Well, we made it safely to our rental!! Today was smooth, and as I’m sure you can predict if you’ve read my recent posts, it was also overwhelming. It followed the trend of holding more than we bargained for, but had some really bright spots 😀

My dad was back at work today, but Brady was able to push his work back to start on Tuesday rather than today. My mom offered to help us get ourselves situated, and I’m SO glad she did, because we had no idea how much we still had to do! We were lucky to be able to fit the remainder of our stuff into the van and her car. Both were packed FULL. One thing that was completely wonderful was that we made the decision to have our house cleaned rather than tackling it on our own, and the woman who came to clean it arrived before we left, so we were able to pay her in person, and figure out the process of things. She charged a very reasonable price, which always helps in expensive times like moving, and we accepted, paid, and fled.

We arrived at our rental around 2:30. Poor kids. We hadn’t eaten lunch yet at that point, but we did immediately upon arrival. Then my mom helped with getting stuff into the house while Brady unloaded the vehicles and I puttered around a little.

I won’t lie. I’m feeling more “done” than usual. I think its totally justified, and while I’m trying not to dwell on it, I do want to be honest. I think my feelings just come from all of the work we’ve done that has lead up to this point. We have purged and boxed and packed and made decisions and driven a TON and asked for TONS of help and have been going and going and going. Now, our old house is clean, and empty. We have stored and packed everything that needed to go elsewhere. We are FINALLY in our dwelling! And there is still so much work to do, just to get our life in order, you know? Boxes opened and things organized and placed. Just basic stuff that comes with relocating, but man, I wish we were just done. It will come though. We have so much support, and judging from all of the private messages on Facebook and texts I’ve been receiving, it doesn’t seem like it will be stopping soon, for which I am incredibly blessed.

We got the kids down a solid hour past their bedtime, and I’m really at a loss of motivation. But I think we’ve done enough to get through the night and tomorrow. Brady is rocking his role as my protector and support system right now. He’s helping talk me through things, making decisions as I struggle to, and encouraging me that we’re doing good and moving forward. I love you, my Brady. Thank you for being mine, and taking such good care of us through these transitions.

We are here. We are home. For now.

It was SUCH a treat to take today off completely!! Brady and I slept in amazingly, thanks to our fabulously relaxed and quit big kids, and the baby who went back to sleep after drinking his milk at 7:00am. I felt rested, and was barely sore when I got up shortly after 9:00. What a great start!

My parents went to church, and the rest of us stayed in. We had a yummy breakfast that the kids demolished, and watched a bit of low key tv. The kids have hardly watched tv the last few days, which is great, but it was really nice to zone and rest a little. When my parents got home, we made burgers and fries for lunch, and made a plan to not make a plan for the day.

We tossed around the ideas of watching a movie, playing a game, going for a walk, etc. We eventually decided not to make a real plan, and soon after that, my mom and I decided to duck into the city really quickly. I bought some gorgeous and super comfy new jeans at Thyme Maternity the other day, and they snagged! I’m scared that it’ll turn into a hole. Since the snag was not from anything I did, but just a flaw in the fabric, I figured it was worth inquiring about. So she and I got dressed and ready, and headed in to the mall. We did a quick walk through, and my mom found a new top and a dress!! Good colors, great fits, both definite wins! Go mom! Then we hit up Thyme, and they were really good about exchanging my pants. The only difference was that the regular length was no longer on hand in my size. I tried on the petite size and they fit even better than the regular!! My legs aren’t long at all, but usually petite is juuust a bit too short. But not in this case! So that was a big win. Also, my mom treated me to a new top there. I have this one basic long sleeved grey maternity shirt that I practically live in, and this morning, I discovered that its life is almost over 🙁 Really, it should be over already. The pits are all worn and dark and gross 🙁 But I LOVE that shirt. So thank you, mom, for replacing my favorite grey cozy shirt today. As if you haven’t done enough for me this last while, why not buy me some clothes while you’re at it? <3 I love you. Thank you!

We made our way back to the vehicle after a quick stop at Starbucks before heading back to their place for the evening. We enjoyed cinnamon rolls and fruit for supper, and put the kids down for night. Once the littles were down, we watched a bit of tv, and played cards. It was comfy and relaxed and I loved it.

