Moving Day

 May 18, 2013

Moving Day had finally come!

Although we had closed on our New House on April 9, we traveled so much on the weekends after that, that this was one of two free weekends we had to move in April/May! The other free weekend, we had used as a work day at the house.

At the duplex, loading up.....

.....then caravan-ing to the New House....

......we led the way in the moving truck!

The previous owners had installed new carpeting before listing the house, so (to the amusement of our friends and family) we took necessary measures to keep it looking clean on move-in day.

Also to the amusement of our friends and family, we had each box labeled with an "upstairs" or "downstairs" (it's a split-level home) and then to which room the box was to go.  Upon entering our house, and after going up or down, they found signs pointing them to the correct room (we're a little anally organized around these parts). 

Some rooms even had different "zones" for where to put the boxes/furniture.  BUT, our anal organization made for a very quick and smooth move!

We started at 8:00am - loaded everything in the moving truck at the Duplex; drove about 3 miles to the New House; unloaded everything; and even set up a couple rooms - all before noon!  

Here's the TV Room/Man Cave:

We had several friends come help (although we didn't get pictures with all of them).  Here are friends from church, Jim and Deb:

And Brandon's office-mate at work, Zach:

And of course, both sets of our sweet parents were there too.  They are so wonderful & helpful in every aspect of our lives - we can count on them for so many things!

My parents:

And Brandon's parents:

Right after taking this picture of Brandon & his parents, both our Moms wanted a picture of Brandon and I on the porch.  As Brandon was going up the steps in front of me, a SNAKE went RIGHT UNDER his foot!!!!  RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!!!!  AND UNDER HIS FOOT!!!!  It slithered into the ivy along the steps.  

That's when my Dad noticed ANOTHER BIGGER SNAKE sunning itself in the yellow pot that the ivy has surrounded!!!!!   EEEEKKKK!!!!!!!   SNAKES????!!!!????  PLURAL!!!????!! (Can you tell I HATE snakes?)

When I zoomed in on the picture of Brandon with his parents, I could actually see part of the snake in the pot!!!  So, it HAD to be there while we were unloading the moving truck and going up and down the stairs!!  Thank you Jesus, no one got a snake bite!!

Luckily, Brandon and his Dad were able to kill the bigger snake they found in the pot, but the smaller snake evaded them in the ivy.

The dead snake:  (YUCK!!)

I refused to go on the porch for a picture after all the snake drama!!  The Moms had to settle for a shot of us in the yard instead. 

And, needless to say, I wouldn't even use our front door/porch/steps for months after we moved in!!

Snake update:  A few weeks ago (it's now October) Brandon saw another snake in the backyard under the deck.  It hid itself before he could kill it, but he did find (and kill) a smaller snake this time (maybe the small one from the ivy??).  He has since completely cleaned out from under the deck so there are NO hiding spots and sprayed the entire yard and perimeter of the house with bug spray (to hopefully get rid of any food for the snakes).  There are at least 2 neighborhood cats, so we're pretty sure they keep any mice away.  So, only time will tell if the snakes move on to another home to terrorize.  (PLEASE LORD!!!)

Okay, so getting away from the yucky snake-story.....I have a really cute story from eating at Arby's after the move.

Us and our parents went to Arby's for dinner after we had worked and gotten things even more settled in the house.  My Dad and I both ordered Chocolate Turnovers (and I was raving about them - they are awesome, especially if you have them warmed up for you).  Beverley (B's Momma) went back and forth on getting on or not, but finally decided against it.  Well, as my Dad and I ate ours, we ooh'd and ahh'd over them so much that Bev decided she wanted one after all.  So, she went up to the counter and ordered.....but they had just sold the last one!  And it would be 15 minutes or so before any more would be ready.   So, a sad-faced Bev came back to the table and told us all what happened and we were all almost in unison said "Aww, man!" or "oh no!", I think because we could tell at that point that she really wanted one and was so disappointed she didn't get one.  

A few seconds later, we see this man that had walked out of Arby's and was headed to his car - he had turned around and was sort of looking at us through the window from the parking lot. None of us thought much about it until a minute or two later, he came back in and came to our table.  

He said "I couldn't help but overhear - I just bought the last Chocolate Turnover and I'd like you to have it. You buy me one of the Apple Turnovers and we'll call it even."  

At first, Bev protested, what a sweet gesture by this man, but she just couldn't take his Chocolate Turnover!  That's when the man said something like, "It's actually not for me, it's for my wife and she's mad at me right now anyway!"  Ha!!!  We all laughed!  And at that point, he wouldn't let Bev refuse, so she took the Chocolate Turnover and bought him an Apple one!

Look at that happy Chocolate Turnover face!  She even shared with Jimmy.

 

Anywho, that was our very organized, snake-surprising, Chocolate-Turnover-guardian-angel-watching, Moving Day.  :)