One Crazy Busy Week

To say that the First week of September was busy would be a serious understatement. Let me walk you through that week to tell you why.


Sunday (Sept. 2)- We were visiting Pasco to attend the baby blessing of our nephew Davan. While there Eloise ended up in the hospital for the third time since July having difficulty breathing. The blessing was actually held at the hospital so that she could be there. It was a nice blessing and fun to be with all of Jon’s family for a couple of days.

Monday (Sept. 3)- We spent the day awaiting news on the situation with Jon’s mom and hanging out some of Jon’s extended family. The girls really seemed to enjoy hanging out with some of their extended family cousins. Around 2:00 PM we headed for home, the traffic wasn’t too bad and I think we stopped at the grocery store on the way home and ended up back home at around 7:30 PM or so. Jon and I put the kids to bed and worked on packing up some more boxes.

Tuesday (Sept. 4)- Jon went to work as usual and I drove Kaelyn to school in the morning, which takes about an hour round trip. Once I got home I packed like a mad woman. The biggest news of the day is that we had a 2:00 appointment to sign the documents to buy our new (well new to us) house. The process took less than an hour and then I went to set up the wire transfer for the down payment. With travel time and everything I think I was gone for something like 3 ½ hours. I am very thankful to Katie who watched my kids that day so that I didn’t have to drag them to all of that stuff. I am also glad that Brian was able to make that hour trip to pick up Kaelyn when school was over, since I couldn’t be two places at once.

Wednesday (Sept. 5)- I again drove Kaelyn to school. However, rather than going home when I was done I went to Kylie’s new preschool where Katie, Brian, and Steven met me. We swapped cars and they took Kylie and Alyssa home so I could attend a 9:30-12:00 Preschool parent meeting. After that meeting was over I went to the store to pick up some needed items and dropped off some dry cleaning, then at 12:30 I had a chiropractic appointment. Thankfully those are always short appointments so I had time to go home and grab some lunch before driving Brian to the airport. Again someone else had to pick Kaelyn up from school. I got home from dropping off Brian at about 4:00. I spent the next couple of hours packing up a car to take some stuff over to our new house at 6:30 PM. We were meeting our real estate agent, Tami, to get the keys to our new house.

As she unlocked the door and handed over the key it was a rather surreal and fulfilling moment. I kind of can’t believe that we really have a house. For 10 years we have only rented and moved around a lot. I checked and the longest we have stayed at any address was 23 months. The theory of buying this house is that we will be staying here for longer than that. I’ll admit that based on my experience I am a little skeptical. I think we may have to host a two year party when we are still here in 2014. I also think an annual "stay-iversary" will be in order every year there after.

Thursday (Sept. 6)- Another busy day, but thankfully Jon was able to take it off from work. Jon drove Kaelyn to school in the morning while I stayed home to load up our car with more odds and ends. He got back home at about 9:30. Then at about 9:45ish we left again to head down to a handful of doctor appointments. I dropped Jon, Kylie, and Alyssa off at the pediatritions office so both of the girls could get an overdue well child check. Then I went just down the road for my massage appointment. I have to say the best part of what has come out of that car accident I was in back in June is that the chiropractor prescribed 12 one hour massages for me. I kind of love it. I'll admit I feel guilty asking someone to watch my kids so that I can go and get another massage, but it has been a nice little time to relax. After I was done I drove back to the peds. office just as Jon and the girls were walking out, talk about perfect timing.

We then headed out to the nearest credit union branch to apply for an auto loan. We got a ice cream sfor the girls to enjoy while we did that because they had both gotten shots. When we were done at the credit union we grabbed some lunch from a food truck across the street and drove out to test drive a minivan we had seen online. Sadly that one had been sold by the time we got there, but we looked at a couple of others. By that time we were too close to needing to pick Kaelyn up from school to go home first, so we went to pick up some essentials from the store like toliet paper and hand soap then drove up to our new place. One of us stayed to wait for a painter to arrive while the other drove to pick Kaelyn up from school. A much shorter drive when you start at our house instead of Grandma and Grandpa's. The painter arrived on time to give us a bid for painting some of the upstairs rooms in the house. I can't remember how that evening went but I am sure that it was filled with packing up more stuff. I know that Kaelyn had a soccer practice that we just couldn't make it to because we were too busy trying to get ready for the next day.

