really long moving post

We are moved into our new place. It has been slow going, and really hard to get anything done with the 3 girls around. So Ben and I have been having to do most of the work at night after they go to bed. On Friday, we loaded the uhaul with our 60 rubbermaid bins packed full of our stuff. They fit perfectly 4 across in the truck and stacked nicely. I'm really glad we used those, even if it was a little expensive. We also took over as much of the furniture as we could get into the truck. I thought we would be able to make it in one trip. We got the largest size uhaul, which is supposed to be able to move an entire 4 bedroom house. But we filled that truck to the brim twice, plus had to make two trips with both our regular vehicles completely filled. So now I'm extra glad about everything I've been selling on ebay and craigslist the last few weeks. not to mention the things we got rid of in the yard sale and gave to goodwill. a lot of that stuff was large, and would have taken up lots of space. Friday night, we unpacked a few bins and took them back to our house to get all the last minute stuff. Then we stayed there friday night, packing. Saturday morning, I was so glad to have a few of Ben's friends over to help us. I focused on finishing up the last bins, and cleaning, and wrangling the kids while they took everything over and unloaded it. We had found renters, and they were to move in a week later, but they asked if they could move in as soon as possible. so we had them come over saturday night to help clean, and we gave them a free week for helping. It got pretty clean, but there were things I'd have liked to get cleaner. They didn't seem to care though. we slept at the new place that night, and early the next morning we met them for the walk through, and gave them the keys. I really wanted to get everything in it's place and unpacked as quickly as possible. So it was quite frustrating to not have it happening so fast. It's also been an adjustment not having the same space in closets, etc. After a few furniture purchases and storage items, we are getting it all squared away. Last night we really made a lot of progress. Evie's chair came the day before we moved in. so it was here waiting for her. She is so happy to not have to fight over Kiersten's chair anymore. the girls just love the jetted tub. Ben put in some bubble bath, and it really foamed up a lot. The tub has been nice for Ben and my sore muscles too.

On saturday night, when Ben got home with the girls, he got Kara out of the car and told her to go to the bathroom. She said she remembered where it was, and as he set her down, she literally fell asleep. Her legs just buckled and she face planted right in the driveway. It was kind of a bloody mess, and she had a fat lip for a few days, but it looks like it's healing okay. The girls got to pick out some new things for their rooms at ikea and target thanks to the painfully small closets. so they are pretty excited to be here. The best part, is the 20 minutes it takes Ben to come home from work. Last night he had to stay a little late to finish some things up, and I actually did not fill with dread when he told me he'd be leaving closer to 6. That used to really push back our night and routine, but yesterday it was no big deal. He will be going from filling up his car with gas every 4 days, to only once or twice a month. So that makes up for the few things we aren't in love with about this house. (Even the giant house spiders) I have never been a spider killer. I always had someone else around to kill them. My parents, Angie, Ben, etc. So I can always get out of it. When we lived in salt lake, I would set something over a spider, and wait several hours for ben to get home, refusing to go in the room where it was. So I have loved the past 4 years of having no spiders in our house, and very few in our yard. But there certainly is no shortage of them here, and Ben has been spraying, so we are starting to find them dead. It's better than alive, but still unpleasant. One jumped on me the other day while I was putting away laundry. I had just sent Ben downstairs for a break and to get Evie to sleep. She'd JUST stopped crying, so I had to fight my instinct to run screaming for Ben. So I looked for something to throw on the top of it so he could get it later. But then I started thinking it might escape and crawl all over the girls with it's yucky, spidery legs. So I decided I had to kill it. I grabbed a boot of Kierstens and smashed it. (eyes closed, of course). I was too scared to lift up the boot, so I ran out of the room. I grabbed the vacuum and went in and used the longest attatchment to push the boot away. He was still there all squashed and curled up, so I vacuumed him up. So there's my first ever spider squashing experience. Yesterday I had to vacuum up some dead ones, and one live one that I was too scared to squash first. So I can't WAIT til we bug bomb and finish spraying!!!

Yesterday, the landlord called to see if she could come replace the sliding glass door. I agreed, thinking they'd be here, maybe an hour or two. she showed up with her dad, and some guy they found outside of a home depot. She introduced him to me, and he said, "I'm an alcoholic, but I'm 3 years sober." I don't think I really replied, and then he just said, "I only work til 4". I thought that wouldn't be a problem, since they showed up at 11. But he, and all of them ended up being there til after 7. She had asked me to keep the kids downstairs to be out of the way, which I was fine with, but when we went up for snack time around 2, I was thinking they'd be done, or almost done. They had just finished getting the door out. We went back downstairs, and the landlord's mom showed up with donuts, so they took a donut break. Then her husband and kids all showed up and were all just sitting around on the couches and helping themselves to glasses from the cupboards, which I thought was a little rude they didn't even ask. just when they were getting back to work, pizza showed up, so they all sat around forever eating and expecting me to keep the kids in the basement all day! So finally I just let the kids go back up and do what we needed to do. I did make sure they stayed out of the way. By the time Ben got home from work, they were still there, and they ended up leaving without even getting the new door in. So they had to come back for a few hours today to finish up. It's not easy dealing with landlords. I guess we got used to owning our houses, and being able to do as we wanted, but I still feel that they were stepping over the line a bit. And Ben was not happy about the home depot guy they brought over. They know nothing about him, and here he was talking to the kids, and wandering around the house. So, it's annoying, but we keep reminding each other of the reason we decided to move here, and how much it's worth it. but I don't think we'll want to rent again. Our next move will have to be a purchase, so hopefully we wont have any more issues. I think we'll be pretty happy here as we get more and more settled. I hope to get a few pictures soon. It's different, but there are several things I like better here.