Live....from Mobile, AL!

I made it as far as Mobile, AL today. I would have made it all the way to Houma, but my day was full of 4 letter words.

Rain is a 4 letter word. So is the word Pour. It poured straight through Georgia. I had to drive like 40 miles and hour just to be able to see.

Snow. Another 4 letter word. I saw that today, which is odd for the south. I was told that parts of Louisiana got 6 inches of that dirty word and nobody knows how to drive in it. My husband called and told me that there was alot of black ice down there and some roads were closed. So, here I am at a hotel again.....

Sleet. Okay, I know it's not a 4 letter word. It's a 4 letter word. With an extra letter. Because it's really bad. And it stinks to have to drive in.

Baby. Ok, the littlest apple is officially spoiled rotten. I plugged the DVD player in so that my 8 month old could watch Baby Einstein shows. Every now and then I would pass her a new toy from the toy bucket, or toss another pacifier to her because she chucked her's into the floor. And we had to stop to nurse every 3 to 4 hours, so that carved out some of our day today too. So we better add the word Milk to our list of 4 letter words.

Poop. Yeah. It's a stinky 4 letter word. I had to pull over 4 separate times today because the baby made some. And imagine yourself trapped in a small enclosed space, such as my mini van, with something akin to a skunk spray filling the air to capacity. I was literally gasping for air out of my window, and praying for a rest stop at the next exit.

Bath. It's what the baby and I both had when we checked into the hotel this evening. Ahhhhh.

King. The size of bed that the little apple and I are sharing tonight. She is so cozy to sleep with. She puts the perfect end to a very hard day on the road.

And tomorrow, we reach our destination. Our new home. And into the arms of the missing link in the apple family.

What was your day like in 4 letters?

From somewhere in GA...

I'm not exactly sure where I am. I know I am in GA somewhere, and this hotel bed is just toooo comfortable for words. The bed has 8 (yes, I counted correctly, eight!) fluffy pillows. I am in pillow heaven. I hope I feel like getting out of this bed and hitting the road again sometime today.

There were a couple of issues surrounding closing and I will detail all of those things in a different post. I will leave it to say that I left our home town a full day later than I intended, and in the middle of the afternoon, as well. So, my mom and I decided to travel as much distance as we could on that day. We traveled to Florence, ate dinner together, and then our journey no longer took the same road. I kissed my older girls goodbye, and they headed south to Florida with their grandma, and I headed southwest on my way to my new home. I am sure that my children are waking up at grandma's house this morning...my mom, God bless her, seems to have that ability to drive forever. I, on the other hand, started seeing double while I was driving in the pouring rain and the dark. So I pulled over and found this delightful hotel with the mountain of pillows. Ahhhhh. I slept better last night than I have in an entire week!!!! The baby, spoiled rotten as she is, is sleeping in the other bed, as we speak, in the center of an enormous nest of pillows. So sweet.

The plan is that the big girls will stay with their grandparents for a couple of days. We have found a house in a great neighborhood, and the moving truck will be dropping off our household goods on Monday or Tuesday. After I have unpacked a couple of things...I think I will unpack the kitchen and THE CHRISTMAS TREE, the husband and I will drive over to FL to pick up the little girls and bring them back to our new house so we can spend Christmas together as a family.

It's been a long time coming, this entire journey....and it looks as if the LORD has done it again. He's dropping everything into place according to HIS plan. Isn't He great?

Moving Day!!!!!

