I have to take a break from the chaos and clutter of moving into a new house to update the old blog. Sorry if you're expecting pics of the new house or our epic road trip. That will come but not before I back up a bit.
Our lives have been in limbo for a long time as we prepared to move across the country and separate from the Navy. We packed our last week in Rhode Island with as much fun as possible and definitely spread ourselves too thin, which we do every time we move. It was CRAZY! Crazy busy, crazy fun, crazy stressful, and made me crazy. Every move is like that, and luckily just like the pains of childbirth, you forget about it until you have to do it again.
The movers packed up our house over two days - one day to box up our stuff and one day to load the truck. I took the boys to the beach on that hot and humid ninety-degree day and came home to a huge truck almost completely full with the most sweaty and tired movers I've ever seen. I immediately went to the nearest gas station and bought them cool bottles of Gatorade. It's hard to imagine a worse job than packing up people's junk and loading it into a truck.
We had four more days of living in our empty house which was definitely a pain and made it easier to leave. Speaking of leaving, that last day was bad. Really bad. Randy went to work while I frantically cleaned, trying to leave no trace of us behind. This would've been easier if I didn't have four boys following me around. As soon as I got a room cleaned I locked the door so it would remain untouched. I told the boys if they would be good helpers (and stay out of my way) we'd have time to check in to the hotel and swim before our farewell party that night. Things were right on schedule. I was sweaty and exhausted and only had one room left to clean, the van and car top carrier were filled to the brim, and all I needed to do was load five bags of trash into the van to take to a dumpster and we could leave. But it was not to be!
The car keys were gone. We only had one set--the other set got packed with our stuff--and I couldn't find them anywhere. And that's when I lost it. I started to cry. And yell. And slam doors. It wasn't pretty. It's not like I needed to look under couches or a pile of clothes for the keys. Our house was empty! The boys reported that Landon was the last one to be seen with the keys (it was the only thing he could find to play with, I guess) but they were gone. I went through the house, unlocking each room, looking for keys and turned up with nothing. Right then Randy called from work and I lit into him. It was bad. Probably my worst moment ever. As I tore through the house I'd randomly see one of the boys kneeling in prayer, asking for help finding the keys. It was cute. And sad because I was too angry for divine intervention to be any help. Finally I did what had to be done. I put on my cleaning gloves and dug through the five garbage bags filled with trash and all the food I threw out from our fridge and freezer. I made the boys hold open a new trash bag and I removed items one by one until the old bag was empty and the new one was filled. It was bad. We were all crying. Well, I got to the bottom of the last bag and there were the keys, covered in syrup. We hardly had time to celebrate as we raced to the hotel to check in so I could quickly shower before going to our farewell party. We were so relieved to have the keys we drove away from the house for the last time and barely looked back. I guess the whole horrible experience made it easier to leave but I'm sure it also left the boys with a terrible memory of just how crazy their mom is.
Our farewell party was awesome! Our RI friends know how to throw a party. Each family surprised us with a lip sync to say goodbye to us. I laughed to tears over and over. There were songs from Les Mis, Sound of Music, Milli Vanilli, Beastie Boys, and Frozen. Randy finished off the night by singing a Neal Diamond song. It was great and a perfect ending to our RI experience. If I hadn't been so tired and stressed about closing on our house and driving cross-country I would've been a sobbing mess. We made some great friends and have some awesome memories in Rhode Island. I'm so glad Instagram and Facebook keep us connected. It makes goodbyes so much easier.
So here are a few pictures of our "lasts" in RI before I start posting pictures of our "firsts" in Washington.
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| Riding the carousel at the beach for the first and last time (thank you Groupon) |
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| Our last beach day at Easton's Beach |
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| Landon's best bud Finn |
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| Our last trip to Brickley's ice cream |
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| Our last breakfast at T's. So sad we only discovered its goodness a few months ago. So tragic! |
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| Our last time driving over the beautiful suspension bridge into Newport |
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| Making use of our annual pass and exploring a couple more Newport mansions |
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| Ethan appreciating art. He couldn't stop laughing and neither could everyone who saw him! |
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| The Cliff Walks - I've lost count of how many times we've walked along this scenic coast line |
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| Our last cub scout activity - Ethan's uniform was packed so pretend he looks like a cub scout |
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| The Three Amigos |
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| Sitting on the deck stairs was a great substitute for table and chairs |
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| Our last beach night at Narragansett Beach |
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| Chair 5 - the gathering place. This wasn't planned, everyone just showed up |
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| A stranger asked if the kids were all cousins. We said, "Nope, just friends that are as good as family!" |
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| Randy used boxes to barricade the boys from walking on the clean carpet |
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| I told the boys they could eat whatever they wanted since I was throwing it all out anyway so they ate ice cream for breakfast |
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| The sign at our farewell party |
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| The Stoklosa family singing "So Long, Farewell..." from the Sound of Music and the only lip sync photo I have because the rest are video |
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| Best buds Ethan and Easton |
Stay tuned for more updates. We are finally getting settled in. It's been a slow process.
You went out with a bang!!
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