"So how do you like living in Philadelphia?"

I'm getting this question often.  Almost every single time I'm around a group of people.  Gatherings, church, anywhere where there are people who know I just moved here, it's "How do  you like living in Philadelphia?" Or, "Do you like it here.?"
I always give the same answer.  "So far so good."
Because honestly?  I don't know.  I haven't had enough time to feel normal yet.
I had a baby, packed my house, spent a week in a beach house, started to unpack in my new house, lost a family member, and started school with the kids all within a few short weeks. I've had about 6 weeks actually living in my new home now, and through the chaos, I'm just now starting an everyday routine.  That being said, I'm still alive, still breathing, I still love my kids and still have reasons to smile, so I keep saying, "So far, so good."
There are, some interesting differences here compared to Utah though.  I like a lot of them. Others will take some getting used to. Here are a few:

Humidity.
Okay so I don't like this one so much. It has absolutely made my hair a joke.  Also the car is always stuffy, and my sunglasses get foggy. When I don't close the cereal box it gets a soggy. Same with chips.  More about food later.

AND NOW FOR AN ILLUSTRATION OF MY HAIR PROBLEMS:

Amazing food.

I heard once that Pennsylvania is the third fattest state in the nation.  I now understand why.  Cheesesteaks, giant pizza stuffed pretzels, hoagies, bagels, authentic Italian food, better tasting bread, roast beef sandwiches, ma and pa diners, authentic Asian food, water ice and incredible bakeries.  Everything doesn't only taste better, but there's a huge variety of it. It is incredible, it is delicious, and my taste buds feel like they're in heaven.  My only complaint?  Almost no Mexican food.  This is tragic, since I'm, you know, a Mexican; but at least I can cook it when I really need to.  I also don't get the love for Dunkin Doughnuts around here...Krispy Creme is better. Other than that, I'm on board with PA food.



Driving:

The drives are green, beautiful, and lots of fun winding roads.  One thing that' I've had to start getting used to is that the local neighborhood roads are really narrow. They are like west cost roads suffering anorexia.   This doesn't stop people from parking their cars on the road at all.   I use all the local  backroads to drive the kids to school, and when there's another car headed my way from the opposite end, one of us has to pull over to let the other one by because it's the only way to drive through because of the cars parked on the side of the road.  The good news is that this is not a foreign concept to me because living in England, the roads were exactly the same, and many roads were even smaller. Back then my parents did all the driving though, so now it's my turn. 

The greenery:
I love the trees here.  Everywhere you go, you can easily see the woods.  It's absolutely beautiful.  Everything here is green green green, not dry and  brown and dead like deserty Utah. I love the forest glades.  I also enjoy the wild life.  Every day we see some cute little critter hanging out in our yard.  We get deer, foxes, raccoon, bunnies, squirrels, chipmunks, groundhogs, and possums.  I love it.  Only problem is the bugs.  Lots and lots of bugs.  Combined with my little cottage- style 100 year old home, it's like being a mountain man in the 1950's.  Except of course I'm not in the mountains, I'm in the woods, and I don't get to wear one of those awesome fur pelts on my head.  My first two weeks here I was eaten alive by swarms of evil monstrous vampire mosquitoes that took so much of my blood that I'm probably anemic now. That was my biggest of the bug complaints.  There are also tons of crickets out here, but I like crickets.  It sounds cool outside here at night because you can hear the crickets and all the other animals chattering.  Kind of like camping, but with showers and soap and flat screen T.V.s.

Funny story though, (speaking of more bugs here)  Kelsey, Stephanie and I went to Kelseys house at night to watch the Relief Society General Broadcast.  Kelsey also lives in the woods, which in this case was unfortunate because we had THIS guarding the freaking doorway:

After considering driving away, or maybe calling an exorcist, we stared at it debating on what to do for the first half of the women's conference, also something crawled on Stephanies foot and we ran and hid in the car for another ten minutes...THEN we decided to be brave and swipe it away after dousing it with hairspray that we found in the car to disorient it.  I took some video.  It's just too funny not to post.  To the girls who are in this with me, no worries this is clip is unlisted so random youtubers probably won't find it, but it makes me smile.



