Moving... again

I'm taking a break from playing catch-up to let you know what is going on in the present.  We are preparing to move... again.  I know, you are really shocked.  Some of you are saying, "It is about time."  Others are probably thinking, "Didn't they just move?"  And this isn't a small move. 

Our first move was Georgia to Ohio.  Seven hours to get back to my parents without even having to change interstates.  Then Ohio to Delaware.  The move itself was short, but we were 14 hours back to our parents, through D.C. no less.  Then came Delaware to North Carolina.  Shorter move, and we were only 7 hours back to parents.  It has been nice being that close.  However with two kids that drive became longer.  Especially after they were potty trained and my son seemed to have inherited my small bladder.

This time it will be North Carolina to Iowa.  Yep, we are crossing the time zone barrier.  It will most likely take 2 days to drive it.  I'm not up to driving 18+ hours with two kids, two cats & a dog in the same vehicle.  The perk to driving from here to there is that half way will be Dayton.  Kinda like home, or at least familiar territory.

We are looking forward to being up there.  Yes, we will be 14+ hours to our parents & Uncle Randy, and even more to Aunt Elisha, but we will be about 4 hours to Eric's grandparents and my extended family.  Plus we keep talking about all the exciting places to take the kids once we are already half way across the country.  I hear that they built a baseball field and I must go...

The part that seems to take forever is all the paperwork.  This is a corporate move.  Believe me, the relocation package is awesome.  It just takes forever to do everything.  And on the side where we sale the house here, everything at the start is duplicate: two Realtors & reports, two appraisers, two mortgage companies, etc.  It will be three weeks from talking to the first realtor until we sign papers when we can list the house here.  And that doesn't include getting all the behind the scenes paperwork done.  The mound of papers that had to be notarized & sent back.  The paperwork just between us & the relocation department for when we do sell the house.  (Fingers crossed it sells within the allotted time period.)

We did find a house up there.  The realtor up there sent us a list of houses.  I narrowed it down and sent her back a list.  Eric & I went over her original list.  I sent her a revised list back and said to forget the first list.  She didn't get the revised list.  Wouldn't you know the house we picked was on the first list I told her to ignore.  The elementary school is within walking distance.  There is a park even closer.  There is a bike trail that runs through the neighborhood in our backyard. And it gives Eric the shortest time possible to work, from where we wanted to live anyway.

Back to here.  I don't clean well.  We have too much stuff.  This getting the house "show ready" is for the birds.  It is hard.  I'm looking at the piles of stuff in my kitchen that have to disappear.  I have taken all the family pictures off the wall.  The house feels naked.  I'm purging things but it never seems like enough is leaving.  I still want to be able to park in the garage.  I mean ,we still live here.  It isn't like I have to pack everything (I told you the relocation package was awesome.  They send packers!) and can just get started and just box everything up into the garage.

And all that hurry up and wait time is gone.  Now I feel like I am out of time.  I still need to make a trip to Aunt Elisha's to get my hands on that sweet little boy I haven't touched yet (he's now two months old...not really living up to the favorite aunt standard).  I really really want to make a trip to Georgia to see my side of the family before I move my kiddos that far away from them.  I have promised Kathryn a pre-move birthday party.  There is ending the AWANA and MOPS years. There is once the house is on the market the constant keeping things straightened up in hopes that there is a showing and we need to vacate the premises.

When I start to think about what the month of May holds I just shut down and then I don't get anything done.  Then about ten minutes later I get in panic mode.  And I can't even start to tell you the stress that Eric is feeling trying to wrap up things here at work, but trying to stay on top of what is going on in the project for Iowa.  He's still got two weeks away from here to be devoted to the Iowa project before we move.

We still need to schedule the packers/movers.  I still need to purge the house.  The new house has more square footage, but the rooms are smaller.  Doesn't make sense I know.  The new house has a finished basement!

This afternoon I feel too tired from doing my normal morning activities and errands to even tackle a small project, i.e the pile of small empty boxes that have accumulated on my counters over the weekend.  I just want to sit and eat my loaded-bake-potato dip which would undo the trip to the gym this morning.

So if you happen to be thinking of us, could you send me some motivation?

