New Places to Play!

The boys have adjusted beautifully to a new house. We have not had any problems at bedtime or anytime really with them acting like they are missing the old house or their old room. It is surprising since now they are upstairs at bedtime (when Randy & i are usually downstairs) & we split them up to have their own rooms again. But they must have been ready for the change. If you ask Jackson what his favorite part of the new house is, he will say, "the stairs" & i believe him because he constantly plays cars on the stairs. We are gradually implementing a "toys upstairs rule" which is going well for the most part so far! But those cars keep trickling down the stairs....
When i ask Eli what his favorite part of the new house is, he replies: "katie's house" which is our new little neighbor. She is Jackson's age but a year ahead in school, so she just finished Kindergarten. They have both enjoyed having her to play with outside. She is quite a little fireball & very outgoing. Maybe this will help Jackson come out of some of his shyness with new people!
They have also both enjoyed having a paved driveway. We had a gravel drive before so any chalk artwork had to be drawn on our little sidewalk to the house. Here, they have loved having the drive to ride bikes on & use their new sidewalk paint. Jackson bought his very own "airbrush" for sidewalk paint with the last of his birthday giftcard to Target. (thanks, Debbie- he has loved having his own money to spend!) He was a blessing & shared the paint with his brother which we put in a spray bottle (& that actually worked better than the airbrush!) They had a ball!

Move Day(s)...

Be prepared.... this is a marathon post!!

We picked up the Uhaul for our move on a Wednesday afternoon right at closing time. (I won't go into the bad experience i had trying to get them to honor my reservation). The boys were esctatic that we were taking this huge truck home! I mean - ECSTATIC! Uncle Todd met me at the uhaul place & drove it home thankfully because Randy wasn't off work yet & i wasn't about to get behind the wheel of that monstrosity! It took up our entire driveway! It was 26 feet long!
About 5 minutes (literally) before our help arrived, the bottom fell out of the sky. Seriously, it was a monsoon for about 75% of that evening. Bastian & Brian both stayed regardless though & were troopers. Theresa luckily (for me) stayed & helped me reign in the kids & keep my head from spinning off too! She's good like that! Here, the guys were making a run for it to come in for take-out hibachi that i picked up in the flood.... Once Rebecca got home from church, she came over & relieved all of them & we (Randy, Rebecca, & myself), finished off most of the remainder boxes. That mainly just left the cleaning & last minute boxes for Thursday after work. Randy ended up calling in to work on Thursday though because the new homeowners wanted to do the walkthrough that evening & we knew the house wasn't going to be ready if we both worked. So Randy & his dad cleaned Thursday & that evening we packed up the random outdoor stuff that needed to be moved & drove Randy's truck over to his parents for the evening (since we would have an extra vehicle with the Uhaul!) Needless to say, Randy's truck looked like Sanford & Son driving down the street....The boys stayed the night with Mema & Grandad which was kinda sad for me. Eli had never spent the night away from us before & apparently, they both cried for us that night. I guess all the change was getting to them too! But even though they were a tad stressed, we still were able to get more done & be ready for closings the next day with them gone. I told Randy that our first night in that house we spent the night just the two of us with Gracie (the dog) & the final night we spent the night just us & Lola (the cat). She was NOT happy & kept trying to escape when i would give her a little freedom from the bathroom! She preferred the house full of boxes i think to the empty house!
She really wanted to go out! And poor thing, she had NO idea that she wasn't going to be going back out for awhile yet!
I took a few last minute shots of the house when it was empty. It was kind of sad & i tried not to think about it too much.
There are so many memories in this house, both good & bad- but that is what makes it our life together here, right?! It was our first home, we brought both our babies home here, i rocked a baby for the first (& maybe last?) time here, we have great memories of the first 8 years of our marriage here & it just seems odd to walk away from it, even though we are going to make new memories at our new house. I literally teared up at the attorney's office when i handed over the keys! Randy looked at me & said, "don't you even start it!" Ha! But the couple moving in here is getting married in the fall & they can't be any more than 22, in all seriousness! But they seemed so excited & that made it a little easier! So, once we finished that closing we started the second which was for the new house & the rest is history! Our great realtor gave us this cute little cake!
Thankfully we had so much help from men at church to get us moved in on that Friday afternoon & it was in the high 90's - HOT HOT HOT!! But they were such a blessing! We had the Uhaul unloaded (& the contents in their proper rooms), as well as the storage unit loaded in the truck & unloaded in the house all in 4.5 hours! Can you believe that??? It was awesome. And i was so blessed to have my dad & stepmom come up & they set up all our furniture- so we had a sofa to sit on & beds to sleep in! ahhhhhh- it was nice- especially after Rebecca & Marie stayed until 10:30pm & we got my ENTIRE kitchen set up & unpacked. That was such a load off of my chest & has made the rest of the unpacking so bearable. Everyone has really pitched in to help us & we are so appreciative! Everyone has done something, & we don't take it for granted! Jeremy even mowed our grass that night & cousin Becca took the kids out for the day on Saturday to help us get set up more in the house! So, THANKS EVERYONE, we could NOT have done it without you ALL! We are pooped!

