Moving Week #1

#1 meaning the first of at least 4 weeks in which our main purpose was to load or unload the truck. 2 of those weeks haven't transpired yet, but they will soon enough, we hope.



The following are many, many pictures courtesy of Rachel that were taken the week before Thanksgiving, which is when we loaded the moving truck.



Our friends had a great time labeling the boxes.... and cutting out people from the ads which we were crumpling up to use as padding in the boxes.



And then there was my (self-proclaimed ;) amazing "round" box innovation.... :D



On the piano (in the box with the colors) in the above picture you catch a glimpse of the incredibly awesome and super organized system Mother created to make sure we knew exactly where each box was to go in the new place.



Rach and Jordan and Allison helped me pack up my sewing room (that in itself took a good 3 days). They couldn't believe some of the stuff I kept. :P



I also didn't clean off my white board very often... these drawings are from last November. :P



Freaking out is not allowed, remember?



"Without us, you just don't have the essentials for life!"~ Rachel about what I wrote on the heart.





Ooops. That wasn't supposed to open.



You ready?



Down the driveway we go!





We were so thankful for nice weather most of the day because we had a tendency to just strewn things about everywhere.



Moving the REALLY HEAVY piano out the door. We were going to move it all the way to the truck, but after Mother and Mema and the strongest of the guys saying we should get some equipment, we decided to just leave it on the porch and deal with it later. :D



I took this picture!!!!! While standing on the back of the piano! :P



Taking the opportunity to bless our entire neighborhood with "joyful sounds" we had a mini jam session on the front porch. :D



Complete with dancing. :D









This picture represents the many adventures of the day that we failed to get pictures of. Having two friends (Allison and Jordan) with their licenses, we took full advantage of being able to go anywhere around town whenever we needed and could get stuff done that normally we would have needed a parent to help with (Thankfully everything was very close, like, two miles so we didn't lose much labor time). Allison and I went and picked up boxes from dollar stores (and a few gnats and trash men curses and convict friends-long story) and Jordan took loads to Goodwill.

A mile and a half away our family rented a storage unit that we had slowly been filling up with packed boxes that now needed to be brought back to the truck. We grabbed Jordan's passenger van, our van, Jack, Rachel, Hannah, and Emma and had it all brought back to the truck in 3 very full loads. We even managed to fix the stuck garage-type door with Jordan's hand. :)Did I mention it was raining for this part of the day? ;)



Piano moving take two.





After getting it down the steps, through the street, although it sat there for a while, it embarked up into the truck. Thanks to Mr. Burtrand's awesome come along.



We were so thankful to Mrs. Clarke for taking Seth, Elsie, and Willa for the day!



Yippee!



Elsie loves Jack- this is just after they had been playing.



McKenna's labeling. :D



We take a chocolate break. :D



Packing day #2 and Mommy's still smiling!



Rachel's almost still smiling. :D We were all sooooooooooo tired this day (Thursday) that we literally hardly said a word because we were yawning so much. :D Thankfully when Jordan got there at three she promptly decided it was time for coffee, so she ran out at bought us Hazelnut coffee and Southern Buttercream creamer. Needless to say we were in Hyper Heaven the rest of the day, and especially for our last IEW class that night! :P



Mrs. Clarke was again SO nice and brought us dinner Thursday evening.



Moving day three, er, Friday, we started the day right with the left over coffee. That had nothing to do with our whim to, as we were loading the rolling chairs into the truck, have a -very noisy- race down the street. :D



I won.





Dem crazy West Virginians. (this is Emma... :P)



'Course, such a momentous event requires the video camera.



This is a very epic picture. :D



Why are we standing around, you ask? Because we got the truck completely (every square inch!) loaded before 1:30! Quite the accomplishment. And sad, too, because it meant we were *really* moving.



Putting the "Bulkhead" in.



Allison has been over here 50+ hours helping us fix up the house!

Then we spent several hours chatting over some delicious food prepared by Mrs. Turnewitch, Mrs. Callahan, Mrs. Clarke, and, sorry if I forgot anyone! Thank you all SO much for coming and helping, or babysitting, or lending your children, or preparing food, or just praying! Y'all were such a blessing.