Sleep-out

Rae is always asking to go camping. We were going to go this week at the State park near by, but we don't really have much camping equipment. We had to leave our ice chest in Charlotte because we couldn't fit it into our van. Our tent is big enough for all four of us, but we only have two sleeping bags. We have no equipment to cook food, etc,etc. So, anyway, yesterday Blaise didn't take a nap so we got him to bed super early and then set our tent up outside and Rae and I slept out there. She was an angel all night getting ready for bed and was giddy with delight when we settled down for the night. She fell asleep pretty easily even though our porch light is pretty bright. Our new neighbors arrived last night after Rae had fallen asleep, so I spent the next hour or so talking to them. I went to bed around 11 and sometime during the night it started raining. The roof cover wasn't on the tent so I felt the sprinkling and got out and put the cover on just in time. It started pouring and was pouring all night. Rae woke up around 7:15 and was so excited that she had slept in the tent all night and that it was raining and thundering. We had to run inside in the rain. It was so much fun to do that with her and I'm sure she'll ask to do it again soon! Sleeping out like that just made me want to go real camping. But camping in the rain isn't very fun when you don't have a house to run to if your tent leaks!

On a side note, we ran out of pull-ups for her the other day, so I told her it was time to start wearing underwear to bed. She was going most nights without peeing in her pull-up, so I figured she was ready and things are finally calmed down around here. She peed in her underwear the first night but since then she's been dry! I usually wake her up when I go to bed and make her go potty. But last night I forgot to even have her pee before bed! And she slept out in the cold with it raining, I'm very impressed that she didn't have an accident. I told her this morning that I was proud of her and she said "I didn't want to get the tent wet." I'm very very glad, because sleeping bags are a pain to wash!

Pathetic

Is it sad when you can plug in your vacuum in the kitchen and it reaches throughout the whole apartment? And is it even more sad that this apartment is considered "big" compared to your last one? I love vacuuming. Mainly because it means your floor is completely clear. I love to vacuum right before the kids go to bed and sit on the couch with something yummy to eat and watch a movie, which I am about to do!

A few more things I'm loving:

Garbage disposal. I have a bad habit of letting things rot in my fridge (I blame my mom - sorry mom, but I think I got that from you!) and now I don't have to dump it in the trash can and then either empty it immediately or deal with the smell. I can just put it in the garbage disposal! It doesn't take much to make me happy!

Dishwasher. I've never been much of a fan of dishwashers because they always seem to leave a few things dirty. But now I realize a few items not getting all the way clean is worth a bunch of items getting super clean. And since we have barely any counter space it's nice to not waste any on a dish rack. This is our first apartment with a dishwasher and garbage disposal.

Cool weather in August. We got a bunch of rain today and have had the windows open all day. Feels so good and saves on the bills!

Water filter. Ever since we moved here we've been trying to figure out what to do about drinking water. We drank the tap water the first few days and it literally made us sick. It smells like mold and has a really thick feel to it. We aren't even that picky about tap water but this stuff is really bad. We bought a couple of jugs at Walmart, planning to refill them with one of those water machines, but apparently those machines don't exist here. We looked everywhere and couldn't find one. So today we bought a Pur water filter and we love it! Ahhh, water, yummy.

Off I go to watch a movie instead of doing things on my huge "to-do" list! Yay!

Pictures

Two sets:

• before the move
  
• during and shortly after the move

Also, go see the big picture of the BK playground if you haven't.

Do you scroll?

Sometimes I get crazy and post a lot in just a couple of days, so you might need to scroll down to see all of my newest posts.

We had pancakes for dinner tonight and they turned out really good (see post below)

Went to the swimming pool again today and Roy watched the kids while I checked out a water aerobic class. It was fun and just challenging enough to make me feel like I could do it but still feel like I was getting exercise.

