But I want to document July... because if I don't, I won't remember it at all because it was CRAZY! CRAZY GOOD and CRAZY HARD!
Let's start from the beginning.... I am sitting on the plane from Philadelphia to Phoenix which is a nice 4.5 hour flight! So, I had a LOT of time to think about the weekend! What I really thought about was... OH MY GOODNESS, we have some crazy packing to do in the next 4 weeks! I was trying to think how we were going to move everything from our 4120 square foot house into a house that is probably less than half the size! I thought about... we have moving trucks to call, we have a realtor to call, we need to sell our business, we need to get rid of A LOT of stuff, we have A LOT of people to tell that we are moving... and not just that we are moving BUT we are moving in 4 weeks! I have to let Daniel's school know he is not attending there for Kindergarten, change of address forms, my son turns 5 so I have to do a last birthday party for him, and the lists goes on! I had myself so worked up that Brendon turned to me and was like you are really fidgeting, biting your nails off.... are you okay? I was like... DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE NEXT 4 weeks looks like???????????????????? LOL!
Honestly, from that moment forward, I was in "MISSION" mode! The crazy thing is that I never had one second to really think about what all was going on because we had 4 weeks to get about 6 months of work accomplished! Now, you know why I am so happy to sit here and breathe and think about the month of July:)
In addition, I was trying very hard to work out and continue eating very healthy for my health issues and I was under intensive care from a newer doctor that was treating my joint pain!
So, we landed on Monday night and I went straight to church as it was my Beth Moore Bible Study AND my cousin and her whole family was in town from Terre Haute, Indiana! I hadn't seen them since Christmas 2000! I had NEVER met her kids! It was SO weird walking into that Bible study knowing that our WHOLE life was about to change BIG TIME but no one knew! We didn't want to make it public before we went in case it wasn't the right thing:)
So, that week we spent a lot of time with our family that was in town... and Wednesday was July 4th! It was an unusually cool 4th of July for Phoenix so we actually stayed up late that night and saw the fireworks because it was actually a temperature we could sit outside and watch them without passing out... LOL!
I don't remember all we did that week but we took my cousin to Ikea because she hadn't been to one before.... we did some special dinners at my parents house and desert at our house one night. Paris (our in home educator) also came and she gave me a lot of information on how to get the kids through the move as stress free as possible!
(Sometimes it is very apparent she has an older brother!)
That Sunday, my dad announced to the church that we were moving... WOW! The 1st service, there was a huge gasp after the announcement... my heart sank. People greeted us after and they were so sad but there was this overall excitement for us too! Our brothers and sisters knew this was right.
The next week Daniel had VBS which was a HUGE blessing as that gave me some time in the morning to start going through things and packing!
Packing with our littles around was fun... HAHA! Like when I turned my back on Katelyn for a few minutes and found her in my room and had gotten all into my makeup....ughhh!!!!!!!!!!
My Parenting Tip: We don't let our kids have any Apple devices unless we are in a meeting, at dinner with guests, etc.... that way they are mesmerized by them and we get in a meeting that is uninterrupted. That would have been one of those pieces of advice that I would say that I would do the opposite of before I had kids:) I love how they are cuddling together watching Barney:)
We also got some very exciting news this month.... I WAS GOING TO BE AN AUNT!!!! My sister and her husband are due to have their baby on February 27th! This news could not have come at a better time because I was going through all of my baby stuff.... since Brendon was going to drive to Ocean City, I figured I could fit some stuff in the car. Well, all that fit was my maternity clothes for her...
That weekend was Rynn's baby shower and it was really nice to get out of the house and away from the boxes to spend some time with girls!
Something else we had to do was find a new home for our sweet Max! We got him a year after we got married and decided if we could handle a dog then we could handle a child in a couple of years. We really didn't think Max would make the 40 hour drive to New Jersey as he gets car sick very easy. Also, I don't think Max would make a 4.5 hour flight to Philadelphia in the belly of a plane... AND we don't have a backyard at our new house in Ocean City. So, our friends the Hyatt's took him and he is SPOILED ROTTEN now! I think he would start growling at us if he was to see us as I think he would think we were taking him from his new family... LOL!
MORE BOXES! MORE PACKING!
July 15th was Brendon's last Sunday to speak at the Tempe campus... and WOW! What a service it was!!!!!!!!!!!
Our "FRESHLY" bathed kids!
One day our friends had a playdate for us at a Splashpad as a way to get together before we left... As much as we had to do, we tried to keep the kids life as normal as possible.
And we did Story time at the Library! The bubbles at the end are her favorite:)
We also had video intros to film and lovely friends who invited us over for dinner in the evenings for the very hard "Good Byes!"
