7/24 - Moving Nana in with us

On Friday morning we left to head to St. Pete to get my mom and move her up to Jax. On the way down, we stopped in Tampa for my first IKEA trip ever. It was so amazing. We ate a pretty good lunch there, the kids loved the play center area, and we found most of the stuff we wanted. We were pinched for time (the kids could only stay for 40 min) so I didn't get everything I wanted to but I was still overall pleased with the trip. We got to Nana's apartment and she had done a great job of packing things up. We did some light packing and then headed off to Bob Evans for dinner. Here is Aiden waiting for his french toast that he ordered. Iggy, the chameleon on his head, has been traveling around with us lately. Eli ordered spaghetti (which we don't eat at our house) and devoured it and didn't really make a mess. I was actually impressed.

On Saturday morning we finished packing up a few last minute things and then the guy power arrived. We are so blessed. My sister's brother, cousin, step-dad, and a friend came over to help us move. It was so awesome and sweet of them. My cousin Rachel was going to watch the boys but then my sister decided she would be in town too and it would be great to get the cousins together. That said, I ended up taking the boys to her aunt's house in St. Pete and she had her 3 boys with her and then my aunt and cousin came to help out too and we added in my 2 boys. I then took back off to go to my mom's apartment. The boys were already taking boxes downstairs and stacking them up. It took a while to get the moving van and trailer but Brad finally showed up with the MASSIVE truck. He tried to get a smaller one but they didn't have anything available. We got it all packed up pretty quick but the longest part were those last few items and then cleaning up. Here are a few pictures of the boys having some fun with their cousins:

I wish I could have seen all the cousins playing together. Aiden loves his cousins and I really wish we were closer to he could see them more. After all the stuff was out and most everything was clean, Rachel and Becky brought the boys back over to Nana's apartment to eat lunch. The boys had a great time with them and I just love this picture to the below. I haven't had a picture with my cousin Rach and my aunt Becky in a long time so glad we got a few pictures. 

It was finally time to put the trailer on the truck. The boys helped out and had so much fun. It seemed like forever from getting to truck loaded to actually leaving. I'm SO SO SO glad Rach and Becky stayed around to help with the boys while we did all the last minute stuff that didn't last a minute at all; more like an hour. The boys were so hot from being outside but I was scared to give them too much water because then we would need to stop and use the potty. I also knew it would take longer than usual to get back to Jax since we were following Brad in the truck and with the trailer. We did pretty good and just made one stop at a rest stop which was great because Brad didn't have to worry about driving that huge thing with a trailer and doing tight turns. 

It took us about 4-4.25 hrs to make the trip and of course, little Eli falls asleep with about 10-15 minutes to go. The poor little guy didn't get a nap the day before and then didn't fall asleep until 5:15ish on this day. His body is so confused. We let him sleep for about 20-30 min and then woke him up.

The boys have LOVED having Nana and Bronco home with us. We ended up not going to church on Sunday because the previous two days just completely wore us out. My mom didn't have any clothes either because they were all in boxes on the truck. With the help of some church friends on Sunday afternoon, we got truck unloaded and lots unpacked for my mom. 

The boys were showing Nana their activity dice and they were getting a little physical activity in on Sunday morning. Sunday night was the last evening of Sports Camp at church so I took the boys to that while Nana continued to unpack and Brad did a few things around the house. 

Here is Eli playing basketball. He's getting better put I think he is more of a power guy rather than an accurate thrower kind of boy.

Aiden loved playing all the sports but seemed to enjoy the 'lacrosse' he played. 

Nana is unpacking right now and getting settled in. I think the space she has upstairs is pretty nice for her. I'm sure there will be kinks along the way with 2 households blending in to one but with patience, prayer, honesty, and love, it's all going to workout just fine. 