Happy Birthday to my little niece Lily! It's her first birthday today. I take all credit for her being born early. I went to visit Lindsey in Visalia and brought her a bunch of baby essentials and Lily was born just a few days later. You're welcome :) Oh, and her daddy's birthday was on the first of the month so happy birthday to you too :)

And my sweet sister-in-law's birthday was on the 3rd -Happy Belated birthday to you too! Sorry, I guess I was a little busy at the beginning of the month. :)

And one more random topic: Rae has an invisible friend. She talks about him nonstop and even got Blaise talking about him. She says that he used to live in Davis and just moved to Kirksville too. Apparently his family drives a convertible because when we saw one in town Rae said "Oh, my friend has one of those cars that roof comes off". His name is Ckeiee. That's how she spells it. It's pronounced "kyhaki". She used to just talk about him and about how she goes to sleep-outs at his house a lot. But today he was actually here and playing a game with her. Kids, fun stuff.

More shutterfly pictures coming tonight.

I don't want to grow up

I've been getting a lot of gray hairs lately. They make me very sad. They wouldn't be that big of deal except that they are really noticeable when I pull my hair back at all and they are so coarse that they don't lie flat like the rest of the hairs, they stick out and call attention to themselves. This is the first summer in a long time that I haven't chopped my hair off when it gets hot. But with the humidity here I at least needed to get an inch or so cut off so it wouldn't feel so heavy on my neck. Anyway, after getting the trim I decided I should dye it too! I did it this morning and I don't see much of a difference except that it did seem to cover up the grays.

I don't actually mind getting older, it's just looking older that I mind. When I was a teenager people always thought I looked older than I was, so does that mean I still do? I just don't think it's fair to have zits and gray hair - come on!

And in case anyone thinks I'm totally shallow and appearance-obsessed, I really don't think I am. I spent like 8 bucks on the hair dye and it's only something I do when I'm feeling particularly depressed about my looks and dying my hair is the easiest, most convenient change to make (easier than clearing up zits and losing weight!) And yes, the gray hairs do bother me, judge all you want! I'll let my hair go gray when I'm a grandma, but until then I'll probably keep pulling them out or coloring them.

But I really should work on the losing weight thing too. Sigh.

Resourceful

I've been trying to make a switch to whole wheat products. I do most baking with half white flour and half whole wheat flour and I'm starting to slowly make it completely whole wheat. We've switched to whole wheat pasta and we've always used wheat bread. (Some day we'll use a healthier, whole wheat bread when it gets a little cheaper or I start making my own) We'll probably never switch to whole wheat tortillas unless they find a way to make them tastier!

At my sister Katie's house they had whole wheat pancake mix and I decided that when we moved I'd make that switch. Well, I've looked all over the place in all the grocery stores and can only find one brand of whole wheat pancake mix and I've tried it before and didn't like it. Then I realized that I could make pancakes from scratch. But first thing in the morning is not a good time to try to measure flour, salt, baking powder, sugar, etc. So I looked up a "homemade pancake/waffle mix" and found one I'm going to try out. I just mixed up and I will try it tomorrow morning. I did a 60/40 mix of whole wheat flour and white flour to try to get Rae a little more used to the change. (She kind of balked at Katie's pancakes) If this works out I'll be so glad! No more buying pancake mixes!

Here's the recipe:

HOMEMADE PANCAKE MIX
10 c. all-purpose flour (3 lbs.) (I used 6 cups whole wheat, 4 cups white)
2 1/2 c. instant nonfat dry milk
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. baking powder
2 tbsp. salt

TO MAKE PANCAKES OR WAFFLES:
2 c. homemade pancake mix
1 c. water
1 egg
2 tbsp. oil (waffles - 3 tbsp.)


I'll give it a try for breakfast and let ya know how it turned out. (Hopefully they are good because I just make 13 cups of it!)

Random tourism: Burger King in Columbia, MO

On our way here from Charlotte, we just had to stop in Columbia to see the largest indoor Burger King playground in the world. This is a composite of 15 photos, which is why it's slightly distorted near the ceiling, but it gives you an idea of the size of the structure and the room that houses it. That's Blaise there on the right.