Tomorrow is the day we finally move into our rental!!! We made a bit of a plan, but nothing in great detail or anything that requires a rushed schedule. Not too much left to do! I’m so ready for tomorrow. Its time to move in, and settle. At least for a while!

Guys, I think its over. Almost. Brady and my dad, along with three guys from church, moved basically everything left in our house into the container. With some careful packing and planning, we fit practically everything into our container, minus a TEENY handful of boxes that will live at my parents’ house. All that is left at our old soon-to-be-someone-elses house is our clothing and our cleaning supplies. Its SO empty there! Brady FaceTimed me when they had loaded everything up, and its SO strange to see the place to bare, but I really am thrilled for it. It feels like it is time, and we have waited so long. Its our turn. We ARE moving.

Tomorrow, we are taking OFF! We still can’t get into our rental yet, therefore, we’re living at my parents for another day and night, which is actually really nice! I’m not sure what we’d do if we didn’t have them here, willing to host us for a while. We’d likely be in a hotel, because our house has no beds… or food… or anything. So we’re staying here, skipping church tomorrow, and not surfacing all day. The kids desperately need some normalcy, and we could all use a rest, thats for sure! So tomorrow it is. Brady and I will wrap up the move itself on Monday, and the cleaning will happen in the week. Eek! This is almost it! Finally!

Now, if only the “sold” sign wasn’t frozen into the ground…..

This morning, I woke up at 8:00am feeling awesome! The night before, I had been in some of the worst pain I’d ever been in, and my good nights sleep (and Gods grace) helped me feel about 90% better this morning! I got up within fifteen minutes of waking up, and Brady and I were working hard by 8:30. There was more to pack, haul upstairs, throw out, make decisions about, empty, etc., and we gave it all we had.

My dad showed up shortly after 10:00, and I left the house around 11:00. Before I left, I emptied our freezer out into coolers, and defrosted the freezer itself. We have never defrosted that beast of a thing, and after 6.5 years of use, all of the ice I chiseled out of it was less than a 5 gallon pail. Turns out we have a great freezer! I’m glad we get to keep it, though I’m also glad that I will not be one of the people moving it up our stairs tomorrow. Sorry, guys.

Once the freezer was done, I gathered the kids up and got them into the van and off to my parents. We spent the day with my mom, playing, eating, and attempting to nap. As things tend to go on moving days, the work day was WAY longer than we had bargained for, and the guys were home around 7:30 rather than mid to late afternoon. Crazy stuff! I had kept the kids up because I thought they’d want to say goodnight to their daddy and grandpa, and I still think that was a good idea, but Dekker was having a pretty solid cry when they arrived, and he wailed until he was tucked in, when he and Laela both promptly fell asleep. It was a very full day. I didn’t work as much as the men, obviously, but it was a VERY big day all around. Successful though!

Just about everything we’ll need at our rental is there. A few other little things, like our clothing and a few toiletries, will come when we actually move in, but the vast majority is on site. Thank you, boys!! I’m so thankful I didn’t have to be elbow deep in it today. While I have LOVED being hands-on in our moving process, and actually doing some of the physical work, today would have potentially hurt me a lot, so it was nice to have a day of just child minding, and visiting with my mama.

But the poor boys especially are wiped out. So we’re all off to bed. Lets hope the kids are just as wiped and stay sleeping for a LONG time. They definitely need a good solid rest too!

We have, once again, worked our crazy butts off in this place, to the point of my leg ALREADY detaching from it!! Its unfair, really, but today was the day I finally felt things progress and change. I was motivated in the morning, and got on stuff with gusto. I’ve found these days daunting, no matter how hard I’ve tried to keep a positive attitude about them. Today felt better. Probably because its crunch time. But hey, it worked!

We have a few empty rooms in our house now, and a living room FILLED with boxes! We have our keys and things begin tomorrow. We can’t actually get into our place and live there for a few days, but we’re starting to move things tomorrow. It was going to be a very kushy, relaxed process, and it isn’t so much anymore, but the scheduling that we have is actually letting it be fairly spread out and organized, which feels good too.

This is a bit of a strange way to spend New Year’s Eve, packing and hauling and dismantling our home, but its a very exciting step towards the rest of our lives, and I’m SO very thankful to be doing it!