I know I said that I was signing off from Blogland for a little while, but I just couldn't leave yall in the dark about my move, could I? So, in true applesofgold style, I must tell you some of the things that have happened to me in the last couple of days.
With typical military moves, the TMO office takes care of all the details for us. We don't get to pick who comes to pack up our stuff. We get whoever shows up at our door, and hope and pray that they will find our stuff just as nice as we think it is. And I have had horrible things happen during packing....the big burly men (who were either just ignorant or hadn't had any coffee that morning) packed my wedding dress in the same box as the vacuum cleaner. Or the time only half of the baby's crib ended up in the moving van, and the other half never to be seen again.
So you can imagine my feeling that I had the morning that the packers were due to arrive...I was a bundle of nerves, and just about ready to puke. When they arrived, I opened up my door, and this is what I saw. These lovely smiling faces.
These ladies, named Cocoa, Roshanna, and The Girl Whose Name I Forgot, swooped in, and packed away everything! They were neat, respectful, and efficient. They packed away things that really had no monetary value but only sentimental value in a box labeled as High Value. My mother was actually sitting on the couch when CoCo snagged a pillow out from underneath of her and stuffed it in a box, just laughing and chatting the entire time. It was almost as good as having good friends come and pack your bags for college. It was so comforting. I am so glad for these women. They made quick work of my house, and only one of them had to return the next day to pack the garage. Some items got packed that I didn't exactly want packed. For instance, my daughter went to school this morning in 25 degree weather, with no coat. We opened several boxes looking for her coat, but it never showed up. Of course, we will find it in Louisiana, where the weather is warm and muggy almost year round!
And then a shocking thing happened this afternoon. I was looking over the packing list and happened to notice that the destination scheduled for our stuff was listed as Houma, AZ. Houma, AZ?!?!!?!?!? I'm going to Houma, LOUISIANA!!!! So, this could have ended in disaster, with my stuff in a totally different state, lost somewhere, and me in Houma, LA with 3 kids and no stuff. How fun and adventurous that would have been!!!!. A few phone calls later, it was found that whoever entered my paperwork into the computer made a mistake. What a blessing that I paying attention to that page!
So, we will be closing on our house tomorrow, and saying our last goodbyes to our small town. I am really going to miss this place afterall! It took a long time to learn to love it here, but once NC sinks under your skin, it's hard to forget. Now. Next time, when I hit the publish post button, it will be from another state. Hopefully in Louisiana. And hopefully my stuff will be there too. See you then.

Going AFK...at least from Blogland

So, the moving van will be screeching to a halt in front of my house the day after tomorrow. I can almost smell the end of this whole ordeal. I am really going to Louisiana after all! Can you believe it?

The last few days, I have spent an unbelievable amount of time sorting, and washing, and cleaning, throwing away, and donating. I totally forgot just how much stuff I had. I really don't need all this stuff. So, the rule of thumb was....The second my hands touched something, I asked myself "Self, do you love this?" and if I didn't totally LOVE the item, I got rid of it. I cannot believe the amount of stuff that I have collected over the course of the 4 years that I have been here. Stuff that I really didn't love. *sigh* God isn't finished with me yet. I am too sentimental about things...I would probably keep a pile of doggie doodle, if it had any sentimental value to me at all.

But the whole family has gotten into the spirit of getting rid of stuff. The girls have gone through their toys and donated 2 garbage bags full of toys to Salvation Army. Lets not even begin to talk about the amount of clothing that has left this house, destined for bargain racks. The baby, well, she had no choice in the matter...all of the stuff that she didn't use anymore like her swing, bouncy seat, countless bags of clothes, well they all went to my new favorite cause, Lifeline Pregnancy Center. The ladies from the center, I wish you all could have seen their faces when I opened my trunk and it was FULL to overflowing with gently used gifts for pregnant women and their soon-to-be-born precious little babies. I loved that warm fuzzy feeling when I got when I closed the van trunk again, it was empty... and all I got in return (besides my warm fuzzy feeling) was a tiny slip of paper that said "Lifeline Pregnancy Center thanks you for your donation." Such a freeing feeling.

Well, with all that being said, I won't be blogging for a little while. I promise you that I will be very busy the next few weeks. Packing, searching for a place to live, unpacking, finding a new church, new friends, enrolling The Oldest in a new school, getting The Middle acquainted with a new homeschool group, and finding my way around our new town. I will keep yall posted when I can. Wish us luck. Pray for us.

I will see yall on the other side.