Bowling.
Jay went to the Iowa Wild hockey game with some work mates, so Em and I were trying to think of something fun to do with the kids. We rounded up a bunch of people and went bowling in Madrid. Nana, Papa, Jess, Jason, Bri, Jessi, Mark, and Ray all showed off their mad bowling skills. The boys dominated, Jason was not a surprise, but Papa, Mark and Ray shocked us all. Very unique form, but those boys knocked down some pins! Bri is a brute on the alley, throwing some fast balls down the lane. Jessi wins the award for the only person that scored two zeros in one set. I am going to blame my poor performance on not having my own bowling ball and shoes with me (I used to date a guy in a bowling league – be jealous). Lily had a great time rolling the ball down the “slide” and knocking down the pins. “I did it!!” I am a little concerned that she told Auntie Em “I no good at this game.” She may have gotten her perfectionism from her mama. And Ty…his arm might hurt from all of the effort. He did so well!! Greasy food, cold-ish beer, strikes, gutter balls, and laughter. Perfect Friday night. 

   
Carnival.

Johnston schools hosted a school carnival.  Ty and I decided to volunteer and I think we got assigned to the best game.  It was a race car game, where kids could move ahead one step forward if the colored flag that we pulled out of the bucket was one of the colors on their race car.  It was a little slow at first, until Ty decided to take matters into his own hands.  He went out into the hallway and shouted out “the next race is about to begin!  Who wants to come race?!” And then he’d look someone in the eye and ask them if they want to come race.  Really hard to say no to that!  I was amazed at how outgoing he was – adorable to see.  After our shift was over, we got to walk around and play some of the other games.  The kids had a great time! 

 Nintendo.

Em and I stumbled across an old Nintendo when we were organizing mom’s basement.  It was the first generation Nintendo – pretty much an antique, but it still had the Duck Hunt guns and Power Pad, and lots of game cartridges.  We decided to take it home and see if we could get it working.  Riley and Miranda came over that night and Riley attempted to get is started.  He hooked it up, blew out the cartridges (remember that?!?!).  Unfortunately the power button didn’t seem to work.  Riley wasn’t going to give up without a fight so he called the number that was on the machine.  It amazingly went to a real person, but the guy (in not so many words) pretty much said, “Dude, it’s 20 years old – it isn’t going to work.”  We might try taking it to a video game shop at some point.   

 Farm.

Have I mentioned how awesome it is to only be a half hour from the farm?  Every time we go, it’s a whole new adventure.  Baby lambs, baby calves, stuck Mules, Gator rides, mud baths…  Every time is different, but we ALWAYS have Papa’s famous chocolate malts.   

    
    
   
Taekwando.

At the school carnival, Ty won a couple free taekwando lessons – and he even got to break a board!  We took him to two lessons.  The first one was one-on-one and he did really well.  The second one was in a large group and Jay and I both didn’t love the class. We decided that we would try some other sports and if he still wanted to do taekwando, we could always sign him back up.   

 Tooth.

Ty lost his first tooth!  His lower front tooth has been loose for a while.  One morning I was in the bathroom getting ready for work and he shouted, “Mom!!  I think I just lost my tooth!!”  I ran over and sure enough, it was no longer in his mouth.  I asked him where it was, and he wasn’t sure.  We looked all over the carpet and I asked him if he swallowed it. He wasn’t certain, but he thought maybe he did.  We came up with a plan – we would just write the tooth fairy a letter so she would know that he had lost it.  It worked!!   

     
Snow Day.

There was a HUGE snowstorm heading right towards us, so we got all geared up for a snow day.  Em went shopping and came home with all sorts of fun new games, activities, and puzzles.  Ty was the master of Yahtzee – he’s a lucky roller.  Em also picked up a 2,000 piece puzzle.  She said it was for the kids, but I think she just wanted to do a puzzle.  I can’t blame her – I love puzzles.  We started it in early February.  Read on to find out when we finished it…  Oh, and I think we only got a couple inches of snow that day. 

   
Eyes.

Ty has been rubbing his eyes for a while.  I chalked it up to a nervous twitch, but Em and mom insisted I go get his eyes checked.  I felt terrible when the doctor said that he needs glasses.  I was in a little bit of shock – I thought he just needed eye drops – but we found a great pair of glasses for him.  He has done really well about keeping track of them and have only had one or two “oh gosh where are your glasses” moments.  He looks so handsome and grown up with them on! 

    
 Teeth.

