So.Very.Tired

We drove up to the old place yesterday. Of course it took longer than expected because we stopped for lunch. The best part of stopping for lunch was bumping into our friends, the Krogmans. Anastasia got such a kick out of her chance meeting with her friend Peyton. We then drove the rest of the way to the old place, and proceeded to start our cleaning job around 3 in the afternoon. Or maybe it was later. I don't remember.

Anyway, our old place was pretty trashed after moving and probably not all that clean to begin with. So we then spent the next 6 hours cleaning - nonstop. The highlight of that portion was that Anastasia got to play with her friend Teyvn for most of that time and I got to spend a little time at the end with my buddy Erin. Thanks for helping us out Erin! We finally had our inspection at 10 pm, found a bite to eat and headed back to our new house.

And we pulled in the driveway at 1:30 - in the morning. Rafael was up bright and early this morning at 8 am. And I'm exhausted and my right arm is sore from all the scrubbing. But we are finally finished with moving. And at this point, I think I'm never.moving.again. And yes, we are still planning on getting a dog this afternoon. Although I may be sleepwalking through that portion of the day. :)

Lessons You Learn From Moving

1. When you are renting your trunk and the rental agent tells you the truck will hold 2-3 rooms, and you think to yourself "that doesn't sound big enough", listen to your gut and get a bigger truck.

2. Asking your friends to help you move less than 48 hours before you move actually does work. They don't have weeks to come up with reasons not to help you. :)

3. Going back to load your truck a second time is a pain when you are moving more than 100 miles away from your old place.

4. When the truck rental man tells you that you have the truck for 3 days, he is MISTAKEN. You only have the truck for 2 days. Fortunately, the U-Haul company is nice enough to give you the 3rd day for free AFTER they call looking for their missing truck.

5. Said U-Haul center was also nice enough to give you a deal on your extra mileage because you had to make TWO trips to get all your junk.

6. You will be so happy to be finally done moving that you will fall in love with your house even though it is electric green.

7. You realize that you really never see the electric green color except when you are outside. So while you are inside you can just pretend that the house is tan.

8. You are amazed at how much stuff you have, how miserably you failed at getting rid of junk before you moved, and wonder how your stuff EVER fit into your old place.

9. You are happy that you have a basement and a garage because you can leisurely unpack your boxes. You contemplate permanently using your garage as a "storage unit". After all, you never had a garage before so do your cars really need it now?

10. Happy mood slightly dampened by the thought of traveling back to your old place to clean. This will be the 4th round trip in 10 days.

11. You will be shocked when your husband tells your 6 year old daughter that she can get a dog on Sunday, the day after you are traveling to (and from) the old place to clean. Said 6 year old is now counting the days until you head to the Humane Society. But hey, why not throw a dog into the mix just to keep things interesting???

We Have a House

We closed yesterday and although they claimed it would only take 30 minutes, it ended up taking an hour and a half. Sheeesh. Then they handed us the keys(ssssss) (I think there are about 12 or something). I think we'll be having new locks made (no telling who else out there has keys to our house).

Later we met the nice, older neighbors directly across the street, who told us they had lived there 40 years. (The sellers of our house had lived there for 48.) The neighbors told us our house had ALWAYS been various shades of gross green. Needless to say, they were relieved when we told them we planned to paint the house a nice neutral normal color like tan or white. They even offered to help (although I imagine they are pushing 70 years old, so I don't think we'll be taking them up on it). I can't believe they had to look at an electric green house for 40 years! Fortunately, the inside of the house is very neutral and was actually nicer than I remembered it being. We camped out and mostly got a good night's sleep. The kids and I headed back to South Dakota today and I am back to packing. This place is a complete disaster. Fortunately, I'm feeling great, no stomachaches, but I'm still not sure how I'm going to get everything packed by Saturday. Hmmm, maybe we'll be taking 2 days to load the truck.

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers. And for our local friends who have offered help, I may be taking you up on it. :)

Time for Fun

It seems like spring might be here in South Dakota. But we are still keeping our fingers crossed. Yesterday, the kids and I headed over to the park to have a little fun after being cooped up in the house most of the week. And I finally got to take some pictures. Here's just a few.
Having fun going down the slide together. After a couple times with big sister, Rafael was going down by himself.

Hanging out on the climbing wall.
Love this one. Pure joy at the playground. And looking cool in his shades

Thought this was kind of interesting. Maybe not the most flattering picture of Anastasia ever, but I kind of like it.

