Honey, I'm Home!

Well, March 1, 2013 started out with very little sleep. Dad and I got back to his house around 4:30 am (ish). I had to meet my new landlord at the new house in Metamora at 9 am. So, I was able to sleep for about 2.5 hours. Perfection.

I went up to our newest residence on Big Red Drive and met Mr. John. I took Charlotte with me so she could see our new place. It looked great!!! The painters had just a few finishing touches to make that afternoon and then it would be all finished... well, until the weather warmed up. Once the snow melts and it is no longer below freezing, we will be getting a driveway, a back porch, a mailbox, and a yard. Until then we get rocks and dirt and we get to have our mail sent to my parents' house. Charlotte and I ran a few errands and headed back to Mom and Dad's house. I ended up going back up to the new house to unload Mom and Dad's Yukon. Let me just tell you what all was jammed in there... two coolers with food in them, four tvs (3 flat screen, a desktop computer, a printer/fax combo, about 20 8x10 or larger picture frames wrapped in towels and plastic to protect them, a propane tank, two glass round table tops for our end tables, all of our cleaning supplies, Dad and I's clothes, and a few other special items. It was PACKED!!

Here is our new place....

This is the inside right after we unloaded the Yukon. This is the living, dining room, and kitchen area on the first floor.

I spent the afternoon at Mom and Dad's house packing up our stuff there.  Mary ate dinner with the kids, Alex and I at Mom and Dad's house. Grandma Ann, Aunt Kathy, and Aunt Diane came up for the weekend to help me. They ended up eating out with Mom and Dad and eventually they came back to the house to hang out. I went to bed early since I knew I had only slept a few hours the night before and I knew the next day my feet would hit the floor running.

Saturday morning I got up and headed up to Metamora. I got breakfast for my helpers and for the movers. All of the helpers (Dad, Mary, Grandma Ann, Aunt Diane, and Aunt Kathy) arrived 9 am. Mom stayed at her house with the kids and her Mary would be tag teaming taking care of them all day. The movers around around 9:30 am and we started unloading around 10 am.

It was overwhelming and a bit nervewracking as they opened the back doors to the truck. I swore it was all going to come falling out :)

BUT IT DIDN'T!

Me and all of our crap :)

The movers were fabulous. They were Southern Boys born and raised. They were freezing (initially). AJ here had to buy this cat hat at the gas station bc he had forgotten a stocking cap. He rocked the kitty hat all day. John, the other mover, had forgotten a hat as well so he borrowed one of mine... it was a pretty knitted hat with ribbon on the top. He wore it with pride (and don't worry, I washed it before I wore it again.)

Let's get this party started.

We had a great system. Grandma and Aunt Kathy were manning the door, Mary, Didi, Dad, Aunt Kathy and I were helping them carry the stuff in, and once a bunch of stuff got carried in, everyone started unpacking/putting stuff together while I kept bossing everyone around.

It was pretty chill. No one got worked up. Dad and John put the cribs together, Didi put the kid's clothes in their dressers and packed both of the kid's rooms (as well as organized the upstairs linen closet and bathroom). Mary helped Didi and ended up babysitting the kids while mom played her trumpet at a funeral. Mary and Grandma did the kitchen, Aunt Kathy did the living room, and Dad and I floated around and did whatever. We ate Michael's Italian Feast for lunch and when the movers finished at 12:30 pm, we sent  food with them.

I went from a big kitchen in Charleston to an even bigger kitchen in Georgia, to a small small small kitchen in Illinois. So we decided to make a kitchen area/pantry in the basement. Didi, Mary, Grandma and I ran to Walmart to get shelves while Dad and Aunt Kathy organized the boxes in the basement. We got the shelves up, ate pizza, and hung out for awhile. By the time Alex got to our new house that night after work, it looked like we had moved in weeks ago. It was wonderful.

I could not have done this whole move without all of the help from family. This is another huge plus to being back in Illinois. We had such great help. It was a pretty stress free day.

Thank you to Mom, Dad, Mary, John, Grandma Ann, Aunt Kathy, and Aunt Didi. You guys were amazing!!!!!!!!! Don't know what we would have done without you!!!!!  Love you all so much.

Honey, we are home!! :-)