Moving Day

On Monday, April 9, two very large moving trucks showed up first thing in the morning. Donna and Marty took the kids for us which was extremely helpful because Brian, Alli and I had some major work to do.

You would think if you hire movers, you can just sit back and direct them to do the work. Not so much- we took about 100 loads of small things across sweet Betsy Payne's yard to the new house while the movers took all the big items. We worked like dogs for about 7 hours (and stopped for about 30 minutes to close on our new house- needed to take care of that minor item of business) and then finally we were out of 809 and into 801. Yes- we only went two doors down- and I'm sure it was just as much as a headache as moving across town.

Once we were out of 809, I realized there was still some major cleaning to do so I hopped on that. Then Edilea came in and finished the job for me. When she was through, she handed me this card that she found stuck behind the changing table in Luke's room...the last remnant from our old house and it was a doozy. 

She had found a card that Baba had sent Collins apparently right after she was born because it was signed from Baba and Papal. When I saw the signature, I got chills because Papal died a few months after she was born. How we all miss him and how special to see something from both my grandparents sent over seven years ago. It choked me up to find that card, especially with it being the very last item to come out before we closed the chapter on 809.

So after a very long day of lifting and running and directing, Brian thought we should take a break from the work and the show the kids their new house. So he went and got them from his parents, and what a fun moment to see them run up for their first peek at their new house with their stuff in it!

Collins got a big surprise when she found out that her new room had already been painted purple!

Addie approved of her new space...(we call it the tree house room because you look out the windows and all you see is trees) and had to do some dancing.

After we hung out and showed them around (they had been in the house many times but the Rogers' stuff was always in it), Collins asked if we could go see our old house one last time now that it was empty. I wasn't sure this was a good idea for Addie because she had been so hesitant about the move, but we agreed and I needed to drop the keys off anyway.

So we went in, and they had a big time yelling (it echoed without anything in it) and running around in it.

It looked really strange empty...

then it was time to say goodbye. I left our house keys in the kitchen for the Whitfields and slowly closed the front door one last time. That's when it hit Collins. She had always been the one in favor of our move, but in that moment it hit her and she started crying. Then I started crying. Then Brian started crying. And Addie (the one who was opposed to the move) said, "why is everybody crying???" :)

We had a group hug and a group cry, and that was the closure we all needed. We were ready to move on to 801. New house here we come!