Ty had also been having some tooth pain, so I got him into the dentist.  If you recall, back in October he had two cavities filled.  I thought maybe he popped a filling.  Turns out he had 6 new cavities!!!!!  Good thing the kid doesn’t mind the dentist.  We got one quarter of his mouth covered in silver right away, and have at least one more appointment to work on the others.

Pack.

I got a call from our Davenport realtor – apparently nobody realized that the date that the buyers had put on the offer (Monday, Feb 15), was a public holiday (Presidents Day), so the attorney’s office was closed.  They decided to just go ahead and reschedule for the Friday before.  Did that cause a problem?  Well, yes…the movers were planning on being at the house Tuesday-Friday.  We were able to reschedule the movers to come Mon-Thur instead.  Kirk, Sherry and I went to Davenport on Super Bowl Sunday to get things ready and be at the house while the movers were there.  We really lucked out on the weather as there was no snow on the ground and it was unseasonably warm.  We were able to get everything out from underneath the porch and backyard to make it easy on the movers.  Mr. Paul knocked on the door and told me the new owner was at his house getting mail and was going to stop over.  I was already a bit emotional about having to pack up my house, but then this sweet lady comes over and tells me that Ty’s bedroom mural is going to remain exactly the same except the sign that says, “Ty’s fishing hole” was going to change to “Brooke’s fishing hole” and they are adding curls to the little boy’s hair.  And I started crying.  I couldn’t hold it in.  We chatted about the house, and I told her how much we had loved it.  She and her husband couldn’t wait to move in.  Gave me a bit of closure knowing it is going to a good family.

Furniture.

That evening while Kirk watched the Super Bowl, Sherry and I had a little party of our own.  We measured all of my furniture, cut out little pieces of paper to scale, and played around with where to put the furniture in the new house.  I hadn’t had a chance to really think about that, so it was great to get it pretty much figured out.  

Boxes.

I met the movers on Monday morning, got them started, and then I left Kirk and Sherry in charge while I went to work.  When I came home, there were boxes everywhere!  It took the team 2 days to pack all of the boxes, and 2 days to load the truck.  Jay came over on Wednesday night with my parents’ horse trailer and was able to fill it with a bunch of stuff the movers couldn’t take.  On Thursday, my friend Ann and her daughter stopped by for a quick chat and lunch, the realtor made sure everything looked good, and we were out of there by 2:00.  It was harder than I had mentally prepared for to say goodbye to the house that I brought both of my babies home to.  So many amazing memories were made in that home.  Close one door to allow us to open another… 

   
Brumby.

Jay’s Aussie ute has arrived on US soil!  His cousin lives near Baltimore and picked it up at the port.  He is storing it for a bit until Jay can road trip out there to pick it up.  Thank goodness the ship didn’t sink!! 

   
Bandit.

We aren’t allowed to have Bandit stay with us at the rental, but (shhhhh) we snuck him into the dorm room one night while mom was out of town and Steven was working nights.  Lily LOVES her Bandito!!! 

 90.

My grandma celebrated her 90th birthday.  90 years!!!  Can you imagine all of the things she has seen and done in her lifetime?  Grandma is without a doubt the TOUGHEST woman I know.  It was great to see the Lingren side of the family.  So many grandkids…somehow I am one of the oldest but am also one of the shortest.  Lame.  Lily had so much fun that she passed out on cousin Jessi’s lap. 

    
   
Puzzle.

Meanwhile, back at the holiday house, we realized the 2,000 piece puzzle doesn’t fit on our table.  So we bought a big board to put it on.  This puzzle highlighted some of my flaws.  An unfinished puzzle is a mess that shouldn’t be a mess.  Everything has its place, it just needs to be put where it belongs.  My OCD tendencies could not just let it go.  If I was home, I was working on the puzzle.  May have fallen into the “bad mom” category as I was nose down in the puzzle… 

 Closing!!

The day finally arrived.  After an adults only brekky date at Cracker Barrel (and several failed attempts at playing the golf tee triangle game), we headed to the attorney’s office.  Friday, February 19 at 8:00 AM we signed the papers to complete the purchase of our beautiful new home on Oaktree Drive.  Within 15 minutes we had our keys and it was all systems go!!  Let the fun BEGIN! 

   
Move.  Again.

Let’s see if it is possible to count how many times we have “moved” in the past 3 months, based on sleeping in a different bed.

