We are Here, Up and Running!

Yay for the internet! You don't realize how much you use it until it's not available. I kept wanting to look up things in our new town and couldn't do it. Oh well- it's working now!

The move went great! Well, after we got going. On Thursday, we had a hard time getting a Uhaul. Then we saw that ours was available, but an hour away! We decided to just go drive to it and it would be easier than the hassle of calling customer service. We got all the way there, only for it not to be there. Somehow Uhaul had the inventory messed up and what the computer said was there, wasn't. So we drove back to Hattiesburg, and to the head office. There weren't any trucks there either. AHHH!!! At the time I was ready to pull my hair out. They did get a truck for us that afternoon, and it only ended up delaying us by a few hours. (note- always have a reservation. That's the only reason we actually got a truck that day) We had several people from church, and our sweet neighbor, come to help load. (The Uhaul guy told us that the reason there were no trucks is that everyone is leaving MS and no one is moving in. That's been Lee's theory all along, as it's the only state where the population is actually going down.)

The elders even came. I can't imagine moving stuff in dress shirts and ties- but they did! 

I teased Ben Fagan for working really hard by only carrying a roll of paper towels. 

As more and more things were being packed, Will had to find other places to sit.
This is on top of our printer. 

Savannah and her family came over to say goodbye.
Amy will definitely miss her.
(I laugh at her "Savannah fashion." This was at about 5pm and she's in her pajamas)

Friday morning we got going. Karen had flown down on Wednesday and was a big help watching the kids while we worked. She also drove our Civic for us. I drove the truck and Lee drove the Uhaul. We got here just fine, despite Lee almost taking out a power pole and fallen tree in MS. My parents met us here to help us unload. All of the parental help was a godsend!!

Amy trying her hand at driving the "big truck with all of our stuff in it." 

Mom and Dad got to the house first and she called my saying it wasn't very clean. But since we had people from our new ward coming over to help unload, and a Uhaul to return, we really couldn't stop and take a few hours to clean it like we would have liked.

The kitchen floor is tiled and we thought the dark spots and cracks were a part of the pattern.

But I got side tracked for a minute and the stream mop sat on a square a little too long. When I moved it, I saw that the square was really completely white!! Oh man! All of it was dirt!! So Saturday morning, Mom and I got on our hands and knees and scrubbed the floor. A bottle of soft scrub and 8 magic erasers later.....

The floor was finally clean. It looks so nice now!! And it's slightly disturbing that Will was crawling around that nasty floor for a whole day. We try not to think about that.

So here are some pictures of the house. I hesitate to even post them because, well, the place is a wreck. As we started unpacking, we remembered that we had sold all of our bookshelves. So there was no where to put the stuff, like books. Also, even though this place is much bigger, we still have to rearrange things and get everything organized. So just think of these as "BEFORE" pictures. I'll post the AFTER pictures as we get more settled......

The Kitchen

The eating area of the kitchen. I love the bay window!
And I love that I can now open my table to its full, seating 8, size.
Oh, and I love the painting mom gave me. It was one of her first and I've always loved it!!

The other side of the kitchen.
I love the granite counter tops! 

Nice, deep sinks! 

Like my rug, mom? I got it at Pier 1

The laundry room that is off the kitchen.
The door you see leads to the garage.
(I LOVE that I have a laundry room!!)

 The Living Room

This room is a huge great room. (which I love)
This side will eventually be the seating area.
I'm still trying to figure out how to cover that fireplace and arch thing.
I think it looks too old fashioned and 'country,' and that's not the look I'm going for.
Have any suggestions??

Another view

The tv/desk area. That tv will eventually be replaced with a big screen.
I think I'm going to add a tall piece of furniture on the brick.
And the desk is actually of the left. The screen didn't go wide enough to capture it.  

Hallway and Bedrooms

Amy's room

Will's Room
Mom and Dad gave us their bunk beds. Which is great!
We trundled them now- so come stay- we have a bed for you!!
When he moves out of his crib, the headboard and footboard part of it will go to Amy.
This will also double as the guest room.
We'll move Will's crib into our room, or if he's older we'll bunk the kids together.
  

Hall bathroom

I love the cabinet under the sink.
I think it looks neat

Don't you just love this rug?? I do!
And I got it for SIX bucks at Ross. Wow!! Now that's a deal!
I'll eventually change out the shower curtain. Baby blue isn't my thing. 

The linen closet. I have a LINEN closet!!!!! I've never had one before.
Eventually it will actually hold linens, (right now it's another storage place)
but first I have to buy some!! haha.
We've all only had one set of sheets- the ones on our beds. I wash them and put them back on.
Now I'll have a place to store extra ones! What a novel idea!! haha. 

And this monstrous heap, is yes, our bedroom. Oh my! This has been the catch-all room since we moved in. That and the fact that we put all the living room boxes in our closet, to get them out of the way. So we can't put our clothes in there until those boxes get moved. So yes, this room is a war zone. It won't be for much longer. We are tired of stepping and running into stuff! 

I DO have sheets for my bed. They were being washed. 

Our sinks. We loved getting ready on Sunday.
We didn't have to wait for the other to finish.
It was great!!

Our closet.... filled with the living room boxes. 

Our shower (to the left) and toilet. 

The Outside

We really love the outside of the house. 

It's a large, flat yard in a great neighborhood. 

View down the street. The street is really wide and the homes are brick with big yards.
There is great curb appeal here!

Our long drive way. 

We are a mini-van family now. We traded our truck for mom and dad's mini-van.
I love it!! I drove it all around yesterday and just loved it! 

part of the back yard

The back porch. Mom and Dad brought us this pool.
Amy and Lee were in it for several hours yesterday!
We also love the covered deck. It's really cool and such a great spot!
Several mornings I've gotten up early and sat out there, just admiring our place.

That's the photo tour. Anna said I needed to do another video walking tour,

 but I'll do that when things are more settled and put together.

Amy even got to ride her bike this morning. She's definitely going to need a bigger one soon!
It's so nice to actually have somewhere to ride!! 

Sunday, we went to church and it was nice to see our new ward. A ton of people introduced themselves, although I couldn't tell you any of their names. It's a young ward. I counted 5 kids Will's age and Amy had about 9 kids in her class. (both of our kids were the only ones their age in MS) So that is really great. And there looked to be several friend possibilities there for us as well. The bishop said that about 30 people were missing because of the holiday, so I guess there are even more! It looks to be a nice ward there and we are excited to get to know everyone.  

So that's it. I thank the Lord constantly, everyday, for this wonderful place. We certainly are lucky! It makes the past three years seem somehow worth it. We are so grateful to both sets of our parents who came to help us.... watched kids, cleaned floors, hung hooks, etc, etc, etc. We couldn't have done it without you!! We are so happy here and can't wait to get involved in the community and in the ward. We are going to love it here! 

(Come visit! We have plenty of room!) 

(PS- we can't wait for Aunt Lynn's visit in just a few weeks!! She'll be our first 'official' visitor)