Happy Halloween

We spent the morning here.

Doesn't feel like Halloween, but we will try to make the best of it.

That was totally sarcastic.

The Robot Jackson says (in a robot voice) , Robots don't eat guacamole!"

He says it, but I have no idea where that came from.

He's NEVER eaten guacamole.

Miller Robot says, you can try to make me stand still, but good luck!

Makes me remember this year with the Bug and now look at him.  He was so fed up with Butterbean for not holding still for the pictures!

Hope your Halloween is sweet!



Here You Go

Here you go.  This is our new house.  It will be home when we get our stuff.

 The Kitchen is right as you walk in

This is the view from the dining room looking back towards the front door and kitchen.

Dining Room

Looking down into the Living Room.  (Nice glass tops on the tables...just a matter of time)

I love the nice tall french doors onto the patio.

Notice the TV?  It is a loaner until ours gets here.  We have been watching WAY too much TV lately.

We have wood ceilings.  So interesting!

This is the half bath.  Such a luxury!

Jackson's room, which might be turning into both boys room!

Um, there are sliding glass doors in there.  Makes me a little nervous, but I just got some dowels that fit down in there.  He has his own balcony.  Thinking of putting the pirate sandbox out there.  Could be neat, or it could be a disaster!

Jackson's bathroom.  Such a luxury!

The hall between the boys rooms.  Laundry room is on the left.  Laundry room is a luxury too.  I won't miss doing laundry in the basement!

Miller's room.

His crib doesn't quite fit in there with all the gigantic furniture.

The stairs going to our room.

Our bedroom.  We have a balcony too!  Our room is beyond gigantic.

The ceilings are really neat.

The other side of our massive bedroom.  The dresser looks small -and it is like a 6 foot long dresser.

Looking into the master bath.

Master bath

Both ends have these odd alcoves.  Not sure what they are intended for, but for now....

Water closet.  Luxury!

Walk in closet.  Woot-Woot!

There are so many things about this house that I love.  The porches and balconies, the space, the dock we have in our backyard.  It is new, it is in the Bahamas, we have a whirlpool tub (shhh, don't tell the boys),and we can walk to Jackson's new school.

However, there are a few things that I am going to have to learn to live with.  Numero Uno is that we don't have a dishwasher?  Who builds a new house that doesn't have a dishwasher?  A family that thinks they are going to downsize and have a housekeeper, then rents it instead of living in it. That's who!  Hopefully we will be able to hook up a portable dishwasher.  I need a dishwasher, remember?  It's also going to take some adjusting to live in a house that someone else decorated.  I love redecorating, but it is much better when there are stores to shop in!  Oh, and the fact that we have a dock in our backyard.  Miller thinks he is trying out for Fear Factor so it does make it a challenge to be outside.  Not sure how it will be when we have neighbors on the other side.  We tend to make a lot of noise!  I am sure that it will turn out well in the end.

Do you feel like you have seen enough pictures?  Well, I hope so!

Coming up next....Halloween pictures and some of our daily life so far!

The Move Part 5

After a few days relaxing and regrouping, we hit the road, for the next leg of this big adventure.  We got up bright and early and drove to Greenville, where we had Hank examined by a vet.  We were then able to go to my mom's.  She was a good sport and ran a few errands with us so we wouldn't have to drag the boys around to buy yet another HUGE suitcase, and one of those child airplane seatbelts.  Those things are PRI-CEY!

Afterwards we went to our favorite park in Greenville and had a great picnic lunch.  We were soaking in all the Autumn weather while we could. 

We ended the day by driving to Atlanta so we could be close to the airport.  Jackson slept most of the way to Atlanta and Miller slept-not one wink!  Do you see where this is going???

Unbelievably the boys had NEVER spent the night in a hotel (or motel for that matter).  I'm sure it will be no surprise to you that Miller manged to escape the room repeatedly.  He is a clever little fellow!

