too.

About 45 minutes outside of Chicago, Ryan took over driving. He finished it for us too. So through Illinois and into Wisconsin. It's kind of a shame we drove over night because we missed seeing stuff. But the sun was finally up, so I took some hazy pictures of Chicago. I guess technically we are now into Saturday....

Thursday, the 21st - Loading Day!

Earl and his friend Chris arrived around 12:30. Shoot - Earl and Chris, I am so sorry I didn't say Thank you in the introduction! I will have to go back and see if I can edit it. Earl let us use his truck and trailer to move. Since he broke his ankle and couldn't help, he brought his friend Chris along to help load the truck. We finished in about 3 hours (mostly), and the trailer was filled to the brim. I said mostly because there was a dresser at M&D Y.'s house that we were still waiting for.

Bryan and Greg arrived as we were finishing up. So we saved a couple of boxes for them! Thank you, Bryan and Greg, for your help! Bryan also cooked everyone pierogies and helped me do some of the cleaning.

Thursday evening, our families came to say goodbye. It was a happy/sad evening. We also celebrated Al's birthday.

At some point during the day, Judd and I decided to stay up late so we could sleep all day tomorrow since we will be driving all night tomorrow night. So after everyone went home (the kids went with A. Donna), we went to see Batman again with our good friend Jenny. Jenny and I worked together. She is currently searching for a job in WI ;-)

We got home around 2AM and went to sleep at 2:30.....

Wednesday, August 20th

I had to pick a spot to back track from, and I guess this is as good as any. Today was Judd's last day at work. The girls and I were at home finishing up the packing.

In the morning, I decided to google jobs in Madison. I came across 3 that sounded interesting. So at 10:40AM I sent out my resume to those three places, 2 preschools, and one to MARC. At 12:10, the phone rang. It was the first school, calling to schedule an interview. Can I come in Monday at 12:30?

When I got off the phone, I picked up my computer to email Judd and tell him, and also to add the interview to my calendar. I had a new email... the second preschool wanted my transcripts and my references! After several emails back and forth, they called me for a phone interview! I have a tour of the school scheduled for Tuesday!

Judd came home from work in a very emotional state. He has been working with this family for more than two years. They had a really hard time letting go of him. I will let Judd write more about this later though.

On his way home, Judd also picked up Seth, the boy I have been babysitting at night for the last 15 or so months. After our usual evening of babysitting, we met his parents at Rita's for a final farewell. We have watched Seth change and grow so much in the last year. He has the kind of smile that can light up a room (and get him out of any and all trouble!). His parents have become our friends, too. They are genuinely good people, and we will miss the entire family so much!

Introduction

Well, due to several requests, I am starting this blog about our time in Wisconsin. I will have to back track for a few days, but will hopefully be able to catch up soon. I will eventually have pictures to add, but since my camera drowned at the Phillies game, I have to wait until I can collect the pictures from everyone else's cameras. On this site, I will only post highlight pictures. You can see all of them on our smugmug page. kimjuddkane.smugmug.com

I also want to start by saying "Thank you" to everyone. All of your support and well-wishes as we begin this new chapter really means a lot to us. We know how hard it is for you that we have moved away. It is hard for us too. But it is an exciting and amazing opportunity, and we are thrilled to have this chance. Thanks also to everyone who came to our party. It was great to have that time to spend together. Especially big thanks to M&D Yost for hosting the party.

I also have to say a huge "Thank You" to John, Ryan, Mom Y, A. Donna, and U Ken for all of your help moving. If even one of you wasn't here, we wouldn't have been able to do it. I know there were moments of major stress, but we got through it. (well, you are still driving home, and are in our prayers that you make it safely!)