It wouldn’t be right to end our year sore and crusty, so we’re finished up our tasks for the night, and Brady and I will be taking our last soak in our beautiful tub tonight. Our luxury soaker tub is probably the thing I will miss most about this place. So we’re going to enjoy ourselves a soothing soak, and drain 2015 out with it. Tomorrow morning is when the real excitement begins!

Everyone, have a GREAT New Years Eve! Be safe, and enjoy yourselves immensely! I hope you are all blessed and joyous in the coming year <3

We finally got our Jerilee out for a visit today after SO LONG! I feel like we’ve been hermitting it up a bit these days, but I think our friends have understood and supported the craziness that has been our December. But this business about only seeing Jerilee once a month has gone far enough. No more of this nonsense. So she came into our huge mess of a house, made her way downstairs (the only place in the house that still has furniture) and we had our Christmas together! We exchanged gifts between ourselves, and she spoiled the kids with toys as well. It was such a lovely time to just visit and celebrate and be in each others company.

Because of how life has ran recently, the kids are struggling a bit in a few different ways, and their attitudes are pretty rough. So they went to bed early, which was sad, but they had a really nice time with their auntie first, which helped. When they went down, Brady threw some yummy appetizers into the oven, and we had a very yummy, albeit casual, Christmas dinner together, on paper plates 🙂 It was delicious, and the company wasn’t half bad either. There was lots of encouraging conversation to be had, and lots of planning and excitement. It was so good to get Jerilee back into the house, and hang out, just the three of us.

But time keeps moving, and she eventually had to head home. So she did that, and I’m doing this. Brady is paying a few bills for the month. Then to bed, because its late, and there is always lots to do around here!!!

We are back at our place for the night. After another night at my parents, we had breakfast all together before we loaded up the van and headed out the door.

Quick side note here about packing out group to go places for extended periods of time. This last time, we packed in hampers and tubs, and MY GOSH!, it was SO much nicer than suitcases! It was quick, things didn’t get wrinkled, and packing to go back home was so much easier than usual. I highly recommend to everyone, pack in tubs.

Anyway, we got home and got the kids all settled in with their toys again. We were home for less than an hour before my parents showed up! We are SO thankful for their willingness to come help us pack and organize!! We all stopped for lunch pretty much right off the hop, and then we hit the ground running. We worked for a solid four hours, I believe, before my body gave up. So we called it. Yet again, we got TONS done!! I’ll admit, its so hard for me to see the progress when its all still sitting in my living room in boxes, but walking through rooms and writing stuff down, I can see how much is left, and how far we’ve come. Best of all, as my mom kept reminding me, we still have time here. The buyer doesn’t take possession until January 8th, so while we’d rather just move and be done, if we have to duck back over those last few days a few times, so be it. Rather that than make ourselves sick over this and overdo it. All of this rambling aside, though, I know it’ll all get done, and its been a fairly smooth process.

Tomorrow, we’re taking a bit of a break from the crazy. We’re spending our night here, so we’re going to get up slowly in the morning, and take our time. We’ll putter around a bit and try to accomplish a few things as we can. Its all down to pretty small jobs now. I’ll try to call around and change our address too. And at some point in the day, the always-lovely Jerilee will join us for a little bit of a Christmas. FINALLY! I’m sooo looking forward to that! Its going to be a wonderful day.

I have to say, the one thing I will desperately miss about this house is our delicious bathtub. What a beautiful bathtub it is. So tonight, I am very much anticipating a soak in it, joined by my husband, and a Lush bath bomb. It should be an excellent evening. My aching muscles are SO excited!

Lots of you have likely heard me complain about my right leg pain. I want to explain it a little bit better than I have in the past. My right leg hurts only when I’m pregnant, as my ligaments and such begin to loosen. This pregnancy, I’ve been having issues with my leg since the very beginning. At six weeks pregnant (so only having known I was pregnant for two weeks) I had seen my chiropractor twice for the exact pain. Its not ideal.

Now the pain itself. It sounds like I’m being dramatic, but it honestly feels like my leg is just hanging there; a dead limb barely attached, just pulling on the rest of me. It may as well be detached. When its just achy, I limp around and can laugh at it. When its in really rough shape, it physically can hold no weight. Brady has to walk beside me and basically BE my right leg in order for me to even get around the house.