7/23 - Unpacking: what a LONG process

So we are getting there. Just 1 box in the boys' rooms and about 4 in mine. The office - well that's a different story. I took the boys on a bike ride the week we got here to give Brad some time to mow the yard. The boys did great. Eli has graduated to Aiden's bike and Aiden is now riding a bike that our former neighbor gave him. He wouldn't ride it for the longest time because the training wheels were a little shorter than the real wheel and Aiden freaked out if the bike would rock a tiny bit. We gave up on trying to convince Aiden he was still safe so Brad adjusted the training wheels and now it's rock solid and Aiden is back in his comfy place and will let his brother ride the other 'big boy' bike. After 2 years of Eli pitching a fit if I even tried to put the helmet on his head and not even click it together, he has decided to freely and voluntarily wear one now. What gives? Even though we are supposed to be living in a really nice area, I like our old development better. It had huge sidewalks and they were on both sides of the street throughout the major parts. Here, we can go on the sidewalk for 2-3 houses and then have to go in the street for 1-2 lots because houses are not built yet and that means there is no sidewalk. It makes it very challenging to go for a bike ride. I think we will start putting the bikes in the van and then driving over to Oakleaf and riding on their huge sidewalks.

The local Wal-mart here is like a small chuckie-e-cheese. Here are the boys playing on the rides for a bit. They are getting smarter though and now they know if you have money, cooler things can happen to those machines! :)

It's been pretty rainy here lately so we even tried hitting up the Orange Park Mall. The boys used to love this play area. They were really excited to go back but unfortunately, they have taken about half of the fun things to climb on out of the play area. 

We went up and down the escalators in a department store which always makes them happy. We tried to wear them out. Another thing: they are used to relatively short drives from one place to another. Those days are LONG gone here in Jax. Everything is about 30-45 minutes here and that is taking some adjusting for all of us. They are bored, I mis-plan and am late everywhere, and I spend $70 a week on gas. 

I have taken the boys down to the pool. It was ... not Oakleaf (which has huge water features for kids to play with) but there is a baby pool which has a little slide and a bigger pool with a 100-ft slide that is crazy fast and something my kids will not go on probably while we live here. If they do, I better put a swim diaper on them because they might actually poo in their pants with how fast it is. I love it! There is also a 1m and 3m diving board but you have to know how to swim in order to use those.

Eli tried this speedo vest on and water wings for the first time the other and LOVED them. I was shocked. He was swimming around everywhere and wouldn't let Aiden have the wings back. He didn't want us near him and said he could "do it by himself." I informed him that unless he knew how to swim and float with the vest and floaties, a grown up would always be by him while swimming.















The one thing that saved us at the pool was that there are a few water spout things and the boys love to play in those.

Aiden is all registered for Kindergarten. I'm still looking for a daycare for Eli but think I have it figured out. The boys both went to their former daycare last week for 2 days so Brad and I could get some work done and they could socialize and play with friends. Both had their physicals done and we already have an appt set for Eli for an ENT and it's the same doctor who did both sets of tubes and his adenoids which I'm super happy about. These super hero boys have been troopers lately with so much going on.










The boys have really been wanting to go in a canoe in the lake where we live at. We finally did that last week. It was going great until it suddenly started pouring. I mean absolutely went from no rain drops to POURING. Aiden freaked out a little. He was in Brad's canoe and they came racing over to the dock and Aiden got out and ran for shelter. Eli was in my canoe and we got to the dock first. Eli thought the rain was pretty fun.

Our friends that we met in Maryland 5 years ago just moved from CA to FL. We are so excited that they are in the same city as us now even though we live on opposite sides. We got to meet up with Mike and Arin (and Grace, their 4 yr old daughter) last week. It was great and I can't wait for more visits and hang outs to come. 

The boys have been asking to go to Chuck-E-Cheese for a while now so we finally went. This one is right down the street from us which is nice. The boys had a blast.  

And I do mean ALL the boys (Brad is so cute).

I have another post to do. We went to St. Pete on Friday and moved my mom in with us on Saturday. Things have been overwhelming lately and I still have unpacking to do but I never seem to have any time to do it. We are about to enjoy a 4 day vacation in Orlando before Brad leaves for a few months. We just found out today Brad's next orders are longer than he thought. In addition to that, he will have a 9 month cruise. Our lease is for 2 yrs which means it is likely that I will have to move our entire household during his deployment to another location for a few months which totally would stink. Our landlords are military as well and they have 2 yrs orders and are planning to move back in here (and retire) so I'm not sure there is any wiggle room. I have to trust that this is God's plan and He will provide and guide us and worrying about things is not going to help me at all.

