Well, we’re finally all moved in. Hooray! There are still eight thousand boxes in the garage, but I’m counting the fact that we’re out of the house we were renting as good enough. Yes, we are MOVED IN!

Of course, given that this was a real estate venture and that we’re Faulks, the whole closing was not without some drama. The previous owners were having some issues not killing one another in their fight over how our money (oh, who am I kidding — the lender’s money) would be split between them, and we were told when we signed our part of the closing papers that they would come to an agreement by that afternoon. Maybe. Provided that they didn’t off one another before then. Hearing that we might not be able to get into the house that day, after all the plans I had been making to set up my kitchen before the sun set, had me feeling a little like this…

Or maybe I felt more like this…

(Is it just me, or are they really hard to tell apart in these pictures? We went grocery shopping this morning, and they sat in one of those two seater baskets with the backs of their heads to me, and I’m not kidding when I tell you that I COULDN’T tell them apart! I made the mistake of telling them this, only to have one of them shout, “Oh, Mommy, I ANA!” Given the grammatical mistake, the joy with which she said it, and the snickering that followed confirmed that it was indeed EMMA who said it. Sneaky girl.)

Anyway. We got a call that night from our realtor saying that she had the keys (woo-hoo!), and when we got to the house, we got to meet one of the owners who was quick to tell us that the holdup had all been her crazy ex-husband’s fault and that she had called the police on him earlier that week and that she hoped we were happier in this house than they had been. Me, too! I told Wes to get in the house before I called the police on him (just kidding), and we unloaded the ENTIRE kitchen. Of course, we didn’t do this quickly enough for me to make a meal, so our very first family meal in our new home came courtesy of Papa John’s. Mmmm! It will likely be the tastiest meal shared here, if we’re being completely honest about my cooking skills. Ahem.

Wednesday, we moved in more stuff. Thursday, we moved in more stuff. Friday, we moved in more stuff. Oh, and would you believe that we got more rain last week than we have the entire time we’ve lived here? If you need it to rain, you call the Faulks and have us arrange a move. It’ll be flooding before you know it.

On Saturday, we had a whole lot of church friends come out to help us move the big stuff. Wes had arranged to pick up a moving truck, and the company he went with messed up just about everything with his order, which meant that all they had left was the biggest truck ever. Wes called me to say that he needed the entire street cleared (!!!), and sure enough, he pulled up in a truck that probably required more than a regular driver’s license to operate. But whatever, y’all, because it got the job done, and because it was clearly not what he ordered, we got it for practically nothing.

Our friend, Kim, came early to entertain the girls, and she was a lifesaver as Wes and I drove back and forth between both houses while it rained, showing everyone where boxes and furniture went. One of the very last “big” things to be moved was Charlie, who seemed pretty excited about getting to ride the two miles across town without the use of hallucinogenic substances. (You remember the last time he had to travel, right? Spaghetti legs and all!)

By lunchtime, we were completely moved in. Woo-hoo! After waiting much, much too long for pizza delivery, we all enjoyed lunch together before everyone went home and we headed back to the rent house to clean. Apart from Sunday morning and my grocery trip this morning, I’ve spent every moment since we finished up the move unpacking all of these boxes. I thought I made it easier on myself by meticulously labeling everything, but even the most well labelled box doesn’t unpack itself. Bummer.

In other news, I’m going to work next month. What?! Yeah, this kind of came out of nowhere for me, too, to be honest. I’ve always said that once both girls were in school I might go back to work… whatever that meant. Before I was married, I had ministry jobs. I have an English degree and a theology degree with an emphasis on foreign missions. If I hadn’t married, I would be on the foreign mission field. This is not an option right now, obviously. Life changed in more ways than one when I met Wes in seminary and it became clear that he was going to pastor a church in the US, and I’ve been fine with what it meant for me and whatever career I might have had. I haven’t stressed out too much about it because I’ve wanted to stay home with the girls while they’ve been so little, and in the process, I’ve really come to enjoy being a homemaker and a pastor’s wife. Wes was/is all for me staying at home forever, keeping life sane around here instead of going out and earning extra income. I’ve been all for it as well, but I did tell him that I might look into seeing what it would take to be a sub at the girls’ school every now and then. You know, going to school with them once every few weeks to earn a little extra money if I get bored sitting around at home. (For the record, I’ve never gotten bored “sitting around at home.” Because I’ve yet, in my eight years of being married to a pastor, had time to sit around the house doing nothing!) So, I looked into it about a month ago, filled out some stuff online, and was shocked to hear back from one of the schools two weeks later about a long-term subbing position. I’ll be starting school when the girls do, filling in for a teacher’s aide who’s on maternity leave until October. I’m nervous about it, wondering how I’m going to manage things here at home and work, even if it’s just short-term. As inefficient as I think I’ve been as a homemaker (our first meal in our new home was cooked by Papa John, remember?), I’m sure we’ll all be amazed at how much I did manage to get done once I’m not here to do it fulltime. That said, we’re excited that we’ll have a “litmus test” opportunity to see what it really would be like if I went to work. Thankful for the opportunity to see what it would be like before we make a major decision either way!

So. That’s life around here. It’s been busy!

I still haven’t had a chance to blog about last week when the girls went to their very first baseball game and spent most of their time at the concession stand. And I haven’t had a chance to blog about Wes’s last minute trip to somewhere secretive for the associate pastor search committee process. (Which is a story in and of itself. Let’s just say that I fought a whole lot of jealousy over all that and may have demanded that Wes buy me a very nice purse to make up for the agony I went through. Which he did. Which did nothing to abate the jealousy, but, hey, I still got a purse out of it, so there you go.) I’m sure in a few more weeks I’ll be able to tell you all about it. I’m sure you’ll be holding your breath until then, right?

Okay. Better get back to those boxes…