WOW! It's been a wee bit crazy around here!

Early last week Brandon got word from the place we were renting our moving truck from telling him that we could pick it up on Friday afternoon. So we added a days prorated rent on Wednesday when we went to our new rental office to sign our lease and planned to start our move Friday evening.

Friday afternoon, we picked up our cat, Paulie from the animal hospital. I had a dopey cat in a carrier box, meowing during our move and I've added Dr. Doolittle to my many titles and job descriptions since I am now a pro at giving the cat his meds and don't even have to hunt him down... he comes to me!

We were blessed with two coworkers/friends from the office to come help us when they got off at 7:45pm. The move went pretty fast and we got everything in on Friday night. Everything except my beloved IKEA pantry that was very torn up by the time they got all 220 lbs out of the apartment. Oh well.. people before things right?

Just in case you are getting the impression that everything runs smoothly for the Bee Family, let me fill you in with some details. LOL

1. The pantry fell apart in about 3 pieces AFTER they got it into the truck. It didn't fall apart before they squeezed it out of the tiny doorway... nope. It made it across the apartment, through 2 doorways, down the steps and up the ramp into the truck when it disintegrated.

2. Once they started unloading at the new place, we realized the bunk beds would have to be taken apart more in order to fit around the corner and down the hallway into the girls room. Of course the tools were packed. So the bunk beds were in the living room until Brandon could find his tools. I put sheets and blankets on the mattresses and the girls didn't have furniture in their room until sometime late the next afternoon.

3. Dish could not install our service here the next day. Since they contract out their installations, the Dish installation manager wanted to come make SURE that they couldn't get it in, and so they came by too. No go. We still have Comcast, SIGH!

4. The washing machine in our new place has a broken part. For a family of 5, soon to be 6, this is disastrous.


Okay.. so you get the picture. NOT a smooth move, despite our best attempts to plan ahead. But we were in.

The next morning, I went to Williamsburg (an hour or so away) with the children to meet up with a friend that was visiting from Texas. I had a lovely day with Angie and Cliff and her 12 children and our kids played together beautifully. The moms even got time to talk!

Brandon stayed home to supervise the dopey cat, wait for the Dish installer to try to install and then went to the old place to do a final sweep and mop.

Colonial Williamsburg is beautiful and very neat and I can't wait for Brandon and I to return with the children. A MOM's group that Angie and I belong to has a retreat in Williamsburg each year so we'll be praying over that for next year. We walked alot and the kids slept the whole way home. I was BEAT!

The kids and I returned around 7pm that evening and then Brandon and I tackled some boxes and rearranging some things.

Sunday, I spent the day vegging out. I was afraid I'd overdone it between Friday and Saturday and my body was definitely letting me know to slow down. So I did.

Monday, Brandon had taken a vacation day, so we ran a long list of errands with the children. ALOT got done including:

Sams- Bought a freezer, renewed our membership, and bought some odds and ends.

Food Lion- Bought somewhere around 70lbs of beef that was custom cut for free. A total steal at $1.78 a lb. Saved more than I spent and didn't use a single coupon. Yes, please! We have 10 more sirloin tips that are being ordered for us. We are set for a while.

Came home to unload.

Lowes- 2 extension cords and a nut to fix our table leg.

Walmart- A return

Target- A return, buy a shower curtain, shower organizer, a birthday card, a giftcard, and have an encounter with a Leprechaun... *Tee hee*

Moes- Dinner. Burrito, drinks and chips $5.55. Baby Solomon is in love with cilantro and Mexican. YUM!

Library- return 2 books. I support the library through my taxes and don't need to support them through late fees. LOL It's been a hard concept to implement but I've gotten MUCH better!

We came home and unloaded.

Put the kids to bed and then crashed ourselves.

Tuesday was another slow day. Brandon worked and I completed some paperwork/admin stuff that needed done.

Whooooooooooo! I'm beat but things are coming together!

~Steph

PS: I have a long list of things to write about. Can't wait to get the blog caught up!

Our Crazy Life

We are on the go again... Go Go Go!

Brandon and I have prayed over moving to a larger apartment (if we are to stay here in Richmond, which is up for discussion right now.) We feel that we are being led to move to a bigger apartment, to spread out a little and set up some roots. We found a great one, one complex over. The apartment is 1667 sq feet. It's a good bit larger, has more storage space, bigger bedrooms and a room that can be used as a school/playroom (while still leaving us a livingroom and a diningroom.) Right now our diningroom serves as our school room part of the day, and our closet under the stairs is where we store our toys. It's tight but we've made it work.

Another plus to the new apartment is that there is a playground for the kids, a very nice swimming pool and a kiddie pool, a 24 hour fitness room to work out in, and the apartment is a FLAT! After THREE (yes.. really three!) back surgeries, stairs are not very nice to me anymore and it would be a much larger issue if I end up delivering via csection. Another plus is that since the space is much larger we could potentially be approved to adopt again.

On a side note.. wanna hear a crazy cool God story? In December, I went through a major nesting/decluttering spree. I literally went through every drawer, every paper, every closet and cleaned things out. But I never came across our homestudy. And it grieved me. It kept me up at night. I tore the apartment apart a second time and STILL couldn't find it. Having a homestudy done was part of Xander's story. Plus I didn't want to pay for ANOTHER copy so we could have it updated at a later date. Updates are much cheaper than original homestudies.

The other night after Brandon and I discussed the new apartment and prayed.. guess what I found? Our homestudy... in a manila file folder, on a bookshelf that I use... every.single.day. I had cleared that entire shelf before and it wasn't there. Could this be a sign of things to come? Did I find it now because now we might actually be able to do something about it? Only time will tell... but I'm excited to find out!

We are being let out of our current lease without penalty, which is HUGE and totally a God thing. So everything is all set up for us to move March 20th.. right before our big trip in April. LOL It's how our life works, ya know?

And we've been busy with other things too. Brandon started a new shift this past Monday, with a new set of employees so that is taking some adjusting. I've been battling it out with the Social Security Office here and plan to return in just a bit for round 2. I'm gonna win this... if anything I'm a persistent person that doesn't give up very easily.

I've been doing our semi-annual clearance rack searching so I can save oodles and still have clothes for everyone. (More on that later!) I'm also trying to use up food in the pantry and freezer so that we don't have so much to move, scheduling the transferring of utilities, continuing homeschooling, growing a baby and keeping up with the housework.

Oh yeah.. and we are starting to pack, so we can unpack, and repack for vacation. Fun times!