And Here We Are

If these photos don't evoke any emotion, it could be that you've never moved.

Our kitchen of days past. Empty and ready for someone else.

Our new kitchen in its current state. Only one word suffices:

Overwhelming.

I've been waiting for this moment when I could finally write about this journey. But blogging about it takes time, a computer, the internet, and energy. Now I'm just lacking the last, but I'm going to push through it anyway.

Saturday. There was so much work leading up to this day and the big move went as well as I could have hoped. We are so grateful for everyone that helped. Asking people to come to your home and do serious hard labor for a long time is not fun, so we were incredibly thankful for everyone who gave up time in their day to help us! By about 4pm we had everything moved over and a place to sleep. Then I went into a coma for the rest of the day.

Sunday. What to say about Sunday? I felt displaced, yet hopeful. I woke up early, restless and then spent much of the morning trying to locate what we'd need for our new 1pm church. (Never have I been more grateful for a late time.) The kids did not help the situation much which plenty of drama and crying. We went to church. There were a lot of kids. 140 or so in the primary we found out. I was anxious. Lots of people I didn't know. Luckily we'd already met a few neighbors which helped, yet this is the first time in a long time that I've been the new one. But overall it was just fine and there are lots of nice people to get to know. In the evening we went to Kaitlyn's birthday party and then stopped by the old house. There is nothing like the comfort you find at home and I definitely needed comfort, but it wasn't quite my home anymore. So I promptly had a good hard cry in the back yard where the kids couldn't hear me.

Monday. While I think Michelle is awesome and I'm glad for the opportunity for my son to go to Webelos camp, I would not recommend it being the first weekday after a move. At 7:45am. In another city. And having to attend yourself. And have all the kids ready. Including swimming suits, packed lunches, scout gear, and sunscreen. Only running 15 min late, we made it and had lots of good experiences throughout the day, except for the times when the child who had held it together better than anyone all weekend melted down. The evening wasn't much better.

Tuesday: Second day of Webelos camp. I didn't have to go but instead got to have fun cleaning the old house..for 7 hours...and I didn't finish. I described the task on the phone to Daniel by comparing in to having teeth pulled. Necessary, but terribly unpleasant. (Thank you to Lora for one of the best vacuuming jobs I've seen.) I ended the time at the old house with a monumental fit of my own when I got upset at the child who after playing ALL day complained about having to roll the two garbages into the backyard. The night however, redeemed the whole day when I got to go out for some fun with women from my new ward.

Wednesday: Closing day? We drove out to West Valley and signed the closing papers on the old house. Just as we were about to leave the building however, our realtor got a call saying that there was a problem with the loan of our buyer and he had to switch loans (at the very, very last minute) and at best closing would be delayed until Monday. We had to wait while another addendum (13?) was crafted. After much of the day had passed we returned to the old house and I go to finish the cleaning! Ugh. I did complete every last little bit though and hope this whole process is wrapped up soon.

Today: Remembered piano lessons were this morning and didn't feel up to taking Isaac and having to have Adam and Sarah with me. Instead I had Isaac babysit and took Adam. His first official day and he did awesome. Very awesome. Sadly that was the best part of the day. I've spent the rest of it stressed, confused, overwhelmed and discouraged. But I did get my computer and internet back, so that's worth something.

So what above might not tell you is this:

This has been a crazy emotional week that has continually pushed my past my exhaustion point and my ability to manage in a sane, normal way.

The kids are happy about the change, but their behaviour has been far less than ideal.

Speaking of which, Sarah has peed (outside of the potty) 6 times in the last week. This is the girl who potty-trained like a pro and has more body control that any other kids I know. Stress will do that to you I guess.

I have not peed outside of the potty. Maybe I am doing okay after all.

So far I don't miss the old house quite as much as I thought I would. (Probably because I thought I'd never recover from the loss of it.) It's sad (and I already miss the people), but I'm handling it decently.

This new house is AWESOME. I'm in love. The space, the wood, the location, the neighbors.

Did I mention the neighbors? I could write a whole blog post about them. We are so lucky to be right were we are. There are the best people in this little area. I also met lots of other women in the ward boundaries and I think it's going to work out just great here.

Draper is gorgeous. Really. The mountains are so close here.

The unpacking and settling in might take me a year, but so be it. We have many little things to address (and so many big ones, like the back yard), but we will make it to a new normal here soon,

right?