Home:
I mentioned that we live in a cottege style home.  Since we came out here in a hurry we had to downgrade substantially in the size of our living space.  We live in the top two floors of the home, and Scott's office is in the basement, so he has clients come visit him there through a separate entrance.  The good thing is that he comes upstairs and eats lunch  with me in the afternoon, and also sits with the two babies while I take Crystal and Seth to School. It's nice having him close by all day.  The home itself is really cute.  It's over 100 years old, so everybody keeps telling me that it will be haunted, and spooky, but I don't get that feeling at all in this home.  If anything, there's sort of a happy, cheerful spirit here, if you believe in that stuff.    It's comfy.  The kids have the entire attic to themselves up there, it seems like it was made for kids with a bright blue carpet and little nooks to hide in with decent room to play.  They have their own TV up there and it's fairly child proof, so they hang out up there a lot and it gives me some separation on the main floor. My kitchen is small, which made me a little sad because kitchens are a big deal for me, but as a missionary my "kitchen" was just a sink in the hallway, so I've definitely had smaller.  I guess a giant kitchen in a hundred year old house would be expecting a lot.  As far as downgrades go, it's pleasant, and cute and decent, and the rent is super cheap for the East Coast.  Cost of living here is obviously much higher, but with cheap rent it makes up the difference.

Front view of the house

House and driveway

Little deck at the front door

Cute little well in the front yard area

Cute gazebo in the back yard

Family:
One of the great advantages of moving out of my home state that I have over many other people, is that there are already people I know here.  We've already spent many Sunday dinners, hang outs, and get togethers with the Itri clan.  It's great that we have people to spend time with, who we know and who we love already waiting for us out here.
A few weeks back I went with my two sister in law's, Stephanie and Kelsey to see my favorite band, Muse.  They were so great for going with me and keeping me company even though they didn't know the band the way I did.  We went out to eat at a fancy girly food restaurant, and then off to the concert, and when it was over we  topped it off with going out to get a giant cookie for dessert after the concert in the city. My cookie was amazing. I'm going to have to go back there next time I'm in the city.  I'm so glad I have some girls to do girl stuff with out here.

Right before going into the arena. 

I love this band

Matthew Bellamy.  Lead singer and freaking talented singer, guitarist, pianist, composer, and poet.  I almost named my son Jacob after him.  True story.

COOKIES!!!!  This place was called 'Insomnia Cookies,' because they're open until 3am.  Perfect for that midnight craving.  You could get giant ones with a scoop of ice cream in the middle as well.  I ordered the double chocolate smores cookie. 

It was a fun night out and a great break after all of the serious and sad things that had been happening.  We all really needed it I think.  I did my best not to look like a freak while I sang along and kept my head banging small and minimum so as not to scare my sister in laws. (If they saw me during my younger, crowd surfing single days, they would probably be mortified)  I'm so glad they went with me even though they weren't as familiar with the band as I am.  It's nice to still be able to get out and do girls night stuff with someone.
The other great thing about family out here is that my kids have lots of cousins here.  Crystal and Seth have been obsessed with Regan, Stephanie's son, who is six months apart from Seth.  Every day Crystal and Seth ask if they are going to see Regan.  Also Jacob has Jenson, who is 7 months older than him, and Sammy has Tanner, who is also 7 months older than him.  It's fantastic that they will all have cousins their age to play with.

Playing the Wii during the week we were at the beach in the Outer banks when we first flew in.  This week is kind of a blur for me because I was still dealing with post partum madness.

Joking and laughing during the luncheon after Nick's funeral.  These bright, happy kids have been a ray of sunshine through all the harder things that happened.

Seth was making jokes that made no sense to me, but they thought it was pretty hilarious.