Trying to catch up

I just cannot figure out where to pick up from. So I'm not going to catch up, at least night right now, maybe later.

As for this week, we spent most of it unpacking, buying dressers and bookshelves, almost getting the toy room all set up and we even had a little fun. :)

Monday we went and checked out the city pool. It's really great. They have a little pool all by itself with a few little fountains. It's enclosed by a 2 foot wall, so it's a little harder for your kid to just run off. The kids spent most of their time in there, because there's a big bucket of toys to play with. And then there's another pool that slopes down like a beach and gets about 3 maybe 4 feet deep. That one has a floating frog slide and log boat to play on and a couple more fountains. Then they have a bigger pool with a slide and a diving board. They also have an indoor pool, but it's mainly for lap swimming and exercise classes (which I really want to check out one of these days) We had a lot of fun there, and are definitely considering getting a year pass.

On Thursday we went to Nauvoo,IL for the pageant that they put on there. On our way we realized that Carthage was really close, so we were going to head there too. Well, we got a little lost on the way and ended up in Carthage! That was great because it saved us on some extra travelling. We toured the Carthage Jail (the kids weren't very reverent, but they weren't too bad). It was a really neat experience. Seriously people, come visit us, there are so many cool things up here!

Then we headed into Nauvoo and planned to go on a covered wagon ride, but it was closed for the day by the time we got there. We walked around a little and saw a few cool buildings and then tried to find something to eat for dinner. Man, Nauvoo doesn't have much! We finally found a buffet restaurant, and although it cost a lot more than we had planned to spend, it was really tasty.

We got back to the pageant site just as the "pre-show" activities were starting up. The kids got to do some crafts, play games, watch a puppet show, and walk on stilts. It was way less crowded than I thought it would be (I was picturing the kind of crowds that are at the Mesa pageant). We were parked really close, so we went back to the van and put PJs on the kids and got our blankets and went and found a spot to watch. They had chairs set up and then they had one hill where people could sit on blankets. We got a nice spot and settled in. We borrowed some bug spray from a nearby person and got some popcorn from the snack shack. We thought the kids might go to sleep but they were too excited. They were really good though and Rae actually watched most of the play. Blaise fell asleep at about 9:30 and Rae fell asleep a little bit after that, but I woke her up towards the end because she wanted to see the "temple" be built (and I wanted her to walk back to the van instead of carrying her!). We left Nauvoo around 10:30 and the drive home was a little tricky. Blaise kept waking up and screaming and then would go back to sleep. And the rode is really curvy and there are a bunch of one car bridges, which is all a lot trickier in the pitch black darkness! We were pretty much the only car on the road. I made a mental note to never go to the temple at night when I'm driving!

Anyway, it was a really great trip and I hope we are around to do it again sometime. And I'd love to be able to volunteer to do something next year! And I'm looking forward to going to the temple sometime (we didn't even actually go up close to the temple) and seeing more things on my own. And if anyone wants to come next summer and see it all, you are welcome to! (if we are here)

Our goal tomorrow is to get all of the recent pictures (I'm sure there are hundreds of them) on Shutterfly and we'll send that out instead of trying to post them here. I'll post the link to that here. Or maybe we'll start using Photobucket, since my sister wants all of the reunion pics pooled together on there. Anyway, pictures to come soon!

INTERNET!

Woo hoo! We have internet! (Ugh, internet we actually have to pay for) Being without internet and cable the past week has been good for us. We got the dishes done every night and got a ton of stuff unpacked. At this time of the morning I would usually be unpacking and taking advantage of the kiddos not being bored yet, but instead I'm on the computer. It's hard to blog after getting so far behind on everything. I don't even know where to begin. Plus, our keyboard cord isn't long enough for the keyboard to fit onto the desk (we got a new desk from our neighbors) so we have to have the keyboard on our lap until we get an extension for it. It's really annoying to type on your lap. And now Blaise is being really annoying, so I better go.

