Friday we finished packing. . . . if you think moving down the street is easier than moving to a different state (like I did), you are sorely mistaken. Somehow, it's much harder. I think it might be because you have yourself convinced that it'll be easy. . . . and then it's not. But - as with most other hard stuff in life, when it's over, it's over. . . and you wonder what all the whining was about.
Anywho. . . back to our weekend. Saturday morning we had C's first t-ball game. YEAH!!!!!!! It wasn't exactly good timing, but we've been looking forward to this since the end of last year's season.
OMGoodness he is so cute.
I mean, seriously, too cute!
I'm pretty sure I caught him in the middle of a strut. I'll say it again. . . he is so stinkin' cute!
THEN - it was a quick run to the other side of the world (aka West Tulsa) to drop him off at his best friend's birthday party. C's mom was such a jewel - she let him just hang out and then she took him back to C's house afterwards to play XBox for a while. In the meantime, my sweet friend, Danielle, took our Princess for a while. They went to the park and then went out for ice cream. She had a blast and I was, once again, reminded of just how special my friends are. While the kids weren't underfoot, we moved furniture. And by "we", I mean "Matt & the dolly" for the most part. Then it came time to move the couch & love seat. These babies may not look heavy. . . but they are terribly deceiving. Nina & T came over to help us. By "us" I mean that T & I followed Matt & Nina gasping as we saw potential disasters and offering moral support. I think we did a great job. . . Matt & Nina did too.
I'd say that it was about this time that I stood in my new kitchen and sobbed. Looking back, I'm not really sure why. I think it was exhaustion and release from all of the emotions of the past few months. But. . . then I went to my new bedroom, put my big-girl panties on and marched on through the insanity before me. What insanity?!? You ask?!?
This insanity. . .
I hate that I forgot to take pics of all of this in boxes. . . LOTS of boxes.
It kinda looks like I'm about to do a Pampered Chef show. HA!
If you notice, I had ZERO counter space in the midst of all of this. . . . didn't even have space to make a sandwich!
This whole area here was full of boxes stacked almost to the ceiling. This was after I unpacked and set almost everything out.
This doesn't look like much, but it's actually about 50+ framed pictures that were taken from the old house's walls. . . . they are still in that same place waiting for me to figure out what I'm going to do. :(
I'm supposed to sleep here?!?!?!?!
No idea where I was going with this picture. But just for kicks. . . . here you go! :)
P is supposed to sleep here?!?!?!?!
This is the best C's room has looked. . . he unpacked immediately, before there was furniture or anything to organize it. Sigh. . . . I love this kid!!!!
See what I mean?!?!?
Sunday. . . . now came the process of figuring out where all of this madness would go. P went to church with Aunt Nina & Aunt T and then to lunch while C helped dad move more stuff over. Just about the time I thought, "I wanna quit. . . a nap sounds good". . . my other sweet friend, Amy called me. She had made my family a salad and had plans to order pizza for dinner. A salad may not sound exciting, but that's probably because you've never had Amy's salad. It's AMAZING and the offer was such a blessing. Just a bit later, she and her sweet hubby brought this. . . .
and this. . . . (this is after we dug in. I forgot I was supposed to be capturing this madness while I lived it)
and a toy for each of the kids. You know those people in your life that bless you so much, just by being who they are, that you itch to see what God has in store for them. . . . . Amy & Russ are "those people". I don't know Russ very well, personally, but he loves my Amy Ann, who is "those people", so that automatically makes him "those people". Nina & T are "those people" and so is Danielle. I'm gonna miss that girl like CRAZY when she graduates. . . it hurts my heart just to think about it.
Anyway. . . Sunday was a long day, as was Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. . . . you catch my drift. BUT - I am happy to say that the majority of our new home is in order. I can find almost everything (which is a miracle even without moving) and we love it here. C has told me at least 5 times that he loves our new house. We can't keep P inside. . . she loves the area created by the city ages ago "just for her" to ride her bike and the boys have played more football in the past week than ever, I think.
Remember my stories about the rainbow???? Yup. . . this is another rainbow. Always, always, always find your rainbow. Sometimes we have to look really hard and find every small thing we can find that brings light in the storm and hang onto it, share it, give praise for it and cherish it. But the clouds really do clear out eventually. Think of a really strong rainstorm. . . when it's over and the sun is coming out, there's a sweet aroma in the air, the sky, even the air, is oftentimes a color you can't even describe, but it's beautiful. A couple branches may have snapped and sometimes there's a bit of debris around, but for the most part you oftentimes feel refreshed and new. Maybe that's just my personal feeling about storms, but it's so true in regards to the storms of life. Things may not be the same afterwards - things look different, sometimes out of place from where they once were, but I think there's something amazing about the new landscape.
Thank you for enduring this extremely long post. I've been itching to write it!!! More pics to follow, I'm sure. :) :) :)
Laura
