Well before I start I want you all to know that we are all alive and safe in Virginia because this post might cause some question. I don't even know where to begin but let's start off with the Monday before we were supposed to pull out (Thurs the 18th). Like trying to pack up a house all by yourself with 4 little ones, while your husband is trying to study for his last 3 finals wasn't stressful enough, we get a call saying that they are not going to allow us to have our dog Sassy. So I'm bawling and freaking out she's Boston's best friend and since we got rid of our male she's been practically perfect. Finally late that night I finally call my Mom and demand she takes our dog because I just can't get rid of her and our lease was only for 6mos. So I go to bed feeling better. The next day was Tues Todd picks up the truck a day early ( another stress reliever) and with the help of some friends gets it pretty well loaded. 4:30pm comes around and we get another phone call from the Realtors. Seems like the guy living in our house only gave a verbal that he was leaving and is now staying...WHAT?! And that was it they said they would over night our checks back and meanwhile I call the Realtor we met with in the first place in Nov and asked for his help. He sent me a ton of listings and I narrowed it down to 2 and our friend Gina was nice enough to run out and look at one of them for us. So Wednesday we choose the place Gina looked at and start frantically trying to get applications faxed ( thanks Richard & Pete), empty out our bank account and getting checks overnighted, because the owner was leaving on Friday. So now I've wasted 2 days of packing and cleaning not to mention cutting into Todd's studying time to find a new place to live before Friday. The missionaries came Wed night to clean out all the food in the house and we in turn recruited them for some last minute truck loading on Thurs.
Thurs came and luckily Jamie took the kids for us so we could really go to town. Still no sign of our checks, and Todd ended up backing into a parked car returning our modem and at that point we just had to laugh and move on. So it's now 1:30 am and we just got the trailer attached to the truck and we're ready to load the van onto it. Well we had had some snow and ice since we got it and there was a good few inches on the trailer and I could not get any traction. We were dumping boiling water on it Todd was chipping away with a screwdriver finally we were like let's just gun it over the last bump and be done.Well that took the van over the bump and OFF the front of the trailer onto the jack of the trailer. Are you kidding me... we're stuck here! So and 3:30am I finally went in the house and the whole family was just curled up on the living room floor by the radiator, thank goodness we didn't shut the gas off yet! Around 4am the tow guy came and Todd helped get the van off. Then he pushed the trailer back into the parking lot next to our house. At 7:00am we start calling Penske to get a new trailer since we broke the one we had. Instead they send out a repair guy so we have to wait for him to come and fix the jack, meanwhile all the lawyers start parking in the parking lot and of course parking on all sides of the trailer. Luckily we had parked our car in the entry way so we could get the truck out but there was no way we were going to be able to turn that huge truck around and attach the trailer. Yet again another friend comes to the rescue and Mike lent us his pick-up to hook up the trailer and with Travis' help we got the truck, trailer and the van all to Mikes to hook up. But it keeps getting better... Todd gets pulled over on the way to Mikes and is told that he must climb on top of our 26ft truck and clear off the snow, so I'm waiting for him at Mikes and watching him clear off the truck thinking that the way our week has gone I could very well witness my Husbands death at any moment. Luckily he got the job done safely and then what do you know we get stuck in a huge snow storm and what would have been an hour and half drive took us like 5 and I was in the little white car with 3 of our kids sliding all over the road and couldn't get any traction and kept spinning out up hills. I even had a sheriff help push my car because a wreck he was attending to had slowed me down so
much I couldn't get moving again. We stayed in Greenfield Mass the first night in a disgusting hotel and pulled in with about 8in on the ground already. When we got up there was over a foot of snow and it was still coming down hard, but another storm was coming in that night so we trekked off through the snow once more. The kids did awesome for not having any T.V.s we just kicked it old school all the way to Va only stopped in Pa at a little truck stop for dinner. About 2 hours before we were done however all 3 kids in my car were screaming and I finally broke down into the tears I had been holding back all week and called Todd with the
famous words "I'm so done" But we made it into Leesburg around 10:30pm not knowing what the plan was, our Realtor called us with dog friendly hotels but then when Todd's boss heard we made it in finally he offered to let us stay there. So you think we're in the clear by now... think again. Sunday our realtor heads out and we take the van off the trailer unload all our stuff in the Morehouse's garage and head out to look at some places with him just in case #2 falls through. We barely make it a mile and the van overheats. Turns out our little jump onto the trailer sent the jack right through the radiator of the van. Problem is we don't all fit in the car. At this point I just want my own space and a home base to work from so our realtor comes, takes Todd back to the Morehouse's house to get our white car, comes back Todd and Kya jump in his truck we leave our van for AAA and head to the Residence Inn in Herndon ( AWESOME HOTEL by the way). So the kids and I unload and Todd goes with the realtor and AAA to our realtor's friend who's a mechanic. Then we get the call that the lady who owns place #2 wants to wait until Jan 1st to rent the place. By the time Todd gets back it's dark and we just decide to start fresh in the morning. It's now 8am the Monday before Xmas and our realtor Chuck shows up to take Kya and I to a few places. We look at 3 and the last one was it, we left it at 11:30am and by 1:30pm we were signing papers and getting keys. The only problem is that the deposit check we got back from house #2 was written from our credit union in Nh which we had since closed so Bank of America was holding all our money. The people worked out a deal with us so that was nice. We wasted no time calling our new bishop and Elders Chorum president who sent 5 members and 2 missionares to unload the truck it took maybe an hour they were great. We had already paid for our hotel room for that night so we stayed there. Now it's Tues and we need to drop off the truck and trailer.... what's the problem here? Um no room in the car to take everyone back after so we had to drop Kya off at someone from the ward for 2 hours while we hooked everything up dropped it off and came back. Luckily for us our neighbors are members, and there's members on the st. that T's into ours and the street off of that. So we got that done popped up a tree and broke out the presents and unpacked like mad. Did I mention that Todd's boss wanted Todd to start early like the Monday before xmas but was gracious enough to move that until the Monday after( mind you he wasn't supposed to start until the 16th of Jan) So yes STRESSED again! Xmas Eve we get a call Vans done YEAH... problem no money to pay for it still being held until the 26th, solution switch the car for the van as collateral and pay the man what we have. Xmas eve night we open gifts all is well, we're starting to breath a littleXmas day we get invited over by the relief society president Tiana for a fondue party, very nice. The 26th Hurray we get some of our money and give most of it to our mechanic but hey we can all get around now. And that's where our crazy saga ends. What a Nightmare and I haven't even started the crappy stuff like getting the kids on ins. and finding
a pediatrician and dentists, etc.
After finding out we had no where to live but we could keep Sassy the girls and I decided to start fresh with New Hampshire's best. So we put on our winter coats including Sassy and trudged out in the Snow for some Hot Cocoa from Dunkin Donuts
The kids had a blast and she even graciously handed over her tickets and some extra tokens Thanks Paula we hope to see you on your next trip down! Everything else has just been trips to Kmart and walmart trying to replace things we had to leave. Not too exciting I know but hopefully soon I'll be posting more and on time.