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In other news, Joe went to the walk-through for the house today and everything looked good. All the mold was gone, and there was a certificate from the mold removal company stating that they had done the work. The electrical repairs were done, and the shed was painted white. So we are headed to closing on Tuesday.

I have been so stressed out trying to pack and get everything arranged that I have been giving myself an ulcer. Despite taking numerous types of antacids, I still have been having the worst stomachaches. I was trying to rest earlier today because my stomach hurt so much and Anastasia came in and offered to get me a bowl of cereal. She then proceeded to get the whole thing ready and bring it up to me in bed using a little cutting board as a tray. Gotta love having a 6 year old that can actually do things for themselves and you too! Such a sweet girl.

So guess who needed to copy his big sister later? Yup, a few hours later I was talking on the phone and Rafael came up to me and was carrying a bag of cereal and asked me if I wanted some. I got him a bowl and he proceeded to pour the cereal and the milk (with a little help) and got me a spoon all by himself. And when he was all done he said "Ta da". He was so proud of himself. He's also been the sweetest little guy ever. Today was a rough day for me, feeling so sick and overwhelmed by everything. And when a few tears were shed (by me), Rafael would ask "I get you a tissue?" and then he'd go off to look for one. And he also said "Please don't cry" and gave me a hug. He's such a little sweetie.

And I'm finally starting to feel better. Hopefully, tomorrow I can get something done.

Finally

Got the homeowners' insurance figured out - Farmer's has good rates if anyone is interested. Got the utilties switched. Still haven't figured out what to do about phone/internet.
And the shed is being painted white or might already be painted white. Hooray, one less neon green thing for me to look at! Still working on packing and organizing. I did take another pile of stuff to the thrift store today. But I'm still working on sorting out toys. I have 4 trash bags of toys (2 that I want to get rid of, and 2 that I was planning on keeping). I'm thinking that I should go through them again and pare it all down to 1 keeper bag. We close on Tuesday and we move on Saturday the 21st. Say a prayer that we have good weather for our move!

Knock, Knock

Rafael's new favorite thing - knock, knock jokes. Of course, Anastasia and Rafael just make them up as they go along. I think I only know about 3 real ones, so maybe after we move we'll have to get a book out of the library and learn more. Please excuse his dirty face and hands - I promise I don't usually let him run around looking like a ragamuffin. :)

Could this be ANY more complicated?

I haven't had any time to pack today because I've been on the phone all morning, trying to buy homeowner's insurance, which I know nothing about. I also have been trying to get our health insurance with Joe's employer figured out. Which is like reading Greek.

And then the underwriter of our loan is asking the sellers to paint the shed behind the house and some cracked paint under the eaves. Of course it is too cold to paint right now, so basically they have to paint later in the spring. Now, we don't even want them to paint because we want to paint everything a completely different color, not to mention the fact that I actually wanted to paint the shed myself. (Thinking it would be the easiest thing to paint and hopefully learn what to do before trying to paint the house). But the loan won't go through without the sellers agreeing to paint the shed and the eaves. This is so incredibly complicated.

I also need to set up all the utilities to transfer to our names, and figure out what to do about internet and phone service. Does anyone out there have Vonage? And did I mention one homeowner's insurance agent was trying to get me to switch my auto insurance? Like I need anything else to deal with right now. And of course, there is still packing to do.. . . this is seriously more complicated than planning a wedding, having a baby and graduating (even if I was doing them all at the same time).

Feels Like Spring

Yesterday and today the weather has been gorgeous! The kids got to play outside in the puddles yesterday afternoon. (Rafael does not like getting soaked, so we had to change his clothes in the middle of playtime.) I didn't get around to taking any pictures, although I thought about it. Unfortunately, I heard that there might be snow this weekend. Typical South Dakota weather. I really hope it doesn't snow - we are ready for spring.

On the moving and packing front, I have packed and packed and packed and there is still more to do. Today I dropped off 5 bags of old clothes to the thrift store. And I'm planning on taking more clothes, toys, and books soon. Of course, now that I see how much stuff I have, I think I should go back through the boxes of toys and clothes that I have already packed, and get rid of even more stuff. It seems to get easier to get rid of things once I get started. Now I just want to get rid of everything! I still have so much packing to do if I'm going to have this place completely ready to move by the 21st. Wish me luck.