Final Week at 148......

{Leaving for church for the final time from this house! Aren't they sweet?}

Well, this is our final week at this house & it shows! We have boxed & packed until we just can't take it anymore! The house is a total wreck but that is what it has to look like before we can move it all out, i guess. My brother & sister in law (uncle jeff & aunt malissa) came up today & we "traded" our TV armoire for the matching couch that he had (that matched our love seat/chair combo). All of which (both the living room set & armoire) used to belong to Grandaddy & Grandma Tee. We won't be able to use the armoire in the new house, so we didn't want to move it. So luckily, Uncle Jeff wanted it. (He hated moving it though- it was the one peice of furniture that Randy dreaded moving from the get-go. It is massive & heavy!) So at least one big piece of furniture is already gone!
We have had to do a lot this weekend because Randy is working all week & I am working wed/thurs myself. Sooo, that makes for an interesting week since closing is Friday morning. So basically, we have to be ready to be moved out by the time we leave for work on Wednesday morning. After work, we will pick up the Uhaul & start loading Wednesday evening with the big stuff from Randy's shop & the larger furniture & appliances. Then the plan is to move the boxes into the Uhaul on Thursday evening & clean the house. Whew, i am tired just thinking about what lays in store for us this week. I am sure we will be worthless before the actual move-in! The move out just might do us in since we are having to drag it out all week! But hey, you gotta do what you gotta do, right? Here are some pictures from the last few days....

{the living room looks like a tornado went through it! Broken down furniture & boxes everywhere!}

{while Randy worked in the yard & i worked in the house, we wasted some water & let the kids play in the sprinkler to keep them a) entertained & happy and b) out of the way!}

{I am sure you can see the total stress this is causing Lola. I mean, this is about to send her over the edge- can you tell!? (sense the sarcasm!) No but seriously, she is so relaxed & stretched out that she almost fell off the edge of the bed! She just cracks me up when she lounges like this.....}

{and this leg, all propped up on the pillow.... she totally thinks she owns the place!}

Eli, the eating machine

I knew that no one would believe how my child ate unless i actually video-ed him. Seriously, about 1 minute into this video, he starts to shovel it in again like he was before i brought out the camera. And he literally eats like this on a day by day basis. How he doesn't get indigestion, i don't know! And yes, there is a reason he doesn't have a shirt on.....

Approved!! (officially!)

We didn't have any worries about actually getting approved for our new home loan, but it sure was nice to receive THIS in an email from our loan officer:

"Congratulations! Your loan is approved and has been given to my closing
co-coordinator. The loan package should go to the attorney's office
within 48 business hours."

Whoooo Hoooooo, we are on our way. This time next week, we will be literally sleeping on mattresses on the floor & those mattresses should be the only things left in the house, not loaded on the UHaul yet. Pretty crazy, huh?

Now let's pray that the guy buying this house has already gotten the same email from his lender!!

What fun packing can be.....

