our last day

It's been over 3 weeks since I've blogged. I finally feel like I have time to sit and do a little catch up. Or maybe I should call it a BIG catch up. The packers did a great job packing everything up. They left one TV and our beds for us to use. Our pets did pretty good staying out of the way as well. I don't think these two have ever been such good friends. 

This picture was taken on Wednesday when we still had wifi. ;) Wednesday we were suppose to have movers. We were scheduled a 2 day load. Well, the driver was MIA. Around 10 AM I reached out to the company and they hadn't been able to get ahold of the driver. The GPS said he was in Indiana. It didn't look good. It was finally decided that we'd load everything in one day, Thursday. 

We spent the day Wednesday hauling off the furniture that we weren't taking; Mason's dresser, the sofa in the basement, mine and Brian's dresser set. All had already lived their life...time to retire. 

 With movers working everywhere the kids spent a lot of time playing cards. Marie Z, our friend and realtor, taught Carson how to play Gin. We played that a lot too. Karlee and Carson are playing war with three decks. They had to find a way to speed up the game. This is what they came up with, in the above picture.

I don't know if I ever shared that Karlee's car died on her way home from visiting Victoria in Indiana. It happened about two hours away on a Sunday. I managed to find a tow company to bring the car and Karlee close to home, to a repair shop. We found out it wasn't worth repairing, no surprise, so we salvaged it for a few bucks. Really, it was only a few :(  With her leaving on her mission soon we decided to make it work with only two cars. So far it's worked out ok. 

Thursday morning we had more work to do. I'll admit this is Mason's kind of work. Laying down while helping drain the water bed. He did a great job!

Karlee helped put the bolts in to secure the tub on the washer. All the kids were great helping out where needed. Have I mentioned we weren't able to turn off water to the washer and fridge? In the middle of loading on Friday we had a plumber out to fix our problem. There have been many problems but luckily we were able to find solutions. 

It was finally getting to a point I would clear out the last few boxes so I could wipe down a room and vacuum. This closet never looked so good! This is basically how the entire upstairs got cleaned. Karlee and I would haul the last few boxes out into the hall then clean. 

I really liked how they labeled our closet as "HIS"  and "HERS". It really did help on this end.

Poor Cali was put on a leash to keep track of her outside. She hated it!! All we had left was sweeping and mopping then we would leave. We didn't want to lose her.

It was such a long, hot, humid day for moving. The movers were there for over 10 hours making sure we were all loaded by the end of the day. They didn't leave until after 10. Everything did not fit in their 53' trailer. We were told it would be non essentials that would be delivered later. 

We left the house at 10:45 PM. We thought we were too exhausted to be sad. Before we left we did have a family prayer, standing in a circle in the driveway. The tears came. Mostly from Carson but a little from everyone. We all learned to love Illinois. This past week I scrolled through pictures on my phone and I just about cried. I already miss so much of St. Charles! I know it's partly because we're in a small apartment surrounded by boxes. It's not feeling like home much.