1. Hope Island to Sanctuary Cove Holiday Home.

2. Holiday home to airport hotel (not sure if this can count because I didn’t actually fall asleep that night.

3.  Airplane

4. Jess and Jason’s house.

5.  The farm.

6.  Farragut.

7. Back to the farm.

8.  Grimes holiday house.

9.  Pack up Davenport house.

10.  Move out of holiday house into Oaktree.

11.  Move our Davenport items into Oaktree. 

Holy crap.  No wonder I’m exhausted…

Holiday house.

So let’s first focus on step 10.  This was one that I SEVERELY under-estimated.  We had to move ourselves for this part of the move, as we only got one “local” move from Davenport to Oaktree.  Thank goodness we had my parents’ horse trailer, my mom, Kirk and Sherry, Tom and Melinda, Jessi, and Em to help.  We had accumulated a lot of stuff in the 2 months we were in the holiday home.  We had all of our boxes from Australia, our suitcase stuff from Australia, several totes of things from Davenport (winter items, kitchen stuff, etc), Christmas presents, toys, new chairs and a kitchen table that we purchased for the new home, and lord knows what all else.  Plus we had all of the stuff that we hauled back from Davenport when the movers were there – that was almost a trailer load.  We spent all day Friday doing some pretty heavy lifting.  Lots of steps.  Sherry had her Fitbit on and hit 10,000 steps well before lunch.  Lily held down the fort and was a great supervisor. 

    
 We didn’t have any beds in the new house – wouldn’t until the movers dropped our Davenport stuff on Monday – so we crashed at the holiday house that night.  Saturday we spent getting the stuff we hauled over unpacked and put away.  We had to leave hangers behind in Australia. We pretty much bought walmarts entire supply of hangers. 

Farm.

On Sunday, Aunt Jekka took the kids to the farm.  Lily somehow managed to find a massive mud puddle to fall into.  What a mess…   At least she was still smiling. 

   
Meanwhile, back at Oaktree, the boys built a closet for Emily and hung up my jellyfish painting from Hamilton Island in my “mom cave”.  Love love love! 

  

 Puzzle.

Sunday night was what we thought would be our last night in the holiday house.  And the puzzle wasn’t finished. And I was not so sure we were going to be able to get it out the door. And (enter OCD) I could not just NOT finish it. So that left me with only one option.  I must finish the puzzle.  It was close, but only the hard pieces remained.  You know, the ones that get left to the end because there are always easier ones to put together first.  I vowed to stay up and finish it.  Until exhaustion took over and I couldn’t do it. Never fear.  I woke up early on Monday morning and although we were pushing our luck and running out of time, WE FINISHED THE 2,000 PIECE PUZZLE!  Oh the irony.  It was moving day, and after months of chaos, all of the pieces were coming together.  It was time to move on.  (Do you see what I just did there?  Pretty clever, eh?) 

 Moving Day #11.

Jay had meetings all week, so we sent him off to keep the cotton business under control on Monday morning.  Em stayed at the holiday house with both kids so she could take Ty to school.  Kirk, Sherry and I headed over to Oaktree and as we were sitting at the stop light at Highway 141, we saw the moving truck go by.  Perfect timing, as we followed Tommy into our neighborhood.  We walked him around, gave him the lay of the land, and as soon as his crew arrived, our stuff that we haven’t seen in 2 years started making its way out of the truck and into our new home.  It was a great performance, with lots of actors playing different roles.  Sherry was the director.  She had “The List” that said which room each piece of furniture belonged in.  Kirk was the Garage Guy.  Mom was Kitchen Lady.  Sundie and Brad were the Basement Gang.  I was Roamer.  When Em came back, she was Kitchen Girl.  Lily maintained her role as Supervisor.  And the boys from the crew worked their tails off.  I don’t know how they do that day in and day out.  They did a fantastic job!  Mom kept a steady supply of snacks and drinks available for them.  It was a whirlwind of a day, but by 3:00 they had everything emptied out of the truck.  Amazing performance. 

    
 Hot tub.

Really poor timing, but the hot tub guys stopped over in the morning of moving day.  I postponed the “how to take care of the hot tub” speech as my brain was on overload, but got the guys started with some minor repairs and a thorough cleaning.  It needed one!

Mouth.

Just as the movers were finishing up, I got a call from the school nurse.  Ty had taken a spill and fell on concrete steps.  His mouth looked like it needed the attention of a dentist.  I was able to get him in right away and thankfully there was no major damage.  Nothing was broken.  Dodged that bullet.  I had a nice chat with one of my high school classmates who is one of the dentists in the office, and then it was back to Oaktree for more unpacking fun. 

