Moved : Part I

Ok. So I am a month behind.  

We did move.  It was a crazy few days but it happened.

I will highlight the move in bullet form:

• movers arrived to pack and decided to pack & load same day (5 days earlier than scheduled load date) with an understanding that our items were to remain on truck - no storage and to arrive Friday afternoon, our closing date. Arrangements were made & the house was filled with bodies & a lot of hustling on my part.  

•  Matt & kids spent this day at his battalion organizational day (annual family fun day through work) while I stayed home to deal with packers. 

•  what started out as a few hours worth of packing, so I could join the fun, quickly turned into 12 and no fun for me. But, things were moving & shaking & that was good! 

• the next few days were spent finishing up our packing (we pack ourselves mostly) and finalizing things on THREE properties: our rental clearing requirements, our new home in OK and our home in Belleville which fell under contract (yahoo!) the week we were moving (extra crazy!). 

• Matt was out straight with phone calls, paper work, and a million other things. 

• Wednesday we get a call from movers to remind us of a Thursday delivery. Umm. No Friday, we tell them. Turns out, the driver double booked & had to unload on Thursday. Long story short: Matt got mad (something he rarely does), made a few calls & we agreed to a Monday delivery with our items going into vaults with same company & not being re-packed (they have to unpack items to inventory them when moving to storage & then repack). Extra moving & packing of items is when the damage happens! 

• our move day fell on a Thursday. We picked up our Uhaul the night before and began loading Thursday morning. We also picked up our trailer rental for the motorcycle that day which was a 3 hour round trip - major dent in the day! 

• our 2-4 pm leave time stretched itself out to 9 pm.  We were tired. We were gross. And we were ready to GO! (Serious props to Matthew for completely loading truck, car, van, bike...everything -solo - he's my moving hero!)

• a quick math lesson: we had a 9 hour drive and a 9 am apt at our new property and it was 9 pm. That left us 3 hours to sleep, shower, make wrong tuns, eat (dinner hadn't happened yet & breakfast would be wanted at some point), have melt downs, coffee stops, ect.  We skipped a few things.  Like showers. 

• we did stop to sleep around 1 am. My foot (I have this one leg & foot that swells - its weird and anther story in itself) was the size of a watermelon (not kidding) and I knew I had to get it elevated. We checked in & fell into bed. Not one bag or item came in - just bodies. Alarm went off exactly 2 hrs. & 45 min later.  We took our dirty, still sleepy selves back to our vehicles & continued on. Entire stop (checkin & checkout) was 3 hours.  

• time was not on our side. We forged on. We made it to our final home walk-thru at 9:45am. Late but, hey, not bad considering! We pretty much noted that house was in fact still standing & drove to our closing that was scheduled for 10 am. We were not too late. But we looked...well...scary. 

• I wish I had video footage. I really do. Our arrival to the meeting was quite similar to the Beverly Hillbillies & Cali.  All kids were in pj's. Hair a mess, teeth unbrushed & just downright neglected. I, too, was supporting the pj party (and the neglected look). Matt had the decency to not wear his pj's (briefs) to the meeting & wore yesterday's work clothes. All eyes were on us. Eyes that were dressed for an office. Suits, ties, dresses, make up. Pretty lashes & jewelry. Heels, shinny shoes & pleasant aromas. Yea. Not us. 

• we met the sellers (I'm sure they were thrilled to meet us). And got down to business. Coffee & snacks were offered. We devoured all offers. Again, making us look more cave-man like. 

• thankfully, the embarrassment was not felt due to an extreme case of "I don't give a crap! I'm tired!".  I wasn't going out of my way to be friendly. I just wanted to be outta there! Perhaps not my finest hour. 

• we finished signing our lives away & headed to OUR home!!

• a home that had no electricity, water or any utility turned on.  It was hot. We were thirsty. And dirty. And wanted nothing more than a shower and a floor to lay on.

To be continued...

Countdown

We have reached the final 10 day crunch time.  Well, 9 days now.  I didn't get my blog post in yesterday as planned.

For those that are interested in the details:

Friday the movers arrive to pack what items they will be taking.  They have it easy.  We pack everything and leave them the large items to move (furniture) as well as any thing that is odd shaped or just downright obnoxious to move.  Their  job on Friday will consist of packing baskets, random toys, some yard items, and anything framed.  They leave & come back on the 11th to actually load the large furniture & few boxed items. This leaves us with an empty house and all our boxes & totes.  Oh, and a motorcycle... Yea. I (as in me) get to haul a trailer behind the van.  Goody.

We load our truck on the 13th & head to Tulsa that evening.  Matt will drive the Uhaul & pull the car.    I will drive the van hauling kiddos & hubby's bike (remember above rant?).  We'll see how well I navigate through Dallas (yikes!).  Thankfully, a saint (ok, she's just a lady that cleans) will be doing a thorough clean of our rental home on the 14th.  I am so glad I dodged that one!

We'll crash at a hotel (and pray our truck doesn't get robbed like our last move...) until morning rays wake us up to close on our new home.  Assuming all goes well (and timely), we will unload our Uhaul that day & wait for the movers to arrive with our other belongings.

