One Year Later

Here are some random thoughts on the first year anniversary of our return to Arizona:

Summer is hot. Jer and I already knew that, but the boys didn't really understand. It's something you have to experience. At the same time, if you have AC (and are willing to pay high electric bills) it really isn't too bad. Similar (in a way) to the extreme cold, you just stay inside as much as you can. How people did it without AC is beyond me... maybe the heat melted their brains and they couldn't figure out how to leave.

God puts you where you need to be. We were in a rental house for the first 5½ months we lived here and while it seemed a random choice at the time, God surely knew it was not! We made some wonderful friends while living there. Never, NEVER, have we had such a fun neighborhood! We got to know at least six families. And I don't mean just a wave hello as you walk by, I mean sit and chat for hours and have meals together friends. We love our house, but we miss being steps away from friends! Thankfully, they are just a few miles away and we can still visit, but the boys remind me frequently it's "just not the same".

Not everyone is nice. As I just said, our rental neighborhood was great. I try and focus on the positive, but during our time there we did have our first taste of someone not liking our family. Frankly, it sucked. One neighbor lady just did not like us. She doesn't enjoy children and the noise they make while they are playing outside. She didn't approve of them playing anywhere near her property or even in the public street in front of her house. Sidewalk chalk? Hose it off! Walk two steps in her side yard? Put up planters to block the way! Kids playing in the street with capable adults watching? Call the sheriff to step up patrols! It really was a sad, frustrating situation. We tried to be kind, sharing a plate of cookies at Christmas and waving hello, but she would just turn her back on us (literally) and bad mouth us to whoever would listen. She must not have ever lived next to really bad neighbors. We knew the rental wasn't the type of house we were looking for, but might have actually considered buying it if she hadn't lived right next door. We learned that some people just can't be won over. I just try to remind myself that she didn't even really know us. In the end, it was her loss.

Buying a house is a LOT different here. Someday I'll write a post about the purchase of our current house. A lot of people think we were lucky because we purchased a house while "prices were low", but I like to think of it as we bought a house while prices were normal. The housing prices, especially here, were just inflated for several years. That doesn't mean they are "low" now. Yes, we got a "deal" compared to 5 years ago, but I think what we paid for this house was a fair price. Thankfully, not inflated, but also not especially low.

Overall the cost of living is higher here. I don't know why, but that surprised me. I mistakenly thought we'd have cheaper prices on somethings (produce for one), but that hasn't been the case. In addition, sales tax is more here so even if the price isn't too bad the total is never what I expect. We have spent more money in the last year than we have EVER and our savings shows it! We're hoping to build it back up ASAP.

Homeschooling is a blessing. I knew this already, but it was especially helpful when it comes to children adjusting after a move. Moving is hard on kids. I hated moving as a kid, changing schools and making new friends is hard. Our boys adjusted a lot better than I ever did after a move and I think homeschooling played a big part in that.

As for me personally, I still hate moving. Packing and unpacking boxes is easy. Finding a new church, doctors, dentists, etc. is a real pain. Just the paperwork from taking my gang to a new dentist gave me hand cramps for a week! Finding your way around a new area is a challenge too. I still get lost once in awhile. Well, not lost like I can't find my way home, but take a wrong turn. There is no "autopilot" driving here for me yet.

We got rid of too much before we moved. Last time we moved across the country, we didn't get rid of enough and we didn't want to make that mistake again. We just didn't know we were going to find a place with a spot for guests where we could use all that extra stuff! Maybe next time we move we'll get it just right.

When we moved to Wisconsin, it took me 10 years to stop calling the electric company SRP (Salt River Project) instead of WPS (Wisconsin Public Service). And now the reverse is true. Same with the PBS channel, it's 8 here and 38 in GB, but they're completely interchangeable in my mind. Jer also recently pointed out that the radio presets in the van are still set to Wisconsin channels. Not sure what that says about me. Am I in denial?

