Moving Wrap-Up. Yay.

So. We've been in our house for two weeks now, I think. Something like that. Here are just a few pics of the process, for memory's sake.

I am COMPLETELY and UTTERLY spoiled by having movers. I will not deny it. However, if I ever (God Forbid) have to move myself again, there is one lesson I have learned that I will be taking with me forever.

They have no emotional attachment to the stuff they're packing - they just pack. 

They don't go all momma-gaga over baby pictures (thankfully, that would be weird.), have something jog their memory so they have to go dig in three other closets to find something else that was sitting around at the same time so it can be packed and unpacked together, or get distracted by anything personal. Those are the things that take forever. It's amazing how quickly you can pack a closet if you just pull-out-item, wrap-item, put-item-in-box with great speed and diligence. They packed our whole house in about 6 hours. Granted, it isn't a huge house, but still. They do wrap really weird things like metal cans from the grocery store. I could do without that, for sure. Then, the next day they loaded the truck.

There are weird things about having movers too. Like the fact that they see every facet of your life in a really short period. They've got their fingers in everything from your underwear drawer to your medicine closet, and your bookcase. 

It's always so important to treat people kindly and with respect. It's even more important when they know everything about you by the time your business is concluded. I felt really bad because I didn't have any snacks, water or whatever else food-wise in this house. I should have made it a point to get some before the moving process started. More on that later.

 

 The moving truck, parked in front of our home. So thankful for wide, easy streets!

 My last Arty-Farty project in our East Wenatchee home. It has the perfect spot here in our Tacoma home. There are a few things about it that drive me bananas. I have forbidden myself from talking about them, because it's annoying when people feel compelled right away to point out everything wrong with something cool they did. The errors are part of the homemade charm, right? Yeah. Right. We'll see how long I can live with it before those things get fixed. Somehow.

 There are some things that the movers cannot/will not move. Aerosol cans, open containers, anything flammable, fertilizer, house plants, etc. So, that stuff all got piled into Rovey. I ended up with three really cool movers who'd been doing this for a long time, and were really good to me. So, since it was just an overnight trip for them, they actually packed a lot of stuff they didn't have to. But, I still ended up with the makings for a pretty awesome bomb in the back of my Rover on the way back over the Cascades. It would not be a good time to be one of those people that must smoke while driving, haha.

 And, bright and early Friday morning, at the new house. With my inventory checklist sheet, phone, pen, tape measure and comfortable shoes. Each box/item has a number sticker put on it, and then as they bring things out of the truck they yell the number and I would check it off the list. Then, there's other sheets I signed when they're packing up the house that mark what each number is, so that it makes it easy to find in the new house if a number gets missed.

 Wrapped stairs and padding throughout.

 A skinny street this time. So, on the food/water for the movers. I didn't have any in Wenatchee, but I managed to get to the grocery store first thing in the morning, with the intention of stocking up our fridge with groceries for the weekend so we could unpack the house and still have food to eat without feeling compelled to go out constantly. Because, quite frankly, restaurants aren't really appealing at this point in a move anymore. As the day rolled on I ended up feeling like the Lord had a hand in this because it worked out perfectly. You see, usually the movers have to pack up their truck whenever they want to take a lunch, and go get lunch. They can't bring multiple vehicles to a job-site. But, our street was so narrow and turns so tight that they didn't want to have to navigate it more than once. I was running on adrenaline, so I wasn't too hungry, but around 1pm I noticed that they were doing their best, but seriously lagging. I asked the lead guy if it would be okay to make sandwiches for them all, and he was so thankful and thrilled. So, I did. At this point I was just thinking about it as "a cup of water in Jesus' name" type of thing. Not only do they know everything about me at this point, they know that I'm a Christian, and I wanted them to walk away with a good impression of me, as a follower of Christ.

I would have been thrilled if that outcome was the only good thing that came out of it, but there ended up being quite a bit of blessing in it for me too. Because it was the same three guys who'd packed our house up they know how I had my kitchen, the kids bedrooms, everything set up. So, they unpacked about half of our boxes (which is part of our moving package and I'd asked them to do) but instead of setting stuff on the nearest available surface (including the floor) or just turning boxes full of unbreakable stuff upside down on the floor, they unpacked everything neatly, and put a lot of stuff away. My kitchen was about 1/3 of the way put away, coat/linen closets had a good start, and best of all the girls bedroom toys were all dumped into their toy bins, so I had very little to do in there. So, for just being polite and thankful for them, and for about $15 additional in lunch supplies, I ended up with just enough stuff put away that I didn't feel overwhelmed and completely insane at the end of the day. HUGE blessing.