We are thinking about going to Nauvoo today since the pageant is still going on till tomorrow. It's a lot of work to go, and I don't know how well the kids will do and whether they will sleep during the actual show, but this might be our only chance to go and I'd hate to miss out on that. But then again, there is a chance that we could be here next summer, so maybe we should just take that chance. I have to decide in the next hour or so. We could always go tomorrow too, but it's closing night, so it might be more crowded. Anyway, I'll try to get some pictures up soon.

Bloggin' from McDonalds

We don't get internet until Wednesday and we needed to pay a bill online, so we are using the internet at McDonalds. I thought I'd give a quick update. Most of the house is unpacked and we are adjusting nicely. Although our apartment is overall bigger, there's not as much cupboard space in the kitchen or storage space elsewhere, so unpacking has been kind of tricky. We are headed to walmart right now to buy a dresser and hopefully some shelves. I'll blog more on Wednesday or Thursday when we get internet.

Alive and well....

....just busy! We got to our apartment here in Kirksville! We arrived this afternoon and are trying to settle in but our stuff won't be here till Thursday. We made a run to Walmart and got a ton of necessities and I think we'll be okay the next two days using our air mattress and paper plates. :) We like our apartment - nice, clean, newer than our last one, washer and dryer, dishwasher,central air, garbage disposal, mormon neighbors...what more could a girl ask for? We got a little bit of rain this evening and Roy was delighted to discover fireflies outside our door! He was really hoping there'd be some here.

Tomorrow we'll run a few errands around town and start shopping for a couch and dining room table (we left them behind) and maybe even hit a park, since they do wading pools during the summer. Poor Rae, we'll be unloading the truck on her birthday! It's okay though, because we've celebrated it twice already! We are using a neighbor's wireless right now and we'll hopefully get our own, legitimate internet set up this week. And maybe someday I'll have time to write all the stuff I want to write about!!

Family picture

Just the original Jeppsons:

Talent Show

YouTube limits videos to 10 minutes, so I had to split it into 3 parts and do some slight editing. Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:


PS: Those of you who aren't Jeppsons may want to skip to our part of the show, at 2:00 in Part 3.

We're almost done!

So our whole moving ordeal is halfway over. :) Our apartment was cleaned quickly on Saturday morning thanks to a lot of help from friends from church (thanks again everyone!) and we turned in our keys around 1:30 in the afternoon. We stopped at a couple of friend's houses to say goodbye and then headed to the hotel.

**As a side note, at the last minute we realized it probably wasn't a good idea to put all of our important CDs in the trailer since it was going to sit in the heat for a couple of weeks, so we put them all in our van. Well, I hadn't counted on that much stuff and I spent Saturday morning competely stressed out trying to get everything to fit into our van. Eventually it all fit, but not very well and now we have a lot of stuff that we have to store at my sister's house while we are here. And I didn't have things as organized as I would have liked, so there are a few boxes with just completely random stuff - ugh, stuff like that really bothers me. **

The hotel was nice and the kids enjoyed swimming at the pool. Roy and the kids went to bed around 8, but I took myself shopping because I felt like I needed to do something besides moving stuff! I didn't get home till 9 or so and then I couldn't get to sleep till 10. We got up at 3 and the kids were surprisingly well behaved and reasonably happy. We made it to the airpot and checked in without any problem.

We were getting ready to board (going potty, changing diapers) when I realized that I did not have a SINGLE diaper! Oh my heck - I am never this disorganized or forgetful! So I just started saying a lot of prayers and looking for moms with a kid Blaise's size. No luck. So I got on the plane and hoped for the best. Rae had a window seat and I had the center seat with Blaise on my lap and a nice man sat next to us and before the flight started he noticed that there was an empty seat in the back so he moved there so that I could have more space (probably did it more for his sake than mine!) The extra room was a huge help! The kids were really good. Blaise pooped halfway through the flight and I asked one of the attendants if there happened to be any diapers on board. He checked really throughly for me, which I appreciated, but there weren't any. So I changed Blaise's diaper and lined his onesie with paper towels and just hoped for the best.