We still interact enough with Wisconsin family and friends that I think of Green Bay things as "local" and at the same time local Arizona things seem "far" away. Every once in awhile I am surprised to see an Arizona license plate or someone wearing an ASU shirt and then realize I'm not in Wisconsin. Thankfully, that has been happening less the longer we're here. Either place Packer gear is completely normal! Go Pack Go!

Costco isn't all it's cracked up to be. I think of it as The (Two Hundred) Dollar Store. Double coupons aren't that great either. I like doubling a limited number of $1 coupons to $2 a lot more than doubling a $.75 coupon to $1 every day. I can count on one hand the number of times I've gotten a really great deal because of double coupons. Most of the time they don't make up for the higher price of just about everything here. It is nice getting the better regional coupons though!

There aren't as many flying bugs here, but we're not celebrating because there are a lot more crawling bugs. I think I prefer flying bugs. Love, love, love my exterminator!

Mountains and sunsets are beautiful here in the desert. The phrase "when it rains it pours" must have been coined here. It either does not rain at all or it pours. Except during Monsoon season, the weather here is boring. It gets dark faster here (not earlier though), dusk is shorter. [The closer you are to the equator the shorter dusk is, did you know that? I didn't.] The moon is the same no matter where you live.

Facebook makes moving easier! The last time we moved it was hard to keep in touch with the friends and family we left behind, but with Facebook it's easy! I can keep up on the day to day lives of far away friends instead waiting for Christmas cards or visits. I am so thankful for that!

Official Residents (Again)

We are officially Arizona residents again. Today, we got our AZ licenses and plates. I have read several posts on Facebook about AZ friends waiting in long (like hours!) lines at the DMV in recent weeks and was really dreading going. Then I saw a friend of a friend's comment about going to the Coolidge DMV because it is much less busy. It was a bit farther than the others, but not too much considering we live way out in the boonies. Plus, we figured since we had to bring the whole gang along we would rather spend time in the car than the DMV waiting room.

So Jerry took off work early and we drove both cars down just in case they needed to see them for some reason (they didn't). It was a bit of a drive, but a pleasant one. It was amazing to see the development out where there was nothing before!

The Coolidge DMV is in a small trailer that has seen better days. There were only two workers at the three desks when we walked in and took our numbers. A small group of people waiting to be serviced sat in the waiting room chairs. For some reason the chairs faced towards the door and away from the desks, so when we walked in everyone was looking right at us. It was like walking onto a stage. 

We grabbed a few chairs right up front by the door and started our wait. The boys were a bit squirrelly, but not too bad. The baby napped the whole time so we kept her covered in her carseat. We smiled and nodded politely to people who were staring at us. The lady behind us smiled as she handed us the markers that rolled by her feet. 

Numbers were called and people were helped. As one man walked out after being helped, he stopped to ask if we had a girl in the carseat. When we said yes the whole waiting room cheered! It was hilarious and it truly made our day!

Shortly after that, our numbers were called. The gals working were the nicest DMV workers I've ever dealt with and, thankfully, Arizona keeps previous residents in their system so they basically just took our photos and printed us new licenses. We didn't even have to take a vision test. We got two licenses and two vehicles registered and were in and out in less then 40 minutes. In Arizona, licenses are good until you are sixty-five so we won't have to go back for a very long time, but when/if we have to go again you can be sure we'll be going to the DMV in Coolidge!

Final State Tally

Here is the final tally of states from our move. We ended up with 34 of the 50 states. Not too bad. Obviously, we ended up with a lot of western states and were lacking a bit on the east coast. We decided to flip them over and keep the board in the van until we get all 50 states or our next big road trip... whichever comes first.

The Move: Getting Settled

November 3rd:
Our first night in the new house went surprisingly well. The boys slept on sleeping bags in one room, Annabeth in the pack'n'play in another, and us on air mattresses in the master. We must have been really tired because despite being on air mattresses we slept great. We've been cleaning and getting to know our new house. The internet is finally hooked up! Yay! Who needs furniture?! You're not really "home" until you can get on Facebook, right?

Since we don't have any pots or pans, or even plates, it was a little bit hard to make dinner. So we decided to take the boys to Peter Piper for dinner. We owed them one anyway since we were traveling on Oct. 31st when we normally go to Chuck E. Cheese. They had a great time and Jerry enjoyed his old favorite pizza.


November 4th:
We finally got our stuff! After a breakfast of cereal (in styrofoam bowls) eaten on the floor in the kitchen we anxiously awaited the arrival of the truck. Once it arrived we just had to keep everyone out of the way and the movers did the rest.

As they brought in boxes from the truck, I worked on unpacking the kitchen. So far I haven't found one broken item. Pretty good! I did find a bit of peppermint extract that had leaked, but it didn't do much damage except soak the paper it was wrapped in and make the kitchen smell like mint.

When they left we were surrounded by boxes and the beds were assembled. Having to not assemble beds might just be worth the cost of movers right there! That is always such a pain, especially when you have as many beds as we do!

Our friends the Scharpfs invited us over for dinner so we didn't have to worry about making anything and/or eating out again. Their neighbors, and our friends, the Barz family joined us for dessert along with the realtor (Jennifer) who helped Jerry find the rental and a few of her kids. It was nice to hang out with old friends and meet a new one too!

Then it was back to our house and lots of work. Speaking of work, Jerry starts the 7th so we are going to try and get as much unpacked as we can this weekend.

November 5th:
What can I say except we unpacked? Not much, since that's about all we did. Joe and Kim invited us and Jerry's parents over for dinner.

What do you know... there are enough babies for both Grandma and Grandpa to hold one! Knowing people who can feed you is definitely a benefit of moving to a place you've lived before! Thanks everyone!

The Move: First Day at the Rental House

Despite the bad hotel situation, we got a good night's rest and woke up thankful to be in our new home state knowing we didn't have a long day of travel ahead. There was no rush, but we still didn't really sleep in. I got to cuddle with this little cutie in bed.

We ate our continental breakfast and packed our stuff into the van for the short ride to our rental house. It was a bit farther out of town than I expected, but the area surrounding the rental is built up nicely so it's not like we'll have to drive far to find a store. We decided to rent so we could take our time finding a house. Jerry looked at several rental houses and then put down the deposit when he was here in October. It's the first time I have moved into a house sight unseen!

My first impression of the neighborhood was the houses were super close together and the road was narrow. The house itself though was great! Plenty big with lots of bedrooms. Not much storage and the van won't fit in the garage but it will do for a year. We emptied the trailer and Jerry took it back to U-Haul.

I got started cleaning. I was pleasantly surprised to find this the cleanest house we've ever moved into. I don't know who cleaned it but it was "Shelly Clean". I'm re-cleaning it anyway, but I didn't find any dirt in the kitchen cupboards at all! Hopefully, I'll get all the cleaning done before the truck gets here.

The boys enjoyed playing with the few toys they had and running around an empty house. Running around a house full of carpet in a dry climate did have one unintended consequence... we were building up a lot of static electricity and kept shocking each other. Every time someone touched a light switch we heard, "Ouch!" I'm not exaggerating, it was really bad! At first it was kind of funny, but after the 100th shock it got annoying. We're hoping it will get better once we have furniture!

Annabeth has been the BEST baby throughout all this craziness. I was so worried this trip would be hard on her, but she has been amazing. She slept when we needed her to and ate when we needed her to. She wasn't fussy at all. When I knew we were going to be moving I started putting her down for naps in her carseat. That really paid off. She associates the carseat with sleeping and goodness knows she was in her carseat a lot this past week! Most of the time I just fed her when we stopped for gas. Only once did we have to stop on her account.

Before we were even in the house and hour the next door neighbor (Linda) was knocking on the door. She was concerned because she saw the boys peeking over the fence into her yard. She wanted to make sure they didn't climb over because she had a pool. We thought that was a bit odd, but she seemed nice otherwise.

Not wanting to deal with the gerbils in the hotel again we had left them at Jerry's parent's house. His brother Johnny drove them out to us and he was the first to tour the new house. The gerbils did well during this trip. When we moved from Arizona to Wisconsin in 2000, we moved two gerbils with us too! Unfortunately, during that trip they did not fare as well and one died shortly after we arrived. I'm happy to report these guys survived and are happy and healthy!

We brought air mattresses for Jerry and I, sleeping bags for the boys, and a pack n' play for the baby so our hotel sleeping days are over for now. I brought the cleaning supplies to get started with that while we wait for the truck to arrive. The actual date of the truck's arrival is unknown but we are hoping it will be here sooner rather than later.

We had Taco Bell for lunch and then Jerry ran to Wal-mart to get us some food and a toaster oven. In addition to cleaning, I was able to do a few loads of laundry since the house has a washer and dryer in the laundry room.

Our good friend Cindy was nice enough to invite us over for dinner so we didn't have to worry about cooking or eating out which was really nice. The boys enjoyed jumping on the Carlson's trampoline after being cooped up in the van for several days.

Then we headed "home" for our first sleep at our house in Arizona!

The Move: Arrived in Arizona!

Today is the day we'll arrive at our destination! JD started out the day with some coffee from the hotel's continental breakfast. My mom got him hooked. Don't worry it was decaf!

One bummer thing about large families staying in hotels is that we have to split up into to two rooms. We always try to get rooms with the door between, but it usually doesn't work out for one reason or another. So we split up... one grown up and three kids per room.

This morning we spent several minutes tearing apart Jerry's hotel room looking for Hayden's pajama pants. We could not find them anywhere and finally gave up so we could get going. We ended up finding them later... he was wearing them under his shorts!

Even after the fruitless pajama search we were still on the road by 8:30am. We knew we were getting closer as we passed the sign for the Continental Divide! Then at 9:44am we crossed the state line into Arizona!

Arizona is a very big state and even though we were in the state we still had a way to go. I really wasn't looking forward to the last leg of the journey down the steep mountains into the "Valley of the Sun". Driving in mountains is nerve wracking enough, but driving down mountains in a van full of your precious children pulling a heavy trailer full of your most beloved belongings makes it even worse.

I just remember the van shaking like crazy whenever we hit the brakes the last time we came down the mountains. And did you know that it's not recommended to ride your brakes the whole way down a mountain? And what is everyone's first instinct? Ride the brakes, of course. Jerry is much braver than I and wasn't bothered a bit by the upcoming mountain freefall.

We stopped at the top for lunch before our descent. The mountain air was refreshing and the tall pine trees so beautiful. Why they didn't make Payson the population center and capital of Arizona is beyond me! If I would have been an Arizona pioneer I would have turned around and headed right back up the mountains instead of carving a homestead out of the desert.

I don't know if it was because we had our brakes done before the trip or because Jerry is a good driver or because the pillow over my face comforted me, but it wasn't as bad as I had built it up to be! And just think of the money we saved on gas coasting down those mountains.

We were in familiar territory shortly after that. And it was hot! 90 degrees! On November 1st! What were we thinking? By 2pm we were pulling in at Jerry's parents house in Mesa. I did a quick load of laundry while Jerry went to the rental agency office and got the keys for our rental house.

Jerry's dad treated us to Chili's for dinner. The boys were great, very well behaved. We had a super nice waitress that was kind enough to compliment the boys on their good behavior. That was, as we would soon find out, the high spot of the night. The only hotel we made a reservation at was the one for this night's stay. And just like a sitcom episode, they "took" our reservation, but didn't hold our reservation.




I knew something was up when Jerry was in the office for far too long. I was waiting with all the kids in the van. We waited so long that somebody (not me or the baby) had a bathroom accident. Just as I was about to unload all six kids and march in there, Jerry came out. They did not have the adjoining room we had reserved so we would be in separate rooms again.

The hotel was being remodeled and was a complete mess. They should have just shut down for the renovations. We walked to our room down a hall with torn up wallpaper, no ceiling, and wires hanging out all over the place. Then, worst of all, they had advertised a heated pool when their pool was not heated! The boys (and therefore the parents) were NOT happy. We ended up letting them sit in the hot tub for a few minutes, but it was too hot for them so they didn't stay in long.

If it wasn't for the lovely evening weather and the other dollars from Grandma LaVerne that the boys used to buy another vending machine treat the night would have been a complete loss.

The Move: Driving Day Two

After enjoying the continental breakfast at the hotel, we were on the road again this morning by 8:30am. Today's lunch included: pb&j sandwiches, Gogurt, string cheese, chips, and grapes. We serve van meals in plastic tubs (old wipe containers minus their lids). This acts as a tray to keep things from falling all over. The wipe containers are just the right size for little laps to hold. Any leftovers (and crumbs) get dumped into a trash bag and then I wipe them out with baby wipes so they are ready for the next meal.

We took our favorite short cut on US Highway 54 which means we were in and out of both Oklahoma and Texas quickly. Just the way we like it! A little past Tucumcari, New Mexico we had to turn on the AC! We stopped to feed the baby and the boys got out to stretch their legs. They quickly discovered it was down right hot out!

Here's the shadow of the van pulling the trailer full of irreplaceables!

We ended up following this (out of service) brand new Pierce Fire Truck. We guessed it came from Appleton following the same route we had. It was headed to California.

It was about this time that the boys finally started to get a bit squirrelly and started asking "are we there yet?" type of questions. Thankfully, we didn't have nearly as far to go today as we did yesterday and before they got too grouchy we were rolling into Grants, New Mexico for the night.

By the time we stopped in Grants over half the states on our little game board were flipped over!

We stayed at the Quality Inn. This time the gerbils (coming through a side door not the lobby) joined us in the room. We went to Denny's for dinner. They boys have always enjoyed eating at Denny's but they were a bit sad to give up the yearly tradition of going to Chuck E. Cheese on October 31st. We told them we'd take them to Peter Piper Pizza once we were in Arizona to make it up to them.

After dinner it was time for swimming. Then the boys got a special surprise! Grandma LaVerne had sent along little envelopes for the boys to open today. The boys were so excited to find $2 in their envelopes. They were even more excited when we told them they could use $1 to buy something out of the vending machine for a bedtime snack at the hotel!

They made careful selections and this is what they ended up with:
Wesley: Reeses Peanut Butter Cups
Eli and Justus: Jalapeño Cheetos
Hayden: Bugles
JD: Pretzel M&Ms

And they still have a dollar each burning a hole in their pockets!

The Move: Driving Day One

At 12:45am we crossed Mississippi River and left Wisconsin behind. For me, that was the last big hurdle.

At 1:00am we stopped at a very busy BP for a gas and potty stop. I also fed the baby who had, thankfully, slept great up to that point. Jerry did a quick walk around the van and U-Haul trailer to make sure everything was okay and found a surprise on the bumper of the van. One of my dad's screwdrivers had stayed on the bumper all the way from Oconto! If you've ever driven on Wisconsin roads you'll know they are not know for being smooth... yet somehow that screwdriver didn't fall off. We got a good chuckle out of that.

As we were getting settled back in the van we saw Muammar Gaddafi or a guy dressed like him. At first we thought it was kind of strange, but then realized he must have been in a costume for a Halloween party or something.

We were back on the road again until 6:00am when we stopped for another gas, potty, and feed-the-baby break at the Kum and Go about 114 miles before Kansas City. [Am I the only who doesn't like that name for a gas station? Whose idea was that anyway?] Shortly after that we broke out the breakfast goodies... donuts, bananas, hardboiled eggs, and juice boxes.

Around 11:00am or so I drove a bit so Jerry could drive. Thankfully, there was no crazy fog like the last time I was driving in Kansas. I didn't drive long though because Jerry wasn't able to sleep. I don't know how he can stay awake that long! Lunch on the road was bologna and cream cheese roll-ups, Go-gurt, Goldfish crackers, string cheese, and Caprisuns to drink. And good news: we made it through Kansas without a speeding ticket this time!

