Let's see...the first week of April I spent doing last minute moving stuff. I packed up the basement stuff but didn't do a thing with all of our tools. I brought everything up from the basement and stacked it by the door. Pretty much everything was ready to be loaded by the time James got home on the 8th. I even had time to clean all of my tack, saddles, bridles and saddle pads. I washed all my saddle pads by hand in the tub with a scrub brush and bleach (for the white ones), and they came out so nice and clean! I am so happy I was able to get to the tack, because our garage is so nice and I wanted all the tack to be clean and dust-free, since it has to go in the garage!
On the 8th, we picked up James at noonish, and came straight home. I told him I had a surprise for him but he had no idea what it was. I had made arrangements with my next door neighbor to watch the children for a couple hours. So, when we passed our driveway, he said, "Is Lori watching the kids for the night?" I told him it was just for a couple hours, because I felt that they should be able to be with him, too! So, anyway, we had an interesting couple hours to ourselves! :) It was so awesome...and I am so thankful that Lori agreed to watch the kids for me, and was understanding about it! What a great memory we made! ;)
The 9th, and 10th we just relaxed around the house and then the 11th and 12th we loaded the uhaul, went to church, and then we left on Monday morning the 13th.
Our church had a farewell party for us after the Easter services. They had a huge cake for us that was delicious, and they also laid hands on us and prayed for our family, that we could make an impact for Christ in our new neighborhood, and church, etc. It was a very emotional time, with a lot of tears and hugs. It was hard to leave. They also (much to our disapproval) took up an offering for our family. It was crazy. I kept telling them we didn't need or want it, but they insisted. When we got in the car we didn't even want to open the envelope. I cried when we finally counted it. We didn't know what to do with it, so we put it in savings...what an amazing group of people, that I love so dearly and will miss so much! At least we are only 6 hours away! :)
On Monday, our friends Ty and Amanda and their little daughter Mia, showed up with their truck and horsetrailer, loaded Hope up for me, and James and I did a few measly last minute stuff and we left. James drove the U-haul and our little black lawn trailer, I drove the Suburban and our Camper, and then ty and Amanda drove their big trailer with Hope in it. It was quite the caravan. We had an awesome trip and were only about two hours behind schedule. Nothing whatsoever happened on the trip which was nice! :)
We got to our new home around 8:30 pm. We LOVE it! :) My husband is about 25 min away from work, and he doesn't even have one stoplight to go through, to get to the east gate of Ft. Lewis. His drive is very stress-free...with mostly roads full of forest! :) Our road was worse than we thought, and has some very interesting people living on it. I say hi to them and they won't even wave. We live at the very end of the road, and have the nicest home and property on the road, so I think that they probably refer to us as "those people who live at the end of the road", and won't associate with us. I have some extra Army Bibles laying around and I am thinking about walking over next door and giving one to that family and try to get to know them better.
Our house has a nice privacy fence and we can't see anyone who lives on our road, the driveway to our house is really nice and the property perfect for Hope and the kids. My landlady is working with the county to get an easement road put in for us that will take us down to 2nd Avenue instead of 8th, which will by-pass our horrible pot-hole road and the very un-friendly people who live on it. we are hoping that happens, soon.
Our house is bigger than I ever imagined! The bedrooms are huge! The wall-space is incredible, and I have had a horrible time trying to decorate all of it. It seems like everything I have is too small and the walls too big. The cheapest way to go is probably to get some very tall house plants to put on some of the walls. I have looked at big pictures and clocks and they are just too expensive for our budget.
When we got here, James fried my dryer, so he bought me (with CASH) a brand new Whirlpool front loader Washer and Dryer and a huge chest freezer for the garage. I love them! Unfortunately, the control panel went out on the washer and it took them a week to get out here. Then the lady didn't have the right part, so it still isn't fixed. Hopefully, it will be fixed by Thursday. That will make it two weeks without my washer! My launrdy has really piled up and I will be doing laundry everyday all day! At least it was under warranty! I thought that I had ruined it and just started bawling. James was outside, and he came in to find Abbie in tears. He asked her why she was crying anf she said she didn't know. I was in the bedroom crying and told him that she was crying because I was crying. He asked me why I was crying and then I just started bawling and told him that I was sorry and that "I am just a hick, redneck woman who can't even operate these new electronic things". He started laughing. Fortunately, the lady who came out to look at it, told it was impossible for me to be the one to break it! That made me feel better!
James also bought a little beater truck for shoeing horses out of and running back and forth to work. We paid cash for that too, and still have our emergency fund! :) So, with all the money that the Army gave us to move and our wise spending of it, we got everything we needed and still have the emergency fund! :) I am so happy! We really need new furniture but it will have to wait! Ours is so hick, but oh well.
I have ridden my horse a few times, and James put front shoes on her since it is so rocky here. She seems to be very happy! :) And I also have a really nice area for teaching the kids how to ride!
I will have to add some pictures to this post tonight, later...We went to the zoo in Seattle on Saturday, and then we just have a lot of cute pictures of the kids! :)
Even though it is wonderful to be a family again, it has been a time of adjustment for everyone. It is hard not to treat my husband like one of the kids and I think it is hard for him to not treat me like one of his guys. The kids have had to adjust a lot, too, to being disciplined by him, instead of just me. We will work it all out though...it is just a matter of time.
James goes back to work on the 1st of May. I think he is looking forward to it.
We used the time while we were moving for Spring break from homeschooling and we started back up on the 20th. We will be done on June 5th and I am so excited for the summer break! :) Zane is really reading well, which is so fun to watch.
We visited Sarah Neblock's church, Emmanuel Bible Fellowship. We really liked it, though the music is different from Trinity. At Trinity we sing hymns and praise songs by request. Emmanuel is very similar to the church that we went to before Trinity (Grace Bible Church), so it was easy to swing back into their form of worship. The sermon was good, and was by their associate pastor (I think). I am looking forward to hearing Kieth's messages (though I have listened to him online before already). The kids were awesome during the sermon. I stood up in the back and held Sheldon until he fell asleep, so I got to hear the whole message. The kids had already gone to Sunday School and I didn't feel comfortable sending them to another one during the sermon, so they stayed with us, which Zane and Abbie are used to anyway. I want the kids to be with us, during some point in church, so they can learn to sit and listen and be patient. It seemed very strange that no kids were in church during the singing/worship time. That was the only thing I didn't like about it. Hopefully they won't mind if my kids stay in for the worship time...
Anyway, I need to attend to things in the house and I will try to post some pictures later! :) Blessings!
