Day Three of Unpacking

My grandma asked for pictures of the house. It was a mess. Its still a mess, but getting better. This is what we saw on Day Three of our unloading/unpacking.

Living room that will become the school room.

upstairs bathroom

Cormac, Rex, and Brech's bedroom

south side of the master bedroom

north side of the master bedroom

Our bedroom frame was too big to get down the hallway. We haven't decided what we will do about a frame yet. Sleeping on a mattress right on the floor is different and colder.

kitchen

stairs going down to landing/basement

family room with fireplace

Blase and Stephen's room

basement hallway to spare room and laundry room

currently used as a catch all room,

could be spare room,

most likely Cormac and Rex's future room

laundry room

my UPS man (united paper squasher)

A Day

Welcome to

IT'S

For those of you who don't speak Plains weather - that meant -10 degrees with the wind chill factored in.

Its a grand day to:

HIT A NEW MILEAGE MILESTONE IN THE MINI-VAN.

BUY A

IN

LOCATED NEAR HERE

ITS ALSO A GREAT DAY TO EAT AN ALIEN.

AND TAKE SOME TIME TO RELAX AFTER A LONG HARD WEEKEND.

I will now give you the brief run down of our past week. Movers packed or loaded Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. They came back on Friday to get the 4-wheeler, lawn mower and trailer. Friday night we stayed in a hotel with the intention of leaving first thing in the morning. Saturday morning Darren got up and decided to work on the garage doors so that they were just right and we wouldn't have to come back to fix them. We were on the road by lunch time.

About 130 miles into the trip we ran into snow. At first it was just a normal snow. Not bad at all.

The light, lovely snow quickly became heavier and dangerous. Have you ever seen something horrible about to happen and you know you can't do anything about it? I learned exactly what that feels like. We were traveling about 35-40 mph, but there was a semi who decided to travel faster than that. As that semi passed Darren some how (wind? or snow? or ice?) the pickup and trailer started to slip and slide all over the road. It was also at this time that another vehicle was getting ready to pass Darren as well. We were headed west, but when this was happening the pickup's headlights were pointed north, then the trailer was pointed south while the pickup was facing west, and finally all straightened out headed west again. As fast as Darren was slipping from the driving lane to the entire passing lane and back to the driving lane I managed to yell "NO!" three times. It happened so quick. I started shaking and crying, followed quickly by the urge to puke and pass out. I had to follow Darren another 15 miles before we could stop at a hotel for the night. I have never been so scared and so grateful in all my life. I'm not ashamed to say I cried and cried. I watched 4 of my most precious treasures almost wreck just in front of me and there was nothing I could do. Luckily the boys who were with me were helping me pray a rosary at that very moment. We were on the third decade of a rosary for the intentions of safe travels for us and for no one to wreck around us. That helped keep me focused. We prayed Hail Mary's all the way to the hotel.

We drove all of Sunday since we didn't make very far on Saturday. It was much easier traveling. I was surprised to see no snow on this side of Minnesota. Here is a crazy picture of our first view of Moorhead, MN.

And this beautiful picture is of the "Welcome to North Dakota" sign. We were in such a hurry to get to ND that it passed us in a blur.

Technically my camera takes crappy pictures at night while moving. Well, it takes crappy pictures while moving period. A new camera is on my Christmas list.

We are here now and that is all that matters. The movers are delivering our boxes tomorrow. If we are suppose to get you a Christmas gift - you may get an unopened moving box with a bow on it. Its anyone's guess what might be inside. Wouldn't that make for an interesting Christmas gift exchange? Let's just hope you don't get the box with the cleaning supplies.

The Friends We Leave Behind

Brech Earl and the Three Movers

Once upon a time there were three movers, Ed, Chris, and Dylan. They packed the upstairs, they packed the basement. They packed the kitchen, school room, living room and finally the bedrooms. All was going well until the three year old got upset.

He looked for a toy.

"Dey packed da toys!"

He looked for a book.

"Dey packed da books!"

He ran up to his room and came out with a scowl on his face.

"DEY PACKED MY BED!!!" Huumph (arms crossed and a mighty fine glare on his face)

You have to understand that they didn't take anyone else's bed since the others had to be taken apart. Brech sleeps on a toddler bed. This made things just that much more confusing. They took his toys, books and just HIS bed. Poor fellow. Later that night, Brech was getting ready to go to sleep on his mattress that was on the floor when he asked for his bear stuffed animal. He never asks for his bear. So I looked for it all over the room. When I told Brech I couldn't find the bear he said, "Dem boys took my bear and put it in a box." He was pissed.

The next morning he woke up saying "Dey took my toys, dey took my books, dey took my bed, da boys took my bear and put it in a box," over and over again. He didn't smile at the movers the rest of the day. We probably scarred him for life over this move. He won't let anyone take his bed away again.

We had a car moving company come pick up the big van for us. When Brech noticed it was gone he was even more upset because they "took my van" too. After the movers had all the beds loaded Brech ran up to me and informed me that they had taken my bed too. I suppose he was looking for support for his "anti-mover" group. We have tried to give lots of hugs and assuring words. This is his first move. Sad, sad day.

The move has gone ok. The movers finished packing and loading almost everything yesterday. They have a few things to pick up this morning. We will be leaving our house this afternoon and on our way to North Dakota. I'm not sure how the kids are taking it. Its been a long, long week watching the movers pack everything and keeping the boys out of boxes and away from stacks of packed boxes.

This has been the hardest move of all of them. I don't remember having this much stress - but then again I didn't have as many kids to keep out of the way. On a side note, this move will be a great sacrifice to offer for my brother Mark on his 20th birthday. I'm emotional as it is, but add missing Mark in the mix hasn't been easy today. I guess I won't ever forget the day we moved away from our house here in Michigan.