7/15 - Aiden's last few therapy sessions

So I've been meaning to write about this and post it for a while. Aiden had his last therapy session with Mrs. Rusty a few days before we left. The week before, she needed to do some re-testing on him for obvious reasons but he doesn't find that fun at all really. This first set of pictures is from the 2nd to last therapy session where she had to do re-tests. It was so neat to see how far he has come. He was even able to do some things that she couldn't even get him to try before because he was ... not ready yet; not at a place with his gross motor skills to be able to do them. It also happened to be thundering and raining pretty hard so the picture of him all curled up is when it got pretty loud and he was tucking himself into a ball.
I tell ya, Mrs. Rusty has a talent for knowing how to push kids to their limit AND also making it fun. In the middle left picture, Rusty had him doing the itsy bitsy spider movement with his fingers. For him, it takes lots of concentration but she got him to do it.

Aiden wanted nothing to do with trying the activity in the picture on the bottom. She was having him alternate picking his toes up off the floor between feet. She then added doing that with tapping his hand on his thigh. It was  pretty tough and he really didn't want to do it  but he's actually kinda smiling in the picture. Aiden gives up SO FAST when he attempts
something just one time and can't do it. It's so sad but we will just keep encouraging him to keep trying and make a game of it. Thankfully I got to witness Rusty with her skills on how to motivate Aiden. :)

This next set of pictures is from Aiden's last therapy session. Rusty let him (although gently guided) come up with an obstacle course. I think one of the funniest parts of the whole thing is that she wanted to "steal" some crash pads (bean bags) from the other side of the gym from the other therapist and asked Aiden to help her. She was acting like she was sneaking over and thought Aiden was following her. The minute Aiden put the word 'stealing' together with her animated actions (tip-toeing, being quite), he wanted NOTHING to do with helping her. Rusty clarified that she wasn't really stealing and it was okay and then he was kinda on-board. He helped move some stuff and then he heard the other therapist coming over and hid in one of the mats/tunnels that they had moved. It was too funny. Don't ever ask this kid to commit a crime because he will turn you in (which I love; I'm a rule follower too). They made a cool obstacle course and had fun modifying it and making it harder.
The picture on the 3rd row, far right cracks me up. He was taking a break and trying to decide what to do next. He came up with the idea that he would make an obstacle course for Mrs. Rusty. The coolest part: Mrs. Rusty just went with it and was a trooper. I love that. He then got to end on the zip line which is one of his favorite things. He couldn't even hang on to the bar by himself when he first started therapy there and can not only hang on now, but can actually do it long enough to zip down the line. We are forever grateful to Mrs. Rusty and Excel Rehabilitation. It's been a very dynamic therapy and so very perfect for Aiden. So we now close the book on a long chapter of Aiden's occupational therapy. He's come so very far and has gotten so strong. All of his hard work will pay off hugely I think when he enters kindergarten in a few weeks and has the same (for the most part) skills as his peers.

I did take Aiden to his primary care doctor today (who is just fabulous). She had him when we were stationed here before and was so good that I requested her again. She wants Aiden to get his Neuropsychological testing again and we will go from there. I'm not sure what, if anything, to do for Aiden for school next year. His anxiety and sensory stuff can affect him enough that he doesn't always function 'normally' compared to his peers but I'm not sure it is enough to warrant anything. I also don't want him to get a label that will hold him back or cause problems or prevent him from learning at his potential. I was thinking I could just talk to his teacher and he would be fine but then the first sunday we were back for church, the teachers were saying how he didn't want to do the art and craft (cotton balls being glued to paper) and same thing for the evening service (gluing sand to paper) so maybe that is God telling me I do need to do something. Either way, we will get him tested again and see where he stands at currently and go from there. I am so excited for him that he has been blessed with such great occupational therapists and has come so far in the last 1.5 yrs. Praise the Lord.