Somewhere in the mix I am hoping to squeeze in a carpet cleaning service as well as another cleaning saint.  (I'm milking the whole "7 month pregnant lady having to move - woe as me" for as long as I can in this department.  There will be plenty else for me to do!)

Matt heads back to Texas on Sunday to final out our rental property & continue work.  He hopes to come home on the weekends but we'll see.  His last day of work is July 15th.

So, that leaves me & the kiddos & a house full of boxes.

Until Tuesday.

When my mommy arrives.  Oh happy day!

And if I could find a doctor (well, midwife) to deliver this baby soon after arriving that would be a good thing :-)  Poor kid as gotten little attention.  Good thing we don't worry about these things much.  

Boxes, boxes!

The boxes are starting to pile up. Closets are being emptied, drawers are being sorted, pictures are coming down...

and the mess is growing!

We haven't gotten to the paper plate stage yet but we're well on our way.

If it seems quite around here from lack of postings - 

it's not.

For the first time ever, we hired a cleaning service. Time simply won't allow us to do it and I'm not so sure my 7 month pregnant body wants much to do with it either. 

Arrangements are coming together. This move has been a tougher puzzle to piece together in order to have everything fall into place but God is working it out! 

A New Week

Well.  We did it.  We managed to get to a good stopping point in our homeschooling this year.  We will have to pick back up for about a month and half once we've moved.  The kids are excited to have the next 5 weeks school free!  But their excitement doesn't even come close to mine...I am free to pack!

This week marks the beginning of our sorting, pitching, packing and making a real mess ;~)

I am eager to dive in and hear only the sound of packaging tape and tunes turned up.  

That's this week.  

And the next couple of weeks.

4604 W Quincy

We have a house.

Praise God! 

We close on June 14th.

We have to be out of this house on June 14th.

Let me just say that June 14th will be one busy day!

Yes, we are excited.

Yes, I have been wasting my time dreaming up color swatches and projects for the Mister.

No, Matthew has not been dreaming up color swatches.

Yes, he has been calculating costs and number crunching (yawn). 

I am always way ahead of myself in this department - but it's fun. 

And I like dreaming up ideas to make our house a home.

Matthew is a dreamer, too. He just dreams more level headed than I do.

Our hunting is over.

Now to pack...

Exhausted Monday

We returned from our third trip to Tulsa to house hunt.
Still no house.

Roughly, 55-60 houses seen (a few we've viewed twice).
The average buyer views 10.
We will never claim to be average!
(FYI - we stopped counting at 60 when we purchased our NY home. Notice the trend?)

Movies, couch, games, couch, computer, couch...did I mention the couch?
Yeah.
A lazy Monday for sure.

Lots to think about.
Lots to pray about.

This calls for Ben & Jerry's.

The Great Hunt

House Hunt, that is.

We are house hunting professionals, it seems.  If you are a realtor and we move into your town - run.  We make you work hard for every penny!

We have spent the past two weekends in Tulsa searching for a home.  40 houses seen so far.  We leave early Saturday morning for another trip, pretty sure we'll squeeze in another 20 listings.

But then we have to make a decision.

45 days until the move.

No pressure.

Moving Forward

Matthew has served in the US Army for ten years, fourteen if you count his time at West Point.  That journey is coming to a close or at least changing pace. In just eight weeks we will begin moving the family from Fort Hood, Texas to Tulsa, Oklahoma where we will begin a new chapter in our life.

Matthew has accepted a job offer with Oneok, a large energy company who deals with natural gas.  Matthew will be working in project management as an operational engineer overseeing pipe lines going in the US and Canada. His degrees in engineering will finally be put to the test.

In March, Matthew was promoted to Major.  His accomplishments in the military are great and this title certainly goes well deserved.  He will continue to serve in the military as a reservist.  It will be a huge change from what we know as military life, still, it is nice knowing we aren't completely pulling the plug!

We have enjoyed (its true!) our time serving.  We have met so many people and have gotten to see much of the country.  Much has been learned along the way and we will always treasure this season of our life.

We are eager to see what God has in store for us next.  It's a leap of faith.  And we trust that each adventure God has for us is all part of a much bigger purpose.

We will keep you updated!

Snips & Snails? OR Sugar & Spice?

What are little boys made of?

Snips and snails, and puppy dogs tails

That's what little boys are made of!




What are little girls made of?

Sugar and spice and all things nice

That's what little girls are made of!




Our 22 week ultrasound revealed that we will be having more snips & snails...




Baby is a BOY!




Estimated due date: Aug 15th-25th (I hate being so specific - ha!)


Looks like Novella & I will get to spoil ourselves with lots of girly things. The house will be predominately male! Praising God for a very healthy and active wee one. Thankful that the family got to spend the morning together admiring God's handy-work. And, I love that our school lesson revolved around this precious new life (homeschooling at it's finest). He is good.

Baseball or Blogging?

Three strikes and you're out, right?  Well, this is my third attempt at a blog.  If it flops, then my blogging days are done.  We have some major changes taking place in the Nelson nest and wanted to start our new journey with a new blog.  So here goes what very well may be nothing...

Take three!