Unexpected ER Visit

Thanks to those who expressed concern last night. The ER doctor didn't know what caused the neck injury but it seems to have just come out of nowhere. The CAT scan didn't reveal anything in particular. I'm on a handful of medications for pain and to treat the injury. I'll see someone as soon as I can to try and get it sorted out. Although the pain medication keeps most of the pain down it still hurts a lot when I swallow. I'm going to try and keep the computer usage down in case the viewing angle or something contributed (I was using the computer when it happened after all).

I guess that health insurance turned out to be worth it immediately.

Soccer skills

Yesterday afternoon, we played at the playground of a local school. We spent a lot of time working on soccer skills, mainly shooting at the goal.

Josiah & Greta shooting at the goal, which Eli and I are defending (David & Brian looking on):

Eli and I defended the goal with spirit, but sometimes one got through.

Brian also took a turn helping Eli with defense.

Eli was the one most interested in soccer. Josiah eventually lost interest and went to play on the play structures with Greta. David was enjoying tossing a frisbee around. Uncle Brian stuck with Eli for a little one-on-one.

New house

Here is a tour of our new place! We have unpacked a lot of things, but not all. Still, it looks pretty nice I think.

When you enter the house, this is the view. This longish hallway has all the rooms branching off from it. On the left from front to back, you have the living room, bedroom, and ferret room. On the right, you have the dining room, kitchen, and main bathroom.

We will start with the living room. The glass door on the left leads to the little porch. The walls are still bare, but I hope we get pictures up soon.

Another view of the living room:

Next to the living room is the dining room and kitchen. There is a small stack of boxes in the dining room still that we are working on. The dining room has a great overhead lamp that makes it nice and bright.

Another view of the dining room: (The kitchen is right next to it, but there was already a post about that room.)

The bedroom is down the hall on the left. We have it mostly set up. There isn't a whole lot in there, just the bed and clothes mainly. That is all that is really needed in a bedroom anyway.
The awesome clothes shelves I built:

Across the hall from the bedroom is the main bathroom. The door on the left is a closet with the furnace etc. The door on the right is a storage closet. The orange curtain on the left of the room is the shower curtain.

Another view of the main bathroom:

Behind the bedroom is a larger room that we use as an office/ferret room. We spend a lot of time in this room, working and playing. We have a large desk set up to work at with all the computer cords elevated to keep the ferrets out of them. We also keep a lot of books in this room.

Another view of the ferret room: You can also see the short hallway which leads to the second bathroom. That hallway has a couple closets on either side.

Here is the second bathroom. This bathroom has the washer and dryer, which are really helpful to have in the house.

At the park

Last night after dinner, we went to a nearby park to run around and get all tired before bedtime. We went to the park in Brian's old neighborhood. The park had a great big field for running and a playground with swings and things to climb on. Brian's parents joined us at the park and brought some frisbees and a ball, which was great.

Simon and David on a teeter-table (I had never seen these before):

Brian and Josiah racing across the field:

Karen and Rachel watching Eli:

Brian playing with Simon and Josiah on the swings:

Simon & Josiah (Joes just got an underdog from Brian):

Visitors at our place

Yesterday David and Rachel arrived with their kids for a nice visit. They drove over 6 hours to see us, which was really nice. It was great to see everyone. It also gave us a good reason to work at unpacking, so the house a lot more organized now (although there are a few piles of boxes still).

David and Rachel helping me in the kitchen:

Brian, Rachel, & David, playing Smallworld:

David and me, still playing Smallworld. Rachel schooled us all. :)

Josiah, posing with the ferrets. We had a couple action-packed playtimes with three little boys and four little ferrets.

Joes, Simon, and Eli, posing by the car:

Hoekman rock sensation visits Columbus

D&R are here visiting now and by accident the kids found my Rockband stuff in a box. That meant the guitars were coming out and some playing by the trio ensued. Here are a few samplings for you to enjoy; their CD will release next Fall.

Kitchen

The kitchen is probably the room that is the most set up, so I thought I'd post a couple pictures of it. It is roughly square, and it has one doorway next to the dishwasher that leads to the dining room and one doorway next to the fridge that leads to the living room. There is also a large cut-out window-like space next to the living room doorway to make it feel more open and allow in light from the balcony doors. It is quite a comfortable kitchen and I have enjoyed getting it all set up. It is a great space for cooking. The stove is a glasstop (electric), which I have never had before, but I am getting used to it. Generally, I try to keep the counters clear so I can work on them, but I did put the spices in the corner space next to the stove.


There is also a smallish countertop/bar/dining area, which is not in the pictures, since it has mess on it (mail, a couple boxes, etc). You can just see the corner of it in the right side of the picture below.

I don't know if you noticed, but this raspberry pie was in both of the general kitchen shots. I made it today and we have already eaten half.

The New Place

Well, the inside's still a mess, but I thought I'd put up a few pictures of the outside. Here is the main entry door that we use. Each apartment has a little balcony. Our balcony is the one on the middle left (with the 2 teal and white folding chairs). Our apartment is surrounded by other units, as we are in the middle floor (technically the second floor, although it is more like a half floor up).

This picture shows our actual apartment a bit better, along with the nice trees we have. The door from the top picture is at the very right. Our apartment includes the balcony glass doors, along with the two windows to the left of the balcony. You can see that the first window is mostly blocked by foliage, which is great for privacy. We have been opening our windows in the evening the past several days and enjoying the fall breezes.

Inside the main door is a common hallway space. Here you can see the few steps we had to contend with when moving. The mailboxes are right where I am standing, and our door is in the center of the picture. So far, we have found the building to be very nice. More pictures will follow shortly as we get things sorted inside.

Labor Day

This weekend, we went to visit Brian's grandpa near Franklin Furnace, Ohio. We really enjoyed spending time with Grandpa, Virginia, Brian's parents, and his cousin Aaron and family. We went to Portsmouth and saw the murals that were painted on the flood wall there. We also went to the local flea market. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

In Portsmouth:

The murals in Portsmouth:

At Grandpa's house:

We're Back

We have arrived! I don't have any pictures to post yet (the camera is still packed . . . somewhere), but I thought some of you would like to hear that we arrived safely and have all our stuff in the new house. It is a lovely little apartment/condo with a living room, dining room, kitchen, 2 bedrooms, and 2 bathrooms. That is the highest number of bathrooms we have ever had. There are also several closets, which is great for keeping clutter tucked away. We even have a closet right by the front door for coats, shoes, and mittens. Also, there is a small deck/balcony off the living room. So far, we have the bed set up, the ferrets back in their normal large cage, the computers hooked up, the dining room table in place, and a lot of the kitchen unpacked.