Getting Ready

Well, it's our last full day here in the "big house." We're renting a truck tomorrow and so far have 5 or 6 guys who are planning to be here to help haul stuff. The last time we had to do this, we moved to a house 3 miles away from the first LV house, and we made lots of little trips with the seats taken out of the minivan. The B family helped us a lot with their SUV also. The really big stuff was moved by Ted and two other guys with an open trailer. So in some ways, we're hoping this time will be much easier, being able to do it in one fell swoop. Actually two swoops is more like it--Ted is planning on two trips between houses.

Last time I remember packing and unpacking so we could reuse boxes. This time we may just need to do that with a few boxes--we have a lot more moving supplies that we've picked up from various families, and again, this new house is much farther away from our current location, so driving back and forth isn't nearly as practical. I'm just thankful that--Lord willing--it looks like we won't have to do this again ourselves! The USA will be packing us up next time we have to relocate! It's a bit hard to believe that we're moving into our 7th house in 10 years of married life...

Yesterday was a long but productive day. Ted had to attend a meeting on base but was home by lunch. I took a load of stuff to the new house on my way to drop Charis and Tobin off at their PE class, since it's fairly close to the park where they meet. Then we came home and put Kenna to bed, and I spent some time playing games with Arden. It was nice to have that one-on-one time with my little Cuddle Muffin. Then I packed up the van again, trying to grab things that are unwieldy or fragile, and we made another house run. After picking up Charis and Tobin, we drove to Cindey's house, where the older 3 spent almost 5 hours playing. Ted was home when I returned. I put Kenna to bed again, and we started working.

Ted took down the trampoline, a huge task by itself. I went through the laundry room cupboards, the pantry, the kids' bathrooms, Kenna's closet (where I found 3 bags full of boys' clothes that were given to us--they'll fit the boys this year, wahoo!), and, after Kenna was awake, my closet.

Ted's off work today. The kids are going to help pack their rooms this morning while Ted goes to the new house to set up the TV and sound system. Then I'll take the older ones to Laura's house and we'll pack the kitchen and finish getting all the loose things floating around. This is the part I hate--not only packing up random items, but figuring out what to do with them when it's time to unpack them again. You know, you look at something for so long in one place, even though it doesn't really belong there, and it begins to seem normal. "Oh, that missing piece to the puzzle we put together 3 months ago? It's in the fruit basket."

Well, I guess I'd better get on with the day. I'm finally feeling more awake, and I may go for a run. No, I WILL go for a run, I'm telling myself...