We decided to be brave and attempt to eat dinner in a real restaurant.  What were we thinking?  Two year old +No Nap + His whole life being turned upside down= Bad Scene!!!

About the time we ordered Miller had a fit and ended up throwing a fork at someone at a nearby table.  Exactly how do you apologize to someone for that?  I'll tell you how I apologized for that.  We asked the waitress to make our order a "to go" and we paid the check and left.  Sorry lady in Johnny Carino's!  We won't take him out to dinner for a long, LONG time.

We got back to the hotel and the boys got the delight of their life.  A bath in a whirlpool tub.  Yeah, I know germ city, but it's not like they don't lick strange things all the time anyway! 

So they were ready for bed, right?  Yes, and no.  Miller went straight to sleep and Jackson, notsomuch.  Remember that nice long nap he had on the drive?? He was up until midnight.  Watching TV.  Nice!

So the next morning we were up sometime between  O'Dark Thirty and Way Before the Rooster Crows.  Because why would you want to sleep when you are MOVING TO THE BAHAMAS THAT DAY!!??!!

Despite getting up and being pretty organized it still took us sweet forever to get out of there and then I managed to get us lost on the way to the airport.  Yes, we were staying at the LaQuinta Airport.  Yes, I still managed to get us lost! 

Miraculously we got there and then began the agonizing process of getting Hank checked in.  Apparently if all the paperwork is in my name, they won't let anyone else check him in.  So after a quick switcheroo we finally got one member of our family checked in for the flight.

After that it was seemingly a piece of cake to check 8 huge pieces of checked luggage, 2 carseats and get tickets for the whole family.  While wrangling two children.  Yes, and Allen did that alone while I got the rental car returned.  He is THE MAN!

Going through TSA was yet another laborious process.  Somehow we managed to get to the gate and  we were so thankful that we got up so freaking early for our 2 p.m. flight!

We had a layover in Miami and then we were on to the Bahamas.  Overall the boys were great on the flight.  There was one point at the end of the second flight where Miller let out a blood curdling scream because he no longer wanted to be confined to his seat, and I kid you not, every. single. person. on the flight turned and looked at us.  It's a good thing he is so cute because it really helps to keep him in one piece at times like that!

(notice J is reading the flight information!  He was so stinkin' excited!)

And then we were here.  Well not really here.  Our house wasn't quite ready so we spent the night in some random embassy house.  It just added to the whole experience.

Want to see our new house?  OK I will show you.

Tomorrow.

What?  I'm tired I've typed a lot today!

See you tomorrow!

The move Part 4

As eager as we were to see the boys, when Allen's parents offered to keep the boys for another day, so we could wrap up some loose ends, and get some rest we didn't have to think twice! Friday we turned in our tags, dropped of the cable boxes and ran all manner of errands. Most importantly we rested.
Saturday morning, as we drove to NC, it was one of those crisp Autumn days that comes after the storm. Beautiful, windy and sunny. So glad that even though we were able to experience one real Autumn day before we moved here.

When we got to Allen's parent's house the boys were so excited to see us, and we were just as excited. We are so thankful that they were so well taken care of. I can't imagine how much more stressful of an ordeal it would have been if we hadn't had help with the boys and Hank.

They live in boy heaven. There are waterfalls and woods and even a tree or two to climb...Jackson climbed his first.

Miller played with the neighbor's rubber snake.  No Fear!

Thankfully he was content to swing on the low branches.  He didn't even try to climb the tree.  We were barely spared on that one!

We were able to rest, regroup and get ready for the next chapter, flying to Nassau!

The Move Part 3

The second day of the move was interesting to say the least. At 7:45a.m., as we were driving back to the house with Krispy Kreme (for the movers of course) we get a call from a roll back driver who was there to get our mini van.  Huh?  We knew they would be shipping the van that day, but we thought that the movers were taking it when they finished packing our stuff.  Lots of details just weren't explained to us!  We ended up giving that guy a couple of donuts and telling him we still needed our van and would drop it off at their facility the next day.  Let the complications commence!