The lesson? Always give that cup of water in Jesus' name. The motive should NEVER be to get something tangible back for it, or to realize some gain because of it. The bottom line though? There is great blessing in giving. Sometimes it's just the joy of being a witness for Christ, but sometimes it can be a tangible thing too. I'd like to think that the movers walked away saying it was a good day too.  And, I heard enough stories about bad days, I'll be keeping that in mind for future reference. I don't ever want to be the cause of a "bad day" for someone in a service industry.

 Even with as smooth as it all went, any moving day constitutes an emergency chocolate sort of day. I like good dark chocolate chips best as my emergency chocolate. Because one chip (ok, maybe two) is one bite, and it's a lot less calories than the giant bite I'd take out of a chocolate bar. Also, it ends up cheaper too.

 The many things you can do with tootsie rolls. This would be after the kids came home. They're still sitting there, two weeks later. I just can't get rid of these delightful little piles of candy poop.

 Their fort they made with leftover box pieces. The sign on the top of it read "Kep Aut!" Haha.  We've also had a few funny observations lately:

Brie: Mom, what is the matter with this city? They water their parks WAY TOO MUCH!

Keira, loading groceries at Winco, out of breath and flustered (we only had fancy bag-groceries-for-you grocery stores in Wenatchee): What sort of HORRIBLE grocery store is this, anyway?!

Brie, talking about the weather: It's a perfect day, it really is! Other than the gray skies, the fog, and all this rain and wind, it's a perfect day.

And, are my children the only children in the world who refer to going to the bathroom as giving dinner (or a drink) to the toilet? For some reason I have a feeling they might be. Very disturbing. I realize I might lose readers because of this little paragraph. Sorry about that.

 The stairs are well loved by these two. Did you know Darth Vader loves flying down stairs on cardboard? Who woulda thought?

 We got an amazing box of fun food from Italy for a housewarming gift from these ones with some help from these ones. Among all the awesome stuff in that box was a container of Spaghetti made with Squid Ink, and super fresh Extra Virgin Olive Oil. So we had squid ink spaghetti with seared scallops in a olive-oil-butter-wine-garlic sauce... (what do you call that kind of sauce?!) so, SO good! Complete with fresh bread dredged in olive oil, Wow. Best part? Both of the kids liked it too! Thanks so much for the awesome package!! We have had so much fun trying all of the amazing food in that box!

 So, at our old house we had a bar where the kids would sit while I was cooking/cleaning etc. And, they'd talk to me, or draw or play with whatever while I was working. This house doesn't have a bar. Unfortunately. Because my babies still feel they must be with me while I'm cooking, etc., (not complaining about that, to be clear.) and so instead they pile up on the island. This kitchen is possibly the smallest and most awkward kitchen I've ever had. It's a close second, if not a first. It was one of those things though, where I walked through the house, and it was perfect in almost every way, except for that. So, I knew it was the right house for us, and apparently the Lord isn't done working with me in the kitchen category. Garrett keeps getting promotions, and my kitchens keep getting smaller. It's so weird, I can't really be too bent out of shape about it. And, there are a lot of things I really like about this house, and we've managed to put it together so it works for us. It's just a bit of a head scratcher for me at this point.

 One thing I LOVE about this house is the massive amounts of natural lights... that window in this stair sliding picture below?! It's huge!! And, there's skylights through out, and windows EVERYWHERE. Since I'm a HUGE natural light junkie--like I actually feel I might whither and die without a lot of natural light--it has been perfect, especially with all these gray days--definitely a huge blessing.

The only weird thing about that window is that it looks in to the landing outside our bedroom door. And, I have a bad habit of not having my clothes pulled completely on while I'm leaving my room. So, that has nipped that bad habit in the bud, haha! For the most part. Yeah.  (Hey, usually I'm in a big hurry. And I have people yelling at me things like, MOM!! Where's my heart socks?! MOM!! I can't find my raincoat!!! Hey! Do you know where the rover key is?! and other things like that.)

So, anyway. I think we're pretty much moved in. I'm at the point where all the rooms are pretty much put together, and we've found homes for most things. I have about 15 more pictures to hang... I'm so tired of hanging pictures. Pretty much every picture/painting/clock we've ever had fits perfectly on the walls in this house. I have a few more pieces of furniture to move back against the walls, and stuff like that. I'm at the point though, where I'm so zombied out by all of it that instead of just digging in and doing it so I can move on, I'm wandering around the house all day thinking about the things that I need to do. I'm irritating myself. Plus, we've been doing a lot of school lately.

So yeah. I'm going to go wander around some more and think about what I should be doing.

Peace out.

P.S. After hitting post I just realized that this blog post includes moving madness, awesome food, crazy kid stuff, poop references, star wars references, and scriptural ponderings. Wow. Welcome to my world.

My life is awesome. Have I mentioned that? Feeling really grateful for it all today.

Signing off, for the second time.