Getting Acquainted in Grinnell

12 weeks already...almost through the 1st trimester and just had my first dr. appointment last Wednesday. Got to uncomfortably meet one of DH's partners at the clinic, but more excitedly, I heard the baby's heartbeat. It was 160, which the dr. indicated, that the wives tale says a fast heartbeat means it's a girl. We'll see if it stays at this rate. I do remember Averey's heartrate being in the 130's and Elsa's was in the 150's.

On a different note, we're trying to get settled in Grinnell. It's been very difficult moving to a smaller house, when we accumulated so much stuff living in Sibley. Thank goodness for a huge storage room. Anything that doesn't have a spot goes in that room, and if guests come over, that door will be shut and not willingly shown as part of the tour. There are many little things that take a lot of getting used to such as: 1)the annoying "bonk" in the floor everytime you walk in a certain area over a cold air return, 2) the tiny bathroom vanity, with drawers so small, they're almost useless, 3) no closet light, so have to turn on bedroom, bathroom and hall light to even guess what shirt I'm pulling out, 4) the cold air drafts that come in through the windows, 5) the fact that we're already outgrowing this house, 6) our neighbors are so close to the back of our house, that I can see directly into their den and saw, the other night, that they were watching a movie on Lifetime. Now that I've gotten all, I should say most, of the complaints out of the way, I need to also include some of the great things. Since moving in a week and a half ago, I've met all kinds of great people. I've been to a mom's group, Elsa went to a "lunch bunch", Ave started "tiny sharks" swimming lessons, people have brought us food, gifts, wine (which will unfortunately have to age for another 6 months or so), and all kinds of warm welcomes. We've been to the brand new, huge library twice (mostly because I was going crazy with no internet access at home, but we did check out lots of books), downtown to the Jolly Holiday Lights festival, to the high school basketball games, and even a few trips to good ol' Walmart. We've got lots on our calendar, which is good, because I've been lonely as a single parent, especially at night. The only benefit is that I can watch what I want on tv after the kids are in bed. We definitely look forward to DH finally being able to move up here permanately at the end of Dec. In the meantime, it's been so nice having my parents so close. They've been such a great help to me already.