Friday (Sept. 7)- MOVING DAY. I was supposed to be having an ultrasound and OB appointment, but rescheduled it because I just couldn't figure out how I was supposed to be both driving Kaelyn to school, and at my appointment at the same time. It just wasn't going to work and considering the fact that the entire day was filled with packing boxes, gathering things, and other such moving nonscese I am glad I took that off my list of things to do for the day. On my way to pick Kaelyn up from school I dropped Jon off at the U-haul place to pick  up our truck. I got Kaelyn, went to the grocery store to pick up water bottles and cookies to share with those people who were helping us move, then the girls and I went over to our house to unload some more of that awkward shaped stuff that just doesn't fit well in a moving truck. Then we went home I threw a spaghetti dinner on the table and we were ready when the wonderful volunteer from our old ward came to help us load our stuff on the truck. I was super impressed because we started loading just before 6:00 PM and finished just before 7:00! Way to go gentlemen! Dave graciously agreed to put the girls to bed for me (we decided to sleep the night at their house rather than ours since we were doing the moving part so late in the day). So Jon and I took our car and the truck and drove the 30 minutes up to our new house. We had scheduled to have people from our new ward come and help us unload the truck at 8PM (Something that only hindsight tells me was rather late and kind of inconsiderate. Hmm, sorry about that.) People came though we had about 6-8 men show up to help. Since we were putting everything in the basement family room. Well everything except the furniture, we asked that those be put in the rooms where they actually belonged. I was super excited that they had that truck emptied in 30 minutes easy! It went so smoothly. I am so thankfull for the many people who helped us move our stuff that day. Wahoo! Move number 11 went fantastically well!

Saturday (Sept. 8)- When we woke up on Saturday morning we had breakfast and headed off to do what everybody does the day after moving all of their stuff (well most all of their stuff) to a new house...we went and spent the morning buying a minivan. Wait that isn't what most people do? You say they unpack their boxes... well if we'd done that our week wouldn't have been quite as crazy. We figured that we need to get a minivan for two reasons. First, come January we are going to need 6 seatbelts for our family. Something our Corrolla just can't do. I have been amazed that we have been able to cram three carseats into the back of that little car, but I'd be lying if I said I haven't always hated doing so. Second, since we have moved out of Jon's parents house we no longer have access to an extra car whenever we need one. Going back to being a one car family would be pretty tough considering how often I am going here and there we figured we might as well get that bigger second car sooner rather than later. It took all morning for the paperwork to get sorted out. However, I am pretty excited about the outcome.

I have to share a couple of funny stories about the shopping experience. Jon had already researched vans on the internet and we had a list of about 3 at three different dealerships we were interested in. We prioritized them and went to the first (and thankfully only) stop as our little family walked up to the van on the lot Kaelyn said, "Uh, Mom that van looks black." Then we got closer and her face lit up a little, "Oh it is actually BLUE! I see why you want this one Ms. I love blue!" I had to laugh because I would never buy a car based on color, the fact that I own a red car is proof of that. However, I am pretty stinking excited that my van is sparkly blue. Love it!

The other funny part was that as we were test driving it we both felt like we were driving our moms vans. Then again both of our moms have gold Honda Oddessys. It was just kind of wierd. It took way less time to find the car we wanted than it took to do the paperwork. We finished off our day with a grocery shopping trip and having the help of Katie and Steven to put together beds and rearranging boxes.

Which brings us to Sunday Sept. 10. We enjoyed our first morning at home. I am grateful for the Sabbath as it gives me a chance to rest from my labors and not feel like I am being a slacker. So I am taking in this brief moment of quiet being filled with gratitude for the many blessings which are mine.