Just Stop!

We have been busy little beavers since my last post, and things have certainly gotten better :o)

Last Thursday Nicholas went to school without protest, we got some shopping done for odds and ends, and we started moving the kitchen and bathrooms in.

The afternoon was spent scraping more wallpaper with the Depies and some of Katie's biology study group. We discussed genetics and probability, made some contractor-ish jokes, and worked our fannies off. With much steam, Diff, elbow grease and teamwork, Katie's room was finally freed from it's wallpaper cocoon.

Also, somewhere during all this Paula pointed out that we had set our goals way too high and it was adding unnecessary stress to the move. Thank goodness for wise friends! After realizing that she was the most brilliant woman in the world, we reassessed our time and budget Thursday evening. Instead of trying to strip, wash, sand and paint pretty much the entire house, clean all the carpets, scrub the house from top to bottom and have it all done by Friday so Nicholas could have a sleepover for his birthday, we scaled back to getting the messy work done by Friday and moved the party back a week. (Actually, I'd already moved the party because Nicholas didn't go to school Wednesday.) What were we thinking?!?

"Homey the Mover" showed up Thursday night and helped move in lots more boxes, and then David stayed up till the wee hours of the morning running a steam cleaner over the Den and Living Room carpets while I took the kids home to bed.

Friday morning, David went to run errands while I did my volunteer time up at Michael's school. We met back at the house and about that time David's brother, Jim, pulled up in our driveway, ready to get to work. We were so happy to see him and decided that the first order of business was to go out to Casa Fiesta for lunch so we could catch up and build up our stores of energy.

After lunch it was time to start running the carpool, so we picked up the high school crowd and I called Paula to tell her I needed to borrow Kelsey for about 30 minutes. (She actually ended up going home the next morning....)

The rest of Friday night was spent just doing it. David, Jim, Jeff and the kids made several loads back and forth filling up our truck, Jim's truck, and Jeff's car. We decided to go ahead and get the beds moved, so of course we had to bring the cat, too.
I managed to stick a roast in the oven, and we had gotten some kitchen things unpacked so we had dinner on china plates and drinks out of coffee mugs and mason jars. Redneck moving day.

Jim stayed until Saturday afternoon and helped up get the last of the big stuff, and Jeff came over Saturday to help finish up the job. Sunday we celebrated Nicholas's 8th birthday and went over and swept out the old place. We hired someone to do the cleaning, but wanted to at least get the floor swept and garage blown out.

Nicholas had a good birthday, with presents from the grandparents in the morning. The rest of us hadn't had time to shop, so I took Katie and Michael to Target while David and Nicholas started on the house. When we met up with them we asked Nicholas if he wanted his presents "wrapped" or "now". He chose "now" and just dug through the trunk and took what he wanted.

So now we are here, pinching ourselves to make sure it is all real. We are working on a realistic list of things to do around the house, as time and finances permit. We will continue to post updates about that and whatever else is going on with us. We hope to get things put away enough soon to have a housewarming party and let everyone see God's blessing to us in person. In the meantime, you can come and sit among the boxes with us Sunday to watch the Superbowl.