All moved!!

I don’t remember being this exhausted after any of my previous moves!!  Holy cow I’m tired!  We are on day 5 in our new house.  We closed on Thursday morning and had originally planned to move on Saturday, but my dad took Thursday and Friday off to help, so we decided to go ahead and start right away.  I’m so glad about that decision now because we needed a full 4 days to get everything done.

After signing our life away at the closing (which shockingly only took 15 minutes), we headed to our new house to start cleaning.  The house was already very clean, but I like to do my own cleaning as well.  Plus, they had 2 indoor cats and a house dog – we had LOTS of vacuuming to do!!!  We have the Dyson pet vacuum – we vacuumed each room 3 times and got an entire canister of pet hair after each room.  That was all the convincing I needed to never have an indoor pet (don’t hold me to that – I still want a cat someday).

While I finished cleaning, with the help of my kiddos and mother-in-law (Rylee was such a great helper this weekend!!!), James and my dad loaded the UHaul back at our rental house.  They pulled up to the new house about the same time we were finishing cleaning.  A couple of James’ co-workers came over to help unload as they were just getting done with work (we only live a few miles from their office).  We had the entire truck unloaded in two hours.  It was almost 8:00 at this point and we were exhausted, so we didn’t do any unpacking other than throwing sheets on the mattresses. 

Friday morning we made a couple more trips back to the rental house to get the rest of our things.  We finally got to start unpacking Friday afternoon and I was so overwhelmed. Normally I would start with the kitchen, but it was the last thing I wanted to do.  By the time I did finally unpack the 28 kitchen boxes on Saturday, it took me 3 hours – and I’m sure I will rearrange everything sooner than later. 

Fast forward to Monday and I finally have 90% of the unpacking done.  Somehow I still don’t feel done though.  I know there is still organizing and rearranging to be done at some point.  We also don’t have much furniture, so the house feels a little empty and unsettled.  We drove over to Redekers on Saturday to pick out a dining table as we did not have one and had been eating on a folding table the past 5 months.  We got to bring the table home, but the chairs are on back order for about 6 weeks – so folding chairs it will be J  We also got a couple of new barstools last week for our kitchen counter, but one is missing pieces, of course, and can’t be put together.  I called Homemakers this morning and they are sending me the pieces -- in two months!!!  Ugh! 

While James and I are feeling pretty drained (we were in bed by 8:30 almost every night since moving) and still have a long “to do” list, the kids are thoroughly enjoying the new place!!  As kids who watch 8+ hours of tv a day, they have impressed us so much by finding things to do while we don’t have tv!!  The first day out here we didn’t even have furniture or toys for 6 hours –they ran around the house a million times, played in the yard, looked for the cat we inherited, etc.  They never got bored.  Rylee hadn’t been out here more than an hour when she asked if she could finally take her socks and shoes off and run through the yard J  We weren’t ever able to go barefoot in either of our previous yards.  Our new yard has a nice lush lawn perfect for bare feet J  Watching them run through the yard is just priceless.

Saturday night our new neighbors invited us over for supper. This was the best thing ever!!  We really needed a break from cleaning/moving/unpacking.  It was so nice to sit and relax and even better to have a home cooked meal after way too many fast food meals!  The kids had so much fun playing together too (Rylee and their middle boy are in the same class).  We are really excited to have this family as our neighbors!!

Yesterday I had to clean the rental house—that was the absolute last thing I wanted to do when I still had unpacking to do at our new house.  Today the new tenants move in – we are so happy to have found sub-leasers and be done with the rental!!!

Today I’m finally relaxing a little bit (to write to all of you).  I got the tv and DVD player hooked up for the kiddos and they are happily watching a movie while I type.  This afternoon we have lots of errands to run....including a trip to Grandma's so I can use her internet to send this post :)  We haven't decided what to do for internet out here yet as our options are very limited, so will be without it for a bit. 

We got to wake up to deer in the yard already.  Although we saw them daily at our Truro house, it was still special to see them in our new yard J  We have also had turkeys too. I imagine once the corn is harvested we will have lots of turkeys!  James and I went on a Gator ride Friday night while the kids were at my moms and we saw lots of deer – the wildlife is definitely present here! 

Our inherited cat Heidi is loving us already!  She let Rylee pet her for about 10 minutes last night even.  I’m not sure if she loves her new name or not – Ry keeps calling her Sophia-Heidi.  She brought us a mouse Friday night and Rylee saw her carrying a ground squirrel in her mouth last night.  It will take me a while to get used to all of that!  She sat right outside our front door last night – guard kitty! 

We truly are thrilled with our new house.  It feels so warm and cozy and generally perfect for us J  It won’t take long to feel settled and be back into a routine.  For now, I’m too tired to care about the blue carpet, green countertops and gold fixtures.  The beautiful fall scenery we have outside more than makes up for the 15 year old décor inside the house.  We are hoping to spend more time outside than in until winter gets here and forces us inside. 

We are excited to share our new place with everyone.  Let us know when you will be in the area and can stop by!!