On The Move

I promised that after I shared some of the details of our house hunting trip, I'd give you some stories of our move. And so, here I am!

As I mentioned on the day, our movers came to pack us up on Emmi's birthday, the first of June. We were so thankful that we didn't have to do it all ourselves, and I have to say it's pretty amazing how much they get done in just a few days!!! They were out of the house by about 4 in the afternoon, confident that they would finish the next day, and then Mama and Daddy headed out to go pick up supper and dessert, and a little surprise for Emmi, who had been told that we would celebrate her birthday after we got settled (we celebrated it last week, and I'm thinking she got a pretty good deal out of this whole "can I share a birthday with Elise, now it's really my birthday, now we're having our real family party" thing, haha! The little stinker even convinced us to decorate for her a second time, haha!). While they were gone I took some pictures for a photo challenge I had signed up for... which, by the way, I did (fail) pretty well to keep up with. Lol. I blame it on the move (we were without internet for a while, so of course I couldn't upload them!)... but I'm pretty sure it would have happened anyway. Lol! I've thought of doing these things before, and never have because I knew I would get behind and just get discouraged, but since some girls I knew were heading this one, I thought, why not? And then I didn't really do the whole daily picture thing. But, I did TAKE the pictures... eventually... so maybe that counts? Haha :).

After dinner Mama brought out the pie that she had picked up at the store, and place a candle in it. And Daddy grabbed the lighter and went to light it.

Now, the lighter was almost empty, but Mama hadn't wanted to buy a new one since it wasn't allowed to be packed on the truck. So she had decided that we'd just use it one last time and then throw it out.

But when Daddy went to light it, there was a little problem... it wouldn't light. It had less fluid left in it then we had thought! Daddy came up with the brilliant idea to use our gas fireplace to light it. Andrew brought him a stick, and he lit it in the flame (eventually- it took a while), and then lit the candle, haha :). It worked well, and Emmi's mini party was saved ;). She also got an Anna doll to replace one of the ones she lost last year. Where those things went, we can not tell! And where we can find the baby one she had, we also have no idea. It's the strangest thing!

The next day was clear, bright, and hot. I felt bad for the guys loading the truck! One of them asked Daddy, "You must read a lot. How many books do you have?! There must be a hundred and fifty of these boxes!" Lol! It wasn't THAT many... but we do have a lot of books, especially when you consider that any box that HAD books in it was labelled books, even if it had more, say, blankets! Daddy explained that we homeschool, and, yes, do like to read. Later, the driver apparently told Daddy that he knew we were going to have a lot of books- "All the LifeWay managers do," he explained, haha :)! They were really nice, though, they got it all done in record time, and they were really kind to all the little ones, even though they were constantly standing in the way, haha. They especially seemed to like Josiah, all of them; and, while it might have just been his age, Tori took notice of this, because, as she told me, "It's almost like they except him as one of his own." Ever since he could walk, he's been moving furniture around the house, and we've always said we won't be surprised if he becomes a mover when he grows up, so she took this as comical confirmation ;). He was very disturbed when they took the table legs off... it was the only thing that bothered him, but boy did he get into that, haha! It reminded me of when Bethi was terrified when, during our last move, the handles were taken off our fridge. Mama mentioned that it was just as much like Emmi, who, during our move to VA, didn't worry about any of her toys or anything, but "Who took our WASHER?!"

Once they were almost done, we started cleaning... windows, counters, everything. One of Daddy's friends stopped in to say goodbye, and the truck was closed up and headed to SC. Then we headed out for supper and back to the house to finish cleaning it. It was a pretty intense night. Most of us didn't go to bed until 4 a.m., and all of the little ones were obviously getting sick. After I had cleaned the bathrooms, Mama gave me Noah, and I went and sat on the living room floor with him. One by one, all the little ones, Bethi to Noah, fell asleep, flung against the wall, on the floor, across the fireplace. It was pathetic, lol. They would wake up eventually, cold and sore, and most came to me crying and fell back asleep... and eventually I had the five youngest all laying on my lap or shoulder in some way or other. It was kind of humorous, but I felt so bad for them because I knew that if I was uncomfortable not sick, they had to be miserable. I could hear Mama and Tori in the kitchen cleaning the fridge while I sat under all those little people, and it took them a while... but Mama was so proud of it when she was done. I have to admit, I've never seen a even slightly used fridge that looked so brand new clean! Daddy somehow managed to fit all of our cleaning supplies, suitcases, food, and random items that hadn't been packed, into the car, and we went to go get a few hours of sleep.