The Long Road Home

We have finally arrived in the Great Lakes State. The land of pine trees and corn fields and apple orchards, as well as frigid winters, the highest unemployment rate in the country, and Amish horse and buggies on the back roads. I remember it all, but after nearly 20 years away........culture shock is an understatement.

We left Florida late on a Sat. night, leaving most everything we own locked in a trailer in the driveway, but the most important 'things' were packed tightly and securely into the vehicles...our 6 cats, 2 dogs and the five of us. Your travel prayers went with us and we were very grateful. A normally 18 hr. drive turned into a 24 hr. road trip filled with many, many stops for potty breaks and dog walks.

We arrived late on Sun. night and then woke on Mon. morning to our new world. Hot and humid with NO central air. We took a trek around the property, investigated each room's nooks and crannies and then started work. The trailer with our things would not arrive until the weekend, but every room including the garage and basement still contained all of my mother-in-law's things. The sorting began.......keep, sell, donate, pitch. It took all week and we're still not finished today.

The carpet in EVERY room was all circa 1960 and I knew I could not live with it for long. We pulled back a corner of it and discovered gorgeous hardwood floors. So we began tackling the carpet removal as the sorting continued, with temps near 90 and 3-4 fans blowing hot air around in each room.

The trailer arrived on Fri. and on Sat. family arrived in droves and worked until it was all unloaded. All those nooks and crannies we had just cleared were soon filled up again, this time with our things. Boxes upon boxes, bins upon bins were everywhere, and they still are, but there are fewer of them each day.

I now know that this is where I will die one day, because I don't EVER want to go through this moving process again. It has however made me realize how much 'stuff' we had that we don't need.

What happens from here is anybody's guess. Still so much to do........scraping wallpaper, painting, some remodeling.......but we need to find jobs too. I'm not too worried about it tho, the good Lord brought us here so I'm guessing He has a plan.

Mailia loves it here. She loves her room, the freedom to be outside to roam, and the many, many cousins to play with. Darrell is exhausted and although he doesn't say it, I think he is missing his mom quite a bit. I too find it a little difficult at times, as I keep thinking she'll walk into a room any minute now. It doesn't feel like 'our' house yet, and I sometimes wonder if it ever will.

The 90 degree temps gave way to 70's yesterday and today and it is WONDERFUL. We found a window ac unit in a closet and then 'inherited' 2 more just yesterday. So when the 90s come back this weekend, we will be a little more comfortable.

I'll close this time with a few pictures from the move as well as our old and new houses. I miss many, many things already, and the list will probably only grow. But family is here. We can drive to each other's houses in 30 min. or less, and when we say good-bye it's so nice to know it won't be another year or so until we see each other again. Time will take care of the rest.

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Well blogger seems to be having issues with photos so I'll have to try to load those later. It's time to get back to work. We had the internet, our new phones and satellite tv all hooked up yesterday. It's so nice to be in touch with the world again.