Moving, moving, moving...

Okay, so I realize that I have been missing for some time now.  And I realize that I have neglected my little blog for... well... all summer really.  And I realize that many of you may be wondering if I am still alive, so to answer your questions... yes!  We are alive and well!  But very, very tired.  I'm happy to report that we are in our new digs and almost 100% moved in, thanks mostly to my husband who worked diligently to get us unloaded and unpacked as quickly as possible.  So here's a recap of where we've been and what we've been up to:

July 1st - 15th
My sister and her family were super generous and let us crash at their home while we set up some groundwork for the church and found our own place.  Our house-hunt only took a couple of days and we signed a lease that would allow us to move in on August 1st and live in the neighborhood that we wanted.  I've never been a big fan of subdivisions, but I must say, I'm really loving suburbia right now.  After two years of having the weirdest neighbors in the world (except for Ted, who was awesome, but we hardly ever saw him since he is 96-years-old) I am excited that there are other families all around us.  But back to my point... we lived with them for quite awhile this summer, which was fun albeit chaotic.  I had several built-in babysitters, however, since my nephews love to play with Jake and so I was able to lock myself upstairs each day and continue to work from home.  Then on the 15th, we headed back to...

July 15th - 30th
Small Town, Illinois and the address formerly known as home, sweet, home.  It was a bittersweet two weeks really and it still hadn't sunk in that we were moving away.  I spent as much time as I could visiting friends and we really took our time packing up the house.  It was actually kind of nice to do it that way because it never really got exhausting or stressful.  Jake was so wonderful while we were there and it makes me realize that kids really do recognize "home" and their own environments.  His temper tantrums almost went down to zero and he loved being back in familiar territory and routine.  And a happy baby makes for one happy mama!  On the afternoon of the 30th and the morning of the 31st, friends and loaders came over and packed up the trucks.  We originally were supposed to get one 26-foot truck, which is what we used when we moved up from Florida, but UHaul double-booked our truck and so we ended up with two 17-foot trucks and a trailer for our pickup truck.  It wasn't ideal, but we didn't have much of a choice.  So yes, I got to moonlight as a truck-driver for two days... don't be jealous.  The majority of our house fit in the trucks, but our garage, attic, and basement still have quite a bit of stuff in them, which didn't stress us out considering that our house is still on the market.  So basically, we have the world's most expensive (and inconveniently located) storage unit, but hopefully not for long!  We were worried that our house wouldn't show as well empty, but honestly, it looked huge once the furniture was out!  Now we're just waiting on that right person to come along and fall in love with it the way we did... it only takes one person!  I'm thinking that October would be an ideal month to close since the baby will be here, I'll be on maternity leave, and we want to head back up there anyway to introduce her to all of our friends.  Yeah, let's make that a plan, okay?

Me and my big-rig... I make this look GOOD!  And by big-rig, I mean the truck... not the belly!

Our convoy... yeah, we know how to make a grand entrance!

Moving on... July 30th - 31st

Most of the time, we make the drive from Illinois to Kentucky in one day.  With the late start and the trucks, however, we decided to split it into two.  Our "vacation home" is pretty much at the exact halfway point of the drive and conveniently enough my sister, Mindy, and her family were visiting, too.  We didn't arrive until close to 7:30 PM on Saturday night, but it was great to see some friends and family, have a meal, and relax for a bit.  Jake got to play with his cousin, Adam, and they put on quite the show.  The older they get and the more they interact, the more entertaining it is!  I love watching them play.  I know that my sister took some pictures, so if they make it up onto her blog anytime soon I'll have to link them together.  We finally crashed around 11 or so and got up bright and early to head to our new place.  We were supposed to meet our landlord at 1:30pm to get the key, but our caravan took a little longer to get there than we anticipated.  We made it there around 2:30pm, unloaded some stuff, and dropped Jake off at his aunt's house.  As with any move, our first trip upon arrival was to Home Depot to get some odds and ends and order a washer and drier... something we really can't put off with a one-year-old in the house!  The good news is that my husband thinks it's so cool (yes, we splurged on the front-loaders, but that's mostly what they sell now anyway!) that he has already done about four loads of laundry and I have not even tried them out yet.  I think I could get used to this arrangement!

