Our moving adventures!

Well, we made it Arkansas! I think I missed bloggin last week so let's see if I can remember all the highlights from the last 2 weeks...

1. Adam and I got to fly to Arkansas last weekend to pick out a house to move in to less than a week later. It was fun checking out the floor plans of so many houses. Some day, we will build our own house and it will be the most awesome house in the entire world complete with hidden passage ways and a tower. :D

The weekend was LOVELY. My amazing and beautiful mother took time off of work and flew out to AZ to watch our kiddos for us while we went house hunting for the entire weekend.
(THANK YOU, MOM!!)
It was the first time we had been away from our kids for longer than a date night. I love my children but this trip was AMAZING. It was so relaxing and such a nice break to not have to worry about what my kids are destroying or about getting back home soon so we don't have to pay the babysitter too much. lol.

One morning, as I was getting ready and Adam was watching tv, a noise came from the tv that sounded kinda like Jimmy's cry. I stopped for a sec before I realized it wasn't him because he was at home with my mother!

...And then I did a little happy dance as I continued to get ready...uninterrupted.

A much needed little vacay with my sweet, hard-working husband.


2. We had a crazy week when we got back and it went as follows:

MONDAY: Signed the papers for our lease an hour before our plane left back to AZ. The last time we 'flew home' to AZ.

TUESDAY: Took my mom to the airport early in morning and welcomed the packers over to pack up our house. They packed up everything (including my brush! grr.) except for what we would need for a week. Yes, our stuff isn't getting here until Thursday the 12th.

WEDNESDAY: The movers came on Wednesday at 10am. And spent ALL DAY taking the boxes and furniture from our house to right outside in the giant truck. ALL DAY. They finished just after 8pm. The Elder's Quorum could've moved THREE houses in that time! Not only did they take for e ver, the two guys took turns complaining about each other to Adam and I, and the one guy smoked outside like, every hour. Fun day!

THURSDAY: Some fabulous ladies came over in the morning and helped me and Adam clean our empty house. Got the front trees trimmed and cleaned out everything in the house. Those ladies are FAST. We got done before noon! I love them!
Got the carpets cleaned and packed up for the boys and I to fly out the next morning.

FRIDAY: Last minute packing and then said good bye to our house. :( I cried. Itwas our very first house and we lived there for 2 1/2 years.The babies and I got taken to the airport by another fabulous friend and Adam stayed behind to do all the last minute things and then start his 2 day road trip to Arkansas.

The boys were pretty good on the flights.
We had about a 30 second layover in Chicago and had about a mile and a half to our next gate. lol.
I ran to the bathroom with the boys so I could go potty and to change James who had leaked pee all over his clothes. Joy. I asked Anthony FOUR times while in the bathroom if he needed to go pee and he said no everytime and I believed him because he had gone on the flight from AZ to Chicago.

We ran to the next gate where the guy on the intercom sounded like the teacher on Peanuts. Wah wah wahwah! I guessed he meant they were boarding the toy airplane. It was TINY. We sit down, buckle James in (Thank HEAVENS he had his own seat!!!), the plane is about to pull out and Anthony informs me he needs to go potty.

OF COURSE.

So I hit my 'attendant' light and tell them he needs to go potty. Luckily, we were in the 3rd to last row and no one was behind us so I just took him in there while the plane drove to the runway. And he went potty again during the 1 hour and 15 min flight.

Then we landed in Arkansas! Teeny tiny airport in Vaughn, Arkansas. I go down stairs to the baggage claim/rental car area to rent a car for the day. First time renting a car! I feel so grown up! I'm talking with the lady and Anthony says, "I peed". REALLY, kid?? At least he was sitting in the stroller so he didn't get it all over the floor! He then asks to go play on the little play ground they have there in baggage claim and I try to explain that you don't get to go play when you're covered in urine. Ew.

Haul my boys in the double stroller over to get my suitcase and the pack n play. Put the pack n play on top of the suitcase, pull that with one hand and push the SUV stroller with the other. I. am. Amazing. :)

Went out to dinner with our friends, the Goldthorpe's and then hit up walmart for some food and air mattresses. Then went to our new house to fight with an air mattress pump! Long story short, the stupid pump for the air mattress didn't work and when a mama and her 2 babies are sleepy...well, it wasn't pretty. Luckily, we have some very nice friends here who came over at midnight with their air mattress. (Thanks, Whitney!)

SATURDAY: Bummed around the house. And spent most of the day discovering how nasty our new house is.
Doing a quick walk through, the house is fine, but all the detail work was totally overlooked.
For example:
-The baseboards are nasty
-there is fur lining the carpet in some rooms
-doors and door jams are splattered with mysterious substance
-dirty walls were poorly painted over
-there are kitty litter crumbs in the corner of the master bathroom
-there are spots and spills of stuff on the kitchen floor all of the blinds are dusty and have small bug poo on them
-there are gross and broken pet toys in the backyard
-there is pet POO in the backyard
-the fridge was not cleaned out well
-there is fur under the cupboards and pretty much everywhere else, too
-the laundry room smells like cat pee and
-I found FLEAS on Anthony while in his room!

I just have an image in my head of these nasty, too-many-pets, hoarder type of people used to live here. EW ew ew
I'm not a germ-a-phobe but I am having a hard time here. I've called property management and told them this place needs to be cleaned again. I'm not going to feel comfortable in this house until that happens and I've bleached every square inch!

*sigh*

Besides the fact that this house needs to be cleaned, I LOVE the house.

Saturday night, Adam got here safe and sound. :) Played at Eric and Whitney's that night. These are the nice friends who keep feeding us and letting us borrow air mattresses at midnght. They have a little girl, Bailey, who is a few months younger than Anthony and a little boy, Austin, who is a few months younger thatn Jimmy. Adam and Eric worked together in Rexburg and he's the one who told Adam about this job. We love them for many reasons as you can see. :) Anthony stripped down and invited himself in Bailey's bath. Haha.

SUNDAY: Went to our new BRANCH for church. It's going to take me a while to get used to calling it a branch instead of a ward. But from what I hear, our family bumped their member count up to 280 and they need 300 to become a ward so we're getting there! Met some very nice people!

MONDAY: Adam's kinda first day. It was orientation. Did you know they have a Walmart cheer? Got his picture taken for his ID tag he has to wear everyday. Apparently it's liek the DMV, you get no notice they're about to take it and they don't let you do a retake for forever. Adam wasn't really ready. Poor Adam. :(

The boys and I drove around and ran some errands. Then we went over for dinner at the home of some people from church.

Here are some other random/cool things about this past week:

--The leaves are changing color here! It's so pretty! I love the fall. I bought 2 new sweaters yesterday!

--Anthony asked me about a dozen times the day we got here "Are we still in Arkansas?" Haha. Yes, son. And we will be for a long time.

--The Duggars live about 30 minutes from us and they are in our phone book! Maybe I should invite them over for dinner some time! lol.
--We've been having fun (NOT) sleeping in the living room on an air mattress, eating out, using paper towels to wash and dry just about everything and using grocery bags as trash bags. I can't WAIT for our bed to come on Thursday!!!

Well, I think that's about it for now!

~* I just want to thank everyone who helped us with everything from babysitting to cleaning to feeding us to giving us rides, etc. We are very blessed to have some good friends who went out of their way (mulitple times for some) to help us out. We are very, very grateful for you!! *~