Wednesday was my birthday!

So Nathan was going to throw a surprise party for me, but as it turns out the news broke the night before.  But it was just as much fun anyway and just as appreciated!  Nathan had reserved a room at the Pizza Ranch and invited all of our family to join us for supper.  In addition, he also bought tons of ice cream toppings to have sundae's for dessert at our house afterward. 

Unpacking begins

On Thursday, the unpacking began.  We had a quiet morning.  Nathan took the boys to the nearby park while I unpacked enough kitchen boxes so that we could eat at home for lunch.  Heidi and Ryan came by later in the day to help.

On Friday we were prepared for more help.  :)  Brian, Katherine, Mikayla, Caden, Heidi, Ryan, Aniah, Eden, Mom and Dad!  If you had asked me the week prior, I would not have told you that the timing of our move was good timing...but I was beginning to change my mind on that!  I think that it was good to have something positive to put our minds to after dealing with Rodney's passing.  And there was plenty to do! 

 Heidi was unpacking boxes and Katherine was putting some shelves together for the toy room.

 It was a HOT and HUMID day so the cousins had a blast playing with the sprinkler ball!  It was so fun to watch them playing so nicely all together.

 Caden is PRECIOUS!

 Brian, Dad, Ryan and Nathan did a lot of painting for which I am so thankful for!  I had really wanted that done and wasn't sure when and how that would happen.  We went with a bold color in the bathroom...hoping that when it was all put together, it would look nice.  And it does! 

 We had a very large overgrown rock garden in our backyard which was uncovered after the snow melted in the spring.  We're finding out that many people in Sioux Center know our house as "the one with the rock garden".  It was a huge job to cut all of it down.  Ryan knew of a truck he could borrow and a place to bring all the brush and it was a huge help for him to do that.  Nathan spent another half a day later digging the roots out and turning over the soil.  It's looking better, but still needs attention.  :)  It's too bad the playset isn't ours instead.  :)

 I'm not sure if Dorian or myself love his new room more.  I had splurged and picked out a Pottery Barn bedspread and I love the new paint color!  Yeah!

 Levi's room was just as exciting!  I love his wall color, his new airplane bedspread, and his big boy bed!  And I'm also relieved that he loves it as well.  I can't believe that in one day, they were already to this point!!!

 The cousins had fun checking out Dorian's new bedroom.  :)

 On Saturday, we were prepared for even MORE help.  :)  At one point, we had 22 people at our house!  I love it!

 In addition to who came the day before, Kerry, Ashley, Emma, Claire, Grandma, Aunt Brenda, Breanna and Courtney came.  Brenda, Breanna and Courtney were so kind to take all of the kids to the pool.  When I went to pick them up, they had to show me how Levi would jump off of the diving board.  Then while I was there, Dorian tried it as well.  Breanna would catch them in the water.  :)  They had a blast and it made the house much quieter that afternoon.  Brian, dad, and Nathan were troopers and continued to paint for us!  The bathroom needed another coat, and we painted most of the main living area downstairs.  The Pizza Ranch delivered our supper that day.  And I am SO THANKFUL for all of the help.  It was fun and it has made it much easier for us!

 On Sunday, we went to church with mom and dad and stayed for dinner since Brian and Katherine were still around.  It was such a beautiful day and we really enjoyed sitting around outside together.  We're going to miss Brian, Katherine, Mikayla and Caden when they head back to Jersey.

Later that day, I was thrilled to organize the toy room.  And I'm thrilled about the fact that our new house has a "toy room"!

By lunchtime on Monday, the rest of the main area in the basement had been painted by my lovely husband, and we were able to clean up that room so it was functional!  It looked great!

On Tuesday, we met mom at the Sheldon swimming pool which was a lot of fun!  And we also signed the paperwork for the closing of our home in MI.  Yeah!  Not that signing my name 32 times was fun, but the fact that our house is closed on!!!  :)



Celebration of Life

I'm not sure how to describe Rodney's visitation and Celebration of Life service.  It was very meaningful.  Rodney and Kerry had previously planned it all out.  I knew there would be a lot of people that would come to show their support, but over 1000 people!!!  It just speaks of Rodney's character.  It's no surprise to me that he has positively impacted the people that he knew.  I respected him so much for how he loved and interacted with his family.  His priorities were right.  He was a man of integrity.  He was wise, and a man of great faith.  He was the one we went to when we had a question about our finances.  And he was just fun to be around.  He loved us and our boys.  And he fought his last 2 years with peace and acceptance and he never doubted that he was going to be in heaven when his fight here was finished.  I have learned a LOT from him.   

Oh, it broke my heart to see Ashley sobbing.  It broke my heart to watch his mom and dad say goodbye for the last time.  It breaks my heart to think that he won't be at the girls soccer games, weddings, etc.  It breaks my heart to see Kerry alone.  It breaks my heart to hear stories.  Kerry told us just recently about how she needed to get together a number of official documents and wasn't sure about exactly where they were.  But Rodney knew that she would be needing them and had paperclipped a note to them for her that read something like, "you can do this." 

Oh, he is going to be forever missed in our family.  And I'm so thankful that we are now close enough to see Kerry, the girls and most of the rest of my family much more easily. 

Move-In Day, Tue. the 19th

We arrived at our new home around midnight and we were thankful that Ryan put an air mattress there for us to sleep on.  While unpacking our van that night, I discovered the fruit basket that said "welcome home" in our fridge that my mom had ordered for us.  I teared up at that point.  What a day.  We had to go on with our move, but our hearts were with family.  And things weren't going as I had thought they were going to.  Rodney had passed away on Friday night and we were SO saddened by this reality.  But we managed to finish packing even though I felt like I was a little in a fog.  Moving day had gone well.  And now we just had to quickly unload the truck in the morning, so that we could get up to Sioux Falls which is where we wanted to be.  Todd was very understanding of our situation and made it to our new house by 6:30 the next morning which was amazing.  Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep that night.  And while move-in day was much different than I had expected that it would go, we were VERY thankful for all of the help from extended family and people we didn't even know that morning!

Uncle Dave, Uncle Lyle, Ryan, Char and her dad helped with unloading the truck and Aunt Judy watched the boys.  We tried to get everything to the right room and had no intention of opening any boxes. 

 The boys didn't have any interest in watching what was going on outside.  :)  They were so EXCITED about the pool table that they spent hours there with Aunt Judy!  It was perfect!!!

 There were quite a few overgrown weeds that needed to be taken out!!!  I'm sure our neighbors here are thankful that we've finally arrived after having owned this house since February.  :)

 It was excellent that Todd was able to take our second vehicle on the moving truck!

 I love our new house!

 Check out the size of this weed!

We were all unloaded, showered and at Kerry's house by lunchtime.

Moving Day

Moving day was scheduled for Monday morning, July 18.  We were so thankful that Uncle Todd was able to move us and Mark was able to help with loading!  Todd arrived around 6:30 in the morning and the boys woke up around 7:00 surprised and excited to see the big truck!  They ate their breakfast outside to watch the action.  They really wanted to help, which they did for a little while.  And then I brought them over to Grandma Shirley which worked out perfectly!  Oh, they LOVE Grandma Shirley and the dancing chicken that she has at her house.  :)  It was a pretty hot and humid morning, but the guys were able to finish loading by noon.  And then we had to make the whole trip out to Iowa so we could unload the next morning.  It was a BUSY day, but it all worked out and went as planned.