Status

This will be short. I am so unbelievably tired. Most of our earthly possessions are crammed inside a too-small moving truck being driven somewhere in the Midwest by an incredibly smelly guy. I am sure that it is not his fault and it is likely that he showered this morning, but that was before spending the day in the 90 degree heat making hundreds (or do I mean thousands?) of trips in and out of that stuffy truck.

Let me just say that I would never never never want to work for a moving company. Those guys are powerhouses. I would not have survived going up and down the stairs that many times empty handed, but they were moving appliances and furniture like it was made of styrofoam. Amazing. To top it off they were pleasant and even funny.

The only thing left in our house is a random assortment of toiletries for Sunday morning's showers, non-shippables and Dixie bun. We're spending the night tonight at my mom's and will pick up Maddie tomorrow evening. Our plan is to have a slumber party on the floor of our Iowa house before leaving at a ridiculously early hour on Sunday morning to start our new adventure.

I stand in awe and amazement how well all of the things that have needed to happen have fallen in place. I shouldn't be surprised...God has been orchestrating this all along, but just can't believe that everything is done. Our house has still not sold, but the government buyout offer is acceptable and will be executed next weekend if there is still no activity. Thank you, Lord!

Part of me is so sad to leave behind so many good things in the QCA, but I just KNOW that this is going to be a good move for our family. There are still a lot of unknowns, but it is exciting to see God's plan for this phase of our lives unfolding around us. Exciting and exhausting. Actually, at this very moment the thing that sounds most exciting is my head hitting the pillow. Watching movers work has taken its toll and I must rest...Goodnite for now. Hopefully we'll get our new internet package set up in the next few days, but for a bit things will be pretty sporadic.

Hope summer is treating you all well....
~M

Chaos

The sound of light traffic fills the otherwise still night air. Our faces are illuminated by the steady glow of our laptop screens as we indulge on Panera's free Wi-Fi service. Craig and I haven't spoken in several minutes--we're both engrossed in checking our e-mail. Every now and then I peek at his screen to see where his precious internet time has taken him. It's no surprise that he is now exploring options on how to invest my roll-over money from my 403AB while I write intense nonsense on my blog.
It is sad to think that this is part of who we have become. Our internet has been sporadic at home for 2 months now and has not worked at all in the last 2 weeks. We kept thinking that it would get better but it never did (even after a few service calls). Now we are 3 days away from having all of our belongings packed and shipped halfway across the country. We need to check the weather, e-mail for work opportunities and schedule changes for me, last minute on-line orders, reserve a hotel room for our trip out on Saturday night.
Things have been so incredibly chaotic the last few weeks. Maddie has been with us, which has been awesome, but also created a need for some advanced planning, which hasn't been my forte lately. Each day and week we would make some sort of general plan and then spend the rest of the week modifying it to squeeze in everything that needed to get done.
Here is a sample of our lives last week:
Monday Early AM. Craig leaves the IA to go to MI for what we think will be 4 days. Maddie is planning to spending some time with Grandma Chris and my sister's family for a few days. I try to line up work appointments and reconstruct some order to our house.
Monday Late AM. I learn that Craig now has an appointment in IA on Wednesday morning that can not be rescheduled. Gingerly I pick up the phone, dial his digits, and tell him the news. Before he even reports to work he is trying to make arrangements to leave early on Tuesday to get home for his 8 AM Wednesday meeting.
Tuesday AM. I leave to go to my Mom's with a consultant from a local long-term care insurance agent to discuss a potential policy. I had agreed to do this a LONG time ago before I realized how crazy everything was going to get. I also needed to get a swimsuit to my Maddie girl.
Tuesday Afternoon. Craig leaves MI to return to IA after having been there for less than 24 hours. This is a 8 hour drive we're talking about. Ugh.
Wednesday pre-dawn. Craig arrives home we start a quick load of laundry and then head off to bed catching about 4 hours of sleep before it is time to rise again.
Wednesday AM. Craig makes his appointment and at noon departs again for MI. I take a nap. I did feel a little guilty, but got over it.
Wednesday Evening. Craig arrives at our Michigan house safely. He was making great time with no road construction delays until (no kidding) he just passed the exit before the exit you take for our house. He sat for an hour and was not happy.
Thursday AM. I drive 3 hrs to Marshalltown, work until late afternoon, and then head to my mom's to get Maddie.
Thursday PM. Craig works at the new house getting a few things ready for us to arrive with all of our belongings while I decide that I'm not doing any more driving that day. Maddie and I stay put at mom's for the night--staying up way too late playing a punch-drunk game of Phase 10 with cards sticky from a Sunny-D spill.
Friday Afternoon. Maddie and I head back to the QC while Craig also begins his journey back to Iowa.
Saturday morning. We all wake up in the same house wondering where in the heck the week went and feeling a little exhausted. However, the to-do list still required ordering Maddie's new bed and we had to do a little shopping around. Sooo....Off to Chicago we went to go to Ikea. It was a long 2 hr drive, but at least we were all together and laughing at all the crazy things that have happened in the last few days, as well as praying an extra prayer of thanks for safety with all of the travels.
Saturday afternoon. Return from Chicago land, get caught up on laundry, and go to bed early.
Sunday Morning. Worship in the park. Beautiful. Maddie and Craig decided to bike there, but as luck would have it some dirty bird had too many blueberries for breakfast and Craig passed under him at an unfortunate time. We had to just laugh at the irony of it all.
Sunday Afternoon. We had an Open House (no, still not much activity), went to see Dispicable Me (awesome...), and packed up a few collectables.
Sunday Evening. Drive Maddie to our meeting spot an hour and a half away so that she could spend a week with her mom.
This week's agenda? Meeting on Monday, move the storage shed stuff home to the garage, work on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, roll over investments, disconnect services, supervise the movers on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, pick up Maddie on Saturday, and leave for Michigan. We'll then be there for a week before returning to the QCA for 3 weeks for our jobs.
Whew. It's been a ride, but I am finding myself not only thankful for a wonderful family that can pull together and get all this done, but for a Great Great God that allows me to rest peacefully each night and gives me the strength to face whatever comes my way in the morning.
Thanks for checking in,
~M

Traveling plants

I miss my plants. Last night Craig and I loaded up my mom's van with all of the things that the movers could not move and things that we did not want them to move. We decided to start with the plants. I purposely did not water them this weekend so that they would not leak during travel. After we got three of them to our staging area in the garage Craig asked "Is that it?"
*Sigh*
Some days I wonder if we live in the same house (well, actually we kind of don't right now, but you know what I mean...). I gave him a brief tutorial of the watering techniques that each of them seem to prefer as well as a slight plead to please please PLEASE not let them die before returning inside and gathering the remaining 10 or so plants that also needed to be packed.
The house seemed so lifeless this morning when I got up and went downstairs. I am beginning to realize that I am completely more attatached to my plants than may be healthy. I love them. All of them. They all have sentimental value. Take Mary Jane Schefflera, for example. She was a gift when my dad died. Upon bringing her home she promptly dropped all but 8 of her leaves and turned brown. I held on to her for a while and was just about ready to part with her when Christopher was born. When I came home from the hospital I found that she had a new bloom starting. She's a keeper now.
They all have a story.
When Craig called to say that he had arrived in Macomb today I asked promptly about the condition of my plants and if they had been watered. "They're fine" and "no" was all I got. I just hope I won't be arriving in 2 weeks to find some brown stumps.