7/9 - Move from AL to FL - Part 2

The owners of the house we are renting from were nice enough to let us have the key the evening before the 1st (which is when our lease starts). We got in the evening before the 1st and the boys ran around and were so excited about our new house. I spent the next 2+ hours doing the check-in sheet and documenting anything that was wrong or things I at least wanted to note so that we were not held liable of damaging anything. I'm pretty crazy obsessed with moving in and out of places after doing it so often in college and also watching Judge Judy and knowing I have to "prove" everything. :) Brad and I were up super late this night because we went around the house trying to decide where to put everything. I even wrote everything on sticky notes and put them on the walls so the movers would know where to put stuff.

We knew that the movers would be there early the next day so we set our alarm. Unfortunately, we didn't need it really because the lot next to our house is being leveled so the dump trucks and bulldozers were there promptly at 7am making all kinds of noises. The boys loved it and had a great view from our bedroom and bathroom. We waited, and waited, and waited, and the movers finally showed up at about 10:30am. We were shocked. Lots of the day was wasted and there was some nasty weather forecasted throughout the day. The movers came in and set up shop and started to unload. They unloaded all the garage stuff for the first 2.5 hours so it was very frustrating for me knowing that I could be unpacking boxes and such but no boxes were inside yet so I had to wait. Brad got a tip from someone this year that parking your vehicle in the garage is a great way for them not to just stack everything in the garage to we tried it. It was working fairly well until the weather really threatened and they said it would be best if he could move his truck out so they could just put a ton of stuff in the garage and then move it in to the house after it was all in the garage. It made sense but ... we still wanted room in the garage. Brad inventoried all the boxes coming in (dozens were not even tagged which explains how we only had 300+ items) and I was the sheriff inside. I told them I wanted an almost full unpack. To make a long story short, our garage and attic were FULL of boxes that we haven't unpacked or just opened for a few items over the past 4 years. We have a TON of stuff. Lots of it is all my teaching stuff but alot of it is also random junk. It's catching up with us now and we don't want all this random stuff anymore. We decided to put all that kind of stuff in the office so that room was FULL of boxes. The movers set up the loft beds in the boys room. I was trying to at least open all the boxes to make sure they were actually labeled right and in the correct room. Many were not so I'm glad I did that. They unpacked mostly to our satisfaction and then left at about 4:30pm. The last 3 hrs was pure craziness because I was trying to put away as fast as they were unpacking but it was impossible since they didn't bring in boxes for the first few hours.

We unpacked all day and all night. It was exhausting. Not only did we have a ton to unpack but I didn't realize we would need to get hardware for blinds, towel racks in the bathrooms, and ceiling fans. It is HOT in Florida and in our world, ceiling fans are a must. I got groceries on Tuesday morning. I tried to get the boys rooms together first so they could play. That partially worked.


Here is Aiden doing some therapy on Tuesday afternoon. He said he missed doing therapy with Mrs. Rusty.

We unpacked all day and found out why the packers were so quick back in Alabama. They did a HORRIBLE JOB. They packed dirty clothes on top of clean clothes. They literally dumped out our dirty clothes hamper into a box and then took out clean clothes from my dresser and put them on top. In a perfect world, I would have had that load of red laundry done but, the least you could do is put paper between the dirty and clean clothes. They also dumped out smaller boxes which were labeled and just dumped them into one giant box. First of all, these boxes are small enough that they can actually fit quite nicely into bigger boxes. Secondly, if you are going to open and dump out boxes of folded clothes, the least you could do is wrap them in paper so I know that they came from different boxes. Needless to say, it took me HOURS to refold and organize all the clothes (3T winter, 3T summer, 4T, 5T, etc).



I took pictures to show that they literally dumped all the clothes into the box. See the picture below, that is their idea of packing wrapping paper. They just fold the roll right in half for you and shove it in a box.

And while I am on the topic of unpacking my bedroom, here is how I found my jewelry. This usually hangs on the wall and it has bracelets, earrings, etc on it. I found it placed? in a giant box and it wasn't even wrapped. They wrapped the hair scruncies underneath it along with other random crap that was on my dresser but decided it wasn't necessary to actually wrap the jewelry or the entire thing in paper. I was fishing out earrings and untangling necklaces for a while.

