Moving Truck

It seems like so long ago now, but exactly one week ago we were trying to fit our entire house into this trailer. Paying to ship your belongings across the country will really make you stop and think what you actually use and need. I took many, many trips to the thrift store, to the used kids stuff store, to the dump/recycling, and boy did it feel good. We fit everything, and didn't even have to pull the enclosed trailer we had reserved on standby in case we couldn't fit everything we wanted to bring. It was a miracle! To really understand our excitement, you must know that North American Van Lines moved us to Colorado from California 5 years ago, 2 kids ago, and from a home 1500 sq ft smaller - AND they used 35 feet of their trailer for our stuff. This time around, we did not want to pay $17,000 to pay movers, and opted to use ABF, and pack the trailer ourselves. The only problem is that the biggest trailer ABF has is 28 ft. Yes, that is right, 6 feet shorter than our previous move, and we had collected so much more stuff since then. You ask how we did it??? Well, the truth is that Keir's dad is the miracle worker! (He has worked in moving & storage for many years.) Keir's mom and dad came for a week and helped us pack and load the trailer. If it weren't for them, I am sure we would have been pulling a trailer, and leaving many things behind. (or, quite possibly, I could still be sitting in our driveway putting things back into boxes that my children kept taking out!) Keir and his dad were so organized that our friends who came to help actually stood around waiting for specific requests from Keir and his dad as they would call out from the trailer, "I need 2 small book boxes" or "I need something long and skinny" or "I need the bike trailer." It was a great big puzzle, and they didn't leave one empty space.

Conner and Cayden were SOOO excited, and loved helping out. They were very good at finding things from the stacks in the driveway that would fit in specific spots.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all who helped out. Especially Lee & Stuffy Jones, and Harlan - who (by himself!) carried every box from the inside of the house and stacked it neatly on the driveway. We'll see how the unloading goes in a couple weeks. . . .