Our plane landed in Denver and we had about an hour before our next flight. So we walked around checking every gift shop for diapers and stalking mothers with young children. I even tried to get Blaise to pee on the potty! He peed in his paper towels so I changed him immediately but it had already soaked through to his onesie, so I had to take that off. I put a pantyliner into his shorts and once again hoped for the best. We were just about to board the plane when I saw a mom with a boy Blaise's age so I went up to her and asked if I could buy a diaper off of her. She was super nice and gave me one (no charge) and I quickly put Blaise on the floor and diapered him right there in the middle of the airport! Whew!

The man who sat next to us on the second flight was really nice too. Blaise fell asleep right after we took off and slept for about an hour and a half. Rae was really good. We bought a "mini-meal" snack box in the middle of the flight and the man next to us bought us an extra one for Blaise to have when he woke up. And he also gave Rae his applesauce from his box. Rae had to pee during this flight and she is terrified of the airplane bathroom, so I had to promise that I wouldn't flush the toliet while she was in there, and I had to threaten that we wouldn't go to Colin's house if she didn't go. Luckily that worked. Blaise pooped a few minutes before landing, luckily not any sooner! Chad was waiting for us at the baggage area and everything else went great!

We were so glad to get settled into Katie (my sister) and Chad's house and since the kids woke up at 3am Pacific time they were already ready for Eastern time and they went to bed around 8 without any problems. Yay! Everyone (my brothers and their families) came over for dinner and we had a lot of fun.

Yesterday we just hung around the house and then went to dinner at my brother Bobby's house. Afterwards we went to the airport to watch planes. All of the kids like that a lot. But we got home too late and got to bed way too late. And the kids didn't sleep in to make up for it.

The best thing about today was that Roy got here early! His trip went really well and since he didn't have anything to do but drive he just kept driving and driving. We weren't expecting him till late tonight, but he got here around 11 this morning. Woohoo! He and Blaise are napping now and then we are going to go swimming. My oldest sister arrives tomorrow afternoon with her husband two little girls and then my parents and little brother arrive early Thursday morning and my other younger brother and his wife arrive late Thursday night. And then my little sister and her little girl and husband get here Saturday and then the family reunion officially begins! It's going to be super crazy and super fun, I'm just glad I get a few days of peace beforehand to prepare and get to stay a few days afterwards to recover!

Oh, and I've been tracking our ABF trailer and it's already in Missouri and is ready to be stored till we are ready for it. That was fast! Hopefully they will get it to us really quickly when we are ready for it. I'm anxious to be finished with this move, but I'm glad I have a break in between to catch up on some sleep and tv. :)

BTW, this blog has turned into more of a journal for me so that's why there are so many random, un-important details that most of you are probably not interested in. I like to write these kinds of things down and if I don't do it within a week of it happening then I never will. So, I'll still try to write other stuff and post pictures more often, but there will be a lot of these long, boring posts with way too many details! I hope you are still willing to read it!

Making progress

Let me start out by saying that I am using Roy's new laptop to write this and I am not used to the layout, so there may be typos that I don't notice.

Anyway, things are going really smoothly here. Our ABF trailer was delivered yesterday at 2 and after taking a look at it and deciding how were going to load it we ran a quick errand to get some rope, a padlock and some new shoes for Blaise. Then our friend brought over dinner (it was SO GOOD Paola!! Thanks again!) and we were able to sit down and have a nice hot dinner with real food. Then our neighbor took the kids downstairs to her apartment and we started loading up the truck. A friend from church came and was a huge help. He took all of the boxes down to the truck and Roy started stacking them. When all the boxes were out we decided to call it a night. The kids had a lot of fun at the neighbor's house (thanks again Linnea!!) and even got pjs on at her house, so when we came inside it was bedtime. Roy and I stayed up and got all of the furniture ready to be taken to the truck in the morning and loaded up the rest of random boxes. We managed to be asleep by 11.

