September 7-14

What a whirlwind of a week!  Last Friday we closed on the house and the sellers told us that they only needed a week to get out, rather than the expected month.  Our moving choices became move this weekend or wait a month anyway because we're busy.  Bryan and I talked it over and decided that we'd rather move right away.

So.  I spent the week putting things in boxes.  I had found free moving boxes on Craigslist a few weeks ago and picked them up, so they were just sitting in our attic waiting to be filled.  We got them down and I began packing.  It was going discouragingly slowly until Tuesday night when Steve came to visit with his pickup truck.  He packed up all the boxes we had done as well as a lot of unwieldy furniture and whatever else we could find to fit in his truck at the last minute.  Important note: "whatever else" included Olivia's bike, which she saw as we packed it.  He took that whole load back to Sidney with him and then met Bryan at the house on Friday to unload it.  After he left, the house looked a little emptier and we suddenly had a place to stack boxes.  Our flagging motivation was replenished.

I took care of bedrooms and books and wall pictures, etc., studiously avoiding packing anything in the kitchen.  The toys already live in tubs, so those were pretty well packed already, which was good because then the girls still had things to play with.  We talked to Olivia about how her bike was at her new house and how we were all going to move to her new house on Saturday.  She was excited to see her bike again.  :)

On Saturday, Bryan dropped the girls off with the Kleins while I started packing the kitchen.  When Bryan got back, he loaded the van, leaving room for the girls to get in.  Helpers from the church in Lima and Bryan's work in Springfield came with muscles and a pickup truck and trailer.  They got quite a bit packed up before noon, which was when Bryan went to pick up the u-haul.  Two more hours were spent eating pizza and packing the u-haul and then everything was full and we decided it was good enough.  I went to pick up the girls and the trucks headed straight to the new house.  By the time the girls and I arrived, everything was unpacked into our house and the Lima folk were driving away.  Presbytera had brought dinner for everyone and there was a little leftover pizza, so we didn't have to worry about that.  The girls and I went to vespers while Bryan and his work friends put boxes in the correct rooms and assembled beds for that night.

Now all we have to do is unpack and organize...  :)

Pictures:

Bryan sent me this picture Friday night:

Victory!  Can we be done?

Dinner the first night at the new house:

Our front door: