boxes.boxes.everywhere

Actually, there aren't too many everywhere, although the office is full of them:

I apologize for not having pictures of everyone. There was so much going on, and I left my camera in the van for most of Saturday! I'm sorry if your photo didn't make the blog!

Let me begin by thanking my massive team of movers, shakers, and cleaners from Thursday to Monday! We completely couldn't have done it without both sets of our parents, Brian and Kristi, Jill and Andrew, Mike and Pam, Dave, Kay, Kent, and Rob and Jen. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! Here is a small sampling of what everyone did:

My parents (Thursday, Friday, Saturday): cleaning, moving, cleaning, moving, cleaning, moving, cleaning, moving, cleaning, moving, cleaning, moving, cleaning, moving (and more!)

Josh's parents (Saturday, Sunday): watched the girls all weekend, helped clean out the garage

Brian and Kristi (Thursday, Friday, Saturday): provided trailer, moving, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, rearranging furniture several times in several rooms, comic relief (see below)

Jill and Andrew(Friday, Saturday): cleaning, moving, cleaning, moving, rearraging the furniture several times in several rooms, comic relief

Mike and Pam(Saturday): cleaning, moving, cleaning, moving, cleaning, moving

Dave(Saturday): hung shelf/rod in the coat closet, hung the rod in master bedroom closet, hung both bathroom shower curtain rods, installed the shelving in the linen closet, drinking the Sam Adams

Kay (Friday): cleaned windows (even the really, really difficult ones!)

Kent(Thursday): cleared off the front porch...such a HUGE and appreciated job...Kent has no idea how big of a help this was, and he installed a door knob

Rob and Jen(Sunday, Monday): cleaned out the garage, cleaned parts of the house, made us a meal for Monday night (yum!)

Even Meredith and Claire were helping clean:

Things went extremely well all Saturday morning with our moms arriving with 3 dozen doughnuts and a big pot of coffee between the two of them. I expected one dozen and we had three! My workers were running on sugar and caffine. I must apologize, though, to my coffee drinkers who wanted sugar in their coffee...it was already packed (hey, I was trying to be prepared for the day!).

Anyway, we headed to the new house with a big load in Brian's enclosed trailer (which was such a blessing), my dad's truck, Josh's truck, and Mike's truck. We unloaded everything and the guys headed back for more while Jill, Kristi, and I stayed to start dispersing items and boxes. The men headed back to the old house for another load of the bigger stuff. All was going well until...

Brian and Andrew thought it was a good idea to pull Brian's truck (with the trailer attached) into the saturated, muddy yard. They were stuck....big time. I think Josh was ready to hurt someone (not really!). They tried to push the truck, put boards under the tires, and reposition the truck, but nothing worked. Thankfully, our video camera was handy, and Jill, Kristi, and I began the filming process. (I'm going to try to post the video soon.) They ended up hooking Josh's truck up to the trailer with a tow strap and pulling Brian's truck and trailer out. The whole process only took about 10 minutes, but it provided great comedic relief in the middle of the day as well as a great memory for all involved! If the guys just would have taken the 10 minutes to move the vehicles around, there wouldn't have been a such good story to tell!

So, we are settled in (kind of), and I'm looking forward to unpacking more boxes. The kitchen sink was finally hooked up last night along with the dishwasher. As with most other things, the dishwasher gave us a few fits and leaked water out onto the floor :( It didn't seem to have any problems during the majority of the wash. We were awake on the couch for the first couple of hours of the washing. Josh checked it several times, but then we both fell asleep on the couch. We woke up at 2:47 to find water on the floor in front of the dishwasher and cabinets. So, for the next hour, Josh worked on the problem. It isn't fixed yet, but I assume that it will be this evening.

Overall, everything is great. I am loving the new kitchen and family room. The girls seem to be adjusting very well. They even initiated the new walls in their room during their rest time today by drawing all over one wall with pencils. A severe discipline followed! Thankfully, the walls aren't painted yet :) Here is a small sampling of the artwork:

Overall, things went incredibly well on Saturday...much better, quicker, and smoother than I could have imagined. Everyone did a great job of following my no-muddy-shoes-on-the-new-carpet rule. As we continue to put things away and get things decorated, I'll post more new pictures of the house. Thank you again to everyone who helped. We couldn't have done it without you! We have a fantastic circle of supportive family and friends. We love you all!

Here are some updated pictures of what the kitchen looks like now (the microwave on the counter will soon be replaced with a hanging one above the stove):