We haven't made any moving claims in the last 4 moves but we will be this time. There were a few broken dishes, various broken/dented/un-useable containers this time. I'm not sure why you would pack magazine holders on their side. They break when that happens. Same thing with rubbermaid and sterilite containers. The frustrating thing is that I have all the same kind of containers for organizing Aiden's room and they broke 2 of them. I went to walmart to get new ones and they don't even sell that kind in Florida. Bah.

Now on the stuff about the house. We put a ceiling fan in Aiden's room but since the ceiling is so high and the sides are slanted, you could not feel the fan AT ALL. Brad took it back down and put it in Eli's room and we got another fan with an extender and put it in Aiden's room. At least you can feel the fan now but it is still very warm in his room all the time. We finally got hardware and put up a rod for the windows in the living room. I bought sheer white curtains for now until we decide on a color for the front curtains but didn't realize until I came home and hung the curtains that we do not have the standard 84 in tall sliding glass door. We actually have 3 panels so it is much wider than normal. The length of windows is about 108 inches. I'm trying to find that length of curtain but we will have to special order that. For now, we have the short sheer curtains hanging to we at least can get a little privacy from the 15th hole on the golf course.

On Wednesday, I let the boys have a brief break from all the craziness and took them down to the amenities center. They got to climb in the treehouse which was really fun. They also ran around hard on the putt putt golf course. They have never played putt putt so Eli kept calling is the "green maze." They did a great job of wearing themselves out and getting some exercise.

In the mist of all this moving, Brad had his birthday. I did a lame job of celebrating it so I owe him next year. While we love this house, we definitely are going to miss the amenities from Oakleaf that we are used: giant sidewalks, a fitness that you can bring kids to, and pools with awesome water park features. Sigh. But, we do still have a fitness center (kids can't come upstairs and I have to pay $100 a month if I want the option to leave them in kids corner - like daycare - from 4-6:30pm on weekdays), and a pool. We are definitely not used to living on a "busy" street so we are acclimating to that as well. 

Lots of changes. We are still unpacking but the majority of the house is put away. We still have to hang pictures too. It's a work in progress and once I finish the office, there will be a huge feeling of relief from going through and purging 5-10 years of random stuff.

The boys are definitely missing interacting with other kids. It is going to take a while to get them in to the dr to get physical so they can get into daycare or something like that. It was GREAT to see old friends from church this past sunday though. Although this has been the worst unpacking/moving experience for us ever, it is starting to subside and things are getting in order.

7/7 - The move from AL to FL - Part 1

Here is what was planned for our move: Thursday and Friday - pack; Saturday - pack truck; Monday - delivery of goods.

The moving company called and said they would be at our house between 8 and 10 to start packing. Much to my surprise and frustration, they showed up at 7:15am. I wasn't ready for that. It was craziness after that. They were determined to pack us in one day (it has always taken 2 full days). Needless to say, they did manage to pack us in just one day. I was shocked but pretty excited. They then told us they were going to load everything on Friday. I actually didn't mind that because loading on Saturday, when the boys would be at home, would be very challenging.



I didn't even get to eat breakfast on Thursday because the first thing they head for is the kitchen. We bought the packers pizza for lunch and ate a slice ourselves. For dinner, our friend was nice enough to invite us over. That's one of the hardest things about moving is that I really HATE eating out for every meal for a week so it was so super nice that our friend, Rusty, invited us over. It was lots of fun after a stressful day of running room-to-room making sure they didn't pack stuff with bright yellow tape that said, "do NOT pack please." Her husband, Eric, grilled some chicken, onion, and zucchini and the kids made fruit kabobs. That was Aiden and Eli's first time making something like that and they had a blast. Aiden stacked his fruit nice and high. Eli couldn't get more than 2 pieces on his stick without having to eat his fruit off his stick. It was actually quite funny. The kids watched TV for a bit after dinner and we chatted with Rusty, Eric, and Bailey, the other therapist that works with Rusty. It was a late night for the kids but very fun. Aiden was so sad to say bye to Mrs. Rusty. She has a heart of gold and you can tell, truly cares about Aiden. She was trying to hold back the tears. She has helped Aiden progress leaps and bounds and I will be forever grateful for that. I am also so grateful to call her MY friend, not just Aiden's therapist.
OK. Back to moving. The movers shocked us on Friday (although I was ready by 7:15am this time) by loading everything in to the truck by 2:30pm. It was amazing timing because literally right as they were closing the doors to the truck, it started to down pour! After Brad got done signing all the paperwork, they had to run back out to the truck in a horrible down pour. God has awesome timing and thankfully none of our stuff got wet.