..........for a cat, that is!!! Lola has been having a good 'ole time while i have been busy packing! She hides in & out of the boxes, then pounces (at nothing really!)..... see her hiding behind that box?She also has been playing in the paper, pouncing in & out & hiding inside of it all.....
She even tasted some.... as you can see from her licking her chops!
Her friskiness has come back full force since all these supplies have been hanging around. She runs laps across the living room at night too- which sends Randy's blood pressure on up! I think it is funny myself! All this playing & romping tires a girl out.......
Such a sweet girl. I love it when she snoozes with her paws up at her face like this!

Ditto!

This arrived in the mail from Disney World over the weekend. Eli was elated, & insisted i take his picture. Don't worry, Disney... We miss you, too!

Oh, the boxes!

{i couldn't resist a picture of this in front of the new house}

Stress is kickin' in over at our house. Tomorrow marks the one week mark for when we pick up the Uhaul to start loading up for our move. And as much preparing as i have done, i don't feel like i am going to be ready. I have just begun to feel the pressure & to try & counteract it, this morning i treated myself to a cappucino blast from Baskin' Robbins. I have to say, it took the edge off for a few minutes! Ha!
The boxes are closing in around me.....
{the office- this is what i call the packing zone...... where i have been keeping all the supplies, it is looking totally unorganized & hectic in there!}
{I've even got piles of boxes going in the kitchen.....}
Since i took these pictures, piles of boxes have also popped up in the master bedroom, master bathroom, & i have emptied out the master closet. Whew! I didn't take more pictures though... but maybe if i do, i will feel like i have been more productive.

Meanwhile, Randy has been getting the inspection list knocked out. I am so proud of him! He has worked really hard to get it done by this past weekend so that our final weekend here can be devoted to last minute packing. (So basically he complied with my OCD for a few weeks!)
He had to do a "makeshift" job of getting some branches down that were touching the roof, it was a little tricky since he didn't have the right kind of saw & he was balancing on this ladder, plus, he was quickly losing light outside!
This was the only time i took a picture of him working on these things, but he has had to do a lot of handy work! He has had to lay vapor barrier in the crawl space, replace vinyl siding, replace a vent cover outside, get on the roof & replace the plumbing boot stack flashing, replace interior laundry doors, yard work, etc etc! He is tired of all this, i know, but he did a great job!

For now, we are trudging through, though. We are living out of suitcases for the last week & a half, so i am packing up the clothes today (& yesterday). Hopefully once this is done, then the only real big room left is the rest of the kitchen. I will pack that up this coming weekend before taking the white fridge to a friend. We are getting there!!!!!

Mama Love....

I just love the nights when the boys go get their blankies out of their beds & want to snuggle before bedtime. And i love that my lap can still hold the both of them. I know the time is going to come where they won't want to snuggle with me, so i try to get all the late night snuggles that i can!

The Grill.... finally!

Sometime LAST year, a friend (our preacher, actually! Thanks Monte!) gave us a grill that they didn't need anymore. They had broken the lower grill grate & they opted to get a new grill instead of replacing the grill grate. We took it off their hands, gratefully, because we didn't have a grill & wanted one. BUT, since then, it has been sitting on our back patio area unused because we never got around to replacing the grate ourselves. And to be honest, i didn't take a good look at it & i assumed there was no propane tank with it. So a couple of weeks ago, i asked Randy about the grill, asking how much it would cost to get a propane tank filled & he said he thought it had one! So, after inspecting it finally, i realized that it had a tank. I was pretty frustrated with myself because i would have looked into a grate sooner & had my wonderful hubby out there grillin' for me! SO that night i looked into a grate & ordered a replacement one online for $60 including shipping! I was estatic to get it a few days later & the next day Randy grilled hot dogs for us! I was so excited, that i took a picture of course!

We really should have moved it before firing it up because it was RIGHT beside the back steps. Before we really thought about this, it was too late to move it because it was hot! So, i panicked when Eli came out the back door & I literally screamed "HOT!!" when he came down the first step. As a result of my over-reaction, he ended up in the bushes, looking like this.... and crying..... poor baby.....
But don't worry, he recovered quickly & enjoyed the hot dogs. I know you are all surprised!