Blaise actually slept in this morning (he always does that when we have something we need to be doing!) so we didn't get up till 7 and we had people coming to help at 8. Rae didn't get out of bed till about 8:15 and I actually had to force her out of her bed so I could put it in the trailer! We had 4 guys come and load stuff up this morning and we were done by 9! I took the kids to another friend's house and by the time I got home Roy and one of the guys had completely finished the trailer and were closing it up. Woo hoo! Since the kids were gone we got a lot done around here. We took out the carpet (except for our bedroom because that's where we are sleeping tonight) and took down the mini-blinds, cleaned up all the random stuff that had been put in random places and showered. It was so nice! Then we went to pick them up (thanks again Diana!!) and got some pizza for lunch and went to Walmart for a few random things. We just got home and all we have here is the laptop, clothes, a few blankets, the air mattress, a few toys and the dining room table (since we are leaving it behind). The kids are supposed to go over to another friend's house in a couple of hours to play, so that will be nice. In the mean time I'll let Rae watch a movie on the portable DVD player and try to get Blaise down for a nap.

We are so blessed to have such great friends and such a great ward! Tomorrow morning we'll load everything up into the van and then some gals from Relief Society will come and help me clean. Tomorrow night we are staying in a hotel and I'm looking forward to relaxing!

This will probably be my last post for a while, just wanted to let everyone know that things are going pretty good and we're getting through this! Can't wait to see the family at our reunion in just a week! Yay!

Found!

I knew we would find it when we moved! Roy just pulled out the computer desk in living room and my wedding ring was under there. I finally broke down a few months ago and bought a new ring but it looks like I should have waited!! I really like both of my rings though, and my new one is a little loose, so maybe it will be my ring for when I'm pregnant and chubby-handed. Roy lost his ring and watch a month or so ago, maybe it will turn up under the dresser or something. :)

Love in a can

Hardcore snacking at the Wright house:



Blaise is so torn -- his tongue says "yes" but the rest of his face says "no no no!"

Early Birthday Celebration *Edited*

Since we will have just moved to Kirksville on Rae's birthday (the 31st) we decided to have a birthday party for her before leaving. It was all very last minute, but turned out great. We had it in the apartment complex community center, so I didn't have to worry about cleaning my house or anything, which was great. I've gone to lots of parties in the community center, but this was my first time reserving it. Wish I had done it more often!

When the girls (all girls, btw, no boys allowed at the princess party - besides, she doesn't have many boy friends and Abe moved) arrived I had princess crown door hangers (thank you Dollar Tree) out to decorate with glitter and stickers. They all seemed to enjoy that.



Roy whipped up a cute "pin the kiss on the frog" game, so we played that next and the girls got a kick out of it.





Then we had birthday cake. I'm not very creative with cake decorating, so I just used whatever I had in my "decoration collection" and left it up to Roy, and he did an awesome job.







After that we opened presents. Rae got a lot of good travel type gifts, I think everyone had that in mind when picking what to give her. I really appreciate all the great gifts and Rae is already having a blast with them!




After that we did the pinata (which cost WAY too much money, btw, and was NOT EVEN worth it!) And then the girls all ran around crazy and played with balloons and ate candy!



It was pretty fun, and very un-stressful for me, which is really the most important part! (Seriously, what is the point of stressing yourself out for a 4-year old's party. And I get easily stressed with things like this...okay, I just get easily stressed!)

Anyway, here are some picture for your enjoyment.

**I forgot to mention that Roy and I got Rae a digital camera for her birthday. It's one of those basic, 20 buck ones. She always wants to use ours, so now she has her very own. I'm a little disappointed in the quality of the "view screen" because it's a little blurry and Rae can't see what she's taking a picture of, but I think she'll get used to it, and she's still very excited. Her words: "Now I have a camera of my very own". We wanted to give it to her before our trip so she could take pictures along the way.

Happy 4th

Our family looked really cute this morning in our matching patriotic shirts, but we didn't get a picture and now we all have various food items on our clothes from our ward's pancake breakfast this morning.

