So We Moved.....

Our Clarksville home is empty and will be put on the market soon. Our belongings are in our new home. And our bodies, pets, personal information and technology.....well that is all at my sister's house.

We currently cannot live in our house. Why?! Because people didn't come to work and volunteers didn't show up as promised. That is the reason.

I will not lie, this has been one of the most stressful and exhausting weeks I have had in memory. Our movers were college kids who seriously did not care about anything but getting off from work. They broke several pieces of our furniture and finally we just told them to leave. (We will be discovering their damage for a long time to come I am sure.)

Since we did not have a fridge ready, we chose to leave our groceries in Clarksville and that I would get them when I picked up the youngest cutie from camp. When I arrived, I discovered CDE decided to turn off the power, when I specifically asked for them to just turn off the phone, cable and internet only. We lost $500 in groceries. I sure did get to pack up the groceries...I packed them right up into the garbage.

I stood in our Clarksville kitchen and cried all of my makeup off on Friday. The stress and frustration won. Sometimes it is just best to cry and let it go. I did feel so much better once I just let it all out.

Just like everything else that has happened to us, we are making the best out of it. We have missed our nephews growing up, so we are enjoying all the time we are getting to actually get to know them. I personally am enjoying getting to actually work on our home. I love power tools and home repairs. The builders kept saying that I shouldn't do it. Well I don't take no very well for an answer so I am working on all of the cosmetic things that don't require licenses and training. If I do the little cosmetic stuff, they can stay focused on the real issues and get us in! We are team players and for sure. Chaz and I do not stand on the side lines when we can jump in and help the team. 

I wanted a fully functioning bathroom so I grabbed my little brother, Demetria and my drill and boom we have a bathroom! No more port-a-potty for our family! ;)

Demetria's hubby Ray has been mowing our grass all this time. Thanks to Nine Line Foundation and Ray, Chaz got to fire up his mower yesterday and he mowed our grass for the first time.

It seriously does look like they are racing. (Thanks to Demetria for these pics.)They actually did get the grass mowed and even took time to show the girls how to mow.

Before anyone goes ballistic on our builders, please don't. They cannot force people to come to work. They cannot force people who say they want to "help" to actually help. They cannot force volunteers to actually show up and follow through. Please know they are seriously working seven days a week to help get us in. It is a VERY frustrating situation for all of us. We are a team and we are all working together to reach the finish line.

I am declaring this week is our week! Our home will be inspected and we will be able to live in it. We will get to go through the boxes (and probably toss out more than we want to thanks to our mover friends). We will unpack our lives and start living our new chapter of our new normal!! And the next blog I write will be from our forever home!

Closing the Chapter

The time has come to close our chapter in Clarksville. I know we will be back for visits, but our residency is ending. Our address has been changed. Our mail is being forwarded. The seventeen years of our relationship and family are sitting in boxes all around us just waiting for people to deliver them to another destination.

We will never forget the 101st and how great they were to our family. We will forever and always be a Screaming Eagle family.

It is bittersweet. We have so many memories here. It is truly hard to put this all into words without crying......again.

As I sit here at my desk for the last time in this house, I cannot help but to think of sitting here on January 22, 2011 when the call that changed our lives came. I cannot stop all the thoughts of things that were said and things that happened since that day.

Even though I have have been blessed with over three decades of life, I feel that a bomb truly taught me to live. It taught me what is really important in life.

My goal in life is to leave things better than I found them. I truly believe we have done that here in Clarksville. 

We will always praise the storm that was created by a bomb. We will always praise the event that was meant to destroy lives, because Chaz's one step that changed our lives has also changed and impacted so many others in such a positive way.

We close our Clarksville chapter in approximately 24 hours. We are so thankful for our time here. And we truly hope that the new residents that occupy this home after us will make as many wonderful memories as we have!