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Looks like we made it! For the "longest" time, we weren't sure when we were actually going to be able to get signed and move in, and then It Happened.

We were originally told it would he at the end of June, and then there was a hangup in the paperwork at the government loans department, and we were told at least a couple of weeks, but we weren't for sure when. So we had been ready to be packed up and move, but then we couldn't, so we sort of got unpacked.

I have another phobia I didn't really mention in the phobia blog (See Freaking Out). You are probably wondering what a person with all these phobias is doing writing a blog, and teaching kids, but I think that I am managing well and other people just aren't as open about their issues. That makes me healthy, right... :) Well, this one is about moving, and having all my stuff in boxes. It gives me anxiety. But when you are opening boxes that have every kind of random thing thrown into it by some "helper" who doesn't know what goes where, and you find a dirty diaper amongst the odds and ends, you kind of lose your sanity a tiny bit. However, this was one of my least anxious moving times ever. I actually enjoyed parts of it.  Even though it felt unprepared a bit, due to the unknown parts. I mean, we were getting our own house! It's hard to be too stressed when you keep that in mind. 

We took those next couple weeks to be a family, go camping, and have a Summer vacation as a family. And I got a part time job working as a care provider for a family in their house. And then, all of the sudden, we had to come into the title office and sign! But it was during the day when I had the other children as well as my own, so we took the van-full and went to the title office.

Here we are signing our life away :)  (notice the small children in the background.) The kids were very well behaved. I think that the office has a lot of kids there all the time, because they were prepared with a lot of complimentary treats for the kids as well as a huge box of toys to entertain them. That helped a lot.
After that, it was work as usual. Then a few days later, we were told we'd would have the keys the next day, also a day I was supposed to have the kids, so they came with us to the new house as well.

Here we are receiving the keys from our lovely realtor/family-friend.

The happy moment when the house became OURS!

Trying to figure out which key goes into which lock.

Opening the door for the first time as HOMEOWNERS.

Here we go into the house (With all the kids)

Here they come into the house like a herd of elephants er, bunch of children...
Once they all went into the house, Jon and I decided to have a moment by ourselves.

What a great feeling to finally get what you have been wait for over ten years to receive.

After we got our keys, we went back to the house we were living and try to pack up again, but with no plans to actually get people to help us move. Or time off, really. But we had the weekend and good family, and we got started Friday afternoon. It could have been pretty stressful, but we are just so blessed. We got our bed into the house, but not the kids'. Everything else was dumped into the garage. By about 1:00am, Jon carried me over the threshold and we sleep there overnight, without the kids. That was one of the top 5 most romantic moments of my life, along with getting proposed to and actually getting married.

There is our mattress on the floor.

Oh how awesome to see my own stuff in my own place! I wasn't really excited about the house until I saw my stuff. Since we were going to move, then we weren't, then we were, but not today... I got a little disillusioned about the whole thing, and I became a little numb, emotionally. So it was hard to feel much at first.

Our "dining"room. Note the legless table on the floor.

Kitchen stuff piled into the kitchen.

Our master bathroom stuff.

Some of our wedding presents and stuff had been in storage since shortly after getting married, and the rest of it for the last 2 years, due to the latest living situation. So opening boxes of our stuff was similar to Christmas. Especially the ability to put it wherever I thought best in my house. After a few days, a LOT more stuff got unpacked and moved out of the garage and put away.

My daughter got some of her baby photos on her dresser shelves.

Wasn't she the cutest? (Here she is with her 2 cousins of the same age, she's the tiny one in the middle.)

My beautiful table and lovely settings. I hadn't seen the dishes for about 6 years.

I love this set.

Then I had a birthday. My birthday present was a house! What a great birthday! My family gave me an Ikea gift card for a gift. We got an Ikea in our town about 4 years ago, but I had never made it out there, so this was my excuse to finally see what it was all about. I got a lot of little items I didn't have, but the big item I got was a rug. I LOVE my new rug!

We moved the diningroom table and stuff to put the rug down.

Here it is up close. The camera wouldn't get the colors, it's a greenish color, dark chocolate and off-white.

And the diningroom table with the rug. I think it looks great!

Then we got the rest of our stuff, like the bathroom set, from B,B&B. On sale. With a 20% off coupon.

Kids' bathroom before

Kids' bathroom after.

Close up of the colors.

The soap and toothbrush holders match.

Here is the new couch and our T.V. and consoles all set up.

 And we got the kids' bedrooms set up.

Boy's room before. (One day our toddler put himself to bed, he was so tired.)

Boys' room before

Boys' room before.

After, I moved the dressers over.

I put the table and chairs under the bed for then, but they got moved.

Our girl had to sleep on a tiny bed in the corner of the basement of the other house, so we are finally putting together her real bed after 2 years!

Here it is after she made it :)

Tada!

We also had to have her dresses on a coat-rack because she didn't have a closet at the other place, so here is her new closet!

Our laundry "room" is a closet in the hall, and the washer and dryer stuck out too far, so we had to remove the closet doors.    I bought this curtain at B,B&B as well.

Here it is up close. Love the embroidered flowers on it. I guess that is part of my style.

Here is our Bed all set up. Note the boxspring on the wall. We had to move it, because with it ontop of the bedframe, the bed was taller than our headboard. We would have needed a ladder to get in, like the princess and the pea.

As it is, we need the drawer in front as a stepstool, it's pretty high up. There are drawers on the sides under the bed, so we don't need dressers.

 We are still moving stuff into the house. It's not all there yet, but we are doing well, and we have had several dinners with close friends and family over, as well as quite a few sleepovers with friends and cousins. We moved in officially at the end of July, and our open house party will be at the beginning of Sept. so I hope to have my list of projects done by then. We are also working on getting ready to get licensed for homecare and signing the kids up for our home-school co-op in the fall. Lots of projects on our plate right now, but for some reason it doesn't feel much like work. It is for us to enjoy. 

I saw a list about the benefit of not actually having a classroom. I was attempting to work out how and where I would set one up in my little house, and now I am reconfiguring that. 

I do want to have a homeschool central, where all of my charts and posters, shelves of book and cabinets of supplies are located, but not having an actual room is what will most likely end up happening. The "central" will probably be in my garage. We just have to finish cleaning and organizing it first. 

So, that's it. We're here. And we aren't moving for a LONG LONG time. Like after the kids move out...