I'm sitting in my new living room watching the dog chase the cat and staring at my absolutely beautiful wall of bookshelves.
What I am more thankful for, however, is the fact that we have been blessed by such amazing friends. There's nothing like moving to show you how many real friends you have. Let's be honest: moving isn't fun. It's just not. So the fact that people were willing to give up their valuable time, especially this close to Christmas, completely blows me away. And I'm not just talking about one or two friends who showed up and carried a box or two. We had a veritable army of people helping us. I am so humbled and grateful for their generosity. If we didn't have them, I'd still be moving in the cold instead of sitting here watching Elvis give up on chasing Elsie because he wants to settle down to chew a bone by the Christmas tree.
At the risk of sounding like an Oscar acceptance speech, I need to give some shout outs to the people who made this move so amazingly easy:
1. My mom and dad. My mom probably put in more hours than anyone else, She came over two evenings last week to help me pack, and then she came over for a good chunk of the day on Saturday to help us move stuff. I realize you're probably thinking, "Yeah, well that's your mom - she had to help." Actually, she didn't. She and my dad just moved into a new house themselves, so they had plenty of stuff they had to do. Instead, they helped me. Whoa. My dad has a bad back, and he still came for a few hours and helped as much as he could. He kept joking that he needed "girly" jobs. He ended up doing a lot of work!
2. Sarah and Will - My friend Sarah is one of those friends who will be there for you no matter what. You can just count on her, you know? So even though she blew out her knee a few hours before she was supposed to come help move, she came anyway. She carried light stuff, and she commissioned her ex-military husband Will to carry the heavy stuff. (By the way, I hardly know Will...he just showed up because he's a really good guy). She also gave up an evening last week to help me pack, even though she's been working mandatory overtime at work for the past two weeks straight. So, in her few precious hours of relaxation time, she decided to help me. What? Who does that?! Sarah, that's who.
3. My school friends - Two teachers from my school, Beth and Katie, gave up their first morning of Christmas break to help us move. Their first morning to sleep in, their first morning without whiny kids, and they used it to help ME. What a gift! Also, my friend Lauren came at the same time as Beth and Katie. She's working in retail right now, which is super busy during Christmas, and she gave up one of her few mornings off to come help.
4. Siblings - My sister and Rex's brothers both gave some time to help. Rex's brother Jake was especially helpful - he stayed until 1 AM helping us get everything over! His girlfriend Stephanie stayed until 11 PM helping me unpack my new (and awesome) kitchen. I mean, she didn't have any obligation to be there. She's not related to me, I hardly ever get to hang out with her, and yet she gave up an entire evening of her Christmas break to help. What a generous person! Jake should probably marry her.
5. Jake - Rex's brother is named Jake, but he also has a friend named Jake (that got a bit confusing, ha ha). Friend Jake helped us move to Nevada and then back from Nevada on two of the most epic road trips of all time, so I told Rex we probably shouldn't ask him to help us this time. After all, he's done his friend duty in helping us move more than once. Rex agreed. Imagine my surprise, then, when there was a knock on the door, and I opened it to see this:
Jake had driven an HOUR to come help us! He even stayed the night and helped us the next day too! Apparently he and Rex had concocted a plan where Jake was going to stand by the side of the road with that sign pretending to be a homeless person, then Rex was going to drive by with me and "find" him. Jake got bored, though, so he came over early. He was super helpful (as always), and I couldn't believe that he came over to help us move a third time. His first order of business in the new house was to put this sign on the guest room door:
It's still there, ha ha. It makes me smile whenever I see it, so I haven't taken it down.
6. Katie and Chris - Katie and Chris live in Ohio, and they too have already helped us move before (we've moved five times in the four years we've been married...hence why I'm so excited to actually own a house now). They showed up and spent an entire afternoon of their time off to help us. Katie works in journalism and gets basically no time off - not even Christmas! - so it was pretty crazy that she was willing to drive up to Michigan to help on her time off.
7. Kyle - When Rex and I lived in Lansing, we lived across from a couple named Kyle and Karl Kyle was an interior design major in college, and she is fabulous at designing things. She's a complete natural at it. She somehow made their one bedroom apartment look like it should be on the Parade of Homes. Now they have a beautiful house, and it actually should be on the Parade of Homes. Anyway, she drove down FROM LANSING on the day after we moved specifically to help me set up my new place. She told me where to put my furniture (I had it a certain way, but when she changed it around it looked a thousand times better). Kyle and I went shopping for some decorative items, and I have gotten so many compliments on the things she picked. She's an absolute genius, and I am so grateful that she helped me.
Can you even believe all of the friends who helped us? Our bosses even helped - Rex's boss let us use his trailer, and my boss offered to come help move furniture (we ended up not needing him, but I was so grateful for the offer). We basically have the best bosses ever. Again - we're very blessed. I'm completely blown away.
So now we're getting settled in our new house and getting ready for Christmas, and I'm feeling so loved by all of the people who gave their valuable time to come help. I don't know how to thank them all! I hope Santa is extra good to them this year - they definitely deserve it.
As I was leaving the old house yesterday after cleaning it, the sunset over it looked gorgeous. Almost like beautiful closure to that chapter in our lives (I realize that's too symbolic and mushy, but hey - I'm an English teacher. Give me a break). I'm posting the picture here for you to see. We don't live there any more, but it's still beautiful. Goodbye, old adventures, hello to the new ones!
Your new house looks so beautiful. Glad to be a part of it and cannot wait to hangout again soon. :)
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