The Big Move!

Holy Cow! I can't even remember back to that last post. That was a hard week. That Wednesday, I was going a bit crazy. I still couldn't quite pack up the rest of our stuff, but I didn't have anything else to do. Luckily, I went out to lunch with a friend, chatted with my sister, and took the kids to Topper's pizza for dinner. That was enough distraction to help us make it through. Thursday, I really got busy and packed up the rest of the house. By the end of the evening, I felt like we were ready to move. I tried to go to bed early that night, knowing I would need my rest, but was too excited! It was like Disneyland or Christmas...I couldn't wait to get the keys and get going!

Friday morning finally came. Miriam, Rachel and I went to the rental agency, turned in the paper work and got the keys! We drove right over to take a look. It was better than I had remembered. The yard was beautiful, the house was big, I found more cupboards. We were really excited. Then we went over to the school and I got Miriam and Lizzie registered and ready to go for the following Monday. Later that day, I took Lizzie up to the new house to see it for the first time and this time I remembered the camera and took pictures. So this is how it looks all clean without our stuff mucking it up!

Here's the beautiful kitchen with the pull-out shelves!
This is the family room with fireplace.
This is the front room that opens up into a formal dining room, or as we're calling it, "The Piano Room"
This is the front bathroom. It's purple and it has crown molding. We love it!
This is Rachel's bedroom (the rest look similar but are bigger).
Hallway closets!
Master bath.
The cupboards in the master bath that I discovered!
The back patio.
One end of the backyard (with our avocado and orange tree).
The other end of the backyard.
Jim finally got home from his trip in the afternoon. We gathered up the girls things and went back up to the new house to show Jim for the first time. He was impressed and liked it just fine. (Phew!) We took the girls out to Nana and Papa's house for a sleepover that night. They were so excited to be with them and are still talking about their visit.

Saturday morning, Jim and I were up early. We went and picked up the moving truck and donuts. I had called around the night before and we had a great turn-out of people to help us load up. It was really great. It turns out that we have a lot of stuff! The truck was packed tightly, and we packed up two more pick up trucks. We hauled all of that up to the new house and unloaded the pickup trucks that had followed us. Jim and I had enough time to grab some lunch before a few guys from our new ward showed up to help us unload. It was a lot of work, but we finally got the truck empty. So exhausted.

We took the truck back to Oxnard and returned it, then filled up the van with another load. We got that to the new house and managed to unpack enough stuff to take a shower and get ourselves looking presentable. Then we headed over to the beach to meet up with Jim's family for his brother's wedding. Nana had bought the girls new dresses, socks, shoes and purses for the occasion (and possibly Easter). They looked so sweet and were excited about their new clothes. Things ran behind, so we ended up at the restaurant. We eventually ate dinner, got the bride and groom married, cut the cake and got to go home. It was 9:45 by the time we got the girls in bed. Then we lost an hour to Daylight Savings.

Our new church meets at 9am, which normally is my favorite time, but it was rather painful this week. After some dry cereal and throwing on their dresses from the night before, we managed to make it on time. People in the new ward were very friendly. As we introduced ourselves, "Hi, I'm Jim," "I'm Joy," and shook hands, Rachel sat on my lap saying, "I Wachel! I Wachel!" and sticking her hand out. She was thrilled to be making new friends. As the bishop introduced us in sacrament, he told us to enjoy our week off from church assignments! But by the end of the block, Jim had an assignment in priesthood and I had signed up for stuff on the various clipboards floating around Relief Society, so there you go! Rachel loved nursery and the girls made friends in their primary classes, so it was a successful first week.

After church, we continued the unpacking process. Jim was like a machine: box after box! A family in the ward brought us a beautiful dinner that kept us going the rest of the day. It was really nice. We went to bed exhausted again, but a little more settled.

The rest of the week has been a blur. The girls are settling into their new classes, meeting kids, enjoying the new things at their school. I am very happy with both of their teachers. We have been getting more boxes unpacked every day. Today we finally put together Lizzie and Mimi's bed and will start putting their rooms together tomorrow. We also got the internet, tv and phone hooked up. We cross things off of the to-do list, but it still seems long. In the meantime, we are enjoying many things in our new home and area!!!