Thursday, June 10, 2010

Day 11 - moving our bigger family

(outside our hotel in Maryland)

Champaign, Illinois

Our house is under contract (yay!), and so our trip has taken a detour back to Champaign for a couple of days. Because it is set to close within a couple of short weeks, much sooner than we expected, we've spent the last couple of days moving all our STUFF into a storage space until our Aug. 1 lease begins, and tying up final loose ends here. At one point, we were planning to be camping in the Smoky Mountains now. Instead, the air mattresses and camp chairs are being used in our now empty house.

Moving used to be a pain when there were two or three of us and some stuff. We've discovered this time that moving has become almost overwhelming, both because we have acquired so much more than before, and we have the little guys now. Which wouldn't be so bad if the little guys hadn't acquired colds and poop in abundance this week (becoming an expert in diaper rash remedies!). Anyhow, lots to complain about and agonize through, and inspiration for us to avoid moving for as long as humanly possible!!! Finally time for the grad students to become the family in the 'burbs.

After plenty of frustruation with all the moving work this week, I had a little epiphany this morning that completely changed my attitude (for the better!). While discussing job benefits over the kitchen table that now exists only in our imagination, I realized a two awesome things -

1. We are moving to what can be a permanent location. Not a temporary postdoc or a city in the middle of no where or a school with a rock bottom salary. It is an enormous blessing that "staying put" is even an option for us. There were plenty of interviews that would have led to temporary jobs instead.
2. So many of our daily details the last couple of weeks have involved HR joys such as health insurance, life insurance, school enrollment, etc. We are blessed beyond measure to have what I decided this morning is a HomeTown Buffet of state job benefits.

Thank you God for a great job opportunity and all the little rugrats that help complicate things along the way!

Oh yeah, and pictures to remember the best moments, no matter how few and far between they may feel :).

(above, hanging out with my girls in between feeding bottles to the boys in the back seat)

(on a walk a few minutes from our hotel in Maryland)

(the little rascals!)

3 comments:

Jenn said...

:) so glad things are moving along! even if at times its stressful!

air mattress and camping chairs in the house???? sounds familiar!! we did that from chicago to san diego. we were without pretty much everything for a week or so. made me extra extra thankful when everything finally came!
you will look back and think of all the adventures you had while moving! :)

cant wait to hear about you finally getting to your new place! :)

Anne said...

How did you get all 4 kids smiling at the same time! that top picture is great!

Wow...busy week! I'm not sure if you're still in town now or not but if there is anything we can do to help you out while you're here please call or email!

Dina said...

I can't believe you've actually managed to document this much of your journey! We SO missed seeing you guys in VB and thought about calling to try to convince you to change your mind but there's always next year! I'll be calling soon, after I give you a few afternoons to nap, and then I want to know all about your newest news and your new address so I can start GPS-ing my next vacation to your house! Love, love you much, d