Did I beat the system?

YES! For a total of $188, Elliott, Lily, and I hopped on our plane in Houston and made it Raleigh no problem. When I was checking in the lady asked, "Are you coming in from New Orleans?" "No, we didn't quite make it there on our trip..." "Okay, I just have to erase a few things here...." No problem. No hassle. No one yelled at me. It was sweet. I LOVE Southwest! Elliott loved the plane ride. He didn't quite believe me that we were in the air. He told me, "the clouds are on the ground." Lily did well on her 1st flight. Two flight attendants told me my children were well behaved!

Raleigh. It's nice. SO many trees though! Without our gps, we'd never find anything because you can't see anything with all the trees in the way. We're doing the suburban thing, renting a furnished house, so our garage is full of all our stuff. It's full of opened, half empty boxes. It's quite a long process meshing 2 households worth of stuff, getting the right balance of "their stuff" and "our stuff" to make it feel like home. It's a really long process when you're being interrupted every 5 minutes because your baby is teething and wants to be held and your 3 year old thinks you're a vending machine, anxious to fulfill his every snacking need. The boy must be about to shoot up like a weed because he's been eating and drinking milk nonstop for a few weeks now.

My favorite thing about our home is the screened in porch in the back with a table and chairs and grill on the deck right outside the screened in part. We grill nearly every night and love to hang out in the cool breeze, looking at the forest, but WITHOUT getting mosquito bites. It's a new experience for me, enjoying outdoors at dusk. This morning I went on a bike ride through some paths through a forest that led to a lake. It was just heavenly, riding around the lake, enjoying my solitude and taking in deep breaths of refreshing woodsy air.

People have ACCENTS! I used to know people who moved to Texas and said they couldn't understand what people with Texas accents were saying and I didn't know what they were talking about. Now, I have personally experienced not understanding the North Carolinian accent. Example: the moving truck driver "let's see if dat ramp can git on dat heel".....oh....hill! Yes, we do indeed have a steep driveway!

On Saturday I get to play an outdoor concert with my hubby in the symphony! How lucky am I? The musicians are donating their time and talents for free as a kind gesture to the community since the tv station sponsor pulled out for the first time in 30 years. A couple of the real horn players couldn't do the concert and who else does the orchestra have the guts to ask to play for free? Me! And I'm happy to do it....except that I have to pay babysitters since I haven't made any mommy friends yet. Oh well. I'm happy for the opportunity. I better get back to my practicing!

Tomorrow we're going to the ocean!

Raleigh Temple