Out Like a Herd of Turtles

Ya know, so often I have in my mind a perfect plan that is squelched by reality. This move was definitely one of those times.

For the two weeks plus before our move my life consisted of boxes and boxes and even more boxes. I packed until my arms could no longer move, as Josh sold all he could get his hands on. Our plan was that most of our things were replaceable and not worth moving across the country. The items we were keeping were being stacked in our front dining room until the big day. We did this not only for convenience but as a meter as to what size truck we needed to be renting. Just so happened that our dining room was the exact size space we would have in a twenty-four foot moving truck. We so hoped that we could squeeze it all in and the plan was that Josh would be driving the truck and hauling his car while being entertained by the boys and I'd be driving my van with four girls and three dogs....that was the plan....that is not what ended up happening!

So, as the big moving day approached and we only could fit our household items, not including our garage things, we decided to rent a twelve foot trailer for me to haul behind my van. Phew! Good thing we were prepared...or were we? NO, you remember like I said before sometimes my plans are squelched by reality. We were so organized that the first twenty four foot truck loaded in record time! Most of the house was packed tight in the truck, but we realized that the twelve foot trailer looked much smaller in person than it had in our minds. Josh called the rental place and to make a really long story short, ended up picking up another truck that we filled. No problem though, we needed a lunch break. My mom agreed to drive the other truck out for us and take on one of the girls while I drove the van hauling the trailer with three girls and three dogs while Josh drove the truck with two boys hauling his car. All was packed and we were ready for tomorrow to come so we could head outta town on our new adventure.

The morning of our big drive came and as always we were about an hour later than our original "hit the road" time. No big deal, we only had fourteen hours to drive with a pit stop for dinner in Kansas with Amanda and Adam and their two kiddos. I had a van full of boxes of hand me downs to give them that were just thrown in at the very end and hadn't been placed very well considering they were only traveling with us for nine of the twenty eight hours. I told the girls they'd be fine and when they were ready to sleep Amanda and Adam would already have them, so not to worry about it. That was the plan.....although, that's not what really happened! No, about three hours in Josh's moving truck broke down! I am not joking! It just flat out stopped working! Knowing Josh's history my mom and I got him a gallon of gas anticipating the truck to start right up and we'd be on our way. Unfortunately, after over two hours on hold with the customer service line and then three hours of waiting for the truck to be towed and repaired, we were a little off schedule to say the least! The best thing that happened was that he broke down just ten miles from the Dairy Queen, Subway and indoor playground so the kids were at least happy. Once back on the road we realized that we'd be getting into Kansas at about midnight, so our plans wouldn't be working out with Amanda and Adam and therefore the girls would be jammed into the van for the long haul surrounded by boxes! We arrived into Mt. Pleasant on Friday around dinner time. Not our plan, but we made it.

I'm now back to being busy with boxes and the adventure of what life has coming our way