First of all, I wanted to give you guys the good news!! We close on our new house on Thursday!! We are so excited. After talking to some experts, the problem under the house will cost us some money for sure (about 2 grand) but they all said that it will be taken care of after that. We had been looking feverishly online for any other home that would measure up to this home and we just couldn't find it! So we decided to let go of whatever was holding us back and go for it. You can imagine how good it feels to know that we have a place to call home now! And I'm so excited to finally be able to register Preston for Kindergarten. He starts school August 2nd (I think) so I was definitely getting antsy about not being able to sign him up. We will close on Thursday and then on Saturday we leave for a Cook family vacation with Wes' side to Gatlinburg, TN.
First of all....try to move only once! I don't know how many people get this right, but just moving all of our stuff straight to the house in Brownsburg would have been so nice! We did luck out that they let us use the garage at the new house to store as much as we could. So on Friday Wes and his brother and I packed up a giant 26 ft. truck and filled up the garage to the brim at the new house. We were literally throwing mattresses on top of all the stuff just to get it to fit.
Second, pack right. A lot of wonderful people gave us boxes and so I used them all! But when it came to moving all of those smaller boxes (like diaper boxes and Amazon boxes) I realized that it would have been a lot easier to use bigger boxes and fit more stuff. I know....duh. My mom also told us that Lowes has big moving boxes for $1.36! We ended up buying about 15 of those on the last few days to fit stuff that we hadn't packed yet. I wish we would have bought a whole bunch more of those in the beginning as I think it would have been easier to use moving but also unpacking. Also, don't be cheap like me and use duct tape to close your boxes! Go to Walmart and get a tape dispenser! It was so much easier once I did that! So I guess the lesson is, don't be cheap like me!
Third, have someone watch your kids! My wonderful friend Mary watched our kids all day on Friday from 8-6:30pm. You can't imagine what a huge relief this was to us to not have to worry about the kids. We had to keep the kids on Saturday and that was NO fun!
Fourth, if you are a mom, admit to yourself that this moving thing is a phase. I had to remind myself that although not ideal, the kids would not die from playing video games for hours (and I'm talking hours!) They actually thought it was pretty fun and this allowed me to be able to pack our entire house with them being there. Also, as things around the kids are changing, I've noticed them being a lot more anxious. This has resulted in them following me around the house, crying when I go outside and don't take them and also sleeping on the floor in our room most nights. Like I said, not ideal but I try to put myself in their shoes. They don't know what moving is so they are just plain scared. Also, allow yourself to be cranky. These past 2 months I have been a BEAR to the kids. I have tried to keep the stress from getting to me, but it hasn't worked. I've been snippy and snappy and crotchity and every other mean sounding word. I just keep telling my self that Snow White will be back when we move into our other house!!!
Fifth, get more help! We thought it would be a good idea to have Wes take the day off work on Friday and do our move then since we had to be out by Sunday but that also meant that we only had one other helper, his brother Chad who is a teacher and has the summer off. This ended up working out okay and we ended up moving all the big stuff with his help and the help of my brother Mike the night before but again, not ideal. So move on the weekend when more people can help if you can!
Lastly, if the forecast says it's going to be 104 that day like it did for us, just plan on being a big, sweaty, smelly, dirty mess by the end of the day. It was brutal!! But I will leave you with an encouraging story. We had about 1/4 of the truck left to unpack, just the two of us because Chad's daughter was at the emergency room so he had to leave suddenly. The sun was beating down on us, we were drinking water from the hose and were feeling pretty miserable. Every bone and muscle in my body ached and I told Wes I don't think I can do this. We took a break on the front stoop of the house and as we sat there, a storm rolled in bringing a refreshing wind and wonderful cloud cover. The temperature dropped at least 10 degrees. We both popped up and got right to work and were done unloading within 20 minutes. I was once again reminded that God is with us no matter what and when we can't do things ourselves, He carries us. I am so thankful!
1 comment:
Glad to hear your moving saga! (get it?) Just tonight I found a blog I thought you'd like, Stacy. It's Grace Full Mama, by a Christian mother of 5. God bless you good!
Aunt Miriam
Post a Comment