Home sweet home

We did it. We moved. All of our earthly possessions are no longer busting out of our tiny house in Wood Village. Now they're busting out of boxes in the garage of our new house in Gresham.

In totally un-Ang style, I'm going to spare you some details of the move and just say that we are EXHAUSTED. And horribly grateful for everyone who has helped! But as exhausted as we were the day that every last box, bin, and bag physically traveled to our new location, the work was only just beginning. I've never been a neat freak, but knowing there's approximately 7.2 million things I could be doing besides watching the American Idol finale (David Cook rules) has been harder for me than I thought it would be. I guess I just want to be settled. And find a matching pair of shoes.The boys seem to be adjusting very well. They were waking up earlier because of the glaring sun rising directly in front of their window, but in an exhausted stupor, I nailed a blanket to the wall to cover the window a few nights ago in an effort to save some sleep and sanity (I'm headed to Ikea today for curtains, don't worry I'm not quite that bad at interior design). So instead of waking up whiney at 6:15am like they had been doing, they've slept until 7:45 and 8 the last 2 mornings.

We're loving the house. Know what my 2 new favorite words are? PLAY and ROOM. The fact that I'm not tripping over balls and sliding around the kitchen on seventy-eight Hot Wheels has been simply marvelous. And fact that I can simply close the door to this Toy Wonderland if anyone stops by makes me deliriously happy. Do you think the boys have made themselves at home yet?I'll show more pictures in the days, weeks, months and years to come (we're not moving again. EVER.) but you may just want to stop by and see it for yourself! Our phone number has changed along with our address, so email me if you need the updated stats. angstump@gmail.com

I've stalled long enough. A never ending pile of boxes are waiting to be unpacked. So I guess there's just one thing left to say. Welcome home, Stump family....welcome home.

What's in a name?

I was looking through some of my old posts a while back, when I had time to do that sort of thing, and I realized I had once promised to write about the nicknames we've given our children. Actually my words were "I should do another posting on the nicknames we call our kids and how they came to be. The nicknames, not the kids." So without further ado, I give you: Juje and Beebs.

Juje somehow morphed from Noonie. Noonie was just lame, and had to go. Can you picture me at Jake's high school basketball game yelling "GO, NOONIE!" ? Juje is much better, obviously. I'm pretty sure Juje rose to the top because of the Seinfeld episode where Elaine stops for Jujyfruit before going to the hospital when she finds out her date has been hit by a car. We called him Jujy for a long time, then just Juje, because it's so much less of a mouthful, don't you think?

Most recently I've tried to shorten Juje because one syllable is just too much, and then I realized I was calling him Ju, which could be bad if I was ever near a synagogue. So I started calling him Boo. Then Boo Radley (from To Kill A Mockingbird, RIP high school honors English) and then just Radley, and finally Rad because I'm obsessed with the 80's and shortening every possible thing (except evidently this blog). So there you have it. My eldest son: Juje, aka Rad. Now we have Beebs. His is not so long of a story, but his has not been so long of a life either. I'll probably have to update this one soon. I'm sure you'll all be waiting on pins and needles. Beebs came from Buh-buh which was what Jake called him when he was born because he couldn't say Baby. Or Ty, evidently. Buh-buh went to Bee-Bee, and I'm pretty sure you're clever enough to figure out what happened next. My youngest son: Beebs. Now before anybody gets upset (DAN), I realize Felix is not my child, but I'm adding him to my list of family member nicknames I'm sharing today. So let's see, there's Feely, Feely Mageely, Mageel, Feel, Feel McBeel, Mr. McFeely (Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, anybody?) Dan has some other nicknames for him, but I'd like to keep this a family friendly blog, so I'll stop there. Our dog: Mageel.Thank you to those of you who finished reading this post. You must either be related to me, or seriously trying to avoid doing something important.