Moving In

I think I owe you a post. I'm pretty sure you are aware of what we've been up to, but just in case you missed my last post I'll catch you up to speed. So, after being really disappointed in the available options in the rental department, we did find one place we really liked. It's certainly not the perfect house for us, but we're just renting and we really wanted a place over being homeless. We filled out an application the very night we looked at it and sent it back, only to have to sit and wait a couple days to find out their decision. During our waiting period Sophie wondered if it might help us if she sent the owner an email. I told her to go ahead. She's so stinkin' cute; who can say no to her? Anyway, after lots of prayers we found out we got the house. And to clarify, when we came to sign the papers the owner had brought a friend along. He told his friend that the email from Sophie was what put us over the top. Yeah for cute kids!

Now that we had a place to live it was a mad dash to get my entire house packed up in a matter of days. This was on Tuesday, the 6th that we found out we got the place. Thursday night my brother showed up to crash at our place. We had left the guest room in place for them. I took them to the airport Friday morning, and we babysat Archer for 3 days. Saturday morning the girls decided on top of everything else we had to do that they should have a garage sale to help get rid of some stuff they didn't want anymore. Then it was time for me to ditch the family so I could go shoot a wedding. I was actually grateful for the chance to get a break from packing for a bit.

Sunday night Archer's parents came to pick him up, and my parents arrived. They stayed overnight so they could help out. They were a big help in packing, and my dad helped Brandon with a lot of the big, heavy stuff. The Relief Society also wanted to help out, but I really wasn't ready for them. Hindsight I wish I would have asked them to wait a day, and come help me clean AFTER everything was moved out. Oh well. They were still a big help. Brandon and I left that afternoon to go pick up the truck. The Relief Society President came back to watch the girls while we were gone, but they ditched her and went over to a friend's house. Poor lady! At least she was there to guard all our stuff that was just sitting out on the lawn and driveway. By 5:00 we had neighbors showing up to help load the truck. I had asked my fellow vegetarian friend to bring us dinner, knowing I wouldn't be in a position to take care of it and knowing she was the only person I dared let bring us food. She was so nice, and brought some delicious dinner that Brandon didn't get to enjoy for quite a while. It was a very long night, but we got the truck stuffed to capacity. Not everything fit. Yes, I was having anxiety attacks through this whole moving process. Am I a minimalist or not? I sure felt like quite the hypocrite! I threw out quite a bit moving, but I'm still going through things as I'm unpacking trying to decide what else can go.

We spent the night in our house Monday night, in sleeping bags on the floor. Then we got up bright and early Tuesday morning to take the truck to our new home. We had hired movers to help us unload. That was much quicker than loading. And we had one neighbor who stopped by and offered to help. He may have regretted his offer, but we put him to work. After unloading we drove back to Centerville to clean and fill the van with another load. I had coupons to a free movie that I had been trying to use up before we left, but there just wasn't time. Sophie had an activity day, so I sent her to that, Brandon took a load back to the new house while Chloe and I went and saw "The Lorax." I felt bad going to the movies while there was so much work to be done, but it was a much needed break and fun to get to hang out with Chloe. So then... after the show and activity, the girls wanted to go hang out with their friends one last chance. They were so gracious to have them over so much! They fed them dinner and kept them all night, while Brandon and I had to take one more load down. It was pretty late by the time we got back, but we were able to get the last of our stuff and finally head "home."

We did have to make one more trip back on Saturday to take care of some stuff for our new tenant, and I remembered a few things I had left. Brandon stayed home one more day from work that Wednesday to help get things unpacked, and put our house in a more livable state. I'm so glad he did, because ever since then things have been moving at a much slower pace. I'm back to cooking every meal, making bread, cleaning house, taking showers - you know, life! On top of trying to get boxes unpacked, it just doesn't happen very quickly. Especially when I'm trying to unpack carefully and really evaluate the need of everything, and knowing that I'm going to have to repack it all in a short time (whatever that may be).