After SUCH a huge work day yesterday, my leg was at the very worst I have seen it. Laying in bed, completely still, in the “safe” sleeping position that will not hurt my body any further, it was pulling. If I breathed too deep, it pulled. Very sharp pains, almost taking my breath away. As I laid there, still. It was absurd. Luckily, I was completely exhausted, and slept decently well anyway. This morning, however, while I had seen improvement, I was still limping like crazy. So Brady and I called Dr. Mike’s office, and lo and behold, he was working today!

I couldn’t be more relieved. I’m still quite sore, but I’ve been putting off going to see Dr. Mike for a while now, and I’m paying for it dearly. He adjusted me beautifully, and I feel genuinely relief! But still some aches, and then the aches from being put back into place. I’m so pleased, though. I asked some questions, and he gave me so much advice! I was trying to combat this pain all wrong! I’m not supposed to stretch. I’m supposed to move. I told him I physically can’t put weight on it sometimes, but he told me other ways to move my leg without standing even! As long as I’m moving it in the right direction, it doesn’t matter. This makes me feel SO much more hopeful that I don’t have to be in such a shocking pain the entire time I’m pregnant, and can actually maybe maintain myself a bit.

However, I’ve also learned my lesson. At a time of saving money, one thing to NOT scrimp on is chiropractic. Don’t put it off. Its 110% worth it! THANK YOU Dr Mike, for saving my butt today. Literally. My butt. The right side, specifically. I love having my leg attached to my butt once again.

An enormous chunk of the move got done today!! There is still more to do, but our family has been so supportive and gung-ho to help, so we took them up on their willingness and got a ton done! 

Bright and early, I went to the container with the men and we reorganized the whole thing. We pulled a bunch out, and were able to pack it way more efficiently. It was amazing to see space just free up like that! 

After two solid hours in the freezing cold morning air (it was even colder in the container ❄️) we went back to my parents place for a delicious lunch of turkey dinner leftovers, pizza, etc. We didn’t waste much time, and headed back to our house right after lunch. The kids watched some Paw Patrol (and Rowan slept) while the six of us worked like crazy to get stuff going. Things were packed, chucked, moved into a trailer and taken back to the container, etc. We made plans for some stuff, and boxed up some stuff to take to our rental. Sooooo much got done! I’ll be honest and say I’m still a bit overwhelmed about the whole thing, but I feel like it’s very under control and like today has gotten us amazingly far!!! I’m not sure we could have successfully moved without today, so I am incredibly thankful for it! 

I am, however, very tired, like the rest of the bunch. My right leg is always finicky when I’m pregnant, but it may as well not even be attached to my body at this point. So painful, and it can’t carry any weight. Hopefully dr Mike is working some this next week because brady and I are in need!! 

But it is now very much time for bed. Sleep well all!

So my mom, my sister, and I braved the crowds for a little bit of Boxing Day shopping! I haven’t gone since I was a teenager, and even then, I have a vague memory of going once in my life. It wasn’t my thing then, but I was really anticipating today. Shopping with people of a life mind helps a lot, and our group was very much on the same page. We knew we only wanted to check a few places for a few certain things, and we wanted a coffee break in the middle.

We ended up doing pretty well, I’d say. We got the bulk of what we were looking for, which is always a win, and it really wasn’t too crazy. I really think the parking lots were busier than the actual stores. Brady and I have been trying not to spend very frivolously recently, with the move coming and such, and I was SO good, but I did buy a few things. I bought Dekker and Laela each a sweatshirt, and a long sleeved shirt for Ro. I bought Dekker some new underwear, because he needed them anyway. My best purchase, though, was at Thyme Maternity, where I bought two pairs of incredibly comfy pants for $30, together. WIN. It felt like a very successful day. Good shopping, good coffee, and good company. Yes, yes, and yes.

This evening, we ate pizza and planned out tomorrow. Everyone has been loving and willing, so we are all going out to our house to get some stuff organized for our upcoming move. I’ve been feeling a bit anxious about it, but working pretty hard not to feel so out of sorts about it. I accepted that it wouldn’t get started until after Christmas, but now that Christmas has come and gone, its time, and having tomorrow be an organization day helps a LOT. So I’m genuinely looking forward to that! First, though, we sleep. Well, first first, we watch Netflix in bed. Then we sleep. And tomorrow, we START!