Year 2, Day 154: Moving Day 2017!!!!

We did it!  The weather was gorgeous!  The hands and trucks were plentiful! The littles were being watched by Grandma!  And 95% of our material wealth has been moved.  I am very grateful I made the decision to leave food and mattresses and toiletries at the condo though.  The house is nowhere near where I want it to be in order to live in it.  Ok, that's a little extreme, but here's the story.  A major (but small) piece of the fridge fell off between the truck in the driverway to the spot in the kitchen for the fridge (about 12 ft).  We can't find it.  So, Jared ordered a new piece but it won't come until Tuesday.  So we can't open the freezer.  We will need to make a few more loads tomorrow, but do it mostly on our own.  Then I'll pack up the kitchen stuff and move it all over by Sunday or Monday night.  The bed frames are at the new house, but need to be made.  The furniture isn't fitting in the rooms like I had hoped, so I need to spend time really thinking about it.  The kids are anxious to have their electronics but they are ok with just living out of their backpacks for a few more days so I can figure out the furniture issues before they start dumping out toys.  The boxes are now in two major spots, which is actually perfect, the garage and the sunroom.  The sunroom has the books and some toys and some random boxes, so there needs to be a little bit of box shifting there.  The garage is the mishmash of everything.  But, everyone was so good about listening and not taking everything into the house.  That alone has given my mind space to think about where everything goes and rearrange things without boxes in the way.  That's a huge difference than the past two moves.  And I like it.  It was also very strange to be able to take several trips back and forth to the condo and spend 1/2 of the day there and 1/2 of the day at the new house.  The last time I did an in town move was 15 years ago when we were first married and moving just a 1 bedroom apartment (plus a little more) worth of stuff to a 3 bedroom house.

Some of asked me how I feel now that I've been able to see the house and "get to know" it better.  So, here's the scoop.  There's a ton of cosmetic work that needs to be done.  Lots of scratches and big nail/screw holes.  Light fixtures are mixing or broken or need lights.  Some of the outlets were fried.  We need smoke alarms.  It was clean, but there's spiderwebs in corners and the window frames are dirty.  Concrete steps to the front door are chewed up.  There's many flower beds and they all need a ton of work.  The house's lawn was mowed, thank goodness, because it's huge!  All of it can be done, but it does take money and time, and we are typically pretty short on that.  We were gifted a stove, thank goodness, because we thought it was included in the house and it wasn't (it didn't say it on the paperwork, we triple checked).  We knew we needed a washer/dryer.  Anyway, point is, the house is growing on me.  I had only seen it briefly once.  And I was in a very bad mood that day, although I did try to put on a face that I was ok.  There are definitely spaces and things I love.  The sunroom.  The columns and half wall at the front door and the piano will be behind it.  The separate rooms (I don't like open concept designs, they are too loud and too messy).  The red trim in the kitchen.  The lattice paned windows!  The huge backyard.  AN ATTACHED GARAGE which we've never had before.  A real walk in pantry, which we've never had before!  There's a hookup for dishwasher and sink water filter and I think one for the fridge, too.  The dining room is cozy, but we still fit in it.  The sunroom which is already becoming the schoolroom/toddler toy room b/c it's bigger than I remembered it and my desk fits! (without the hutch).  Oh yeah, the fireplace! And built in shelves!  So, lots of work, but we have a great solid base to work on.  Our Beech Grove home had its' quirks too.

So, now, I start puttering and tinkering and settling in, a box at a time.  No need to rush.  I've got all summer and the kids can ride their bikes and play in the backyard somewhat out of my way.  At least the older ones can.

The best part was waking up this morning and feeling totally different than I had the night before.  When I woke up from my 2 1/2 hr sweaty nap, it was dinner time.  Jared came home an hr or so later.  But I was still feverish and panicking.  I had a lot to do to feel "ready."  So I did my best to cool off, ate dinner, took some pain medication and slowly got to work wrapping things up, making signs, etc.  I actually did get enough accomplished that I was hopeful that the morning would go well.  And it did!  I felt 95% "healthy"!  Oh back up, I panicked, so I must of sent out 5 messages on my Facebook page for prayers and to vent and to panick and to ask for help and yada yada.  People really starting praying hard and it made ALL the difference!  I've had a tiny runny nose today, and my throat is scratchy, which means I'll probably loose it tomorrow.  But I wasn't feverish, the aches and chills were gone, my stomach behaved, and I didn't have a headache.  I ate enough and drank enough and stayed cooled enough that wow, I felt great!  Now, I'm feeling a bit sore, so the next few days will be much slower for me, but I knew that.  I had two great friends who were my sidekicks for most of the day.  I got to tease the teens with their goofiness.  Justin got to hang out with another shy friend.  Keturah couldn't stop talking about her house and her new room and wanting to sleep there.  Abishai and Socks were in heaven with all the people around when we went to Gary and Leah's for lunch and dinner.  So much so, that I will post a video of Abishai's stir crazy slap happy antics when we got home at 9 pm tonight.

Now, some of our family and friends are very busy this weekend, so we are on our own and that's ok.  4 of us need the quiet to think.  We'll make it to church and youth group kickball.  I might not have the opportunity to post again in a timely manner.  Internet doesn't get switched until June 12th.  But we have electricity and hot water both places.  Keturah is so excited to live there that she asked if we could live out of coolers while we wait for the part to come in for the fridge.  I said, no, I'm not dealing with buying ice and dumping water, etc.