We also knew it was going to rain at some point, we just weren't aware of the flash flood that was coming!  Our movers were super nice and tried to get as much loaded before the rains came, but it rained and rained hard for a long time.  Rain on our stuff that was going into storage for a few years in some probably musty place.  Another serving of stress, please!

The second and third days are a blur.  We all worked hard getting things packed and loaded.  At one point there were 7 movers packing and loading our house. 

I do remember that we were exhausted and at times overwhelmed.  The 3 original movers that came the first day continued to be the best thing about the whole ordeal.  They were nice, calm and hard workers.  The whole experience could have gone from tough to miserable if they hadn't done such a good job.

That afternoon the head mover told us that what they had weighed what we had packed and loaded the first day and was coming with us and we were at 6500 pounds!  That didn't include the things that were currently in the truck.  Hmmm.  They seemed to want us to go to the moving company facility and pick things out to put into storage.  Does that sound reasonable to you?  Me either!  We didn't end up getting our final weight until late in the afternoon on Friday.  It didn't matter because we were going to be over and no one knew what it was going to cost us .  Another heaping cup of stress, please!

We got to the hotel on Wednesday night knowing that we were in for a third day, and that the third day was going to be full!  Just about the time  I was going to get in the shower I got a call from our realtor who told us that the new owner of our house had scheduled his movers for Thursday also.  Seriously??  Double dose of stress, with a large scoop of anxiety, please!

The next morning was a total washout.  Allen had gone to work on replacing his recently lost Driver's Licence.  Sprinkle on some stress, please!!  Pouring rain and the new owner, his realtor were on their way over for a walk through, and our realtor was stuck in traffic.  Small serving of stress, please! 

They came through, looked at all that still had to be done and basically wrecked my nerves.  The new owner asked if we could get the bedrooms cleared out by noon, so his movers could move his things into there.  A good compromise, I thought.

The movers, all 5 or 6 of them, busted their humps all day long loading the truck in the rain.  Meanwhile, Allen and I had to leave and drive to VA and pick up our rental car.  Later in the day we also had to go drop off our minivan at the moving facility.  Meanwhile it was getting closer and closer to the 5 O'clock deadline. Stress and anxiety sanwich, please!

We got back right before 5 and the new owner and his realtor were out front glowering.  It was going to be close, but were weren't going to be out by 5.  We apologized to him and offered to buy him dinner.  Um, no!  We got shut down on that one.  This guy wanted us out of his house!  Our movers were done by 5:30 and we had a little bit of tidying up to do.  We ended up leaving about 6:15. 

By that time we were so stressed about getting out of there, we didn't have time to be sentimental about things.  As we did our last walk through it was strange to see someone else's things in our house.  As we were standing on the porch a huge hawk flew right by us.  He couldn't have been 6 feet away.  What an amazing sendoff!

We were able to take our dirty, wet selves over to our neighbor Mo's and over to our friends the Romeros to say good bye.  Good Byes are hard, but we had some big adventures ahead to make them a little easier!
That night we had a nice dinner at one of our favorite resaraunts and tried to absorb everything that had happened.

More adventures to come!

The Move Part 2

So the movers showed up at about 8:30 on Tuesday.  We were scheduled for a 2 day pack and move.  There were 3 categories of things to be packed: Things that were going to be shipped via air, things to be shipped via surface (in a truck, then on a ship), and things that were going to be in storage.  The 3 movers that came that Tuesday morning were very nice, but said that this was going to be a big job.  They got to work and we worked too, managing to say a step or two ahead of them getting things further organized and sorted.  One mover was working on the air freight, which was supposed to get sent immediately and meet us at the new house.  A second mover was packing the kitchen, as I had been told, "pack your kitchen, the whole kitchen and everything in your kitchen."  The third mover was packing things in the living room and bedrooms.

