i'm tired

we did it. at 9:22 pm thursday night i closed the door to our 2nd home of the year and kyle pulled the door shut on the back of the truck. we slept at the red lion hotel which was the best thirty-seven dollars we ever spent. thank you, priceline.

if it hadn't been for the help from gramma berry to rescue the kids from the moving monotony, our fabulous neighborhood babysitter, eager-to-serve missionaries, the ever-dependable brother jason, and a surprise visit from sister kropf (she's brenda, but there's something about your young women's leader from your youth that just makes it hard to call them by their first name), we would have been there well past midnight. fortunately that was not the case. because, after all, we needed our beauty rest.

why the beauty rest? because i scheduled family pictures for the next day. yes, the next day also being moving day. the day being the day we drive 6 hours to provo to unload everything we had just loaded. i don't know what i was thinking. kyle was a good sport and went with the idea full knowing we had plenty going on outside of the realm of getting ourselves prettied up to snap some photos. as we all know, family pictures are a stress in an of itself. so why combine the two most stressful things for a family and schedule them back to back?

i suppose it was partly done out of desperation, partly a result of procrastination, and partly because I needed a reason to pack and get out of that house. if i didn't have an appointment to make, i would have probably drug my feet the whole move and i'd still be in the condo cleaning out the microwave right now. the whole idea came about when i was blog stalking a friend of a friend who has a photography business. i knew her in college and have been keeping up with her via the blog scene for a while. she had just posted some pics of a recent photo shoot and i was in love. i decided she needed to take our pics. so i called her, she was available, and it was done!

we left the red lion this morning a little after 8. kyle driving the truck, me in the beloved subie. after doing some calculations in my head, i decided it would be best to give ourselves an extra hour so i called the photographer and said 5 would be better than 4.

2:30pm --kyle bee-lined it for the storage unit in provo (we can't tell you which one. wouldn't want all our food storage to be stolen, remember?) where he was met by some fabulous free labor: randy, tyrel, brian, and jake. [thank you, fellas!]

3:40 pm i met kyle when there were about 4 boxes left so i could do my token back-breaking labor and appear like i helped.

4:07pm, we pulled out of the storage unit. i was getting antsy.

4: 16 pm we dropped off the truck. i was getting impatient and calculating exactly how long it would take me to tame the snarls in savannah's hair, iron our clothes, put on make-up....

I texted the photographer: we'll be ready closer to 5:15. sorry!

4:27pm we are still at u-haul. i'm pacing, sweating beads, and looking at all the work that has to be done on myself and my sticky faced kids to get camera-ready and we were nowhere near ready to go. at this point i was wishing i was a celebrity with a crew of beauticians at my disposal.
what was taking so long?

i peeked my head in the uhaul office and found that kyle had decided to kill two birds with one stone. not only was he signing paperwork for dropping off the truck, but he was also arranging pick up for the little trailer we were taking with us to chicago. any other day would have been fine, but this was picture day and I had about 6 minutes to get ready.

4:32 trailer is hitched to subaru. ready to drive away when the inspector reminded us we needed to test all the tail lights.

4:37 rehitching a different trailer to the subaru. lights didn't work. ahhh!

meanwhile katie texted back: just call when you are heading out and ready.

bless her! i think we finally arrived at my sister's house (aka woodbury photo shoot dressing room) at 5. i hurriedly thrust all the kids' outfits options at my sister and begged her opinion. meanwhile, she ironed my clothes and found me a necklace to wear. the lifesaver she always is, that girl.

5:09pm kyle appears, not wearing the shirt i had picked out for him. "uhhh, it's packed somewhere, sorry."

5:45pm we were running out the door and i my sister stopped me to tell me to take a deep breath. "it's going to be fine! you are ready and everyone looks great!" i was really beginning to wonder what on EARTH was i thinking???

when we finally connected with the photographers, katie and aaron, the weight lifted off my shoulders. the rest was up to them. i did my part. i got us there in coordinating outfits, combed hair, and wiped noses. they took over and were fabulous. they were so patient with the kids who do not stand still for ANYTHING, not even the ginormous bag of easter candy we brought to bribe them.

i am really excited to see how they turned out. having survived the day, i would do it again. weird, i know, but it all worked out.

i'm just pooped.

good night!