When we looked out the windows, we saw a lot of this:

 And when we looked back in the van, we saw a lot of this:

Before our last trip to AZ, we invested in a dual screen DVD player. It was worth every penny. Only one problem... the kids in the back can't see the screen when they are hooked to the front seats. So, if you look carefully, you can see we have a little hack going on there in the middle of the van. It's a board (from our old set of bunk beds) cut to fit across the width of the van. It is hung with a piece of wire coat hanger from the hook on one side of the van and the door latch on the other. I screwed a piece of scrap wood to the long board so I could attach the screen. I even tapped in a few nails so it wouldn't slide off accidentally. It worked perfectly! We are definitely saving it for future trips!

Today's inflight in-drive movie was Despicable Me. We bought several new movies and didn't let the kids watch them until we were on the road which is more entertaining than movies they've already seen a hundred times.

Our travel policy is to always stop at hotels with swimming pools and continental breakfasts. The boys are able to get out a little energy in the pool after dinner and if we are lucky enough (and this time we were!) the driver can relax a bit in a hot tub before crashing for the night. Tonight we stopped in Liberal, Kansas. After unloading the van and a failed attempt* to sneak the gerbils into our room we drove over to Pizza Hut for dinner.

[*Jerry tried to carry the gerbils into the hotel under a blanket but the front desk lady saw us and, while she didn't demand to see what was under the blanket, she did ask. Since we also carried the computers into the room under blankets that is what we told her was under there. Jerry was overcome with guilt, and we figured she'd check the room while we were out to dinner, so we decided it was warm enough for the gerbils to spend the night in the van. Note to self: Don't carry concealed gerbils through the lobby even if it's the shortest route to the room.]

It was early to bed for us all because we'll be back on the road tomorrow! We covered over 1,000 miles the first 24 hours and plan to go another 500 tomorrow.

The Move: Last Day in WI

Once again the boys were up early. Their last day waking up in Wisconsin! We hung out with Roz, Grandma, and Pa. Roz made a pie. I prepped the food for the trip. We are doing the same thing that we did when we drove down to Arizona on vacation, eating breakfast and lunch in the car and only stopping to get out and eat for dinner. It worked well the last time, so we're hoping it will work well again.

When I packed our bags I used a Duggar Family tip. I put all the boy's clothes and pajamas for each day in a bag. That way I just grabbed a bag out each morning without having to find everyone's individual items. When we travel we also dress everyone alike. It helps others see which children belong to us and if someone happened to get lost we'd be able to show others exactly what they were wearing.

One other little thing we do for peace of mind is write our cell number on each child with a Sharpie permanent marker. We usually do this on their back just below the waste line (so it doesn't show while they are swimming). That way if they get separated from us they have our phone number with them at all times.

Knowing he was going to be up driving all night, Jerry laid down and took a bit of nap in the afternoon. Wesley went on an adventure to Marinette with Pa.

 

Abby, John, and the kids came up for one last family dinner together before we hit the road. We had a delicious dinner of roast, green beans (for Jer), tomato bake and creamed spinach. Of course, we had Roz's apple pie for dessert!

We said our good-byes to Abby and family when they left after dinner. Then a few minutes later we said good-bye to Roz, Grandma, and Pa. Yes, there were tears. Lots of tears. I think "sob" might have been a better description for my behavior. It was hard. Harder even than leaving Arizona to move to Wisconsin. At the same time, it didn't really feel real, it was like were just leaving to go on vacation. It was real though, and at 8:30pm we pulled out of the driveway.

By 9:09pm (I looked at the clock) all the boys and the baby were sound asleep. The car was silent as Jerry concentrated on driving and I was lost in my own thoughts about the days (and years) ahead.

Wedding Fun

Whenever we stay at Grandma's the boys wake up early. Today was no exception, the boys were up at 5am. After everyone was fed and dressed, Jerry spent a little time organizing the van and U-Haul trailer and I did laundry.

After lunch we all got dressed in our best for my cousin's wedding. As long as we were all together (and dressed nice!) we took some family photos.

We then headed down to DePere for the 3pm wedding. The boys were good during the cermony, but I did have to get up and walk around with the baby a little.