The Kasperson's hooked Daniel up with a really cool Star Wars costume when we went over there for dinner!
And a birthday party at Peter Piper Pizza for Andrew!
Right after this pizza party, we went to my sister-in-law's house and she had a little surprise going away party for us:)
July 20th was Brendon's last day in the office.... ahhhh!
That Saturday Night... Daniel and Brendon even went to a Diamond Backs Game....
July 22nd was Brendon's last Sunday to speak at the Casa Grande Campus and it was an amazing service too! We had a fun lunch with our friends the campus pastors... Lamarr and Rynn! In the afternoon, Daniel went over to Zander's house then we went to dinner at Joseph and Mercy's house that evening for "Good Bye's!"
Monday Night at my Beth Moore Bible Study... well, the ladies had a huge surprise Going Away Party for hosted by my sister-in-law!
Tuesday... well, we got a call from our friends Lamarr and Rynn (the shower that I had just gone too) and little Lola wanted to be born earlier than her scheduled C-Section date so we took Brody so they could have a baby!
And I had to meet with Melinda (my hairdresser) because who knew how long it would take me to find a hair dresser in NJ so I wanted her to take my hair back to its natural color and give me a cut that could grow out and still look good.... mission accomplished! They recommended a salon in NJ called "Jerseylicious!" They were totally kidding but apparently there is a reality show about a salon that is in North Jersey...LOL!
Then Wednesday came and this was Daniel's HUGE birthday/ going away party! However, I thought this was so sweet.... everyone praying together during our quiet time in the morning:)
I will post pictures from his birthday party in a separate post:)
Thursday, Paris came back to check on the kids!
Friday was my mom's birthday but we celebrated the next night! .... and since we were only 1 week away from our moving truck coming, we started getting a lot of help from people helping us pack! Friday nigh while we were getting ready for the garage, our sweet friend picked us up dinner from Carrabba's... it was the perfect present!
I think the most frustrating part was trying to pack while trying to sell our house! We would be in the middle of pulling everything out of a room or two to go through it then we would get a call that someone wanted to see the house, so we would start putting everything back and cleaning up the house so it would be in as good of condition as we could get it! IT WAS SO HARD! Finally, I made a rule around this time that there were NO MORE SHOWING until after the moving truck came:)
So, Saturday was our MOVING SALE!
Auntie and Leigh Anne having breakfast at the yard sale!
All of the toys (plus a lot more that are not pictured!) that we had to get rid of!
Daniel had lunch with a friend of his who couldn't make it to his party and then had his friend Jaden's party to go to as well! He had quite the social calendar in Phoenix!
Then we went to my parent's house for dinner that night!
Well, the next Sunday was a REALLY HARD one but a REALLY good one... it was Brendon's last Sunday.... they had a video presentation of our last 6 years that was very touching. They also prayed over us during both services and had a cookie/ coffee reception for us and people really blessed us with beautiful cards and gifts! After church, the Power's took us to lunch then that night the board had a very nice, formal dinner for us... they all went around the room and said something meaningful towards us.
Here is a video of my dad with Katelyn at the end of this dinner... you can tell he is deeply grieving.
Monday and Tuesday, we packed and we packed and we packed... we had some great help... my parents, my sister-in-law, Deborah Smith and Suzanne and Alaysha Hargrave were AMAZING!
Looking back , I am not sure how we got it all packed... because, we squeezed in some playdates with our neighbors and a few more "Good Bye's" to friends... I guess it was friends around us that helped us get through it. Like my friend Erin who took Daniel for a whole day to play with her son so we could get some packing done and Daniel could have a friend to play with:)
Then Wednesday..... our coffee maker was packed so I went to Starbucks with the kids to grab coffee and breakfast and I was on the phone with my friend Hannah from Michigan who was moving to Denver and I pulled up to our house and this truck was in front of our house and I almost lost it! It all hit me in that moment... it was soooo surreal! Well, we had professional movers in our move from NY to Phoenix and my parents had professional movers from Nashville to Phoenix but it was like God hooked us up with the most amazing movers ever! They would look at me through out the day and do or say something to make me bust out laughing because they could see "it" all over my face. We found out later that this driver is one of United's elite drivers... they always put him on any high profile move they have... he actually moved the owner's best friend recently. They were my angels!
In their sleeping quarters....
Don't worry... we didn't fill up the whole truck, they had another pick up/ drop off too!
When they left, my friend Janelle came over to help me start cleaning... Brendon and I were up super late getting him packed and ready to leave early the next morning... then starting to clean the house, etc.
We stayed at my parents the rest of our time in Chandler as there was NOTHING left in our home!
The end of a chapter...
.... the beginning of a new one!
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