Story Time

I do have many stories to tell! The computer was in the basement for the first couple of weeks we were here and I never wanted to go down there to be on it because the floors are hard tile and Evelyn was quite accident-prone with her new crawling abilities. But, Jason moved it up the spare room, and alas, here I am to blog!

The first story was of the drive here. It was B.A.D. I have blocked most of it out of my memory because it was really that bad. I planned to leave for the four-hour drive by 2:00. I think it was after 5:00 by the time we left. We ended up having the truck early, so Jason also came with on Thursday night unlike the original plan for just Evelyn and I to go. So, I followed Jason who was driving the 26-foot cab U-Haul pulling our Taurus behind it. We still don't know how he made some of the turns as it was seriously longer than a semi! To backtrack a bit, we were really blessed to have Mike and Tessa help and stay until we shut the door of the old house one last time and get every last thing cleared out (we BARELY got everything with us - the guys had to unpack and repack the truck, van, and car again and again to make it all fit. Crazy!!!). We ate the last Popsicles out the freezer and hurried off. It was a surreal feeling leaving that empty house behind, not even knowing for sure if we would ever be back in that town even.

Poor little Evelyn was kind of freaked out I think about all of the commotion of the previous days and she was in the back seat of the van surrounded by stuff packed all the way almost to the ceiling! She was such a trooper for the drive, but despite no naps really that day, SHE NEVER SLEPT A WINK during the drive! I pulled over more times than I kept track of. My saving grace was the plate of peanut butter cookies that Tessa made for us as they kept my blood sugar high and appeased Evelyn as I Gumby-twisted my arm back to give her crumbs. I also had to give her water bottles, pop cans, pens, and other forbidden objects for 30-second intervals of her happiness!

But, we did make it eventually, and around 10:30 had left the U-Haul on the new street for the night. We fought off the June bugs (yuck, they are plentiful here) and made our way to Burger King for an 11:00 nutritious dinner! :-) We slept at Jason and Christy's that night - it was so nice of them to have us. Evelyn was so glad to be out of a car seat and chaos that she had an adrenalin rush that had her bouncing off the walls until 1 a.m. (this is when her schedule was officially ruined and is still being repaired!)

We were thrown another curve ball the next day at closing. They were holding the key until the money was wired. We were told there should not be any problems, but, we did not get the key until 4 hours after closing and we were so blessed that the previous owners were still in town as the glitch involved a paper that they had to sign. Me and Jason's stomachs were both in knots as we sat and waited homeless in our van. There was a time when it was looking pretty dim that we would leave with the key and that having to wait until the following week for the banks to re-open and straighten things out. But, God totally worked everything out and with about 5 minutes to spare before the end of the banking day, we had our key!

As Jason mentioned, family and friends have been so generous and welcoming to us! We had so much help and tons of delicious goodies from friends! We really do love it here and are getting quite settled in.

We have already enjoyed the closeness to family as well - we have done the trip to my home state the past two weekends for a dance recital and my sister Brittany's graduation party. For both events we loved being able to attend, but loved even more the fact that we did not have to pack suitcases and were able to come home and sleep in our own bed!

More stories to come and more "normal" posts about our little crawler (who is attacking the printer under my feet as I type!)

Update

Ok, sorry to everyone who reads our blog, but needless to say we have been very busy trying to get settled in to our new home, neighborhood, and every other change coming our way.

We are loving our new home and the neighborhood! Lots of kids in the neighborhood which is nice for Evelyn.
We have a lot of stories, so hopefully Amber can fill you in on some of them.

A few shout outs though to some people who made all of this happen for us:
From our old neighborhood:
Steve and Mary Jo-HUGE help...couldn't have done it without your help. Jim M.-the same to you. Mike & Tessa- HUGE blessing as well. Great to have Godly friends who will help when in need!
From the new neighborhood:
Mark & Hannah-Very big help, Mike & Shannon-we really didn't even know you guys, but you were willing to help us move in? HUGE blessing from God...very nice people! Jason & Christy-provided lodging the night before the big move-in. Again, huge help.
Family:
Dad & Mom B.-You rock!! because you guys are like rocks! I can count on you no matter what! Sarah B.-Huge help, Andrea S.-huge help. Dawn A.-oh my gosh, you shampooed all or our carpets!! Hardest mom worker I know! The rest of the A. family....you're like busy bees...except all with rag and cleaner in hand!

And to who ever else I may have missed. We thank you SO MUCH, and we pray God will bless you richly for your self sacrifice and willingness to help us out.

Other than that, life is kind of back to normal. Evelyn learned to crawl the day we moved in the new house. She's loving the carpeted, open floors! She basically crawls to the nearest vertical structure she can find to pull herself up to stand, so we have to watch her! She has also developed a very convenient bedtime of midnight to 1am which is awesome! (joke)

Hopefully we can post some pictures of our new home shortly, but I wanted to at least let you all know we are alive.