And Moving Out!

The movers reached our house at the bright hour of, I believe it was, 7:30 am on Saturday. I could be wrong- I was too tired to look at the clock when they got there ;). There was the truck driver, and then a father/son team the first day. After seeing our upright piano and knowing they would have to load it, the father brought his two younger boys, as well, the second day, haha ;). They were not able to fit the items from our storage building in the truck, so that ended up being brought a couple weeks later. The first thing the truck driver who brought our storage stuff said when he walked into the family room was 'Oh, that is a big upright piano. I'm sure your movers loved that!" Haha ;). 

That morning was spent much like the previous afternoon; music, bubbles, and jump ropes outside, with one new twist and some new little friends- some little frogs :). Abbi loved them to pieces, and became an expert at catching them! Daddy and I were afraid that she would "hug" one of them too hard, and kept telling her "go put that one down, he needs a break". She would agree, put it down, turn around... and pick another one up. Haha! It was a vicious cycle ;). 

 She has a frog :)...

 Poor tiny little frog, haha...

Most of the frogs were small, but the one that was hiding on the steam cleaner that we left sitting on the deck over night so it would be out of the movers way, that Mommy took inside and turned on BEFORE she found the frog, was huge ;)! That was funny ;). Peter loved that one :)...

 I don't think this is the same one, but it was this big :)...

Daddy offered to serve the movers lunch, so Mommy went out to buy picnic/finger food type lunch items, and Bethi and I went to gather the last of the cucumbers we would get. We got another dozen+! Cucumbers are definitely a productive plant to grow! We also got a small, ripe cantaloupe. And the smallest bell pepper you've ever seen... The tomatoes were still green, though :(...

 Just one of many of these pictures, haha :).

Bethi was shocked when the truck driver popped the fridge handles off so that they could load the truck. She told Mommy "Oh, maybe that is why Daddy didn't want us hanging on the fridge...". Yep, maybe ;).

Emmi was very excited about the whole process, and was talking all day long about how "Our books and toys and beds were going to go on a truck and get to our new house". But when she walked into the kitchen and saw the empty laundry room, she was horrified. "WHO stole our WASHER?!!!", she asked.

Mommy told Tori later that day, after the truck had left, "Usually, when somebody is moving something for you, and they ask "What's in here? Rocks?", you get to laugh, and say "Aren't you funny!". But I wish you could have seen the guy's face when Daddy told hm "Actually..."!" Haha :). Tori loves rocks ;).

The movers left at about 4:00, I believe, after making one final sweep through the house. It was funny to see the look of complete disbelief on one of the guy's face as he walked by the library and saw a mountain of items. It took him a minute to realize that it was all the stuff that was going with us, we had move it from the closet ;). I felt kind of bad for him, haha. Then we had to clean! It was amazing how much there was to clean, now that it was empty, after we had been so diligent to keep it "show ready" for the last four months before the move! It was so late by the time we got in the car (the very jam-packed car. I told Mommy, as I tried to find a spot for a box in the already stuffed car, with three more large boxes waiting, "We need Aunt Tessa. Badly." My Aunt is an efficiency packer :). When we stay at Grandma's for the weekend, we get there with the car loaded, and Aunt Tessa packs it again when we leave with all of our stuff in half the space I fit it in, haha ;).). The sunset was gorgeous that night, I thought that was a special blessing from the Lord. It was the kind of sunset that turns our gate rose colored, haha :). I always loved that, so it was fun that there was one of "those sunsets" that evening :).

During the rush to get ready to leave, we played with some balloons, ahem, "conducted a science experiment", sorry. Some of us did, anyway. Those of us who were confident that we had brains to spare if something went wrong, heehee ;). That conveniently left me out ;)... Tori has wanted to breath helium since she first heard the results on one of those Moody Science Films. Tori wasn't able to hold her breath long enough to actually accomplish much talking (I think because it was hard for her to laugh at Daddy and hold her breath at the same time ;)...), but Andrew's shocked look when he first heard Daddy talking on helium instead of oxygen was priceless, haha!

We finally made it out of our yard, for the last time. It was both kind of sad, and a relief, haha. We will miss SC, but we are so happy to be back together up here in VA now :)!!! I did realize an hour down the road that I never got a picture of Tori with her tomato pants :(.

We went to the Chick-fil-a (ten minutes down the road) for supper, planning on just going through the drive through, but finding that the younger ones already needed to use the restroom. Things were not looking good for the rest of the trip ;). Not only were we taking people to the restrooms ten minutes down the road, this was "that" Chick-fil-a, with "those" soap dispensers ;)! It would appear that we are not the only ones to have had trouble, though, because the paper towel dispenser had moved ;). We got a good laugh out of that one. The rest of the trip went fairly smoothly, though, with very few stops (after we were officially started ;).) each time.

I don't know what took place in Daddy's car  (we had to drive split up to get both of our cars up to VA... that was a disappointment :(...), but Mommy and Tori and I ended up talking about the most random memories we have stuck in our heads for unknown reasons... that was entertaining, although apparently Abbi and Emmi and Bethi didn't think so... they went to sleep as soon as they were done eating ;). The drive didn't feel like an hour and a half before we stopped at a hotel, it was rather a shock how quickly it seemed to go! But then, of course, we had to do baths and unload the car. And unloading the car was no joke, let me tell you ;). Okay, to tell you the truth, it was too much of a joke ;). I told Mommy the next day, I felt like I was dumpster diving, hahaha! We decided that we didn't want to have to unload the car that night just to reload it ten hours later, so we just got out the clothes we needed for that night and the clothes were under many other items, and I was practically laying on most of it at one point ;). According to Daddy and Tori, it was hilarious ;)!

We had a special reason for stopping that night instead of just keeping on while all the little ones were asleep already :)...