Jersey Girls

We made it!! I am so sorry it has taken me so long to post, but we just got Internet and once you see our living conditions, you will understand the chaos. So far, our new home state is beautiful. I can see why they named it the "Garden State".. it is so lush and green with tons of ponds, streams and lakes. We are living with one car, and on the days I take Jarrett to work, I get to go over a really cute bridge on my way to Princeton.

Gorgeous right?!? Makes the trade from the ocean a little less painful.

Here are a few things we noticed about NJ:
1. East coasters go to the "shore" not the beach
2. You pay for a "Beach Badge" (a fee per person to go to the shore for the day from Memorial Day to Labor Day). Take advantage of all those free Cali beaches!!
3. On the Border is considered "good" Mexican food... yuck!
4. People don't refer to the freeways as "THE one-o-one" or "THE five". It is simply Route 33 or Highway 1.
5. The pools close after Labor Day.
6. Driving on Highway 1, there are no left turns or U turns. They have turn-out things called "Jug Handles" where you veer right, and wait at a light. It involves a lot of back-tracking.
7. Fun accent... they pronounce Jarrett's name like this: Jaaarrrr- rett. He was excited no one called him Jared. Hoping our girls don't pick up on it... too bad at least.
8. Bugs... there are a ton of mosquitoes, and all the other bugs just look bigger. Guess that is what comes with gorgeous plant life.
9. Nice... Most everyone we have come in contact with have been really nice, not what you expect with Philly and NYC so close.
10. Everyone smokes cigarettes.

There are a TON of things to do, and we are looking forward to checking out some of the fun festivals coming up: Italian Heritage, Cranberry, Apple and multiple Harvest and pumpkin festivals! Last weekend we went exploring and went to Lambertsville, 30 minutes west near the PA border.

Jersey Girls by location, California Girls at heart :) Nerd Alert: That's the Delaware River behind us, near where George Washington crossed during the Revolutionary War!!

We visited New Hope, where they had an adorable train that gives rides. We are totally coming back at Christmas for the Polar Express story time!

We are beginning the process of finding a home church, and my bible study starts up on Sept. 12th, which will help in making friends. We are super excited to be in the crazy, stressful process of buying a home, and can't wait to post pictures! Hopefully it will close around mid-October, and we will get to move in, out of our itty bitty townhouse.

Lulu in front of our rental. It's an end unit and has lots of light (when not blocked by boxes).

I have refused to put up an decorations. They did leave some cute cornice boxes, though.

Welcome to our storage closet... no wait, our dining room. LOL

I was thrilled withe the kitchen... granite and a DISHWASHER!! Whoo Hoo!

Master bedroom and Lulu's room. If anyone needs to cook up some pretend food at midnight, there is a play kitchen available.

Lulu's bed is surrounded by boxes.

Yep. Madison's crib is in the other room (yep only 2 rooms) and she is quite cozy.

We are really grateful for our rental, because our realtor helped us find a great deal and they are allowing us to rent month-to-month, which is really hard (and expensive) to find around here. Here is a sneak peak of our new place, which makes the waiting SO worth it...

11 Royal Oak, Lawrence NJ.... Our new home!!!

Jarrett has taken some really amazing pictures of Princeton, and I promised him I would do a posting. I was so jealous when he texted me one day that he was in Einstein's laboratory, and he ate lunch in Woodrow Wilson's house. The chapel is breath-taking, and there is a kids story time every Friday at the library on campus. We are officially Princetonians!