The Big Move (Part Two)

Day two of our drive to Colorado is pretty much a blur. We drove from Atlanta to St. Louis, and the only things I can recall from that day are driving through Nashville and stopping at a rest stop in Illinois (or was it Indiana?) They had a little park there, so we let the kids out for some sunshine and stretch your legs time.

Day three found us driving from St. Louis to Salina, KS. Let me just say...technology is for killing people. (That line is only funny if you watch "The Office.") See...we got this gps-thing for our househunting trip last month. It's real handy...you just punch in the address of where you want to go, and it will direct you there. The only problem is, it came preprogrammed to avoid tollroads. Unfortunately, we didn't realize this till after it rerouted us around St. Louis. For the $3 we probably saved in tolls, we got to add about an hour to our drive, which equals...hmmmm...about $15 bucks in gas! (Just as an aside...our kids named the gps Diablo prior to this, and it lived up to its name.) We did arrive in Salina though, safe and sound, and had fun swimming at the hotel with the kids. Oh...another side note. Salina was apparently hit by some nasty tornadoes a week or so prior, and the hotel had a bunch of boarded up windows, as they'd apparently gotten hit pretty hard. (Note to hotel developers...don't build your hotel next to a trailer park in KS...it's a sure bet that you'll get hit by a tornado.)

Day four...Kansas...Kansas...Kansas. Which reminds me of a joke. Why is Colorado so windy? Because Kansas sucks.

Okay...that was hateful. It doesn't suck. It just goes on forever. And there's nothing there. I can't say we weren't warned though. I just never could comprehend the nothingness that we'd experience. It started out with these beautiful, lush, rolling green hills, and I thought, "Yeah...not much here, but quite pretty." But just keep heading west, and it just gets flatter and duller. Oy! I did like the fields of windmills though, but apparently PETA wants those gone, because birds will fly through them and get decapitated. Oops! I'd have to imagine that it generates a lot of power though, with the wind sweeping across the plains and nothing (I mean NOTHING) to break it up.

The Big Move (Part One)

Okay...Saturday, June 14th, the slackers, I mean packers, came to pack up all of our belongings. These guys left so much unpacked, and in fact, "finished" before lunch. (Although they did stick aroud to eat since Bo had gone to pick up Subway for all of them, expecting them to be working all day.) Sunday was great...church, last trip to The Loop with everybody after church, and then home to continue the packing that didn't get done (although they assured us the movers would finish up the packing) and then cleared out everything salvageable and took to our friend's house (thanks Skip and Laura!) for dinner. The movers showed up Monday, and it quickly became apparent that there was no way they were going to be done by 3:30, at which time we had to leave for closing.

The plan had been to have the truck all packed and leave for closing at 3:30 (which was located a half hour north in Jax), grab a quick bite, then drive about 5 hours up to Atlanta. Sure enough, the truck was not loaded (nor was everything even packed yet) so we left Clay there with the movers, and headed out, thinking they'd for sure be done by the time we had our closing, plus the hour round-trip drive. We arrived home, and the new home owners were there waiting (with their moving truck) and our movers were still several hours away from being done). To say it was stressful is a MAJOR understatement. I left, took Sam, Mary, Annie, and Ellie out for dinner, came back, and they STILL weren't done! A couple hours later, they finally had everything out of the house (though still not completely loaded on the truck) and we had to leave. We finally pulled into our hotel in Atlanta around 1 AM, and in bed by about 1:45.

Whew...long day!

Access to my blog, FINALLY!!!!

Okay...I finally have access to my blog again, so I'll try to bring this up-to-date. Blogspot wouldn't let me sign in to my blog using my old email address (since it is now defunct), but finally did. I'm not holding a lot of stock in being able to continue to access this though, since they will not allow me to switch my email to my gmail address (even though blogspot is tied to google.) Makes no sense to me, but nobody asked for my input in that decision!

My Hundred Good Wishes Quilt

Okay...this post is a little lame without an accompanying picture, but...Ellie's quilt is DONE! It was such a blessing to receive squares and wishes for our new little girl, and I was able to piece the quilt together before going to China, but it has been put away since then. I really didn't know how to put it all together, and was very intimidated and afraid of ruining Ellie's beautiful quilt. My good friend, Lindsay (who also happens to be our pastor's wife) quilts, and she came over Thursday night to help me finish it. She even brought her sewing machine over (which is SUCH a cool machine, btw!) Turns out, she pretty much sewed the whole thing for me, because I was *very* slow (in my defense, she doesn't use a presser foot, just a button that you push--very newfangled.) Anyways...the quilt is DONE, and it's beautiful, and I'm so thrilled to have this gift to give to Ellie. I'm also thrilled to have had my dear friend have such a big part in making it for her.

Oh, and the reason there is no picture is that I brought my camera upstairs today to take a picture of it, and the packers had already packed it and sealed up the box. I'll get a picture on here once we get moved and I unearth it again.

I actually feel like I could do more quilting now, though. Lindsay is a great teacher! I doubt I'll ever hand piece and quilt like my mother, but I may take on a new project in the coming months.

Headstrong for Him-Clay's Blog

Okay...before another day passes, I need to invite you to Clay's blog. (He's our oldest son, for anyone who may not know our whole family.) Clay is much better about adding stuff regularly to his blog, and is much more interesting than me! Oh, but fair warning...you may want to turn down your speakers. He normally has music on his site!
www.headstrongforhim.blogspot.com

We're so blessed!

We are part of an amazing body of believers! Our church had an awesome going away party for our family at a local park. It just so happened that the choral group, Majesty, from The Master's College in Santa Clarita, CA was in town on tour. Our pastor is an alumni, and arranged for them to come and sing at the party!!!! I mean, speakers set up in the park overlooking the river while the sun is setting behind them...good stuff! We chose to have two of the girls stay here at our house, as well, and were privileged to get to know them a little....just charming, beautiful girls with hearts for the Lord. I'll try to link this to their website so you can go check them out!

Evergreen Pictures