 Although the kids’ beds were put together, and our new mattress had been delivered, we didn’t have sheets on the beds and we hadn’t packed up our last remaining every day items from the holiday house.  So we had one last night there.  I am not going to miss that place.

Tuesday.

More of the same.  Rip open a box, pull out the paper, look at what was wrapped up, decide where it goes, rinse, repeat.  Over and over and over again.  I believe Kirk said there were over 200 boxes.  So. Much. Stuff.  I know, why didn’t I just have the movers deliver it all to goodwill. I hadn’t needed it for 2 years.  But gosh, was it fun to see all of that stuff again.  So many memories with every item I pulled out of the boxes.  It was like Christmas.  Only a lot more work.  By the end of the day, most of the inside boxes were unpacked.  Incredible.  We spent our first night in the new house on Tuesday.  I couldn’t resist the temptation to pour a glass of wine, shut the doors, and put my feet up in my mom cave for just a few minutes.  I watched the kids run laps around the house – they didn’t even realize I was watching from my cave.  My little oasis. 

    
   
Week.

I had to go to work on Wednesday through Friday.  It wasn’t easy concentrating but I did manage to get some things done.  Meanwhile, Kirk, Sherry, mom and Em continued to chip away at getting the house put together.  They did a fantastic job.  I cannot thank everyone enough for all of the help!!!

Bedroom.

Our new bedroom furniture arrived!!  750 pounds of reclaimed Barnwood and copper was sitting by our front door.  Our awesome neighbor, Michael, was enjoying a beautiful evening playing basketball with his kids, but he paused his game to come help us move the furniture inside.  I love love love the new set!!  It is from Fireside Lodge – beautiful and excellent quality.   

 Eye.

And then lily decided it was her turn for an emergency trip to the doctor.  She was doing gymnastics and fell on the corner of a wood ottoman.  Split her eye open, so we took her to urgent care and got the would glued together.  She is a tough little thing. 

 Mystery bag.

When I was organizing my closet, I didn’t realize that there was a hole in the corner of two of the built in shelving units.  So when I put two of my purses on the very top shelf, they disappeared into the black hole.  I thought they were gone forever.  But Em and Kirk made it their mission to retrieve the purses.  After several attempts with various tools, they eventual fished them out with a grappling hook on the end of a rope.  But bonus!!  There were not two, but THREE bags in the hole.  A mysterious black bag.  What could it be?!  Fingers crossed it was a bag filled with $100 bills, gold bricks, or diamonds.  Wait for it…..

   
 So no wonder the previous owners didn’t try to retrieve the bag.  Anyone need a nail file?  We have plenty.

Grandma.

My 90 year old grandma came to see the new house one day.  I mentioned earlier that she is tough.  She is also very determined.  She wanted to see the upstairs, but her legs don’t work quite like they used to.  So she got on her hands and knees and crawled up those steps.  I love this lady.  Where there is a will, there is a way. 

 Life as normal.

So we are in our new home.  Boxes are mostly unpacked.  Even the garage is somewhat organized.  Bandit has rejoined the family.  Ty had a few weekends of soccer camp.  Living room furniture arrived.  Kids playing dress up and making friends in the neighborhood.  Ty has not one but two girlfriends and is getting love letters.  Jay and I had a date.  Lily is lifting weights like Aunt Jekka.  Figuring out new routines.  Learning new jobs.  Sunday dinners.  Hanging out with friends and family.  Recovering from illnesses on the big comfy couches.  Hot tub in Ty’s undies (why not?).  I would go into more detail but my battery is low and my fingers are tired of typing.  I will let the following pictures tell the story. 

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
 Garth.

And one final note to end on.  I AM GOING TO SEE GARTH BROOKS IN CONCERT!!!!!!  I am so excited.  Lily pulled my Garth book out of a box and handed it to me.  

  It was a sign.  I survived the stress of trying to buy tickets for the shows that sold out super fast (6 shows!!!).  

  I can’t wait to see Garth again – the best performer I have ever seen in concert.  

The past few months have not been easy.  There was been stress and pain and anxiety.  All of these things come along with any repatriation.  It is just part of the deal.  If you want to experience the awesomeness of living in a foreign country, you have to go through the hard stuff on the return.  I could have missed the pain.  But I’d have had to miss the dance.