Moving Weekend!

Wow. 3yrs TO THE DAY that we moved to our quaint little Texas town, we are leaving it. Goodbye M-town…

Hello Big D!!!

Needless to say, the past few weeks have been nuts trying to pack, tie up loose ends, etc.

Thursday was closing day. We dropped the kids off for their LAST day at MDO. So bittersweet. We’ve been there 3 years and apart from one teacher, everyone has always loved and taken such great care of my babies.

I passed out 8 of these Pinterest inspired Copco gifts out of appreciation. I almost felt guilty picking them up that afternoon. (Hadley’s teachers cried!) We promised to visit and at the very least, I’m thankful to live in the Facebook era so we can still keep in touch with everyone :)

But back to Thursday morning… Right after we dropped the kids off, James and I headed to the title company to close. Crazy how much easier it is to close as a seller than it is as a buyer. We signed maybe 5 documents and it was official!

So weird.

Immediately after closing we drove up to our townhouse to sign the lease papers and get our keys. Our house sold a lot sooner than we were expecting, so this is where we’ll be living for a few months until we can find a home to buy…

Isn’t it cute? It’s in a great community and there are so many other neat things about it. (Like the fact that the guard is on horse-back and it’s within walking distance from my favorite mall.) But Y’ALL… It’s a third the size of our house. If that. Half of our stuff will be in storage, the other half will be crammed inside, and the kids will be sharing a room. This will be interesting…

But I promise to keep the whining to a minimum. It’s a blessing that we were able to find a place that will let us do such a short-term lease. This buys us time. It will allow us to buy a house because it’s the perfect fit, not because we’re on a time crunch… So I’m vowing to be grateful and stay positive :)

We moved a load in the truck and Tahoe while the kids were at school and then one more after we picked them up. I wanted to have a few kitchen and bath essentials set up, and move our closets…

Precious cargo. Don’t cha just love my priorities??

We grabbed a quick bite out for dinner then headed back for our last night at Home… Which I wish we could have enjoyed but there was still SO much to be done. I’m so anal about how I pack boxes, but at this point I was just throwing whatever was left in laundry baskets and open boxes. (And quite a few trash/Good Will bags.) James and I both worked til we physically couldn’t anymore then passed out.

The movers arrived bright and early Friday morning. We hired an off-duty fireman company and they were wonderful!

Knox got a big kick out of their truck!

Y’all remember the little Home Town Heroes set Santa brought Knox? (It’s like a little model firehouse.)…

This gave me a laugh ;)

Friday was a very long day… I gave the movers a run-down on what needed to go where then loaded up the kids and headed to the townhouse. I packed 90% of the house, but when it comes to moving boxes and furniture I’m pretty useless. So I made it my job to keep the kids out of the way. (Reason number 547 why it sucks not having family close-by.)

I was able to get a few things set up while we were waiting for the movers…

The kids bathroom.

Trying my best to stay out of this pic. I was feeling SO awful. I’m guessing it was a combination of stress, exhaustion, and allergies.

The Keurig was another first to be set-up. Very important.

We’d moved some toys over Thursday, so the kids had a little entertainment. But once the truck arrived with the first load it got a little trickier to keep them out of the way…

We had a picnic on the balcony.

Poor things have eaten so many Lunchables this past week.

We also made a Target run and at one point I even threw them in the tub with toys, snacks, and no water. Just to keep them contained.

Around 2pm James and the movers went back to the house for the second load. Meanwhile I laid Hadley down for a nap, put a movie on for Knox, and got busy busy unpacking. We’re limited on space, especially in the kitchen, so the most challenging part was trying to pick out only what we needed and repacking the rest for storage.

But like I said - Friday was a VERY long day. We had our movers from 8am to 9pm! Granted, our move was unique since we had 2 very large loads, going 2 different places, with an hour drive each way.

I’m so glad they were [somehow] able to break down the swing set and fit it in the storage unit! One less thing we won’t have to re-buy when we find a house.

I think James and I finally got to bed around 11pm Friday. We all slept great our first night in the new place - even the kids in their shared room - probably just because we were all so exhausted.

Saturday morning we did more unpacking and a little decorating. That afternoon we drove back to the house to pick up another load and so I could clean. I was WAY underestimating that chore. Do you know how long it takes to vacuum and mop a completely empty 3200 square feet? Add bathrooms and wiping down cabinets inside and out, and GEEZE. We didn’t finish until 7:30pm, but I feel so much better leaving behind a clean home.

We also said our goodbyes…

We’ve been talking to Knox about this for a while. He can tell you all about how we’re packing up our stuff and are going to find “a new house by the big buildings…” But he didn’t REALLY get it until Friday. I was setting up his room and bedding in the townhouse when I turned around and saw him standing there very wide-eyed and still. I could tell the sight of his bed not in his room had suddenly made it very real.

I said “Hey Knox… See your bed? This is your new room. Do you want to sleep in this room with Sissy?” And very quietly he said “I need Knox’s house.”

OH MY GOSH. That broke my heart. I may or may not have let him pick out a Batman collectors DVD pack and stay up super late watching it that night… But I also promised him we’d go say goodbye to his room, so that’s what we did.

All while cleaning Saturday I kept asking him if he wanted to go tell his room Bye and he kept saying No… Finally I asked him to show me his room. We went up there and talked about where he slept, where he kept his trains, where his KNOX letters on the wall were, and how much fun he had in his room. Then he said Bye and even gave his room hugs and kisses. (Hadley wanted to join in on the fun so she gave her room hugs and kisses too!)

Seems silly, but I know that house is the only place Knox ever remembers living and that the sight of seeing it empty and his bed in a strange place is rocking his world. (And making me want to cry.) I think by being able to see the house empty and say good bye gave him closure. Heck it gave me closure. It may not have been my Southern Living dream home, but it holds some great memories. It’s where we brought Hadley home for the first time. I know I’m WAY too sentimental about this (it’s JUST A HOUSE) but I said my mental goodbyes to each room as I was doing a final vacuum.

James had to go back for 2 more loads on Sunday, but that was it for the rest of us. We left our keys and garage openers on the counter and sent the official “We’re out!” message Sunday afternoon.

I spent the rest of the weekend nesting. And I’m still going… But it’s getting close and I even cooked real food for the first time in forever Sunday night. Looking forward to settling in to our new community for the next few months and starting the house hunt!

The move has gotten me so behind on the blog. I have several “in-progress” posts that I want to get up this week, but we don’t get internet until Tuesday and my iPhone/Pad apps are acting up. (Please don’t laugh, I’m actually sitting at Starbuck’s, mooching their Wi-Fi to post this…) But anyway, I hope to get those posts up soon and maybe even do a little tour of the townhome.