We stayed at the empty house on Friday afternoon so I could continue cleaning and fixing everything up. It took much longer than I expected but that's because I believe in returning a house in great

condition. We tried to touch-up the walls and that proved to be a nightmare. There were only about a dozen different types of paint a closet in the garage and none of them were labeled. We would open them up and see if they were close. Brad experimented a little and we quickly found out a few paints that did not match. After much searching though, Brad finally found the right color. I went and touched up about 2 dozen spots. For the record, I like the walls to look brand spanking new when I move it so we filled in holes where we had pictures hanging and then some scuff marks from moving and such. Also, the paint on the walls at this house was horrible. It was a cheaper than cheap flat paint and it would rub off instantly if you tried to wipe a mark off the wall. I'm so thankful that we used nice paint in our house (which is now a rental) because in the end, we will save money by using a slightly more expensive paint but at least it can be wiped versus having to repaint walls since the cheap flat paint cannot be cleaned. Back to the touch-up painting: It wasn't drying right. It was too shiny. I go back and check the can and it is definitely a perfect color match ... but in semi-gloss. What? I finally find the flat paint of the correct color and then  have to repaint all the stuff I already touched-up. After a long afternoon of cleaning and painting, we all just sleep on the floor or air beds.


We got up Saturday morning and I finished cleaning up around the house. Since the boys had very minimal toys at this point and I had shut doors to most of the rooms because they were done being cleaned and were now off limits, they got creative. They both like to help me vacuum but then my battery wasn't having enough time to charge when I needed to use it so I had to take that "toy" away. They then discovered they could throw Aiden's blankie into the fan and that was pretty funny. I wanted to tell them to stop it but I remember having such a blast doing similar stuff with my sister so I just let it go. A small blankie wasn't going to hurt the van.

The boys played a new game for a bit to. Rusty let me have this I Spy preschool puzzle game. They love I Spy books and I knew this would be awesome for them when I saw it. It's something they can do on their own (while I clean/unpack) and that they enjoy. (Thanks Rusty).

At 1:00pm we had a birthday party to go to. Aiden (and eventually Eli after he woke up from his nap in the closet) got to see his friend from church, Maddie, one last time before he left. It was lots of fun for the boys since there was nothing for them to do at the house. 

I loved the set up of their backyard. They was a pool with a fence around it but also a trampoline, playlet/fort, and still some open room. It also gave me one last chance to say bye to the friends from church that I made.

After the party, we went back home to change and then headed off to Rusty's house. She was nice enough to let us stay there since her family was out of town. Even though she said the boys could sleep in her boys' beds, they both wanted to sleep on the ground in their sleeping bags. It was too cute. Aiden kept asking when "Mrs. Rusty was going to come home." He really wanted to see her again but explained to him we wouldn't see them again before we left. Brad and I had got to sleep in a bed which was a much needed break. :)







It started to rain on our way home from Maddie's birthday party so I just backed in to the garage. How sad is it that the only time in 1 yr that I parked in the garage was the day before we left? I will never forget at Christmas time in Iowa (and lots of snow) that Aiden says, "Why are we driving a car into the garage" as he is laughing. Brad and I had to laugh at that as we told him that what you are supposed to do with garages.











On Sunday morning, we drove back to our house, put Brad's bike in the back of his truck, picked up a few last things, filled the cooler, and headed off to Florida. Thankfully, it was an uneventful trip and we made it safe. The boys did a great job taking turns picking movies out to watch. Mrs. Gini, the pastors wife of our church in Alabama, gave them each a Veggie Tales DVD so they watched those first. We actually had dinner with them on Wednesday night at Bass Pro Shop and it was really good to sit down and chat with them. Eli eventually fell asleep in the van and took a 1.5 hr nap which was really good. We left Alabama at about 10am and pulled in to Orange Park (west Jacksonville) about 5pm.

I'll let you know how the unpacking went in Part 2.