We had a bit of time between the ceremony and reception so we tried to run a quick errand. AT&T told me the modem we had been using was "leased" despite the fact I thought I bought it when we signed up with them. They told me to take it to any UPS Store and they would ship it back free otherwise we would not receive the credit due to us (since you pay ahead). The UPS store wouldn't take it, saying that model was on a list to NOT be returned (like I originally thought!). As we drove to the reception I called AT&T.  Anyone who has ever dealt with AT&T won't be surprised to hear they weren't very helpful in the matter. After a very confusing and frustrating conversation (during which the boys whined and complained in the van) I had to hang up and get into the reception. [We ended up moving the darn thing to Arizona where the UPS Store here told us the same thing! We packaged it up and sent it ourselves and eventually got the credit, although I am certain it was never "leased" to start out with.]

The reception was a TON of fun! The boys enjoyed goodie bags that were made up for all the little ones. They were full of snacks, crayons, and (best of all!) glow sticks. They boys also appreciated the "kiddie menu" and their plates with chicken fingers and fries. The grown ups got fried chicken and beef tips with mashed potatoes, stuffing, and slaw. Yum!

After dinner, JD enjoyed the empty dance floor. Having never been to a wedding before, Wesley enjoyed the grand march and first dance. Annabeth was awake the whole time and didn't fuss too much. She was held by lots of different people and got a bit overtired at the end. With bedtime approaching and a long(ish) drive home to my parents it was time to leave. We made our good-bye rounds and tried not to cry not wanting to take away from Josh and Samantha's special day.

Four Generations!

The baby had saved up her fussiness and decided to let it out during the ride home. Once back at mom's, we got boys to bed and watched the World Series while we chatting with Roz. We had to the house to ourselves since my parents stayed at the hotel where the reception took place. And knowing the next day would be a long one, we headed to bed.

The Move: Loading Day

Today was loading day! The movers and the HUGE semi-truck got here around 8am. The packers had packed up everything except the beds and bedding so we could sleep here one last night. We slept with boxes everywhere and the whole house smelled like cardboard!

We had one last round of Uncle Mike's donuts for breakfast. Then we told the boys to stay out of the way while the guys carried every single one of our possessions out to the truck.

The driver (Mark) inventoried everything by putting little green stickers on every single item or box. Mark was also the disassembler. He took apart any furniture he could so it would fit tighter in the truck. Mark was a very nice guy. We were glad we like him since he is the one who will actually be driving our stuff across the country. He would be one of the last people to see us in Wisconsin and one of the first to see us in Arizona!

As the guys moved things Jerry and I followed behind them cleaning.

The boys were actually really good. The neighborhood kids are off school for October break so that helped keep them busy. We did have one incident with one of the neighbor boys saying something rude to the movers. We sent him home and never saw him again.

Another neighbor boy wanted to exchanged addresses so we could write each other letters. Justus suggested that he not send anything until next Tuesday. :)

Today was a bit more difficult because the doors were almost constantly open. It got pretty cold in here. Not too bad for those of us working, but a bit rough for the kids. The boys just kept their jackets on and we kept the baby covered with a thick blanket when she was asleep (which was a good portion of the day).

Moving is hard work. JD ended up falling asleep on the floor in the living room. He was out cold! He actually fell asleep sitting up and we gently laid him down so his neck didn't get sore.

We all stopped what we were doing to wave good-bye to Mark, the truck, and our stuff. Then it was back to cleaning.

The movers ended up being a bit slower than we expected so we left the house later than we had planned. Then I delayed us further by taking a quick video tour of the house for the memory box. (Actually, I had made one previously, but it was accidentally erased in The Great Delete of 2011).

On the way out of town we stopped to visit Grandma Vern. We didn't stay long though because we knew Roz (and dinner) was already waiting for us at Grandma and Pa's in Oconto.  We got to Oconto around 7pm and ate a later dinner of my mom's chicken enchiladas. We visited and watched the World Series awhile before collapsing into bed.