Making progress...I think.

Whew! This moving stuff is not for the weak or very pregnant!

We got our carpet installed on Friday. Thursday was a rush to get ready for the installers. I soon felt so overwhelmed that I called the RS President to ask for help. She and two other women met me (and Nathan) at the house to work for several hours.

One sister pulled staples out of the floor (from the old carpet padding). The other two worked with a steamer and scrapers to get the WORST wallpaper off the walls of the girls' room. They were in there for hours. I had already spent a bunch of fruitless time trying to get it off. Why can't they make a wallpaper that's removable? (There is still a border around the top of the wall in another room that needs to come down, but I can't do it and Chad isn't feeling very motivated.) I wiped down the walls to prepare for painting.

That night I was so tired and sore that I could barely put one foot in front of the other. I took the kids home to put them to bed and Chad stayed to clean up and spray the paint on the walls. He was there, by himself, until after 2 AM. The carpet installers arrived at 8 AM Friday.

A friend of mine came over Friday night to help me get started on the painting. We put a coat of paint in the living room after very carefully laying drop cloth all over the new carpet. We attempted to scrape off the paper left behind by the steamer crew, but soon gave up on that when we didn't make much progress. She vacuumed up the mess left by the carpet installation and we headed home sometime around 9 PM.

Saturday morning, I took the girls to the house and Chad took the boys to get a trailer and start emptying the storage unit. I taped and painted another wall in the living room (we were going to leave it white, but then changed our minds) and was almost done by the time Chad arrived with the first load. After lunch I started on the wallpaper nightmare again. This time I brought different ammunition and actually got some good results! My friend came back over and together we cleaned the walls, put a second coat on the living room, washed the now wallpaper-free walls, taped and got a first coat of paint on. That took us nearly 4 hours. Meanwhile, Chad finished emptying the trailer for the second time and drove back to town to return it.

That night (last night) we went back. Chad painted a second coat in the girls' room while I changed out doorknobs and dead bolts. Now I don't consider myself a helpless person when it comes to little tasks like changing a lock. I was ready to pull out my hair and the doors by the time I got finished with the locks. Things weren't fitting well, weren't aligned right, etc. I even had to install one dead bolt upside down because the holes in the door weren't in the right places. We came home at 10 PM. We all slept well.

The kids want to know when we're going to sleep there. That's not going to happen until my whole bed makes it. A mattress and a box spring are not going to cut it. Chad has a bunch of work to do and he isn't sure when he's going to be ready to move beds. I'm wishing for a genie. I would like to just get the stuff over there and get it put away. I still don't exactly know where everything is going to go. It's making me feel a little overwhelmed. The fact that this baby is coming in 3 weeks has a lot to do with it.

We attended our ward for the last time today. That was a surreal feeling. Some people still don't know that we're moving. They'll either figure it out, or try to reactivate us! I taught one last time today. I felt so huge standing up there. This baby isn't trying to hide. The lesson went well, though.

So now this week I just want to get things moved and put away. We'll take it day by day and be grateful for what gets accomplished. If I'm lucky, I won't kill myself. If I'm really lucky, I'll put myself into labor and have a good reason to stop working so hard! (Which is only a good plan if the baby is healthy through all that.)

P.S. I haven't forgotten the promise of pictures. I'm working on that!