Stats: 13 people, 9 hrs, 4 box (work, so it wasn't totally empty) truck loads, 4 big size pick up truck loads, 2 small truck loads, 2 van loads, 1 suv load. 1 broken piece off of the fridge.  0 broken fragile things.  Only 1 or 2 small scratch type injuries.  1,000's of teen sarcastic humor jokes.  2 excited littles. 1 babysitting/food prepping Grandma. 1 happy go lucky dog.  95% material wealth transferred from point A to point B, 20 minutes away.  All equals a very joyful, God filled, great, exhausting, wonderful, prayerful, beautiful, awesome day.

Abishai wanted to wa-wash his dolly!  So sweet!

He did want her clothes off to wash her, but we have a "no naked dolly or Barbie" policy in our house, so she is clothed again.

I bought these like 10 months ago, but didn't eat them because of the gluten.  But Mr. Canadian loves them!

Abishai can do a piano swipe (run his hands all the way up or down the piano)!

Whoops! Wrong way!

Baby (dolly) needed some ball pit time.

It took two kids to push a box but Abishai wanted to help, too.

Note to self: never put a disposable diaper in the laundry basket! Whoops!  I must not have been paying attention.  So, at 11:30pm the other night, I was picking off the gel from inside the diaper off of all the clothes.  Then I had to rewash the clothes before putting them in the dryer.  Thankfully, the clothes did get clean and I made sure the dryer lint catcher was cleaned.

Gel from inside the diaper!

If this gel (and the diaper itself) doesn't dissolve in water, I don't want to imagine what chemicals are in these things.  And we are putting them on our kids!  It freaks me out a little bit.  I'm so grateful I've done mostly cloth this time around.  My oldest 3 did survive just fine on disposables, but still, it's something to consider.

Discovery #1: We have wild strawberries in our front flower garden! (And, the key I had didn't work in the front door, but I found another one inside the house that did.)  Also, these pictures are from Thursday, house prep day.

Most likely rhubarb.

Roses?

It took forever, but Abishai and Daddy made it around the block!

We did bring Socks over for house prep day. He loved it!  And Teenager doing his thing.

Look!  Socks is in the Thomas bed! (sort of).

How many screwdriver heads does one person need?  I think I use maybe 2 or 3 screwdriver sizes myself.  Boys and their toys...but they were definitely used today!

The "Bens" worked together all morning disassembling furniture and goofing off, taking too many breaks.  It was fun to hear their banter and what kids listen to for music these days.  Benjamin will be a senior next year and Benaiah will be a sophomore.  Benjamin is also Ethan's oldest brother.  Ethan and the middle brother, Conner, also helped out today.  Kailyn, Conner's twin had to babysit, but she would have been an awesome addition to the team!

The box truck.

The large pick up truck.

I told Justin to go take some pictures.  And this is what he took.  Ok then.  Yes, we had a cooler filled with drinks and ice thanks to Leah.

A very full garage.

When you have a toddler who loves matchbox cars, you will find them everywhere (almost as often as you find Legos), including under your bed hiding among many other precious items.

Jared bought me these gorgeous pink roses to celebrate our move!

Again, the teen is sitting down on the job (I see a trend here!).  He did work hard of course, but he's known to take a lot of breaks.

Ok, the good stuff.  Here's the kitchen.  The pantry is behind the red door.

The fireside room on the back of the house.

Entry to the sunroom.

The sunroom, which was added onto the back of the house, so the original break and windows are still in place.

We have an attached garage!

Entryway.

Front living room/game room.

Bay window in front of the house.

Some helpers in Keturah's room.

The boys' room on the west side of the house.

Our room on the east side of the house.

Main bathroom with two sinks.  We also have a tiny half bath as well.

Another view in the kitchen of the dining room.  The windows on the right open up to the sunroom.

Here comes some more furniture!

Slap happy!

"Abishai, go like this!" - Justin

"Abishai na-kee!" Yes, crazy one, you are in just your "shorts" like your big brother.

Kick him in the face.

Push him off the bed.

And it's hilarious to fall off the bed yourself!

Rolling, rolling, rolling!

"Look, Mom!  I'm a sarcophagus like in Ancient Egypt!" - Keturah (those were the exact words she used, too!  She's been listening!)

My friend Alisha took lots of photos, too, but it's late, and I have to download them.  I'll do that tomorrow.

Also, Jared just informed me that the internet at the condo will be turned off on Sunday.  Yikes!  I really do have to use my laptop at the in law's house for a week or so.  I'll survive, I think, lol.  Good thing we have a great data plan and a tablet with data!  That means, I'm not sure when I'll be posting in the next little while.

Oh, and amongst all this, there was a showing at 6 pm tonight (that's why we stayed later at the new house) and there will be one at 2:30 pm tomorrow, too.  We should be at the house for that time as well.

Many thanks to the helpers today!  Dan and Mary, Jim, the Strunk boys (Benjamin, Conner, and Ethan), Alisha, Robyn, and of course my boys, Jared, Benaih, Justin, and Gary.  Little Isaac helped a bit, as well as Keturah.  Many, many blessing on the day! Good night!