I'm on the Activities Committee at church, so I had to be there at 7 this morning to help set up. We cooked pancakes and sausage, and also had some muffins,fruit and donuts. It was great and everything went really well and was cleaned up by 10. This was my last activity and I just hope that when we move I can finally have a break from the activities committee! (I've been doing it for 3 years now, along with other various callings at the same time)

I don't think we are going to go see any fireworks tonight. Rae doesn't even know that there are going to be fireworks and it's so just late at night before they even start. I'm not sure it's worth having them tired and cranky. Plus, in Davis it's hard to even get any parking at the park where the fireworks are, and I'm sure it takes an hour to just get out of there, so I think we'll just stay home and enjoy an early bedtime. :) Plus, Rae's party is tomorrow and I don't want her to be too tired.

Anyway, Happy Fourth Of July to everyone! Have fun doing whatever you do today!

One week later

My wisdom teeth were removed one week ago (in case you missed the post). One week later and I'm FINALLY feeling normal again! Apparently the surgeon left behind some tooth! I noticed on Sunday or Monday and it just felt like a wiggly tooth like when you were younger and would wiggle your tooth with your tongue. But I wasn't quite sure if it was tooth material or just some skin that was supposed to be there. So I wasn't sure if I should mess with it. Tuesday night it was really driving me crazy and last night it started bugging me a lot and I decided to try to wiggle it a little everyday and see if it would come out. Well, this morning I was getting up with Blaise (at the crack of dawn) and it just fell out! I caught it and put it in a little zip lock bag and I'm going to take it to my follow-up appointment on Saturday. After that fell out the pain in my mouth reduced drastically! Seriously, last night I still couldn't open my mouth wide enough to eat normally and this morning I can open my mouth all the way with hardly any discomfort. I am so happy and relieved. I can't believe how much tooth was left in there - crazy!

In other news, we finally settled on a moving company and actually have our truck reserved. Whew. We are going with ABF U-Pack. They drop an empty 28ft trailer off at your house and you fill it with how ever much space you need (we have 10ft listed in our quote) and then they pick it up the next day. They fill the rest of the truck with freight material. They are going to store it for us (big chunk of money for them to do that for us, but we don't have a choice) and then deliver it to our house in Kirksville. This is what I wanted to do from the very beginning but I didn't think I could fit a 28ft trailer into the parking lot here. Well, the other day a neighbor was moving in and they did it with ABF, so I now know it can be done. And I got in contact with the City Manager in Kirksville and got permission to park it on the street in front of our new place. So glad that is all taken care of!

The other hold-up we had with deciding how to move our stuff was that we didn't have an answer from our landlord about when we could move in. Our lease says the 29th but he said that we might be able to get in earlier than that because the people living there now were thinking about leaving early. Well, apparently their plans changed, so we have to stick with the original date of the 29th. Which means we get to hangout with family in Charlotte for extra long and try to be good guests. Unfortunately it also means that we had to pay ABF 500 bucks to store our stuff. Oh well, moving sucks and it's so expensive and there's not much you can do about it. The other option was Roy driving a uhaul and towing our van behind it, getting to Kirksville, unloading our stuff into a storage unit, drop off the uhaul, and then drive to Charlotte for the reunion. It would been a little bit cheaper, but a lot more hassle and effort and stress, all of which I decided are worth a few hundred dollars to eliminate.

Anyway, I'm sure you all were dying to hear all of those details. :) Packing is going pretty good here. Roy takes the kids out in the morning and I get a ton done while he is gone. I realized that although I like making lists of what needs done, I work a lot better if I can just randomly walk around the house and pack whatever it is that I feel like packing and can work on several projects at once. Like, if I'm in the middle of packing their stuffed animals and find a puzzle piece, it's okay to drop everything and start packing the puzzles. I can do anything in whatever order I want, just as long as it's all done and organized before the kids get home. I've known this about me before with things like cleaning. (I'll often be cleaning the kitchen and stop to use the bathroom and then start cleaning the bathroom) Maybe that's why I don't clean very well with other people around. Hmmm.

Okay, time to get packing. We are having a late start this morning!