I'm Back!

HELLO BLOGGER WORLD, I AM BACK!

It has been a long couple of weeks, but we are (pretty much) settled into our new home. We have 90% of everything unpacked.

We left our home in IL on Monday evening. The original plan was to leave Tuesday morning, but with the help from my mom, Greg's dad, and a couple guys from church, packing the truck went really smoothly so we decided to shorten our originally planned 11 hour Tuesday by leaving Monday night. (What a wonderful decision!) The picture to the left is Hunter playing on a tricycle (while the truck was being loaded) that was his daddy's 30 years ago. My father-in-law brought it from home for Hunter, and he LOVES it!

We left around 3pm, with everything we owned in our big Penske truck and our 2 cars and headed for Springfield, IL. Greg, his dad, and the dog were in the truck towing the Saturn, and my mom, Hunter and I were in the Jetta. There isn't much between Chicagoland and Springfield besides crops and wind turbines. Tuesday was more exciting. We passed through St Louis en route to Tulsa, so we at least got to see the Gateway Arch. Wednesday was, in my opinion, the most boring day. We drove from Tulsa through Texas (thankfully the top, which is the thinnest part of the state,) and then to Albuquerque. Oklahoma and Texas have to be 2 of the most boring states ever. There was nothing to look at but fields, and cattle ranches. Once we got into New Mexico though, the drive started to get pretty. It was kind of cool to watch the changes happen in the land from the Great Plains to the desert. Once in NM though, there are awesome mountains to look at. I've had many people tell me that NM is a boring drive, but I thought it was gorgeous! Desert mountains are so unique in shape with mostly flat tops. The scenery just really reminded me of God's majesty. It was awesome. Our hotel room in Albuquerque looked out to a mountain. Thursday was the prettiest drive through NM and much of Arizona. We drove through Flagstaff, which is up in the mountains, and then had to make the trip down to Phoenix to the desert again. It was a little nerve racking watching the boys in the truck at times through the mountains, but they did just fine.

After 32.5 hours of driving in 4 days, we arrived at our new home. It definitely was a long drive, but we all agreed that the Lord definitely had His hand of protection over us. We hit barely any traffic in all 4 days, and had no major problems. When we arrived in Tulsa, we did discover that a tire had blown on our trailer that the Saturn was on, but the guys hadn't even felt it because the other tire next to it had picked up the slack. So, Greg called Penske and they sent people out right away to the hotel and the problem was fixed within a couple hours. Aside from that, we had smooth sailing, and we all know that the Lord was definitely watching over us.

So, the weather is hot, and the sun is bright, but our house is GORGEOUS! We have a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom ranch, and I even have my own bathroom sink! I have (almost) more cupboard space in my kitchen than I know what to do with, and I know Greg likes enough garage space for the Jetta AND his tools. :)

I am so thankful that my mom and Greg's dad were able to help us move. It was a long week that none of us would like to relive, but I know that their help made it so much easier on us, and we really did appreciate them taking the time off of work to help us out. Bella really enjoyed snuggling up next to Doug in the truck, and my mom and I were constantly googling anything we could think of to keep busy. Thanks Mom and Dad. :)