Busy Moving Into MY NEW HOUSE!!!

I've been away for a while, mostly due to the fact that I've been moving, but partly because I have no internet at my new house (don't even get me started on that one).

Over the past seven months, since we found out we were moving home from Japan and decided to build a house to move into, my life has been kind of crazy, kind of.  If you follow my blog, you've read some of my posts along the way about moving, but here, in one post, I'd like to sum up the past eight months of my life.

First of all, I'd like to say THANK YOU to all of my family and friends who have helped me along the way, it would have been impossible without you.  It started in Japan, when we were packing up to leave, and I was seven months pregnant, countless friends helped me clean, pack, organize (probably thought I was being too particular, but now that I'm unpacking, that organization is paying off), helped with the kids, dishes, food, you name it.

Here is the first part of our move, the truck came to pick up 16 of our 19, yes, 19 suitcases.

We had to say good bye to some really great friends:

Here we are at the airport.

Phase two, unpacking, cleaning, organizing, settling in at my parent's house.  If it weren't for the help of my sister and my dad being home sick, I never would have gotten unpacked before this:

Four days before this beautiful girl arrived, my husband made his way back the the US, just one day before the big earthquake in northern Japan.  Fortunately, our friends were unaffected and our stuff was not at sea yet.

There were many decisions to be made for the house, so the kids and I drove 1,000 miles to stay with Dave for a month.  We got to stop and visit some old friends along the way, and I even took them to Niagara Falls:

Once again, it was time to pack up to get ready to move once again, this time to our new house.  For the past five years, my parents let us keep our stuff and car at their house, like our home away from home.  It was time to get all of my stuff out and let my parent's have their house back again.  I tried my hardest to get everything out. My dad even gave my two oldest sons the bunk beds we had when we were kids that he built himself- how cool is that?  We painted them red (because Mario's red of course).

We had to say goodbye to ALL of our cousins:

Conveniently, the weekend we moved my cousin was getting married in Ohio, so we made a pitstop.  This is when the kids had to say bye to Nana and Grampa.

This trip, we were driving with a 6x12 UHaul and I didn't want to travel alone, so my brother and nephew joined us.  I couldn't have done it without them!  They are my official moving buddies because they also came to Japan (with my sister-in-law too) for my last week and helped us move home, so I didn't have to lug all the suitcases and kids through customs 7.5 months pregnant alone.

We got to Illinois, and the house wasn't ready for closing, so we stayed in the tiny one bedroom apartment Dave had been renting since March.

My mom flew in to help us when our shipment arrived.  Luckily she's staying for two weeks.

The closing got delayed by two days, so we were all crammed into the tiny apartment on one king and one twin bed.

Finally, we closed on our house and are together again as one big happy family!  This was the first night in six months that I slept in a room without sharing it with four or five of my kids!  Home sweet home!

The following Monday, the stuff arrived, in not one, but two trucks!!! Here they are driving down the street, I was so excited I had butterflies in my stomach!

Holy cow, this is a LOT of stuff:

This is what my basement and closet look like now:

You'll be hearing from me slowly for the next few weeks as I attempt to become box free ;)

So, if you know someone moving, may I challenge you to do a random act of kindness for them, whether it be help pack, help clean post packing, make them a meal, clean the new place, help unpack, take the kids, bring over a snack, cut open boxes, help break down boxes- do you get the point?  I have had so much help, and I couldn't have done it without every last one of my wonderful family and friends, so thank you for everything that helped to get us here, we love you!