Empty House

Everything has been moved out, boarded up in crates and hauled away! Our house is officially EMPTY - besides a few odd ends and some living room furniture we are selling to our renters!! It's so strange to see the house we occupied for 4 1/2 years be bare and boring in a space that used to be filled with laughter and crying, the smell of cooking or baking, doors being opened and shut all day long, children playing and having fun. We are sad to be leaving our Fredericksburg home for a different place on the other side of the world but we know we'll enjoy and love our new home as well. This move has been especially hard on Andrew. He's very sad and misses his home while we've been staying at the hotel for the past two nights. Poor little guy! The girls will miss it very much too; I'm almost positive tears will be shed once we roll away. I still think Andrew's going to have it the hardest.

Today we woke up and ate breakfast and got ready to go swimming with our family friend, Sabine, at her community pool. Knowing that all of the kids were again sick with their colds, I sort of tossed around the idea to go or not but decided in the end that it would be good for them. For all of us! :) We stayed for two hours. My friend and her daughter, who happens to also be Jocelyn's best friend, joined us as well. We sat and talked while watching the children play and have fun in the kiddie pool after slathering them with a bunch of sunblock. We snapped some pictures, ate some yummy food together for lunch and then retreated back to the hotel for some rest. We had such a fun afternoon! Aubrey even spent some time in the adult sized pool and tried to recall how to swim. (It's been quite a few years since she took basic lessons.) She hopped between that pool and coming over to play with Andrew and Jocelyn. Such a great sister! I did start to wonder though, on our way back inside the hotel, why it was taking Andrew such a long time to walk and keep up with us. I noticed as I watched him that he was avoiding stepping on the cracks along the sidewalk. Apparently his sister Jocelyn told him that if he steps on a crack, he would fall through. Nice!! No matter how many different ways I tried telling and showing him that that wouldn't happen, he still insisted on not stepping on the cracks. And that seems to be his new way of walking at the moment as he did it again when we went to the house. He really does make me laugh! The only way Andrew was even comfortable with the idea of taking a nap was to have me lay by him after an hour or being back in our room. It was four in the afternoon at this point and I ended up falling asleep next to him with Landon sleeping on my chest. For that hour nap, the girls huddled on the bed side by side and watched a Disney show. No complaints for free entertainment. :) Once quiet time was over, I let the girls walk to the front desk and get themselves (and Andrew and I) a cookie. Otis Spunkmeyer cookies anytime you please? Dangerous! Good thing we've only gotten one once in the two days we've been here! :)

During this move process, John and I committed to keeping dinner time as a family still and tonight was Mexican food. John went and picked up some food at Chipotle for us and our friends who are so generously helping us paint our home and I swung by Taco Bell and got Jocelyn and Andrew each a burrito and a little nacho on the way over to the house to eat. We ate in the backyard at the picnic table - one of our last meals at the house. And can I just say WOW! The whole upstairs is now completely painted with a nice shiny coat of white. Very clean looking. As the kids and I were leaving, they went back to work painting the hallway and downstairs bathroom. I felt bad for them to have no music to listen to while they worked away so I drive back to the hotel and grabbed the laptop and took another trip back to the house to bring it to them. It was 8:30pm so we hurried back to the hotel, I got the kids showered, changed and ready for bed, stories read, teeth brushed, songs sung, prayers said and they were finally out, all three snuggled on a queen sized bed, around 10pm. Meanwhile, I fed Landon, read him Goodnight Moon and cuddled with him a bit longer than I normally do at night to try and somehow make up for all the craziness before I put him down for sleep. It was a long day, but thankfully not as long and tiring like yesterday.

John could probably debate that comment in regards to his day...he and our friends have been working so hard and doing so much back at the house. But I'm very thankful. Being a single mom at the moment has been a bit challenging and stressful too but it's also been good for our kids to be entertained and not at the house while the moving has taken place. They do miss their daddy dearly and we all can't wait for Saturday to come - when we hit the road for our trip while we wave goodbye to Virginia. Thankfully for only three years. We have really grown to love this state and all of our amazing friends and ward family!

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....

One More Month...

and we're MOVING!!

I still can't publically announce (I promise I'm not trying to torture anyone but I will gladly message you personally if you'd like to know before we arrive to our new destination)!

Things have been so busy and chaotic here at home since finding out about our move. Mainly our busy days are preparing to get the house in order for a renter. We are currently upgrading the downstairs bathroom so I will post pictures this weekend when we're done!

Kids are almost out of school, four kids are keeping me very busy, we sold our truck this past weekend (which was hard since we just paid it off but we can't take it with so it's just one of those things we had to do), the weather is getting warm and muggy, soccer season is over and in ONE month....we'll be on the road to visit family and friends for a few weeks and then onto making our new house a home. :) I'm excited for the adventures we'll have the chance to experience at our new place but we will really miss the family we made here in Virginia. Change is good though even when it's hard - one door closes as another one opens. I can't wait! :)