THAT WAS THE BEST MOVE EVER!!!!!!!
The house is even more amazing now that it's our and has our stuff in it, even if it IS a sea of boxes piled everywhere. The kids were awesome, Tom was the epitome of calm, and everybody worked really hard.
We started Friday evening at Tom's house in Anchorage, 47 miles from where we live. His brother and 3 friends helped us get all the big heavy furniture in the truck Friday night (it was -5*) then we drove out and parked the truck and got some much needed sleep. Tom got up at 5:30 am and drove back in to his house, met his brother again and they loaded up the garage fridge and washer/dryer, plus some other heavy stuff on Mike's trailer and brought it out. I got up and ran to the grocery store and literally filled the car with groceries and Red-bull. While I was at the store my girlfriend showed up at my house and rousted the kids, She had them filling every car in the driveway to the brim. As soon as I got home I loaded the incubator and eggs in the front of her pickup, grabbed the huge U-Haul and led the parade to the new house. The sellers were just finishing loading up and we had a brief chat and exchange of keys in the driveway.
Finally, it was ours, all ours. The kids ran screaming through the empty house exploring every room while I set up the incubator and then gave my girlfriend the tour so she could direct traffic more effectively. I had the groceries hauled in first and threw some ridiculously easy but really yummy breakfast casserole in the oven then began unloading the big truck. Tom and Mike showed up about 10 minutes into the unloading and got the joy of hauling in the heavy stuff. The girls got tired and whipped out their cell phones, called every boy they know. ;)
Round 2 was amazing, VickieLee is a drill sergeant and got those kids whipped into a well coordinated moving machine. They had the furniture out of my house and into the truck faster than I could point out what needed to go. When we got back to the new house I barely had time to take care of the dogs while she had the truck unloaded again. She's good! She made those kids work fast! She came and announced they were on their way back for round three and told me that my job was to reassemble all the furniture that had been disassembled to move. Tom and Mike were assembling my son's bed (a million screws in that sucker) and before I could even start to get things put back together she was back with ANOTHER Truck load.
Anyway, it was wonderful to have so much help. The dogs are SO happy to have a dog-door. Although we have no snow, just ice and my Chesapeake managed to tear a pad running around her new backyard. She loves have a really big yard and just runs full tilt all around it. The cats are busily exploring all the new nooks and crannies, the dogs can't stop running from room to room. The sellers had raised boxers so they had 5 dogs in the house and even though it is super clean, my girls can still smell their dogs.
Yesterday morning Tom and I took our coffee and sat up in the Tower watching the sky get lighter behind the mountains. We didn't have time to watch till the sun actually rose, the sky gets lighter starting about 8:30-ish but the sun doesn't come up till about 10. But what a way to start the day!
I have never been so happy about being so exhausted in my whole entire life!
Tom is now busily assembling tv's and other electronic "stuff", the cable guy is on his way to the house to hook make everything do what it's supposed to do, and I'm at the office working the day away plotting and planning which room to organize first.
See you all a little farther up the trail.
