Life Raising Five: Moving Day

It was finally moving day (just under three weeks to get a family of 7 packed and moved across country really was as crazy as it sounds). We had very generous friends from our church at our house on Saturday morning to help load up our 26' Penske Truck (I really hate those trucks... followed one on our last cross country move). We knew all our stuff wouldn't fit. We are a family of 7 living in a 3,300 ft house and those trucks really don't hold as much as they should. We had already taken loads of stuff to goodwill, but boy did we take even more on moving day! In fact, the only furniture that made it to Texas with us was my hope chest (it was my grandmothers and it is the only piece of furniture that we would never get rid of), our dining table and chairs, two couches (we had 5 originally), one tv (not really furniture but I'll count it, although the tv stand/entertainment unit didn't get moved) two library chairs, and two twin mattresses... sounds like a lot typing it, but our house right now is empty!

Saturday evening my parents flew in to help us make the drive. My dad drove Jon's car, Jon drove the truck, and my mom drove with me (I didn't want to tag along with the big truck but going on my own with five kids and Mocha dog, and having to make bathroom breaks and what not did not sound like something I wanted to do on my own -- so appreciative for my parents help). We were planning on taking off very early on Sunday but we had severe winter weather warnings that including high winds and ice. So we pushed off our leaving time and were on the road at 10 am (7 hours later than planned).

The first leg of the drive we made it to Nashville (love that town! Nolensville and Brentwood still hold a piece of my heart). We all piled into one hotel room for the night and left at 3am on Monday morning. (works so much better for long drives with the kids). My mom and I arrived in Dallas around 3pm, and my Dad and Jon arrived just a few hours later. The water wasn't turned on in the new house yet so we went and got a hotel for the night. Shortie was up bright and early on Tuesday trying to wake us all out because she was so excited to go move into the new house. She kept saying something about the sun being up and why were we still sleeping. It was great to see her so excited to be moving here!