Moving Day!!

Whew! What a day! It was definitely one of "those" days you wouldn't want to particularly repeat again if you had the choice. Being a humid and 93 degree day didn't help.

BUT...

Our household goods are packed up in crates and off to the new house!!

This day sure was labor intensive - for BOTH John and I. He stayed at the house all day and made sure things ran smoothly with the movers and actually helped carry things out to the truck with them at the end - and then painted the downstairs into the late evening. I entertained, fed and cared for our four children. No easy task for either party!  

Here's how it went: (WARNING: Long day so it might be boring to read but I still wanted to document it)

* I got up at 7 to find that John had already broke down the computers and made them ready for packing. I was devastated as I had plans to download pictures off three cameras. Moving on...
* I got ready and fed the kids
* Raced out the door to take a trip to Quantico for a few things (groceries, etc) - kids had fun watching Brother Bear 2
* Movers arrived around 9:30am
* Drove back home and fed baby and gave kids a snack while sitting in the van with all the doors and windows open for a cross breeze. John paced the sidewalk getting Verizon to fix his voicemail on his phone and Jocelyn was pacing the forest our house is up against - listening to an owl hooting in the trees and her trying to find it. LOL Too cute! She so badly wanted to find it
* Movers were busy inside so I had to find a place for the kids and I to escape to. Don't like feeling homeless!!
* Went to the library. The kids LOVE it there so it was a win-win: both fun and air conditioned! Haha. Returned books, kids colored and I closed account. We love that library and will surely miss it.
* Drove to a friends and picked up a lamp to borrow to help John paint at night this week
* Returned back home with the kids to feed them a quick lunch in the backyard. We were melting so we learned to eat rather quickly. Fed baby and then back on the road we went.
* Checked in to a hotel up the street for the night - seeing that we now are in limbo of a house to live in. Once kids are cold free, we will hopefully get to stay with some friends of ours before leaving for vacation on Saturday.
* Drove to the mall and met up with my friend Sabine and let the kids play on the little motorized play vehicles and then next door to Costco to buy some take and bake pizza and water for dinner - which are both great things to have on moving day, I think!
* During the Costco run, had to travel back out into the sweltering heat to change a dirty bottom.
* Took said food back home to put into the fridge
* Left to go to hotel to let kids rest and feed baby. Got there and realized I forgot some things so I raced back to the house. Decided at this point to just stay there
* Movers packed up truck and were off around 6:30pm = LONG DAY!!!!
* I was in desperate need at this point for a mental and probably physical break so John took the kids to the store with him to get some toppings for the pizza while I sat against the wall and rocked a cranky and tired baby. A baby who slept every time I put him into the car today. Which by the way, we were in entirely too much but it's moving day and that's how it goes sometimes
* Cooked pizza and in the mean time, let my kids run wild
* Ate dinner together
* John packed up the van with our luggage
* Our wonderful friends arrived to help prime the downstairs walls and get things prepped for painting tomorrow. They ate and played with the kids until we left for the hotel. Had to feed baby his last feeding for the day
* Had more friends stop by to pick up car keys (borrowing car while we're on vacation) - I just LOVE having friends fill up our home. Sure going to miss all of them!!
* Kids and I piled into the van and we drove to the hotel
* While holding Landon in one arm and trying to find hotel key in my purse with another hand, Landon spit up big time all over the sleeve of my shirt. Seriously?? Now?? Just when you think the day couldn't get any worse. Or at least you don't want it to get any worse!! I had to pause and clean it up with the wipes Jocelyn was holding and then handed Landon over to Aubrey so I could find the key at the bottom of my purse.
* Took a moment to remember to BREATHE!
* Got kids into the room
* I then raced to the van right outside our room window and loaded up the hotel luggage cart and loaded it full. So while I PUSHED the cart, with the other hand, I PULLED behind me two more luggage bags that were thankfully on wheels. It made the job, I'm sure, a bit easier compared to the alternative but it was still super hard. I guess I didn't need to be an overachiever but at this point, I just wanted it done so the kids could get to bed. All the while I was pushing and pulling the bags, a lady was standing out front watching me while she smoked. I'm sure she was chuckling inside!!! I know I would have been.
* What seemed like 10 minutes later, got the bags into the room.
* Changed kids into pjs, brushed their teeth and got them to bed
* Until I noticed John didn't pack all of Landon's Pack and Play bedding
* Had to track him down to bring the bedding BACK to the hotel - while he was at home painting
* The plan was with two queen beds, to have the girls in one and Andrew lay on ours with us. But he refused and slept in between the girls
* Got the bedding and put baby to bed
* Now being 10:30pm, I got my own pjs on and made a dash with the laptop and sat on the bathroom floor for some ME time

And now....I'm off to bed!

Yesterday...the movers came and packed up our express shipment.
Tomorrow...the movers come back for the last shipment: to put all of our furniture into storage.
Friday we will be saying our final goodbyes to our home of 4 1/2 years--unfortunately not goodbye to the mortgage though....