Moving...Finally!

Wow!! I thought it would never happen. Yet...Kelly had her last day of preschool on Thursday, the playset is dismantled and ready to go, and the movers show up on Monday, May 5th. We should be making our trip to Muscatine on Wednesday! Yeah!!!

This has been a trial...Mike has been working in Muscatine since the end of July...9 months he has been commuting, just coming home on the weekends. I had to go back to work in December to help pay for the commuting and his apartment. We had to pull Kelly from some of her activities and made other cutbacks in the household to make ends meet. The house went on the market in October...I spent the end of September and beginning of October painting the entire inside of the house. Lots of work. We finally got a contract the end of March/beginning of April...5 months of being listed...seems like it was forever. Keeping the house clean...leaving for showings with the boys (our dogs Murphy and Tucker)...hoping that this showing will be the one!

I won't even discuss the money issues...not good! We lost a significant amount of $$ on the sale and did not find a deal in Muscatine...very disappointing.

I should be excited...but I find myself still majorly numb...I'm not really sure why...a lot of other "stuff" happened during all this also and well...maybe I'm still just raw from all of it also. "Stuff" would be defined as issues with family, my mom, friends, etc. I never really had time to heal...always moving from one task to another with this move.

I find the best thing to do in situations like this...is to be grateful and count my blessings! So here goes:

• I am sooo grateful that the house has sold and we found a new home! Our family will be back together in 5 days!
• I am blessed with the most wonderful father!! He is ALWAYS there when he is needed. He never has excuses for why he cannot help. I would not have been able to go back to work without him...His generousity is amazing. And yes...he can be a broken record at times...but even when he is lecturing me about a mistake I've made...I can tell he just wants the best for me and my family!
• My friend Cathy! This friendship has just blossomed since Octoberish? She also helped out by watching Kelly while I worked...was a great listener when I need to spew to maintain my sanity...and well...I will miss her! Good thing for cell phone minutes!
• My husband...He was apart from us, adjusting to a new job, and living in sparse conditions. And yet...still supported his family as best as he could....Amazing!

So why am I not excited...I'm not sure...maybe because we are moving from the suburbs of Chicago to small town Iowa. I am sure this will be a huge adjustment....Yet...I know we are moving to a great neighborhood and we have already met some wonderful people!

Soo...goodbye St. Charles and hello Muscatine!!