Change stinks!

We are truly and completely blessed to have this opportunity to move into a nicer neighborhood (not that we were in the ghetto before), into a bigger house with a smaller monthly payment. It all seems like pluses, right? Well it's just been hard getting used to a new house. For instance, there is a wall my fridge door hits up against instead of being able to open all the way like it used to. The kitchen layout is totally dysfunctional here which is really tough because our kitchen was so handy before. I also thought I would love having all hard wood floors, but I really miss carpet (and we do have rugs). We also miss grass! Our yard needs landscaping badly, it is completely devoid of grass, so the kids have no soft place to play outside. It's all decking, dirt and rocks. Also the hot water runs out really fast here. It's a lukewarm shower, at best, if you're the third one to go. My laundry area has diminished from being able to hold 7-8 clean loads to two :( which means I actually have to start putting my laundry away instead of stockpiling it 'til it's time to start the next round. It's also really hard going from two fridges to one. We had an extra fridge in our garage before to hold all our drinks, so no more buying 24 packs of coke, or two gallons of milk at a time because it won't fit. In general, it's been hard figuring out where to put all our old things into our new house. I'm sure that's pretty normal for everyone, but still no fun. The one who's had the hardest time with this move is Kai. Yesterday, when we were pulling up to our new house, Kai said "no, I want to go HOME, I want to go HOME!" He also has run away once because he couldn't find me in the house. We found him crying up the street and there were a couple of worried neighbors around him. So great first impression we are making. He constantly is asking "are you gonna leave me?" Poor little guy, he doesn't understand yet.
Now for the positives. I LOVE being close to Mia's school. Her little friend who's up the street walks down with her mother every morning and they walk to school together. Then we get our little walk in the afternoon, when the boys and I go down to pick her up. I love having a real family room, before it was just a den area, here it is much bigger. I love the front deck, it faces the tree lined creek that runs along our house. YES, there is a real creek on the side of our house, no neighbor behind or on one side of us. At night we can leave our bedroom window open and hear the water flowing down the hill. Those are some more pretty good bonuses, and I'm sure we will all get used to the more difficult changes and continue to find more things we love in this house. I can't wait for everyone to see it...so come for a visit!