That Time We Moved Back to AZ

Moving.....I think it is safe and effective to say it.  I AM OVER IT!  We have moved so much in our marriage and this is truly the first time that I am really over it.  I have kept a stash of moving boxes in my life over the past few years.  This time? They are going Bye Bye! And it feels so good.  But before I usher in the AZ chapter, let me debrief a wee bit about the week that was last week.  That time we moved back to AZ.....

Last week was quite honestly the most stressful week of my life to date.  That might be a slight exaggeration, but not by much.  I started off the week with a horrendous coldsore on my lip.  I am prone to the miserable little things and have been since I was a child.  They are induced by stress.....and sunshine.  How ironic that I had a week of sunshine followed by a week of stress.  Perfect conditions, and I got the biggest one I have ever had.  It was excruciatingly painful and affected my entire face.  There were 5 days of absolutely nauseating pain.  It was horrible and yet, I had SO much to do.  To say I felt overwhelmed is the biggest understatement.

I am so grateful that we had several grandparents during the moving process which helped tremendously.  Quite honestly, I don't know how we would have managed without them.  Moving sans kids?  Easy Peasy.  Moving with 2 children.  Its like brushing your teeth with Oreos. On top of trying to completely vacate our house was the looming issue of our check out.  Leasing is so great on one hand and so awful on the other.  We had to put down a significant security deposit so getting it back has been critical.  Moving is so expensive......every dollar matters.  The weight of our move out checklist loomed over my head all week and I so desperately wanted to be with my husband in AZ, not cleaning for days and days.

The truck arrived on Thursday last week and with some help from some amazing people we got the entire truck loaded by mid afternoon.  We spent the entire evening and well into the night cleaning and scrubbing and painting.  My children were exhausted, I pushed them so hard.  My Dad and Hubby left Friday morning to begin the drive and I headed back to the house to clean and polish before my 4PM checkout.   Bob called me in the morning with the news that the Big Truck carrying all of our stuff had completely broke down.  I was shocked.  Oy.  I have never prayed so hard over  a truck and a checkout!  Thankfully, my prayers were answered and we effectively checked out with our security deposit in tow, and after a 3 hour delay, the guys got the truck fixed and were back on their way. Praise the Lord!

After another short night for us, Memaw, Me, Lily, Evie and the 2 dogs started our journey to Mesa.  I was nervous about road tripping with my girls, but they did AMAZING.  I could not have been prouder.  Our trip took an overnight stay in Holbrook, AZ, and poor Evie got sick.  With my coldsore I wasn't surprised, but she went all in with fever, cough, runny nose, goopy eyes and just feeling yucky.  Poor baby.

We pulled into our new abode on Sunday morning with two tired girls and two exhausted adults.  I am so thankful that we are here, but so overwhelmed.  It's all new again.  We have to start over.  And that cold sore?  It turned into a full fledged nasty bug complete with loosing my voice, stuffiness and generally feeling awful.  Moving is hard.  I am most definitely over it.

Thank you Lord for going before us and behind us.  Thank you for safely getting us to Arizona.  Give me peace to not eat all the elephant at once.  Your mercies are new every morning.  Thank you for your goodness.