The Err... Joys of Living in a New Home

Moving to a new home is a very wonderful and exciting experience but, I have found, along with it come the establishment of a whole NEW set of rules. Here are some of them:

1. We don't lock doors.
This one was made after Samantha locked my bedroom door and ran and told me she needed help opening my door. Puzzled, I wondered why she couldn't open it on her own. That was when I learned it was because she locked it. I was trying to get us girls ready to meet the boys who had already headed on to church and now I couldn't get into my bedroom. This was only our second morning in and I didn't know where a hanger was, much less where I would find clothes for us to wear. Not that we have any wire hangers anyway...I finally found a tool of Derrick's that was small enough to unlock the door. This rule was set more firmly in place after she locked her brother and others out of her room on purpose. Who puts a lock on a kids bedroom door?!!

2. We don't play with fans.
Bailey has a fan in his room now. Need I say more? NO, we don't throw marbles in a fan to watch where they go and we don't stick other things in it either.

3. No PURPLE grape juice.
We didn't have any water hooked up to the refrigerator before Derrick bought a part for it so I made some grape juice because it was much more appealing to drink than tap water one morning. Bailey reached for his cup and I didn't know it and I moved and it went tumbling down to the floor. It spilled all over the place in the white kitchen. It was running down the cabinet, inside of the cabinet under the sink, on the dishwasher, pantry door, floor, going into any crevice it could find. After I was sure I cleaned it thoroughly enough that ants wouldn't find a trace of it in the near future, Samantha spilled hers all over the floor and it splashed on the walls, baseboards, and window. So, no more grape juice for awhile...unless possibly it's white grape juice.

4. Always keep a tag on your animals with your information.
Job (our cat) sometimes gets his collar off and I hadn't put it back on him. It only had his rabies vac. tag on it at that. We knew we had to be really careful about getting Job established here before we let him outside as I thought he might run back to our old house which is less than 5 minutes away. We didn't let him out that we knew of but he was gone. We spent many hours of the day thinking we may never see him again and drove to the old house and looked for him. Later that night he emerged from Bailey's room somewhere (maybe his closet?). We were excited but promptly went to Petsmart the next day to make him a tag with our information. We let him out after we got it on him and he knows his new house well!

5. Stairs. Hmm... what are the stair rules?
I need to get with Derrick on this one. Do you let them roll down them? Slide down them? Throw things down them? Slip slowly down each one with their feet? Now, I know they should not roll their baby sister, Isabella, down them EVEN if she is laughing. Yes, this happened.

6. We don't go outside without permission.
Bella came running to me one morning while Derrick was home on a quick break from work. She was excitedly asking me something and I couldn't decipher her words. I said, "I don't know, Bella...?" Then she ran to Derrick squealing, "Ask Mama? Ask Mama?" After she repeated that about 5 times I didn't hear her voice anymore. Derrick came and said, "Where's Isabella? She was asking you if she could go outside." "I don't know I thought she was with you..." (turning and looking at our front door that was wide open.) He had been carrying stuff inside and the door was still open. I ran out there crying, "Isabella!" and found her in the driveway. I think I broke her little heart when I shrieked, "NO!" at her. That was scary.

7. Don't panic if you see a wasp in the house.
We are going to have to find that nest and get rid of the source! We randomly see one flying around in here.

8. We don't play with blinds.
We have a lot more windows around here.

9. Don't lounge in the tub all night when you should be in bed. (This is for the adults).
The master bathroom at the old house had a crack in it and we couldn't use it so we are really enjoying this one.

10. Don't potty on the carpet! (This one is for Molly).
We had all wood floors at the last house with only a rug or two. Now we have mostly carpet and only wood flooring in the kitchen.

I am sure there will be more rules added but, in the meantime, hopefully I will get some of this stuff unboxed and put away!