I just wanted to get these posted tonight and I will get back to sharing about the weekend. Janelle had sent me these pictures right before we left for Leo.

This is at Mom & Dad's unloading the truck into their shed. When I look at these pictures, it is obvious why our house is so empty.

And when we got home today, it was really warm in GA, and now I'm hoping that our house sells before warm weather comes--because we have no flip flops or summer clothes here!





Many thanks to the helpers on the Illinois end who unloaded the truck.



Janelle's favorite picture--ours too!



I don't know if I shared this already or not, but before Brent and Janelle came down, he called one evening and asked if there was anything he and Janelle could help us with--would it be helpful if they would come down? I said, yes, right now is when we need the help the most, getting the house ready to show. The realtors want it very sparse and clean, closets mostly empty, etc so there was a lot of sorting, packing, and cleaning to do in just a few short days to hurry up and get the house on the market as soon as possible.

He said, let me talk with Janelle and I'll call you right back. They ended up leaving the next day at noon and were here for about a week helping us. Brent was put to work fixing things that needed fixing. It was nice to be able to say, would you fix that drawer in the basement or touch up paint or whatever and it just got done. Janelle became chief cook and bottle washer, so we were all happier with good food in our tummies! They both helped with packing and everything just got done a lot quicker. I think the children are just as appreciative, because I would have had to depend a lot more on them if Brent and Janelle hadn't been here. :)

Okay, better get back to slogging through the emails that piled up from the weekend. I'll post about Sunday tomorrow.

Love to all,
Julie

Friday and Saturday of the First Visit

Hello, Julie here. It's Monday evening. We are in Athens at Kerwin & Sara Edelman's house--relieved to be here after the 8 hour drive from Leo. But at least it wasn't 12 hours...I'll back up and catch you up on the weekend. (Kerwin & Sara had to be gone to a visitation, so if they get back, I'll have to finish later! )

Mark went to work at Dugco on Friday for his last day of regular work there. Both boys went with him as they had been working on cleaning out the warehouse. It was only supposed to be until around noon or at the least 2 pm, and then we were leaving, but something happened to the computer that Mark was going to download stuff from. It got a virus or something and threw a kink into the whole day. (Mark has agreed to work for Albert on a contract basis when he is back in GA on whatever weekends he can, as Albert still needs to wrap up a few things.) Needless to say, not being able to get the needed info downloaded was really frustrating.

My day didn't go much better. We hadn't gotten the church cleaned, so we had to do that Friday morning, besides going to the library, packing and making the house ready in case someone wanted to see it while we were gone.

We finally left around 5 pm all more than a little frazzled. Thankfully we had planned on only going half way, so we got to the motel north of Nashville around 10 pm. They graciously said we could still use the pool even though regular hours were 9 am-10 pm. All the troubles of the day melted away in the steaming bubbling hot tub!

Saturday morning, we got up late and ate at the hotel. We didn't need to be in Leo until 8 pm or so in the evening because our hosts, Zach and Jenny Bertsch, had evening plans with a Sunday school activity.

Mark is taking Zach's place at Gateway Woods as the Business Manager there, and Zach and Jenny have invited Mark to stay at their home until the rest of us move up to Indiana when the house sells. Zach has taken a position at the nursing home in Bluffton, and right now he is commuting until their house sells. He and Mark plan on doing training sessions in the evenings.

Okay, Kerwin and Sara just walked in, so I'll finish later or tomorrow when we get home!

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

Mark and Brent picked up the truck in the morning, and stopped at McDonald's to bring home breakfast for everyone. Philip and Lana came down to help and brought dessert--yummy Butterbraid. Our realtor came around 11 am to take pictures so we needed to have everything cleared out and cleaned up by then. Everything went great. Our house is pretty sparse, with lots of blank spaces, blank walls and empty drawers, cupboards and closets.

Brent & Janelle are driving this truck to IL. They left today around 4 pm, stopping in Paducah, KY overnight and arriving in IL tomorrow afternoon, where they'll have to find some help to unload it, return it to Penske, pick up their own car, and head for Champaign.

We so appreciate having Brent & Janelle's and Philp & Lana's help. We just couldn't have done it without them.

With love & gratitude,
Julie

PS. Our first potential buyers are coming tomorrow after they get off of work.
















The piano is for sale...

Not much, but a lot

Well, plans are taking shape...Tomorrow early Daddy and Uncle Brent are going to go and rent a 26 ft box truck and bring it back so we can load it. Then Uncle Brent and Aunt Janelle are going the drive it to Illinois to my Grandpa's shed where we will store it for awhile. That will take care of lots and lots of stuff in the garage. The rest of it will go on another truck to Leo when we move. We will be living somewhere temporarily until we find a house.

