We Left a Full House Behind

We were very sad to leave our home in Georgia, but after sleeping on air mattresses for days, living in a mostly empty house and eating out way too much, it was time. 

The plan was to leave our house at 5:00 a.m.  I was awake around 2:30 and couldn't go back to sleep.  I finally got up at 3:30 and decided I would get ready and start the loading process.  I had carried about two loads to the van when it started to rain.  Within minutes it was pouring.  I told Hannah the rain was tears from Georgia because it was so sad to see us go. 

We finally decided to load the cars through the garage to avoid getting our stuff and ourselves soaked.

 

Here is the van loaded.  Aaron and Hannah rode with me and Rachel rode with PK.  My front seat was full of stuff.

 

PK took several pictures of the house before we left.  Our realtor has until the end of the month to rent it out and then we will be listing it ourselves, so we will need some good pictures.

 

 

The living room...the built in shelves were packed with books, my rocking chair sat in the corner with my basket of books and my Bible for my quiet time.  The piano was just inside and filled the house with the sound of old hymns.  The girls would play Just Dance on the wii and I would sit in the corner and laugh.  Many sleepovers were had in this room where there was room to stretch out and watch a movie.

 

 

This is the view from the other end of the living room.  How many times did I have to ask the kids not to hang on the railing when going up or coming down the stairs?

 



The kitchen...kids did their homework, friends gathered around, meals were prepared and served, the wall was covered with artwork produced by my kids

 



 

One of Rachel's chores was to empty the dishwasher.  I would repeatedly ask her to please put the dishes away gently.  That center island would be lined with packed lunches and signed papers before the start of each school day.

 

 

This is the hallway right outside of Hannah's and Aaron's rooms.  They would tie stuffed animals to yarn and hang them over the side.  Even though I painted, there are still grooves where the yarn wore the wood.

 

 

Aaron's room...This is the only room we did not paint.  The walls looked good and it was good quality paint.  In the end, I managed to remove the smell of a pre-teen boy and collect all the loose Legos.

 

When we first bought this house, I remember writing a blog post expressing how it was so new to us, but one day we would walk through the doors and it would feel like home.  We drove away from this house leaving our home behind.  The movers had taken most of our belongings days before, but that house is still packed full of memories.



Church

We couldn't leave Georgia without a quick drive-by of our church.

Finding a church home should be an easy task.  God wants us to fellowship with other believers.  Why is it so difficult to find a good fit?  The kids really chose this church.  We tried it a couple times and they really liked it.  We all became comfortable here and truly felt we were a part of this family.

I will miss sitting in my Sunday School class each week.  I was the youngest member of the class and was privileged to glean from the knowledge, wisdom and life experiences of the other members.

The kids will miss going to their Sunday School classes and meeting with the youth group.  They each really began to learn what it is to serve at this church. 

Hannah had just learned to acolyte.



Rachel spent the week before we packed out leading music for VBS and Aaron assisted in one of the classrooms.

Rachel and her friend, Bria, leading music

 



Aaron (in the red shirt) assisting Mrs. Rosalyn

 





I am extremely glad God gave us the opportunity to be a part of this church family and I am thankful for all the people there who invested their time in my kids.

Anchors Aweigh

We had a fabulous farewell party at our house last night.  We wanted to be able to say, "Good-bye" to all of our friends in the area, so we threw a party.  I love having people over to our house and this was by far our largest party ever.  We had about 80 people attend.

I really enjoy organizing parties.  I decided on an Anchors Aweigh theme.  It seemed appropriate as we are leaving on Navy orders.

We rented a big jumpy for the kids.  The tiger did not fit the theme in any way, form or fashion, but it did keep the kids busy.



I ordered sailor hats and the kids were able to decorate them.

Some of the big kids got in on the hat decorating.  These are our good friends, Tad and Sarah, with their daughter, Allison.  Their son, Coleman, is Aaron's best friend.  He must have been running around somewhere with Aaron.





Hannah and Skyler (a little girl from our church) are wearing their hats they decorated.  Baby Charlie (who is now 3 1/2...we have to stop calling him that) is trying to shoot them with a water gun.

 



We also had bubbles, water guns and Frisbees.



Aaron and his friend, Olen, having a water gun fight

 







 

 

Rachel and her friends spent most of their time in the front yard playing with the frisbees and listening to music.

I bought each of my kids a bottle and cut pieces of paper for guests to leave them a message in a bottle to read when we reach Virginia.



Galen (a little boy from our church who is in love with Hannah) and Zac (a friend of Rachel's...His mom, Laurie, and I are also good friends) are writing their messages to go in the bottles.

 

I ordered sandwich platters, made fruit and vege trays, bought potato salad, chips, cookies and cupcakes.  A few of our friends contributed.  There was tons of food.  PK thought I bought way too much, which I did, but I would rather have too much than not enough.  The hostess in me wants everyone to have plenty.  I kept telling the guests that PK thought I had too much food, so no one was allowed to leave until the food was gone.  Ha!

We asked people to bring lawn chairs and we set everything up in the side yard outside the garage. 

 



Nikki (feeding Holly and apple and making a new friend), John (Nikki's husband), Stan, Jim and Cheri (All sweet friends from church)

 



Bob and Grace and Brad and Lorita (More sweet church friends)

 



Katie lives in our neighborhood, but we knew her through the kids' school before we moved out of the rental.  Chaz and Erin are friends from church.  That is their little curly headed blond baby.  Adrienne is one of the youth from our church and a friend of Rachel's.