Also of course, Scott gets to hang out with his family in the town he grew up in.  I know he likes it, in spite of how much he likes Utah he was excited to come out here to his first home, and where people understand his love for the Eagles and football.  They already went to a game out here. ( I snagged these from Stephanies blog. I was home watching The Great Gatsby with Kelsey.  Football Shmootball)

It's so great to have family out here.  I do miss my family and friends at home already though.  My only sister is back in Utah and we used to get together at least once a week to shop, go to movies, or just sit on the couch and watch T.V.    My mom, who has a sixth sense for when I need her would always pop over and help me with dishes and my worst enemy, the laundry, when I needed it most.  Also my friends.  I have friends in Utah that I've been spending time with for 17-19 years now.  No more afternoon lunches at local restaurants and then to the play ground or someones back yard with the kids every week during tax season. I guess the reason why it's hard to be separated from them is because they and my sister understand me.  They get me.  They know me extremely well and we understand each other no matter what.  I don't have to explain myself to them or worry about hurting their feelings or irritating them, or them thinking that I'm too hyper or silly or insensitive, because they get it, we've been close for years.  In a way, my long time friends are also like family.  When we lived in Utah Scott had brothers or some kind of family near by most of the time that understood him in a way that I couldn't because they grew up together.  It's going to be hard for me not to have the same access to people who understand me out here.  Halloween is actually going to be hard, this time of year was one of the most fun times for me to spend with family and friends, they always got into the spirit of things with parties and gatherings of all kinds and it's just not going to be the same.  Even though I never got homesick as a missionary I found myself homesick last Sunday thinking about it; it bothered me because it's only been a couple of months. It's just that this move happened so extremely fast, and I didn't get to say goodbye to a lot of people when I found out I was leaving because I just had a baby, I was basically pulled out of everything I knew and loved without much notice or the means to even properly see my friends for the last time, and that makes me sad. 

I will miss this:

 I am looking forward to more time with my sisters and mother in law, and making new memories though.  So the whole thing has been extremely bittersweet.  That being said, I'm an adapter, I'll be fine, and I am so so so lucky to have people I already know out here and I have a great opportunity to spend more time with them and create new bonding moments. I'm hoping I will have the same attachment to people and things out here at some point.





Other things:

I love that I can go to a Costco during the weekend and it's not so crowded that I want to blow my brains out.  I love Costco.  I love the deals and the bulk items, I love looking at the kitchenware, furniture, electronics, organic produce and other new stuff they have around from time to time, and also saving money on food and diapers.  The problem is that in Utah, Costco is so crowded that it makes me want to bludgeon people with my shoe.  That problem is non existent out here.
One thing that's not my favorite is that evening traffic seems to start at four here instead of five.  I have no idea why.  Also, every time the Eagle's are playing a home game there is more traffic, but BYU game traffic was for some reason, much much more annoying to me, so I'll let that one go.
A pro, AND a con is that people seem to be more blunt and opinionated here.  In a way, it's great because when I have a frustrated moment, people don't get scared or offended.  I got frustrated regestering my kids for school because they told me where to go and it turned out to be the wrong building, so I was not very calm at the front desk when they told me I was at the wrong place, and instead of acting nervous or offended, the lady at the front desk seemed to understand that I was mad at the situation, not her, and quickly helped me figure things out and calmed me down without thinking that I was a psycho.  If I did that in Utah I would have frightened someone.  I'm glad that people here are used to strong, vocal personalities.  However it's also not the best when it comes to the zoo of parents dropping kids off at the elementary schools in the morning.  Nobody seems to obey any traffic and parking laws when it comes to dropping your kids off.  It's frustrating and annoying and causes me anxiety because I feel like I have to fight other cars to be able to drop my daughter off safely to school in the morning.  Every other day I see parents yelling at each other in the parking lot either because of inconsiderate parking or selfish driving.  I had an old man lecture me on how I needed to do a better parking job because my car was so huge, he couldn't squeeze past it, (the drop off lane has cars parked on both sides of it so it's a gauntlet to get through)  my car was just one of many cars parked in the same spot so I just rolled my eyes and said "yup", and went about my business, but dropping Crystal off in the morning is not my favorite. 

