Boxes everywhere!

These last couple of weeks have been filled with LOTS of packing, planning, and cleaning! We've checked a lot of random things off of our to-do list, but still have a lot to do (some stuff that can't really be done until the move gets a little closer - we're now only 10 days away from the day we load the truck!) Everything is a little harder when you have a newborn and a two year old though (and Gary is still working his job here through next Friday). I've been trying to involve Alex a lot in the packing and cleaning. He loves to help! He has spent time "labeling" boxes, along with pulling things out and putting things in boxes (which makes packing tricky)! I think he is starting to get antsy and confused though. He'll tell you we're moving to a new house and seems to understand somewhat what is going on. He's been really acting up the last few days though - I think he's just craving attentioin and wondering when we're actually going to go to this "new house".

Anyway, since I love lists, here is an update on what we're doing in list form :) :

*The house is officially rented out! (What an answered prayer!) This family found us on Craig's list and everything has been falling into place perfectly, including the timing! (Their moving truck will come pretty much right after ours leaves!) This has lifted a HUGE burden off of us!

*We've decided to get a storage unit where my parents live (4.5 hrs from DC) rather than storing stuff here or in DC. It's much cheaper and will be more convenient, since we will probably be at my parents' hosue more than we will be back in Cincinnati. (And storage in DC was about 3 times as expensive!)

*A lot of things will go to my parents' house as well... so this is taking a lot of coordinating! I'm trying to make sure to label boxes well and have started piles of boxes for each location around the hosue... since we will have 3 stops on the way to drop stuff off, we want to make sure that our boxes are loaded in the truck in order :)

*I've been doing a lot of visiting with friends... it has been a little surreal knowing that it will be the last time I see people for a while (even if they are older friends that I don't see too often anyway... it's different knowing that they are not too far away!)

*We sold a bunch of our downstairs furniture on craigslist. It was all stuff we got for pretty cheap when we were first married and stuff we weren't really huge fans of anyway... so we figured it'd be less to store and such :) It wasn't really going to fit in our new apartment (we need a smaller kitchen table). Alex was very concerned though about where we were going to eat. We set up a card table in the kitchen and have been eating out on the deck a lot lately :)

*We packed up all of my school stuff... this took a couple of days with my parents' help. Since I had to pack everything up to move to the new school that I would have been at, we had to basically unpack everything and separate my stuff from school stuff from trash and repack it all in personal boxes. When we packed it up, we just put everything in boxes and didn't really organize/go through anything... so this was a big job!

*My parents came for 3 days to help with stuff... we got our china packed along with lots of other random things and my mom helped with lots of cleaning (blinds, windows, vents, light fixtures, baseboards, etc.) My dad helped cover up nail holes in the walls and replace light bulbs and such... and we had lots of extra help with the kids of course, so i could get things done as well :) OH and we got to go on a dinner/movie date... which was much needed and so much fun! (even if i did fall asleep for about 1/3 of the movie from sheer exhaustion! haha)

*Gary's parents and brother/sister-in-law will be in town this weekend to knock some more things off the list - fixing up the deck, moving boxes/furniture, cleaning more random things for the renters, more packing, taking care of kids, etc!

So, I feel like things are really coming together... mostly I'm just ready to go ahead and make this move and start settling into our new home/routine! We're feeling tired and things are stressful around here - I think we're all just ready for the next step... just a week and a half until the big move begins!