Off we go!

Jake did not mind riding shotgun AT ALL.  What a spoiled boy he is... and we had no choice!

August 1st - 2nd... move-in day!
So we've officially decided that our landlord is awesome.  Upon hearing that we wanted to do some painting, he told us to meet him at Sherwin-Williams on the morning of the 1st so that he could purchase the paint.  He had told us that the walls needed repainting anyway, but he was just planning on painting them white.  If you know me at all, you know that Kim does not do white!  But like I said, he is awesome, and let us pick out whatever color we wanted!  Considering that it's a rental, I didn't want to do anything all that crazy so we just got a few cans of a taupey-beige color called "sand dune" and a darker brown color called "hatchnut" for the living room.  I have been carrying around a magazine picture of a brown living room for months and was dying to have it for myself... weird, I know.  Our landlord had his concerns as they were not colors that he would ever pick out for himself, but he went with it.  Have I mentioned that he's awesome?  And then get this- he had his father and two of his sons come over to help us paint.  And his father used to paint for a living.  Yes you said it.... awesome!  So with the crew that we had helping we managed to paint the dining room, living room, kitchen, kids' room, and the master bedroom all between the hours of 9 AM and 2:30 PM.  Amazing!  And it looks spectacular if you ask me!  I would post pictures, but I'm waiting to get all of the finishing details up around here and then I'll do an official "house tour" post soon... I promise (and mean it this time!).  Because we knew we'd be painting and figured it would be just the two of us, we had no intention of moving anything in that day.  Since we got done so early in the day, however, Josh started  bringing in the light stuff and as many boxes as he could.  Then my brother-in-law showed up and Josh's dad arrived from out of town and between the three of them the light stuff turned into the not-so-light stuff.  By the time evening rolled around there was literally about three dressers and a desk left in the truck... we were almost completely unloaded!  Not only that, but as they unloaded, I had unpacked boxes and so on day one our kitchen was completely unpacked as well as most of the living and dining room.  I ran to the grocery store that night and we enjoyed a frozen pizza as our first meal in our new home... and it tasted divine!

On Tuesday we had unloaders coming to help and thank goodness we had called them the day before and told them that we'd only need them for an hour.  I think that they were literally here for about 35 minutes before the second truck was empty.  Josh and his dad took the trucks back to the rental center and I got to work.  By the end of the day, we were pretty much all moved in except for having pictures hung.  My sister and her family came back over and could hardly believe it!  She wanted to help but there was really not a whole lot left to do!  I'm loving that it's feeling like home already.

I did not mean to get this long-winded, but now you're all caught up on what we've been doing and where we've been.  Unfortunately I did not take any pictures during the whole process because my memory card is not in my camera and I have no clue as to where it is.  Thankfully there are no new pictures on there to upload, but it's still a rather annoying situation.  I may just have to suck it up and buy a new one so I can take pictures for the house tour.  It's been such a crazy summer with so much traveling and it feels wonderful to finally be settling in somewhere, so much so that I fell asleep at 7:30 PM last night in all of my clothes!  I think all of the running around had finally caught up to us, so we've committed to having a low-key weekend and spend some time relaxing a bit.  I think we've earned it!

Thanks to all of you (again) who have been praying for us and helping us during this crazy time.  We had so many friends show up to help us move and lend a helping hand and you all made this process so much easier than it would have been.  And a big thanks to my husband, who I just can't brag on enough... he knows the importance of home, particularly to a woman who is 31 weeks pregnant, and has worked hard to make this home in a hurry.  I look forward to hanging out with him and Jake this weekend with very little on the agenda... that is music to my ears!