After lunch the first day our movers called in extra help, and a few more guys showed up to help pack.  Later a man from the moving company, who was some type of quality control guy, came by and said that they were actually likely to need 3 days, but were going to send every extra hand they could to our house to try and get it done sooner. 

I called our realtor and told him we were going to have to reschedule our walk through, with the new owner, that had been scheduled for Thursday at 8:30 a.m.  We didn't think that it would be a problem since the contract said we had until 5:00 p.m. to vacate. 

This was how things looked at the end of the first day...a mess, but a partially packed mess!

We ended up staying in a hotel that night.  There was no way to sleep on top of all that mess.

To be continued...

The MOVE part 1

So, just to be clear here, I mostly write the blog so I can have a memory.  This is what I am trying to do now.  This may not be an especially cute or entertaining post, but I do feel the need to document and remember how  "the move" went.  Thinking back on it reminds me of that Jimmy Buffett song that says, "Some of its magic, some of its tragic, but I had a few laughs on the way."

We ended up selling our house the Friday before we actually  moved out.  The new owner seems very nice which were happy to find out because his realtor was, ummm, the opposite of pretty nice.  We had some very tight schedules and we knew we would be exhausted, but there is no good way to prepare for future exhaustion.  You know before you have a baby say, "rest now, because when that baby come you will need it!"  That never really worked out for me because sleeping and pregnancy don't always go hand in hand.

So, back to Friday, September 24th.  We close on the house and go home to continue getting things situated.  The to do list was brutal.  We knocked out some big things and even had a nice dinner at the boys' favorite restaurant, California Pizza Kitchen.  It was a pretty nice night considering what was ahead.

Saturday morning Allen got up and drove 9 hours to NC to his parents with the boys and Hank.  The grandparents were kind enough to spoil them rotten keep them for us during the grueling part of the move.  The next morning he and his dad got up and drove from NC to Miami. 

Miami?  Yep, that is where they had to go to ship Allen's car to the Bahamas.  So they drove all day to get there, spent the night and got up and did all the back and forth that it takes to get a car shipped.  We are now so thankful that they did that because having a car has been a real sanity saver!

Now you may be thinking, "husband and kids are gone, what is she doing, watching Real Housewives of NJ?"  Um, yes and no!  I did have the TV on the majority of the time because the house was so quiet, but there was no sitting on the sofa relaxing.  I went through every corner of the house and sorted.  We were purging for the last few months and that made it easier, but I had a TON to do.  Some of my great friends were even kind enough to come and help me out.  Thanks, ladies!  I had to physically lay my hands on every item in the house and decide if we were going to take it or store it.   We were allowed to bring 7200 pounds with us, so being selective was key.

After getting the car squared away Allen got on one flight to DC and his dad got on another to NC (and ended up getting delayed due to bad weather).  As soon as Allen got off the Metro we headed straight to Costco, where we shopped like it was 1999.  We were bound and determined to bring as much as our 7200 pounds would allow us.  The moving estimator thought we were going to be around 5000 pounds, so we thought we had plenty of weight to play around with.  See things in the Bahamas are super expensive.  Every. single.  thing. is. imported. here.

We went to bed really early because as we were dog tired.  We reasoned that we were better off getting some sleep and getting at 3:30.  The only flaw with that thinking was that by the time the movers got there at 8:30 we had been going strong for 5 hours.  And we were just getting started!

Are you bored yet?  I'm sure you will be waiting with baited breath for the next instalment of the Bug and the Butterbean move to the Bahamas!  It promises to be even more moving.  Get it?  Moving!  I'm so clever.  I need to get out more and meet some new friends.

Finally

We are finally here!  It has been quite an oddyssey, but it is slowly coming together.

I'll get together a real post or twelve to let you know what all went down, but for now here is a view of our backyard.  Yes, that's water!  Allen is already trying to figure out how to get a boat!