My goodness, what a crazy time it has been. We got a call last Friday morning from the moving company telling us that the movers would be there to pick up our stuff a day early...with all of 3-5 hours notice! We had planned on being finished with the packing anyway but thought we could do lunch with a friend and then spend a relaxing last evening with friends to say good-bye. Umm..NOPE that didn't happen. The kids were *very* sad that they couldn't see their friends to say good-bye, we had quite a few tears and anger moments. I was very sad as well but there wasn't much I could do about any of it. Thankfully Corey was working from home and we busted the remaining packing out and were ready for the movers when they arrived. The truck was loaded and we were on the road by 8pm Friday night. We were tired but figured since we would be spending the night in a hotel we may as well get a couple of hours down the road. Imagine our surprise when we arrived in Lake City, FL to find NO hotel rooms available. Ack! We still aren't sure what was going on but something with lots of boat trailers. We drive a couple more hours and make it into GA. The first exit in Valdosta turns up NO rooms at all the hotels we checked. This prompted a now frantic phone call to my mom to get some help finding a room. Alex was asleep in the van, Morgan was wiped out in the car, Corey was exhausted and we wanted to get the critters out of their cages/carry cases. My mom locates a room a few exits north and we take it. It is just a king bed but we've done that at home and don't care at this point. LOL! After a decent night's sleep and some breakfast we head out on Saturday morning. Just north of Atlanta the van starts to shimmy and freaks me out. We stop and check everything and all tires look fine. We kick ourselves for not insisting on all new tires from our mechanic before we left. He replaced 1 for us that had developed a knot in it. Anyway, the van handled okay as long as I didn't go above 60mph. Egads! So slowly we continue on until we reach Acworth, GA and stop for lunch. We decide to call AAA to get someone out to check the tire,etc. 2 hours later the guy shows up (after I've had a few break downs & we already have my mom enroute to meet us to pick up the kids). Apparently AAA dispatch assigned the wrong address to the intersection I gave her and the guy went to the other side of town,etc. During all the waiting we had to keep the a/c's running in both vehicles because there was no shade and we were worried about the animals & kids. Anyway, the tire was bad and he said it was a GOOD thing we stopped when we did because the radial was about to let go. He put on the spare (donut) and said not to do the mountain roads or highway speeds with a fully loaded van. There was a tire shop a block away & we headed there. But alas they closed 20 minutes before we got there. UGH!! Now if AAA dispatch hadn't messed up this wouldn't have happened. So we limp along heading towards TN and knowing we will eventually meet up with my mom. If nothing else the kids will be safe at her house for the night and Corey & I can deal with the tire,etc. We end up meeting safely in Chattanooga, TN. The kids and my mom eat dinner at Cracker Barrel, I hang out...periodically checking on the cat in the car (in the shade, windows cracked & with a bowl of water...and turning on the a/c every time I went out there). Corey found out there was a Wal-Mart SuperCenter and took the van to get the tire replaced. They were open, tire got fixed...WOO HOO!! Mom takes the kids in her car and Corey and I head to our house to unload the animals & stuff. We finally get to her house about 11pm Saturday night. What would have been a 12 hour drive...previously a very nice one...turned out to be a long,exhausting but thankfully safe trip to our new home. We stayed with my mom while waiting for the delivery of our stuff. During that time we came over and started working on the house. Morgan and I got drastic hair cuts. She donated just over 10 inches to Locks of Love again. I didn't have 10 inches to donate but definitely got a new cut. The kids also met several neighborhood kids and are making friends quickly. One little girl down the street homeschools so that is really cool. She and Morgan have hit it off quite nicely. Thursday the movers arrived first thing in the morning and we were all moved in by 1:30pm. We've unpacked quite a few boxes, have made significant headway in the decorating and set up of Morgan's and Alex's bedroom. We've been shopping and made some new home owner purchases...gas grill, lawn mower, etc. We've also done our first DIY project...had to replace the cord & plug on our dryer so it would work with the electrical outlet in the house (from a 4 prong to a 3 prong). Corey's office is set up and he'll be working in there starting Monday morning. I have put up pictures of my hair cut and the bedrooms we are working on in a photo album on kodakgallery. If you want to see them and didn't get a link then let me know and I'll send it to you. I need to get a picture of Morgan with her new hair cut. I'll work on that one.

Take care and hopefully we won't have these huge gaps in posting now that we are moved in.