Moving

The moving company arrived at our house on Tuesday, January 19th. They sent 4 people to pack that day. I was thrilled as we had never had more than 3 before. I had high hopes that the whole process would be finished some time on Thursday. These guys didn't break any speed records. The next day only 3 people were sent and the final two days (loading) we only had 2 guys. They worked through lunch each day but must have taken a "smoke break" every hour. It was around 2:00 on Friday before we were finally able to leave our house.

We drove to Birmingham, AL Friday night. We drove another 5 hours on Sat. to Monroe, LA. We had dinner with Paul and Micah McCoy. Paul used to live in Kingsport and was a member of Westminster PCA. On Sunday we worshipped with them at Auburn Ave. Presbyterian Church. After lunch with the McCoys, we began our 6.5 hour drive to Sugar Land. That was a long drive for me. The kids did ok, but I was VERY ready to be done driving. We arrived in Sugar Land about 10:30. We checked into our hotel and went straight to bed.

Monday we had to be at our house by 7am. Brian had set up an appt. for our gas service to be turned on. They don't even do you the courtesy of saying, "We'll be there between 7-12 or 12-5." They just say, "We start at 7 and work until we are done. Have someone over the age of 18 present beginning at 7:00." Of course it was after 4 before the guy showed up! The movers were on time. They had parked the truck in front of our house on Sunday night. They were back around 8:30 Monday to begin unloading.

The same 2 guys that loaded in Kpt unloaded us in Sugar Land. Our beds had been among the last things to be loaded (We never stayed in a hotel in Kpt.), so I naturally thought they would be unloaded and set up the first day. Wrong! We didn't have beds to sleep in until Wednesday night. I was VERY thankful to be done with staying at the hotel.

Wednesday was also Brian's 40th birthday. Due to our move, I had done very little to make it "special." We had planned to make this our last night of eating out and use it to celebrate his birthday. Around 5:00 Hayley threw-up. (I knew she hadn't been feeling well but had attributed it to a lack of sleep/poor diet during the move.) Nothing like breaking in your brand-new house the first night there!!! I called Brian and told him we couldn't go out. He ended up picking up TX BBQ for dinner.

Before the movers left on Wed., the girls and I had managed to unpack all the boxes (except Brian's office.) This was my goal as I wanted them to take all the empty boxes back to Kpt. with them. It was a tiring process and one which I am glad to have behind me. Moving twice in 3 months has been difficult. If someone told us tomorrow that the project was cancelled and we could go home, my heart would be overjoyed, but I think my body would collapse. :-)

We spent subsequent days organizing and getting things in their proper place. A large portion of that was done when our rental furniture was delivered. We had a wall of built-in cabinets and bookcases in Kpt that held most of my homeschool supplies and our family library. We rented 7 6'x3' bookcases to hold our books here, and I think we could have used one more!

I love the aesthetics of our house as it is new and has lots of nice upgrades. There are several things we have discovered though that we are less than thrilled with. When we looked at the house there was a large empty field behind our fence. Now there is a massive construction project under way. At least my boys are occupied for much of the day watching all the equipment from our upstairs windows. :-) We looked at this house twice during our house hunting trip. Brian was also here several times while working here in December. All was quiet at our next door neighbors' house. We have since learned they have two HUGE German Shepherds who bark at everything that moves. They literally barked non-stop the day we had phone, cable, Internet and rental furniture guys here. Thankfully they stay inside when the owners are home. Finally there is the taco truck that makes its rounds twice a day selling its wares to guys working on houses on our street. Maybe an ice cream truck will show up this summer! We are however very grateful to the Lord for his provision for our family.

The backyard is one of my favorite parts of the house. It isn't as big as what we have in Kingsport, but is several times larger than what we had in California. It doesn't have any landscaping for the boys to destroy and it is fully fenced which means Kathryn and Andrew can play outside when the other children are out.