So we have several "piles" in the garage right now. The Illinois pile, the Leo pile and the temporary pile. That last one has all kinds of stuff that we still need to use but can't have in the house because it is too much clutter!! Stuff like extra food from the pantry, the stereo that was on the counter, extra cleaning supplies, CDs. Mostly all the extra stuff from cupboards and closets, so that they all look half empty and larger, more spacious--according to the realtors!

Our realtor is coming tomorrow also to take pictures of the house to list online. She even has someone interested already. Even if they don't buy, it is still a plus that someone is interested. They are tentatively coming to see the house on Wednesday.

We are so grateful to Uncle Brent and Aunt Janelle for coming to help us pack and drive the truck up to IL. With their help we got more done in four days then we by ourselves could do in seven days. We also had a lot of fun playing games with them and spending time at Uncle Philip and Aunt Lana's!

Thank you, Grandpa, for letting us use your shed. It will be a really big help!

~Mj

Things we will miss...

....That it hardly ever snows here! I think Daddy will miss it the most.( the pic is of a snowman (sideways--sorry!) if you couldn't tell!)
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Also Mom wanted me to interview the kids(me included) about what things we are going tho miss the most and what we are most excited about.

Youngest First!




Joseph--
What I'm going to miss--I'm going to miss the fort and playing the woods and the creek. I'll miss my friends and Rudy, Rocky and Chloe--my cousins that live close to us.

Why I'm excited-- That there will be really,really,really,really, (did I say really already) deep,deep snow. I'm excited to live close to my friends and cousins up north.
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Maria~
What I'm going to miss--
My Friends definitly (I mean who wouldn't)I will also miss being from a small church and knowing everyone.

Why I'm excited--
Probably the most exciting thing is being closer to Ohio and all of our cousins and friends. I am kinda excited about getting a new house to, new surroundings are allways fun.
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Will--
I'm not a man of many words but here goes
What I'm going to miss-- the woods( i hope we can live in woods there), the fort,and playing in the creek. Co-op and my friends there

What I'm excited about--being close to my cousins especially Clint. Being 3 1/2 hours from our family cabin.


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Mj~
What I'm going to miss- My GrandMary~She is one of the most special,amazing, wonderful people in my life. I'm really going to miss her. My friends I have great really friends!:) Co-op, Church, Vbs, The great library:), and Uncle Philip, Aunt Lana and my cousins--including their sweet baby Avery! I will miss babysitting for them.

What I'm excited about- Being closer to family and friends. Getting to know and meet new people. Moving into a new house and getting a new room,Which I may get to decorate(hint,hint Mom!) Also I'm glad to get to be apart of a ministry that God has blessed greatly, even if it means moving. And watching God move in wonderful ways!



Signing off after a LONG EXHAUSTING day of packing. In which I single handedly packed up what seemed like 3 million boxes of books( it was only about 25:) And I got a really sore back from it.
~Mj

Realtors....(and other stuff)

Well, the two realtors both had great ideas about how to make our property marketable. We will make a decision before the end of the week on which company to contact. When you have two great options sometimes you have go with your gut feelings.

Everything is a bit crazy around here as you can imagine! We have packing boxes EVERYWHERE! Some of the advice that the realtors gave us is to clear practically everything out of our closets,cupboards and rooms. So that means almost of our things will go to the garage. They said that the inside of the house is what sells the house and the garage doesn't matter...hmmm, sounds like the lady has a large say in the matter! :)

We were thinking about going to Leo this weekend, but we've decided we need to stay home...and finish cleaning up and cleaning out. It's kind of discouraging to clean for three days straight and then have the realtor say you'll have to get rid of the clutter. But I guess they mean that it can't look like anyone lives here...which a whole lot of people do!!

Also--surprise! Uncle Brent called last night around bedtime and when we got up this morning, Mom said that Uncle Brent and Aunt Janelle are coming--they are getting here tonight. We are looking forward to being with them--and having their help! They rented a car and are driving Daddy's truck back and somehow getting it to Leo so it is there when we need it. Not all of the details are ironed out yet.

Daddy starts work on January 18 and hopefully we are all going to go up to Leo that weekend so we can all go to church there for the first time together. Then we are going to drive back to GA without Daddy :( and hopefully our house sells really fast.

We had a house cleaning frenzy today, the reason being ....We had two realtors coming tonight, one at 4 o'clock and one at 6 o'clock.