Summer in Beantown...

Well, the settling in is official. Antoinette has started at her new job, the Florida property is officially rented, and Billy is set to start school in a couple weeks. The next Family Reunion is ready to go and football season is about to arrive any day. Speaking of football season, Billy was very unhappy to hear that his favorite Ohio State player, Braxton Miller, wasn't going to play this season. He's Braxton every time we go outside and play catch, sometimes asking that I call him Braxton. Anyway, back to the update.

The boys are doing well. The adjustment has been non-existent for them. They are still experiencing some Florida-like weather periodically during the day (80's and 90's), so they haven't really noticed any impact there, and they could really seem to care less about the fact that their home situation has changed. We've spent the bulk of the Summer bouncing back and forth between their Uncle Rick's house (with all of their cousins), visiting a couple lakes in the area for swimming and boating, and most recently, beginning to ramp up the housing search.

Speaking of the housing search, it is hard to believe that we have already been here for 5 months. That means within 7 months, we will be relocating again to the house we find. So at this point, we've begun spending our weekends researching towns, neighborhoods, school districts, commute times, traffic conditions, housing styles, and what we feel we will need in a home for the next 5-10 year or longer. That math is pretty much over and the past few weekends have been spent driving around and checking out some areas. What we've realized is that there is probably a 75% chance we are moving to New Hampshire in 7 months (just across the border) to escape income taxes and to realize more for your money. That would of course mean we would add New Hampshire to our list of State we've lived in that already includes Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Florida, and Massachusetts to become the 7th State we've lived in. More on that front as we work down that road.

The boys are very healthy. Recent visits to the doctor continue to put the boys on 75% height and 40-50% weight targets, which is very consistent to where both of them have been since they've been 6-12 months old. Billy will begin school in the Fall and likely baseball in the Spring. With A.J., we contemplated pre-school, but decided against it, so he will remain home with Antoinette while Billy is in school for half days. Knowing where we are going to be living and likely relocating there in the Spring means the boys will be able to settle into these changes slowly and gradually over time.

From a weather standpoint, we only have a few more weeks or so before temps begin their slow gradual drop to our first pretty cold winter in about 8 years and the boys first cold winter ever, but we are looking forward to the Fall and the leaves changing on the trees (plus football season). The boys have never seen the massive leaf dropping that is the Fall in the northern climates, so that will be a dramatic change for them.

The updated video is coming shortly!!!