sweet home alabama part 3

wow, i know this has been intense. sorry for the stress oozing off the screen. it was what it was, but that just made the sweet moments in the midst of it even more sweet!

so monday, april 28 we woke and everyone showered and gussied up just because we could! bret was still not feeling better, but we did enjoy a great free full service breakfast in the lobby! we pumped bret up full of mucinex, advair, and ibuprofen. we also let cooper out to stretch his legs and do his morning business. once we found diesel and filled up, we were on our way. the weather all day long could not have been any better. the kids took turns riding in the front of each of the moving trucks and with meme in brets car. bekah and i enjoyed one another's company, though she wanted to be able to ride with meme and papa, too. i tried to make up for it by letting her listen to all her favorite tunes i had downloaded for her on my ipod! considering we were a caravan of two moving trucks a car and a van and there were four adults and three children, one of whom has recently become fully pottytrained, we made excellent time. it was slower than we would have liked, but we we made it to our new home by 6:30 pm.

what happened next, i will fully admit to you, i was not prepared for. when we arrived to our new home (which we had never seen in person) there were cars and people everywhere. it almost looked like a scene from extreme home makeover!! they motioned the trucks in and we got out. there were people on the roof blowing off leaves and people going in and out with food and such. they had arranged to get the key to our house a day before we got there. one woman even cam ahead to clean the bathrooms for us so we would feel comfortable taking showers our first night and such!!i was overtaken with gratitude and did not maintain my composure for a few minutes. we were lead through the house for the first time so we would know where things should go and then when i returned to the door, they had the trucks opened and people began filing in like a bunch of ants with our stuff! i was stationed at the front door to direct traffic. people young and old (5-?) unloaded the trucks in less than an hour and delivered everything to its home. my children were so grateful to be met with so many kids that would become some of their best friends. after such a stressful week of sickness, packing showing the house and leaving, it was more reassuring than ever that we had made the right decision! i think my mom was just as moved as me. bret and i were also a bit embarrassed of all the stuff we had! but nevertheless, we were here and we did manage to fit the contents of a 2500 sf house plus a garage into a 2000 sf house with no garage. it has made for an interesting unpacking situation, but we have managed to find a home for everything!
we went to sleep early that night. bret was feeling very bad. my mom actually gave him an ambien and thankfully he was much better the next morning! his cough was still pitiful, but i think more than anything he was feeling better because it was finished! he had successfully moved his family half across the country and gotten them safely to their new home. it didn't really matter how long it took to get it unpacked, now.
tuesday morning april 29-my mom and i woke at 6:30 to "reveille". we live just outside of an airforce base. it was hysterical!!we went to walmart and bought a few cleaning supplies, shelf paper and a new vacuum. we came back and hit the boxes. we figured out the arrangement for most furniture and the phone and cable guy got us hooked up. people began coming with food every day for the first week. every lunch AND supper was delivered to our door daily for the first full week we lived in our new home! that was one of the sweetest blessings anyone could imagine. no matter how simple or elaborate the meal, each one of them were perfect, delicious and made me cry!
i took my parents to meet my sister, leslie and her husband, dwayne, around 6. they met us halfway between nashville and montgomery. we at dinner at cracker barrel and enjoyed talking and visiting! it was awesome to know i was two hours from a visit that is halfway between us both! the way home i enjoyed some nice quiet and a great conversation with one of my bestest!
bret and i spent the rest of the week unpacking boxes and getting micah ready for school.
on friday night we got to go to green gold night at micah's new school. it was their end of the year carnival fundraiser. they bounced and bounced and climbed and had faces painted. it was a wonderful way to be introduced to your new school in a non threatening way. we met a great new couple that were about our age and kids about our kids ages. the guy is the director of fine arts at faulkner and his wife is the director of a mothers day out at another church of christ in the area. saturday night we were able to join our new church family at a montgomery biscuits baseball game. it was a great night. my kids really loved hanging out with their new friends. the night would not have been complete without the fireworks show with sweet home alabama as the finale song! it was awesome. as soon as i figure out how to post small videos, i will post this! it was our first true alabamian experience!! i have to say, i enjoyed it.
our first sunday was wonderful! randy harris was there for a series of lessons and spoke sunday through tuesday night. we loved it!!! he is wonderful. micah made it through his first day of school at dalraida great. he was even the only one in his whole class to score a 100 on a year comprehensive math test!!! brets' normal day off will be monday but he went on on his first monday so he could get started on getting his office in shape and i could start getting some of his stuff left here at the house to his office. i worked everyday continuing to unload boxes. since we were living in a smaller house, it was like working a rubics cube sometimes getting things to work. for instance, the girls are now sharing a room. what once was in three rooms, is now in one. also, bret's office is a bit smaller, with fewer shelves, so we had to keep much of his office things here at our house. we are tight, but we are doing well. one of the interesting things about living in the house is that there so many trees in the yard. there are at least twenty trees not counting those that are along the fence and provide shade even from other people's yards. the back yard looks something like an image from early in the book , the secret garden. cooper is in heaven and more relaxed than we've ever seen him! he loves his back yard. i had lunch with all the ministers wives on thursday and we enjoyed each other so much we decided to make it a regular thing.
so that takes you through all the day by day walk through of the morris move from big tex to sweet home alabama. its been memorable to say the least, and we couldn't have made it through without all the friends and family that helped us along the journey. we love you all. please remember to continue praying for our house. it still has not sold, so that is on our minds a lot.
love you all,
some see us on yourway to florida!!!
summer