moving and stuff

we moved on september 6th. my family came up to help (well, most of my family--brother, sister in law, their two kids, mom and daddy. and of course, caleb. his family had to go to a funeral in BF alabama that weekend).

i'm still not sure how i crammed THAT much stuff in my apartment. the HOUSE is pretty full, and even though mom and daddy brought some stuff from carrollton, they didn't bring much. no wonder the apartment was always such a clutter pit. it wouldn't all fit in the 16' truck that my parents brought up (which had three pieces of furniture and maybe six boxes from carrollton already in it, the rest was all in the apartment). so caleb and i made several trips in his truck that day and in the days following. i finally got completely out on tuesday the 9th (a whole day early from my lease perspective! yay!)

my family and friends are awesome. they came over, they helped move (and pack the last remaining stuff), and they unloaded. and then my dad fixed my hot water heater and built shelves for my linen closet, and my mom and two best friends picked up where terri and jesse had to leave off and began unpacking and taking boxes to the rooms they belonged in. my brother, sister in law and niece helped unpack/arrange stuff too. please note: i hadn't wanted to ask my brother (much less their whole family!) to help, since they have two small kids, it's an hour drive for them to get here, and he already helped me A LOT by closing and finding a better mortgage lender for me and a whole lot of other stuff. but he came anyway and amie and the kids did too, and i feel like the luckiest person ever. with the greatest family ever. (my sister wanted to come too, and was disappointed she couldn't, but she's kinda swamped right now with work and phd stuff and puppies and a husband). so anyway. i felt very loved. it went well. i have a house!

after, i apologized to my brother for them having to drive so far and, well, sweat their butts off (we did have air in the nick of time, but it was still a VERY hot day)...and he was all, 'i wouldn't miss it for the world.'

happy sigh.

so now the kitchen is relatively unpacked (it was first) and i cooked at home all last week. i find that now that i have a kitchen again, all i want to do is COOK! MEALS! THAT TASTE GOOD! I HAVE ROOM IN MY KITCHEN TO DO THIS AND IT'S AMAZING, LOOK AT THIS! (a sample of my inner thoughts as i look at my cute kitchen). i had my college roomie over for dinner thursday night, a couple friends over for dinner last night, and i have no plans to slack off the dinner hosting anytime soon. i figure it's fun for me to cook, having someone over lets me be sociable without spending too much eating out, it's healthier, and there's STILL usually plenty leftover for lunches at work. win, win, win, WIN. yes.

i finally feel like i am returning to some semblance of internal balance. before the apartment, i'd never lived anywhere other than a house. (and only two houses, at that). in athens, i cooked most of the time (ate out once or twice a month) and was generally a homebody, inviting friends over a lot, but rarely "going out" at night or on weekends. i absolutely cannot wait to return to that, and so far it has been wonderful. we actually thought about going out to eat friday, but nixed it in favor of eating at home. eating out is just not as appealing anymore, when i can have fun, create something, and have leftovers that i can repurpose (ex: roasted whole chicken for dinner becomes chicken salad for lunch and seasoned and cooked, filling for quesadillas the next night). yaaaaaaaaay food!!! and kitchens! and washers!

i think i am secretly very much a homebody.

the flip side, though:

it will be significantly more money than renting. however, it remains to be seen whether cheaper food makes up for that. (even if it doesn't, my reduction in stress has ALREADY been worth it. i truly HATED it at that apartment and didn't even realize how much).

the gutters need cleaning and our ladder wasn't tall enough this weekend, so it has to wait another week.

the grass needs cutting and we don't have a lawnmower. i think my brother is giving us one of his extra ones though. thank heavens. lol.

two closet shelves have collapsed. stupid cheap brackets. so i have to fix that (we can reuse the shelf but not the supports).

there will always be a to do list. but i'm ok with that (and used to it, even)...there's just A LOT on it right now.

it has yard drainage issues. we have to fix that relatively soon (like in the next year).

none of these were surprises, so that's good i guess, but yeah. we have a long way to go. :) yay home improvement/maintenance!

summary: i'm LOVING life in the house. and my family rocks. and my friends rock too :)