The Summer of Packing

This summer has been a little more stressful than others in the past.  There is quite a bit of change going on in my life, and I'm not really a big fan of change.  Luckily, with all of this change, things have gone very smoothly for us.

Change #1 = Teaching in a new district

After 11 years in Yorkville, I finally decided I couldn't take the drive anymore.  Kyle was tired of hearing me complain about it, so he convinced me to do something about it.  I found the courage to apply elsewhere and was lucky enough to find a position where I can teach the same grade only 20 minutes from home!

For most of the summer, our garage served as my temporary classroom.

But, now all of my supplies and materials are unpacked in my new classroom, and I am almost done setting everything up.  So far everyone has been very welcoming at my new school, and I feel comfortable with my decision to transfer.  Hopefully I will still feel this way as the year goes on!

Change #2 = Moving into a new home

Last summer, Kyle and I purchased a plot of land on which we plan to build.  We decided to try putting our house on the market this summer, thinking it would take a while to sell.  It sold in the first showing, however.  So, then we kind of had to scramble to find a rental home to move into until we build.  It was a little scary for a while worrying that I'd have no place for my girls to live, but we ended up finding a place only about 2 miles from our old house that is within the same school boundaries as our lot.  

So, more packing began!  We decided we'd take these two cuties with us!

They had a blast playing in all the boxes.  This one was a "ship".

We were lucky to be able to start moving into the rental home about a week before we closed on our old house.  Of course, the weekend before our closing was Kyle's annual golf trip!  Thankfully, my parents and brother came over to help me take several loads of toys, boxes, and other oddly shaped items over to the new house.  They were a big help, and I don't think we could have pulled off the move without their help that weekend.  Here's a picture of my helpers having dinner on our deck for the last time...

We had a garage sale and sold a lot of stuff, including our pool table and pinball machines.  The basement looked so bare, and Ozzie was pretty confused about what was going on.

The girls were confused, too, and Kyri was having a lot of anxiety about the move earlier in the summer.  That all seemed to change when she finally realized that all of her precious belongings were coming with her.  Before the movers came to move all of our furniture, the new house was pretty much just all toys.  When the girls saw this, they were in toy heaven!  Although I had the toys neatly packed in these bins, KJ and Tess just couldn't wait to unload them all.  Every time we brought another load of stuff to the new house, they would be busy playing and dressing up.

Thanks goes to Chris for helping us move loads of toys, too, and playing butterflies with the girls to keep them busy.

I think Kyri would have preferred to keep the house this way...no furniture, just toys!

Once the movers finally did come, the place was a little chaotic that night.  Luckily, even though my house looked like it did in the picture below, Kyri was able to find her dress up box and was able to still be a princess.  Phew! : )

On the final night before we closed on our old house, we all went back over there to clean up the last bit that was left.  Our awesome neighbor, Al Stasch, came over to snap some family photos of us on our deck and in front of our house.  We're so thankful he did that for us.  Even though we were all sweaty and grungy from moving all day, we are happy he was able to capture these pics for the memories.  It makes me sad to think that Tessa won't even remember this house that she came home from the hospital to.  Kyri may not either...  Luckily we do have tons of pictures.

Now that we've been in the new house for about two weeks, we all agree that it feels like home.  I am soo amazed at how well the girls did with the change.  They didn't even skip a beat.  I made sure to set their new rooms up in the same way as their old rooms so that they would feel comfortable, and it seemed to work.  On moving day, Larry and Laurel had the girls for the whole day and evening, and they did a great job tiring them out in the pool.  The girls were exhausted when they got home and both crawled into bed without a fight and were asleep in minutes.  I was shocked at how smoothly that first night went.  And we haven't had a problem since.  Yay for flexible kids!

We are so thankful for Larry, Laurel, and my mom for helping out with the kids so much this summer.  I definitely could not have done all of the packing and unpacking that I had to do if my little "helpers" were always there.  While I wish I could have spent more time with them, it was great to hear about all of the fun they were having with their grandparents.  We are so lucky to have such a supportive family. Thanks for all of your help!  We couldn't have had such smooth transitions without you!