setting up home

we have been in our rental for a few weeks now. sunday we got our small shipment of storage + the piano!! we are so excited about the piano. the rest of the stuff i could leave it. when we had to move last fall from rhode island to california for g's language school, we were expecting to have to squeeze in to 1200 sq. feet. so we purged big time and then put all the rest of it in storage. i realized, as i knew i would, that i really didn't need any of the storage things. i mean -- of course my grandmother's china and crystal -- and now that i have my craig'slist farm hutch -- i have a place for it! sooo there is this area in our finished basement where the toys are going to be, that is now about 1/3 full of boxes. for the most part all the other boxes (from the california move) have been either stored or unpacked. the garage is still a wreck. BUT the kitchen, bedrooms, bathroom, living room, sunroom and laundry room are all unpacked and relatively put together. no pictures up yet -- but we do have curtains up -- so it is beginning to feel more like home. i have even planted a few pots with some herbs, petunias and impatients. yesterday afternoon, my neighbor, pointed out that i have several large azaleas in our front yard - i was so pleasantly surprised by this news. i had thought they were boxwoods - which i love, but now we shall have bright red flowers in the early summer! it was a tad bit cooler yesterday, so i actually was able to weed a bit of the crab grass out of the flower beds by my front door. this past friday night (and then again unexpectantly on sunday evening) we had a lovely dinner party - the first in our new home! it was a group of graham's siblings and cousins - everyone all grown up now. it was magical. we moved the dining table and chairs in to the sunroom and lit candles too! i really didn't want the evening to end. cheeries and chocolates were served for dessert.