 



Josh and Brittany...Josh is our new youth minister.  He is really passionate about the Lord and leading the youth.

 



 

Jennie (Aaron's martial arts instructor) and her friend, Mike

 



The weather was perfect.  What a blessing as we have had an unusual amount of rain and hot and humid temperatures.  It was slightly overcast which kept it cool (relatively).

I made it through all the good-byes without any tears. 



Hannah and Libby saying good-bye

When Rachel said bye to Montana and Hannah said bye to Libby, I thought I would lose it.  Those were tough farewells for the girls.

I went outside this morning to do some post-party clean up.  It was so still and quiet and every spot I looked was filled with a memory of our friends having fun. 

Camp Ray

After the movers came, we spent many nights on air mattresses.  The first two nights the kids set up their mattresses in their respective rooms.  However, we had the carpets professionally cleaned and after that the kids weren't allowed on the carpet, so we set up their air mattresses in the living room.

 

Rachel claimed her corner and tried to keep it neat as if it was her own little room.  Hannah is wrapped up in the jungle blanket next to King Cal who was also banished from carpeted areas.  Aaron is wrapped up in blue and red check.

Getting Our Clean On

The movers have come and gone.  The house is empty with the exception of the things we are taking in our cars...if it will fit.

We have a company coming to clean the carpets tomorrow in preparation for the tenants we are yet to find.  I have painted most of the interior of the house except PK's office.  With all the bookcases and filing cabinets, it was going to be too difficult to get to the walls.  PK and I painted that today.

Once the movers had packed the books off of the built-ins in the living room, it was obvious the previous tenants didn't move the shelves when they painted.  There were large brown areas in the white where the shelves had been painted around.  I took off the shelves and painted the back the same color as the rest of the living room.  I love it.  It looks like a new room all over again.

While we were painting, I gave the kids some cleaning jobs to do.  Aaron and Hannah cleaned the kitchen cabinets and the baseboards in the entire house with Clorox wipes.  Rachel took Magic Erasers and cleaned the scuff marks and dirt off of all the doors in the house.  I was looking back at blog posts I had written when we were moving out of our house in Indiana and I had the kids clean the baseboards then, too.  However, then they thought it was fun.  Not so much this time around.

It looks like Aaron and Hannah are sleeping on the floor, but they are actually cleaning the baseboard under the center kitchen island.

 





Rachel working on the doors

 



Just before bed, PK decided to paint the area where the washer and dryer were.  It was almost 10:00 and he was sure it would be a quick job.  About 1:00 a.m. he came to bed and said, "That took a little longer than I thought it would."  Always does with painting, so I have learned. 

Moving and Minecraft

We are beginning day three of the movers being here.  They just pulled up.  Everything is packed.  Today they are going to start loading.  If they finish today, they will be able to deliver at the new house on Friday.  That won't work for us as our farewell party is on Saturday, so Sunday is the earliest we can leave.  If they take two days, they will deliver on Monday, which is perfect for us.

Aaron's room was packed up with the exception of his bed on the first day of packing.  Hannah came into my room and told me, "They packed Aaron's boxes and stacked them like a castle.  You know how I love castles." 

PK and I spent some time yesterday afternoon doing yard work.  The lawnmower and weed eater had to be empty of gas and oil in order for the movers to take them. 

We are still trying to find tenants to rent our current house.  We have a realtor, but she is not very aggressive.  I would fire her at this point, but she has an iron clad contract that basically benefits her.  We can fire her, but if we rent out the house before the contract would end, she still receives the full commission.

Hannah slept over at Libby's last night, so she is hanging out there today.  Coleman is spending the day here with Aaron.  His mom is starting a new job as a media specialist and had a meeting today.  We still have internet, so the two boys are busy playing Minecraft.  As long as it doesn't rain, I'll take them to the pool.

Minecraft is an online game where the player uses blocks to build anything imaginable.  They are able to play together with their own computers.  Aaron, Hannah and Coleman would play all day if they were allowed.

We are meeting some friends from church for dinner tonight.  They aren't able to make our party on Saturday and wanted to get together.

Ed, Ed, Steve and Randy

Today is our first pack out day.  The movers (Ed, Ed, Steve and Randy) arrived promptly at 7:30 this morning and they are busy loading boxes.  This move hasn't seemed real until today.  Yesterday was our last day at Mountain View UMC, but I hurried out and refused to get emotional.  We are having a farewell party at our house on Saturday and most of our close friends from church are coming.  We will be able to say goodbye then.  Rachel and Aaron went to youth last night.  When I went to pick them up they were still down in the youth room.  The door to the youth room has a long triangular window on it.  I peeked through the window to see Rachel and Aaron sitting in chairs, surrounded by the youth who were laying hands on them and their youth minister, Josh, praying over them.  Beautiful sight.  Afterwards, I thought I should have snapped a photo of the moment.  However, it was too sacred.

 

The moving truck in front of our house



Empty boxes in the hallway

 



 

We have loaded the master bathroom with everything we have to pack in our cars to take with us.  We might have to buy a bigger car for PK before we go or leave the kids behind.  They probably wouldn't mind the latter at this point.