New House

OK, OK, I know, I know. We're really bad at keeping everyone informed about what's going on in our lives. I'll make you a deal. You get over it and I promise not to do any better.

In case you didn't know already know it, we moved again! But it's the last time in a long time - I promise! Not only did we move, but we moved because we decided to stay in Rexburg, and since we're staying, there's no point in paying for someone else's mortgage; we bought a house Yep, after lots and lots of prayer and pondering, we finally decided to turn down my job offers with USAA in San Antonio, and my job offer with Boeing in Washington, and to stay at the hospital. And since making that decision, the Lord has opened so many doors - including purchasing this house! Here's how the move went:

Thursday, 6pm: Josh gets off work and goes over to the new house. Jamie comes over with some (only about 30,000 or so) Relief Society sisters and they all start cleaning and getting ready to paint.

Thursday, 7pm: The house is spick-and-span (I wonder where that phrase originated anyway), and Josh, Jamie and Greg (a close family friend) started to tape and paint.

Thursday, 10pm: Greg wusses out and goes home.

Friday, 2am: Josh and Jamie get to a good stopping point and go home to get some sleep.

Friday, 7am: The kids wake mama-bear and papa-bear up. They (the kids) get taken to school and Josh and Jamie go back to the new house to paint.

Saturday, 1am: Josh wusses out and goes home.

Saturday, 230am: Jamie decided to stop and meets Josh at home.

Saturday, 3am: Josh and Jamie (after tossing and turning) finally fall asleep after their muscles decide to quit complaining about all the weird angles they been forced into while painting the ceiling.

Saturday, 745am: Josh and Jamie awake to a text message that only 2 people have signed up to help them move all their stuff to the new house. Josh goes to pick up the U-Haul.

Saturday, 9am: Josh rounds up a couple of friends and they start the first truck-load. A couple people are assigned to finish the painting at the new house.

Saturday, 1130am: Josh and company take the first truck over to the new house.

Saturday, 1220pm: The first truck is unloaded.

Saturday, 1245pm: This is the assigned time for the 2 people who signed up to actually show up. Nothing.

Saturday, 1pm: An army of about 500 shows up to help move. It was actually about 25 people, but it was a lot! I can't tell you how relieved we were to have more than 2 people to help us!

Saturday, 245pm: 3 more truck-loads have been loaded, taken to the new house, and unloaded. Everything is now at the new house.

Saturday, 345pm: The old house has its preliminary cleaning, including behind the fridge. Jamie leaves to fill her calling as den leader and help out at the Blue and Gold Banquet.

Saturday, 7pm: Blue and Gold is over and Josh and Jamie go to dinner with friends to help relax after such an exhausting weekend.

Saturday, 1130pm: Josh and Jamie get back from dinner and start unpacking.

Sunday, 1230am: Josh goes to bed.

Sunday, 3am: Jamie finally goes to bed.

Sunday, 9am: More unpacking (Where are all the church clothes? Do we have any clean towels? What about body-wash and shampoo? You get the picture). The ox is in the mire at this point.

Sunday, 1:30pm: Finally found the shower stuff and get ready for church.

Sunday, 2pm: Showers are done, Josh and the boys leave for church (1/2 hour late). Jamie collapses (figuratively).

Sunday, 430pm: Josh and the boys get back from church, and the boys get to watch a movie. Josh goes to do home-teaching. Jamie goes to clean the old house.

Sunday, 7pm: Josh and Hunter join Jamie to clean and patch walls and paint and all that good stuff. They discover the value of wall texture in a bottle (only its weight in gold!).

Sunday, midnight: They go home and all go to bed.

Monday, 7am: Boys up for school, Josh and Jamie go over to the old house to finish cleaning and repairs.

Monday, 9am: Josh goes to work.

Monday, 430pm: Josh comes home and gets help from his friend to take a bunch of junk to the dump.

Monday, 1030pm: Repairs are all done, Josh and Jamie to the new house to relax.

Whew! And now we just have to unpack and re-organize! I'll put up some more pictures later, but here are some pictures of the main living area - before and after.

Before:

After:

And it's even messier now that all our stuff is here! So, in a week or two (once we've had time to organize and clean and vacuum a little) we'll take some more pictures and post again.