Family Pictures

These were actually taken in November, but I forgot about them.  A friend of mine did these for us.  If you got a Christmas card from us they may seem familiar.

 

December 2012

I'll break December down into at least three posts.  It was a busy month and I (we) got a new fancy camera and I may or may not be "camera happy" when it comes to taking pictures.  Let's just say that Eric is glad it is digital and not real film that I would be developing.

I'm not sure if these are in chronological order.  I pulled pictures from two cameras and my phone.  I could look at the date stamp, but are you going to know if they are correct or not if I don't?

December 1st we drove about an hour north to go to a Christmas Light display.  I'm glad that it was free.  It didn't meet my expectations that all my friends made it sound like it should be.  The kids had fun but it was cold and crowded.  I can't imagine what it would have been like later in December.  We rode a small train (tractor pulling cars of people) through the Christmas lights.  We walked around the old fashion candy shoppe and bought expensive white yogurt covered pretzels.

 

We made "gingerbread trees" with some friends.  They are actually sugar ice cream cones turned upside down and covered in green icing.  The kids loved it.  I set out bowls of sprinkles, M&Ms, Nerds, and these candy cane shaped sprinkles I had found the year before.  It was a lot less messy than the gingerbread houses and the kids loved them!

 

You eat them this way to not get your fingers messy.

 



 

Noah didn't care, he just wanted to eat it.

 

Then came cookie baking.  I let Kathryn help with the cookie gun on the Christmas trees and gave them each a pan to decorate.

 

This is what happens when you give a two-year-old jars of sprinkles.

 

I made Elf Shortbread.  It was yummy.  Adding sprinkles to anything, well almost, makes it yummy.

 

Andrew's very decorated cookie. I let him eat that one.

 

Mommy got to play with the camera :)

 

One night I was experimenting with the camera settings.  Daisy was happy to sit under the tree and be my test subject. 

 

We also painted Christmas trees I found on clearance at Michael's.

 

At some point in the month, Eric & I went to see Andrew Peterson and the "Behold the Lamb of God" tour.  If you haven't seen this, you really need to.  It is awesome.  I mean the music on CD is wonderful by itself, but to see it in concert form is just amazing.  The night is in two sections.  The first section the artists, including a special guest, take turns playing two songs a piece.  There's a small intermission.  Then the entire CD is played from start to finish with no brakes.  One long song.  Completely amazing.  I don't remember who was supposed to be the special guest this year, but he couldn't make it so Caleb Chapman filled in.  He did surprisingly wonderful.  I will say that the previous two years hearing Jason Gray sing "Deliver Us" gave me chill bumps, but Caleb did well.

 

 

 

More December to follow....

November 2012

I have fallen behind catching up.  You are shocked, right?  To speed up the catching up process, here is a really big post about November.  It was busy.  As usual.  When is our life not busy?

We started off with a trip to Nana & Granddad's in Georgia with time with cousin Chloe and Uncle Randy & Aunt Sarah.

 

The new thing?  Acorn hunting.  Granddad thought this would be a good way to clean up the yard, but the kids just left them all in piles on the back porch.  Not quite the help he was looking for.

 

We always go to the park down by Riverside when in Rome.  The cousins love playing together.

look at this cutie and those blue eyes :)

 

and she dances, too!!

 

Aren't they cute?

 

Even cuter when they all fall asleep at the same time!

 

Then we took a trip to Maryland to visit Aunt Elisha, Uncle Jonathan, Caleb, Esther & Anna.  Uncle Jonathan took the opportunity to teach the kids how to use the power tools to clean the front yard.

 

Manual labor is always good to know as well.

I love this picture.

 



 

Andrew had a cold/sinus issue that weekend.  Can you tell?

 

Being silly

 

The real reason for the trip was to celebrate Esther's 4th birthday, not to clean the front yard.  Elisha made these really cute monkey cupcakes.  They were adorable.

 

Movie / quiet time

 

Eric tried to teach them how to play Foosball.  Anna cheered no matter who scored.

 

Lots of miles on the car in November, but that is normal.  I try to not pass up an opportunity to get the cousins together.  (And I'm running out of time before the big move!)