Moving — New "Friends" — Bow Wow Beach

I finally uploaded pictures from the move, some of our new "friends" that have helped welcome us at our new home, and the coolest dog park ever: Bow Wow Beach!

MOVING — pictures are from days ago...everything is better now!
At this point, all of the boxes are unpacked, and things are starting to look a little more organized...thank goodness. The first few days are always chaotic and a bit overwhelming. Leslie and Ann really manned the kitchen. They couldn't believe it as more and more "dish packs" were being brought into the house. We managed to find a place for everything eventually. I didn't get our bedroom stuff completely organized for 3 days, so we were sleeping on our couch in the basement. It was no problem for me because during this pregnancy I've found myself ending up on that couch a lot anyway. Since this picture, the room is completely organized and functioning as it should.

As if moving all of our old stuff wasn't enough last Friday, Brian, Matt and Dockett went to pick up all of our new patio furniture from Sears as well. It required 2 trips because the boxes were HUGE, but I really love it and now we have nice places to sit on our deck and patio.

NEW FRIENDS
Before I get to the part about feeling like we live straight out of Snow White, I'd like to mention that our neighborhood is fantastic. We met almost everyone on our street on day 1. Marsha and Bill brought us a tray of homemade chocolate chip-banana muffins (Brian's new favorite) and Connie and Paige (back-door, diagonal neighbors) brought us a potted Gerber Daisey and a welcome to the neighborhood card that Paige drew for us...she is an upcoming first grader....the card is now on the fridge. We've also had neighbors offer to give us a lake tour. Anyway, I love being surrounded by good people.

Now, to our woodland "friends". We are now getting to fully utilize our bird feeders and American birds are MUCH brighter than German birds....found the feeders right away. We just put them up a few days ago and Brian has already had to refill them with bird seed. We also have tons of chipmunks and bunnies! Brian has been making fun of Toonces and telling her she isn't fast enough to catch a chipmunk...I think she is now taking it on as a challenge! They sure are fascinated by all the activity outside. When we came in from Bow Wow Beach yesterday Brian quickly noticed that although our cage feeder (thank you Nanny & Hal!) is squirrel proof, it is not chipmunk proof! How funny is that?!

Two days ago, we let both of the kitties out, unsupervised, for the first time ever. They love it. Toonce came and chirped at the screen door to be let back in and Mitsy eventually pawed at the garage door to come in as well. They are actually outside right now (I should probably go check on them). Of course, now when Toonces is inside and the feeders are covered up in birds, she has found a great place to hide out and watch from inside...hours of entertainment! I still don't think we would ever leave them "out" if we both left the house, but I'm proud of us for letting go a little bit and being less protective of our strictly indoor cats. Another positive note is that since moving here, I think Mitsy has lost some weight. Having lots of stairs to climb and an outside to explore, she has shed at few a few ounces...great news for our overweight kitty that eats when she gets bored!

BOW WOW BEACH
Brian found this dog park when we were here house-hunting about 6 weeks ago and it is so fun to go to! We might be the only ones that go there without owning a dog of our own, but I could easily sit on a bench and watch all the dogs for hours. Apparently, this lake used to be for people to swim in, but no one used it. So, about a year ago, the city of Stow converted it into a dog park. It is fantastic. All the dogs get so excited to come and then they just go nuts and get absolutely filthy! There are communal tennis balls to throw/retrieve out of the lake and many owners bring their own toys. Of course there is also a bathing area near the entrance/exit so no one has to put absolutely filthy dogs into their cars. Yesterday, Jill Nealon came to visit and we took her to the park and even though it had just rained, there were still tons of dogs; big and small, running around and swimming. To top it all off, as we were about to leave, a huge hot air balloon appeared from over the trees!