School:
The kids started School here.  Both were extremely excited and nervous.  Seth went into kindergarten, which of course made me a little sad because I still see him as my little baby.  Crystal has always been an old soul trapped in a child's body.  Even when she was five, her vocabulary and demeanor was always that of a tiny adult. So when she went to school, it seemed...fitting.  Seth is much more how I was as a child.  Always pretending, always in his own world, never able to hold still and enjoys life because there is always someone to help and take care of him as he grows.  He doesn't worry or stress about much and he just goes with the flow.  His demeanor is much more childish than Crystals was at that age.  She has always been very mature, and Seth, is very much a little boy in every way possible.  So his first day of school ever, felt way too soon already.  He did great though.  Every day he comes home with a "green ticket" which means he behaved well.  Crystal comes home and immediately gets started on her homework.  She loves doing her homework and can't handle getting through the day if she hasn't finished it yet.  I love how responsible she is.  She is such a blessing in my house.

Everyday life:
Scott is busy managing both his Utah and his Philadelphia business now.  It's been hard for him to adapt to his fathers way of handeling things and piecing together what he was doing before he stopped coming in to work.  He works until late at night getting things done and getting the hang of it.  The good thing is that his office is just downstairs, so I still see him throughout the day.  He takes breaks to eat and help out with the kids during the day, which is awesome.
My days are fairly busy as well. I make school lunches, drop off and pick up kids a lot because they go at different times, help the kids with homework, make meals, change diapers, breastfeed, dishes, laundry and tidying up around the house.  Several boxes haven't even been unpacked yet.  I also started some online preschool activities for Jacob to start doing to give him a head start on things.  Physically  I never really got much of a break when I gave birth because we moved right away and it's literally been one thing to deal with after another. Even when we got here we hit the ground running.  Sam is now  3 months old.  Looking back on those first five weeks of his life and moving here it's already just a blur.  I don't know how I did it, I don't know how it happened, all I know is I got through it.  My energy is starting to come back so that's a big help.

We also bought a minivan.  I was never a fan of minivans growing up, and Scott had been trying to convince me to let him get me one for the past five years because he insisted it would make my life easier.  I finally caved and he went and got one and you know what?  It's amazing.  I love it.  Yes, I look like a soccer mom when I drive it, but who the crap cares when I can push a button and the doors slide open for my kids to easily pile in the car without climbing over things, and I can adjust the temperature by individual seat so I don't have to hear any whining about being too hot or cold back there.  Built in DVD player, push button start, built in navigation, and a crap load of leg room and space.  My life is so so so much easier.  I love it and I take back everything I ever said about minivans.  I will gladly look like a Mormon soccer mom if it means that it doesn't take me five years to make sure my kids are all in the car and buckled in.

My new mini van that converted me into a believer in minivans

So that's how things have been so far.  I haven't been here too long, so not a whole lot to report that I haven't already, and I'm sure I'm missing a ton of details.  I like it here.  I like the culture, I like the history and character of being out here.
In the meantime I am slowly trying to get back into shape, (TRY to exercise and eat right) adapt to being a new mom of four in a new house and new life, figuring out where I am when I'm driving without getting lost, and trying not to back into peoples cars on my long curvy driveway (I don't want to talk about that one).  I really haven't figured out my life yet, but the little things I do figure out make me want to do a victory dance.  I am adapting.  Not as fast as I'd like, but I've never been very patient with myself.  I just need to give it time.  Once I stop breastfeeding and my hormones level out a little things will start to get easier. Of course by then it will be a whole other set of issues, because that's just how life works.  It's all about progression.  So, like I keep saying, so far so good.
It's beautiful here.  I love the smells, I love the trees, I love the food and I love that I have family here, I also love that it won't snow here as much as it does in Utah.  So like I keep saying, so far so good.