We are Here! Been Two Weeks Already!

This has to be quick, as I have to get home to the baby. I am at the library. We hope to get our internet set up this week.

We made it, arriving on Feb. 25. It was not fun. Not much to see on the way, either.

It was sweltering hot the day we drove in, then it got freezing cold and windy the next two days, then it was warm and beautiful for four days, then it rained cats, dogs, cows, and horses. Then it snowed. All in a week. We like it, though.

We had three wonderful families come and unload our trailers, then organize the house. It was amazing. We had 31 children, ages 21 to four mos., all in the house (or outside), at one time!

This has been an amazing experience, one that I hope never to duplicate. Except for the good parts.

Michael is still not here but hopes to be in about 10 days. Time is standing still because I keep saying he will be here in 10 days. He has Mark with him so he is not lonely or anything.

I will update when I can. Thanks for your prayers. We have lots more to say but I am rushed at the moment.

Love to all!

~ ~ Hotel Del Grammio ~ ~

We are staying at my mom's house, which is very cute and decorated. I love the look of her house, even if it is miles away from how I could ever do my home! We have air mattresses, hot showers, a refrigerator and full kitchen, and even a heater! It's nice, and we are thankful.

Today was a more restful day for most of us. Michael worked and took care of things for the move, but Rachael had the privilege of reading some classic literature and Paul is working on a movie with his uncle. The little boys got to make a fort, use a drill and hammers, and they even got to use the manual rototiller to tidy up Grammy's garden. I am finally beat; the adrenaline has worn off. I am aiming for my bed asap!

Michael is with Mr. VD, as he is "fresh out of wisdom" today. There are decisions to be made and he needs help making them. One has to do with whether he stays here to finish a "big" job and sends me on ahead or whether I stay, too. I really do not want to drive all that way w/ seven children and then supervise others unloading the two trailers. It seems like a huge responsibility -- one that I don't feel up to the task of undertaking. I prayed for the Lord to ready my heart for whatever He has planned for me/us.

~ * ~ The Zero Hour ~ * ~

Yesterday we had four strong and strapping young men come over to hurl furniture. They seemed to have a wonderful time! We sure are thankful for them. Zach said, "Thanks for having me" when I thanked him for helping. What a wonderful bunch of manlymen. :-)

Today we are having to finish the second trailer and be completely out of this house. At about 3 pm I am going to take the smaller children and all our "camping gear" and go to my mom's. There, I'll make dinner and wait for instructions. I don't expect to see the rest of the family until later tonight. There are a lot of details to work out before the end of the day. We don't know where we will stay for the three days but we'll work it out.

Our fervent hope, prayer, and plan is to leave California by Tuesday, as early as possible.

We need a lot of help again today and we have requests out there for people to come over, if even for an hour.

Something interesting happened yesterday. Our city is in the midst of re-paving the streets in our neighborhood. The U-Pack is scheduled to be picked up Monday but we didn't have a firm time. We had to make a few phone calls to the city street paving guy and the moving company to avoid the trailer being impounded by the city if it's not picked up by 10 am. That problem was averted, thank God! They were really nice, but at first when the "impound" word came up, there was a bit of concern.

We appreciate any prayers on our behalf. Also, all this exertion in the cold is taking its toll and prayers for our continued health are especially coveted! I have the Cold-Eeze out and I plan to get some garlic today to admininster to the troops.

Not quite finished

While the first trailer is packed and on its way to Texas, there is another 1/2 trailer that is being packed today and tomorrow. After that, we are officially FINISHED. We are working out where we will stay until about Wednesday or maybe Tuesday, when we will finally go go go to our new home.

We have some helpers coming today, praise God, and we're praying for a few for Saturday. It's all coming together.

After tomorrow morning, we will be offline until we can get the laptop up and running.

THE TRAILER IS DONE

Twenty-six feet of nightmare, packed and ready to go allllll the loooonnnnggg way to Texas. The people will come pick it up today and start driving and meanwhile, we'll get ready to go ourselves. It took six days to pack it up. And we had a lot of help. (Acknowledgements will be at the bottom.) The weather is beautifully overcast and cloudy with a threat of rain, so Paul and I got a lot of good pictures. It was very windy too.

