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. 

7/9 - 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.

7/5 - Our last days in AL

Here is a summary of our last week in Prattville, AL. It went by very fast. I got to spend some fun time with a friend on the sunday afternoon before we left. Here is Rusty. While she is also Aiden's therapist, she is an amazing, sweet, smart person. I could chat with her all day long about everything from owning a business, therapy stuff, kids, softball, exercise, etc. She is CRAZY busy but was sweet enough to fit a visit in with me. We had some fun at the batting cages, the bamboo forest, and crazy cross house, and then an early dinner. It was a great time. :) 

I've never seen anything like this house she took me by. It had crosses made out of everything you can imagine and had dozens of old metal machines (washers, dryers, microwaves, etc) that had ... religious messages written on them. Very odd yet fascinating.














The boys had their last day of Big Green Bus on Monday morning. They had a blast and I was just in time to snap a few pictures. Eli is in the first row. Aiden is in the second row. They both have had a great time for the last 6 months doing Big Green Bus almost every week.

On Tuesday, after Aiden's therapy (I'll post about that soon), we headed to the airport to let the boys fly with Brad. Brad picked up Eli and pre-flighted the aircraft before Aiden and I got there. Aiden went first. Apparently Aiden really liked talking on the headset to Brad and Brad had to kinda quite him down so he could hear the tower and be safe to leave. They flew over daycare and our house. They were gone for a really long time and I was nervous Eli wasn't going to get a chance to fly. Eli was a trooper and not getting too upset that Aiden went first.

They finally came back but there was only about 45 min left before Brad had to have the aircraft back. We did a quick change and Eli was in the passenger seat and it was finally his turn. He was pretty excited and thought the headphones were pretty cool. They started to taxi down the runway and then they stopped. Eli said his belly hurt so he got out.

We just thought he was scared to go flying but then before we even left the airport, he said he needed to go poo-poo. He just laid in the middle of the floor while Brad returned the aircraft and kept saying his belly hurt. He asked for a bucket for the way home because he thought he was going to get sick. We got stuck in lots of traffic but made it home safely with no throw-ups and then he was fine for the rest of the night. So I'm still not sure if it was his belly or he's really good at acting.

The rest of the week was a blur as the packers came on Thursday. They did the fastest pack job ever. They packed our whole house from 7:30-4:45ish and it normally takes about 2 entire days.

7/4 - Finally an update

We are moved!!! Let's backtrack a little though. Last week we left our house and went to Sue's guest house to stay there for a few days since our house was completely empty and spic and span. Here are the boys swinging at Sue's house. They love this swing thing. After staying there for a few days, we drove to AL on Friday and checked in at a hotel.

The drive was relatively uneventful except for my van loosing air mid-way through and it was HOT in the van. The kids' faces were all red and they were complaining so we had to fix that. We got in to our hotel about 5pm. We spent the next few days there and at the house. Our goods were delivered on Saturday but it was just tons of boxes everywhere. We took the boys to the new house on Saturday morning for a bit but then Brad took them back to the hotel to nap and I unpacked. Here are the boys in the exercise room (you can see the pool in the background). Here is Eli on the elliptical.

Aiden loves the treadmill so we let him walk on that for a while. Over the weekend and on Monday, we spent the mornings at the new house unpacking, Brad or I would take the boys back to the hotel for nap time, and then we would play around the hotel until bed time. It worked out really well.

We got free breakfast at the hotel and the boys got stuff to eat for dinner there every night too. It was a great spot for us to stay at. Here is Eli being silly one night with his hotdog bun.

One night we even went to a local park that I had heard about. It really was great. It was like 4 or 5 playgrounds in one. The boys had a blast even though it was about 100 degrees (no I'm not exaggerating) at about 6pm. It was crazy hot. Here is Aiden sitting on some apparatus at the playground.

Daddy and Eli climbed up on this old car and Eli had a great time.

The boys have enjoyed a couple of trips to Lowe's to get various things. They like the tractors in particular. By the way, all these pictures have been taken with phones because I haven't unpacked the good camera yet.

This picture below cracks me up because Eli was throwing a fit on the floor because he said he didn't have any packing paper. It was quite funny. It's also funny how kids in an empty room can find plenty to do with a box or two and some paper.

The boys LOVE having bunk beds but they are still learning how to SLEEP in them. We let them play in the beds during the day but they were way too excited to sleep the first day we had them. In fact, they didn't take naps and went to bed late. On the second day, they skipped naps again (yes we were in the room numerous times but .... they didn't nap) but it caught up with Eli. We went around and tried to find a new playground on Monday but struck out a few times. Eli fell asleep as you can see. We finally found one although it wasn't that great. Aiden played for a bit while Eli slept in the car and then we went to the local Chick-fil-a, which was very awesome. Eli had no idea he missed out on playground time. It also worked out at night because Aiden was so tired from not napping that he fell asleep right away and Eli stayed up for a while since he took a short late nap.

Yesterday, Brad took the kids out back and played with boxes while I continued to unpack. He built many forts/hotels/race tracks and the boys really enjoyed it. They also enjoyed knocking down all the boxes when they were done playing with them. I think I'll put an announcement on Freecycle.com that we have all these boxes and packing paper. Someone has got to be moving. Our garbage is their prize!

We are loving the Prattville area and found a very cool castle playground yesterday. I think we are going to the local downtown Fireworks tonight which should be fun. We told both boys they had to nap if they were going to do fireworks tonight. They both took great naps!!! First time in 3 days with the bunk beds!

We are almost done getting the inside of the house unpacked (just a few boxes in the Master bedroom and a few in the office/guest room). We LOVE LOVE LOVE having a house this big and hopefully will not have to go back to a 3 bedroom anytime soon. We love the playroom. We love having enough space that when in our bedroom, you can't hear this kids. It's pretty amazing. In case you were wondering, this is a 4 bedroom house with a split floor plan and it's about 1800 square feet (our other house was 1300).

Happy 4th of July to all of you. We unpacked boxes for Brad's birthday and got a giant cookie cake to eat to celebrate. It was pretty boring for him but we didn't have many options. At least we were all together as a family. What more can you ask for? Not much in my world.