Slow Transition to Ilinoian

As each day passes, we get closer and closer to being Illinoians. We have bought a house, we have enrolled the kids in a daycare here. We have enrolled Elijah in school for the coming year. We now know about six different ways to get to work, and several ways to get around the town we live in. We have had an opportunity to get to know our neighbors. We even had one of them and their kids over for dinner a couple of weekends ago.

Well, this evening, I put on Illinois license plates on the cars. I think this was one of those moments on the checklist where things sink in further. A milestone, if you will. I remember thinking during our first week here, it still did not feel like we had moved. I know that we had the house, the movers had delivered our stuff, but when I went to work on the Thursday and riday of the first week, it still had the feeling of being in town for one of my every-other-week trips out here.

I was telling co-workers that it still felt like I was getting on a plane Friday afternoon to fly back to California. I also told them that when I drive home on Friday, instead of fly home, and then go through a weekend in the new house, it will finally feel like we live somewhere else. Of course, this was the weekend we first experienced the crazy weather! A nice "how do ya' do" for our first full weekend. That following Monday I was getting on a train to work in our downtown Chicago office. That was certainly different. As the first week passed, I set up the phone, electricity, gas, TV, etc, and these were all put into our new address.

So another item on the relocation checklist done, new license plates. Now, a new drivers license. We tried to get that done today but got to the facility too late. Oh well, they are open on Saturday morning. Maybe it was God's way of telling us we needed to study a bit more. We'll see. I guess, after this, we will be down to checking people off the relocation list. That is, visiting family and friends will be another stepping stone in the many chapters of life. Amy had her cousin and her husband visit a couple weeks ago. Tomorrow, Aunt 'Net and Uncle Rick stop by for breakfast on their way home to Montana. We are looking forward to seeing them. Then, a friend of Amy's will be in town the end of July. Then, my big sis drops by for a few days in August. It should be a blast. And for her sake, the nasty weather should be long gone by then. It will be just a tad humid then ;-)