Adventures in moving...

Nathan & I are currently moving for the 8th time since 2004.  It all started with our adventure to Missouri after graduating college and getting our first apartment.  I smile every time I think of this place because it had a home office for Nathan & a huge master bedroom.  And being recent college graduates with little money the bedroom had a dresser and twin mattress/box spring pushed up against the wall.  I'll never forget when Nathan's boss came over to see the place, walked into our bedroom and said "what the f*#@ is that?" while pointing to the twin bed.  He could not believe we successfully shared a twin bed. We had youth & love on our side.   I'm not sure we could get through one night in a twin bed these days.  Back to the apartment; we had a lot of fun that year.  We both bought motorcycles (since our dirt bikes were stolen in college), started careers, ate a lot of lunches together, met for happy hours, went on bike rides, played tennis, hiked, camped and laughed.  Then came our first house.  It was a beauty and one I'll never forget.  I loved it for many reasons.  Our first son was born in that house.  The adoption of our second son was discussed and started while living in that home.  Little did I know what lied ahead. I dreamt of a home in the country.  And for some reason (neither of us will ever understand) I was able to talk my sweet, sweet hubby into a complete fixer upper on 40 acres in the middle of nowhere, Missouri.  It turned out to be the hugest undertaking of our life; lots of late nights & all nighters, a testament of the strength of our marriage and our sense of humor, a complete gutter and overhaul, 5 weeks in a gross hotel, an extremely flexible baby, snakes, ice storms, a small furnace fire, lots of visits from various family members & friends (thank you David) to help, beautiful sunsets, reality checks, and all in a very short time.  Then came our 4th move, third home.  It led us to some great friends and it was move-in ready.  We had our fill of renovations.  We bought it knowing we were adding to our family via adoption and pregnancy all within a short time.  We traveled to Ethiopia just a couple months after moving in, and L was born just six months after moving in.  It was the perfect house for three small boys under 3 years old.  I have a lot of memories (some good, some very, very bad) from that house and it will always have a special place in my heart.  Moving on.  Nathan's first required move via work took us from Missouri to Oklahoma.  Since it was all knew to us (and our current home sold in 3 days) we decided to get a short term home rental and learn our lay of the land.  It was a great rental house and some of our most care free days that I can remember.  It included lots of bike rides & walks with the boys.  It was a smart move.  Then came then house that holds the record for 'longest home ever lived in' (2.5 yrs).  It is the only home the boys truly remember.  It backed up to a greenbelt of trees that the boys called their "forest".  Our 4th child, first daughter, joined our family.  It was low maintenance, low stress and I met some of my best friends while living there.  I'm incredibly grateful for our time in Oklahoma.  There was an awesome network of moms that I became very close with that were nonjudgmental, caring, dependable and most of all - hilarious.  I miss them most of all and hope to stay connected with them.  The kids still talk about Oklahoma but I've noticed it is dwindling.  They are getting settled here in Colorado and the new house has everyone excited!  However, I'm getting ahead of myself.  Move number seven was a doozy.  Nathan & I had rented in a while and underestimated the challenge that lied ahead.  We still hadn't found a home by the time our house in Oklahoma had sold so we loaded up our vehicles, each of us pulling trailers full of our belongings and our 4 kids with chicken pox.  Yes, you read that correctly. They were all on day 2 of having chicken pox.  The next week can be summed up with one word; HELL.  It was awful.  I think the days leading up to the move, during and once we finally found a rental I was averaging 3-4 hours of sleep/night.  Between packing, caring for sick kids and sleeping in a hotel temporarily while getting hounded by the rental company asking for their trailers back and having NO place to go, it was hard to relax.  I feel my shoulders tensing up just thinking about it.  We finally were able to get a short term lease at a wonderful town home after lots of phone calls and dead ends.  We were so excited we unloaded our trailer, put their kids in pj's, loaded them in their carseats and drove 40 min to the storage unit, just to load the trailer back up, and unload it again.  We had beds to sleep in and a couch to sit on. It was an exhausting night, but we were so happy to have a temporary place.  Fast forward through four months of house hunting (read 50 plus homes we looked at), a few stressful moments of marriage, exhausted kids, late nights searching the real estate and more stress - we finally found our house!  It was worth it.  We hope we've finally found a place the kids will grow up in and a house we can make a home!   In the past 16 days we've removed all the carpet & window treatments, we've gutted the powder bath/laundry room & tiled it, installed wainscoting and soon new trim.  With the help of the in-laws babysitting, I was able to paint all of the home but three bedrooms.  We have ordered new wood floors that will hopefully add some great character (3, 4 & 5 inch random widths) and slowly we hope to make it our own.  It's a bit stressful but I'm not complaining.  Every project we accomplish we are happy to have tackled it.  It's a constant learning experience and thankfully, I have a great partner to work with.  I hope to post pictures one day.  I'm currently typing with the pads of my fingers verses the tips because they are so cut up from the random projects and all the hand washing combined with the dry air.  I started writing this post as a quick update for my own memory (since I consider this my journal) and I ended up taking a trip down memory lane.  I've been feeling a little nostalgic lately... maybe it is the late nights and lack of sleep.  Regardless, I hope you enjoyed.  Good night.