The Big Move!

We made it to Santa Maria!!! Our last night in Santa Cruz was spent eating Thai food on an air mattress, hula dancing to Lilo & Stitch, and packing after the girls went to bed. Matt & I stayed up until 3:30 AM Friday and Saturday nights, then went to church from 9 AM-noon on Sunday. This is how we felt at 3 PM on Sunday: Thank goodness for wonderful friends who watched our girls so that we could pack and clean everything! We had a bunch of guys from the ward come on Saturday and pack up all of the boxes we’d packed and the heavy furniture. After church on Sunday, another family came over and the dad & sons packed up the rest of the boxes. My day was spent packing, cleaning, and cleaning. We left that condo cleaner than when we moved in! Finally, at 1 AM, we hit the road. Matt in the truck with Ada, and me following in the 4Runner with Lola. We stopped two times to get out, go to the bathroom, and jump around to stay awake! We got into Santa Maria at 5 AM. Matt got three hours of sleep and then had to go to work at 8 AM! Poor guy. We both feel jetlagged…the exhaustion is hitting us now. The great news is that WE GOT THE HOUSE WE WANTED!!! After a long, drawn-out process with many issues on the property management’s side, we FINALLY got into the house we wanted. Our friends used to live here and I would walk over to babysit their kids. It is the next street over from my mom’s house, and she is in Nonnie heaven! We are thrilled. For the same rent we paid for a 2 BR condo in Santa Cruz, we have a 3 BR house with a garage and yard!We had fun playing in the backyard yesterday, Ada loves the tree.The people that lived here after our friends had some interesting taste in paint choices. This fancy rose bush is painted onto the door of the master bathroom! Luckily I have permission to paint.The garage seems to be Denver Broncos colors. Except for the fact that the right wall (not pictured) is red. I’m pretty sure I’m going to leave it, it’s a garage and I don’t want to waste my time and hard work on it. It was such a shocker when I first opened the garage door! There are some other crazy paint issues that I’ll share later. But that’s all changeable and we are just so happy to be moving into a house that we love, in a neighborhood we love, with my mom around the corner and the ward that I grew up in and Matt & I lived in for the first 3 years of our marriage. We had a great group of guys show up last night to help us unload the truck. I am always amazed at how fast it goes! They get the job done. We are so grateful for the service & love shown to us by our ward family in Santa Cruz & Santa Maria! THANK YOU!