Acknowledgements to those who helped us this past week:

Mr. and Mrs. D for driving Brandon over here every day. He was a big help. Also thanks to Mrs. D for the yummy lunch food.

Thanks for Brandon for coming over here every day, and sacrificing school to help us. :P

Hugely humongous thanks to GRAMMY for all her help. We couldn't have done it without you. :)

Mr. and Mrs. VD, thank you for letting Shane come and help.

Shane, thank you so very much. We all loved having you around and you were a reallllyyyy big help.

Thank you to Uncle Ty, who sacrificed several days and his favorite thing to do besides sleep to come and help us load up.

Thanks to Zach for making time in your busy schedule to come help us. We got more done in the time you were here then all the rest of that day.

Rachael

Wednesday, Feb. 13

In the photo below, you see three tape guns. Never before have all three been in the same place at the same time the past five days! Each of us have gone hunting for a tape gun probably at least 50 times each. Today the U-Pack was *almost* completely loaded. Tomorrow will be about another hour, then it can be picked up!!!!! Yippeeeeeee!!! Yee haw!! I'm getting geared up for being a Texan. Did you know I even have my own firearm? See, I'm already a Texan.

Our plans change day-to-day, and it frustrates us as much as it probably does everyone else. We need to be out of this house by Saturday, so we will probably have to stay w/ my mom or some friends until Thursday morning when we will have to hit the road in order to meet the U-Pack. Expect that plan to change, though.

We are all relieved tonight to be as far along as we are. Currently, we are living w/ bare minimum essentials. It's actually quite nice.

Everyone has been working so hard. My mom has been here for three days packing up the kitchen and a whole bunch of other things while I ran around like a chicken w/ my head cut off. Michael was so tired I thought he would fall over. We thought Luke had broken his toe but it is only bruised. Paul hurt his foot/ankle, and Mark has overused the ankle that he sprained last summer. Matthias did something to his ankle and it has some cuts, but not bad. I just hear all day long how someone is hurt. Brandon (family friend) was so exhausted that he almost got sick and had to go home early (he had overdone it yesterday at ball practice, then at some other event in the evening).

When we disconnected the water line from the fridge, whoever originally connected it did it weird and we had water water everywhere and I had to dash to the hardware store for a cap fitting. I am not the best person to send there. It took three employees to find what we needed, then I had to leave the store and return with some actual money so I could pay for the item.

I won't even go into my behavior at Costco last night. Let's just say it's a good thing I was only buying four items. We are really doing well, considering.

In the past three days I have said a few times that I used to think I was the Queen of Decluttering. I have repented of that thought and plan to assume that title asap.

Thank you all for your prayers. Michael has some jobs to do and I am not going ahead of him after all. I will wait for him to finish before we get going next week. It really has to happen then, because our stuff will arrive and we have to meet it.

Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2008

Today the trailer got more packed. It is a real hard job to pack it all tight, like a puzzle. It is amazing how difficult this move is. We have had a few helpers each day but the one who seems to make the most progress is Michael. But, we are supplying all the stuff to pack so I guess the exhaustion that the rest of us feel is because we are also working hard.

The latest "plan" is that the trailer will be picked up Thursday and we will leave Saturday. I hope hope hope that Michael will come along, but he has jobs that must be done and I really want to live somewhere, like in a house. Staying w/ people on this end until he is finished is not attractive at all. No offense to anyone offering to put us up, but this whole chaotic living thing is old old old. Not complaining ~ just want to be home home home.

We are praying for all the details to continue to work out, even if they seem to "work out" differently than we think they should. God is faithful and always good and we see His grace in our lives every day. We have had neighbors drop by with gifts and well wishes for our future. Friends have brought food and convenience items. Even though we look forward to our new life in Texas, it is nice to know we will be missed. We will definitely miss so many people here. But, we will keep in touch!! Technology was invented for such things!

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Here are some photos from the packing. We haven't been able to take many (too busy) or make videos but we hope to do some of that more when we are on the road seeing the pretty sights between here and The Republic of Texas.