We Moved!

It sure is a lot of work to move from one house to another!  We managed to move a whopping 12 (or so) miles, from our house in Hesston out to my family's farm near Goessel.

Saturday was the big day.  I'd spent the past 2 weeks packing up boxes and moving them over to the farm house one carload at a time.  Anytime we were headed toward Goessel we'd drop off boxes just to help move things along.  I also took time to put our stuff away once a mountain of boxes had accumulated in the farm house.  Friday was our last day and night in Hesston.  Our entire kitchen was bare, our dressers were just skeletons since all the drawers were already at the farm, our basement was bare except for couches and the house was quiet because we had our cable, internet and phone turned off.

 So, when 8:30am rolled around on Saturday we hauled all of our furniture outside.

It all fit in the U-Haul and 2 pick-up trucks!

My mom took the boys to the farm for the morning so we could work without worrying about stepping on them.  Noah was genuinely mad that he didn't get to help us move and we felt bad about that.  We love a good helper, but it just wasn't safe to have them running around "helping".

After about 3 hours everything was loaded, and then we slowly drove the 12 (or so) miles out to the farm!  

This is the over 130 year old farm house we're currently living in!  My grandmother lived in this house just about her entire life.  Her grandfather, or my great-great grandfather built it around 1880.  Just last year my grandma moved from this house into Bethesda Home in Goessel.  

It's an honor to live in a house so rich in family history.  The memories are thick in this house.  I got all emotional at dinner on Saturday night when Ben, the boys and I sat down to eat.  I realized I had set the table in the exact same way my grandma did when I was little.  I was sitting where she always sat, Ben was where my grandpa sat, and the boys were in the spots my sister and I would have occupied.  It hit me as we sat there just how much has happened in that house - most of which I'm not even aware of.  It feels special to me and I feel honored to call this house home for a while.

We had a wonderful group of friends and family help us move on Saturday.  Different people from our Sunday School class helped us at different times of the day and before we knew it, beds were made and all the furniture was in place!  Some of the younger movers were helpful not only with putting stuff (books) away, but also at helping our own kids feel comfortable in their new space.

And Axle came out to the farm too on Saturday afternoon!  He's learning again what it is to be an outside dog and has shown us just how much he loves to fetch!  We've been slowly transitioning him to being an outside dog, so hopefully in the next week or so we can get that done.  Lucky for us, the farm house has a big mudroom that's closed off from the house that we can keep Axle in overnight.  So far, he's done great with the boys and seems to be getting along with most of the other farm animals.

We spent 4 years in Hesston and we'll miss our neighbors and some of the conveniences of town.  But, it certainly does feel good to be in the country again and only driving 5 minutes to get to church on Sunday morning was great compared to the 15 minutes we were used to!

Birthday Surprise

Today is my mother's birthday - happy birthday Mom - and on Sunday we managed to surprise her. :-)

She knew that her family was going to be at her house for lunch.  She knew that we would bring all the food and that all she needed to provide was butter and jelly.  She didn't know that some dear friends would also be showing up for the party.  Gene and Cindy Hastings and Bob and Nancy Becker made for a fantastic birthday surprise.

It didn't hurt that the food we catered in from Keith in Goessel was amazing.  It also didn't hurt that my sister made a fabulous cheesecake for dessert.

It's hard to believe that my mother is 60.  I don't feel like I'm almost 31, so naturally I don't feel like my mother should, or could possibly be, 60.  Oh well, I guess that's how life works.

And while my mom was not looking forward to her birthday, I think in the end she's found out it's not that bad.  Especially when food, family and friends magically show up at your house to surprise you.

Thanksmas

 The entire Schrag family gathered for Thanksmas today.  Josh and Sara arrived last night to complete the gathering.  And, due to different schedules and available vacation time, this was the only 24 hours that we'll all be together this holiday season.  Sadly, it's been a year since we'd seen Sara and more yet since we'd seen Josh.

 Today was our Christmas!  We had a great time opening gifts.

 Levi was thrilled with his book of animal stickers (and all the other stuff he got)

 and Noah was thrilled with his football tee - although his expression in this photo doesn't show it.

 He tried it out right away and later he used it outside.

 Both boys got Chicago Bears hooded sweatshirts, John Deere jammies and socks, DVD's, a Nerf football and more.

 I walked around today taking some random photos to capture some of the other things we've been doing while we've been here.  The Wii has proven to be an excellent source of entertainment.  Noah and Levi mastered bowling and golfing and even got the rest of us in on the action.

 Sue introduced me to her homemade powder laundry detergent.  It's simple - 1 bar of Fels-Naptha soap, 1 c. Borax and 1 c. Washing Soda.  You grate the Fels-Naptha and then mix it all together.  It works great in her High Efficiency washer and she only uses 1 Tbsp. per load.  I think it sounds like a much more ecological and economical way to do laundry.

 We have eaten enormous amounts of delicious food.  We've had fabulous soup, bread, rice & beans, ham, potatoes, pie and more.  Sue outdid herself with providing us with wonderful food, hot chocolate and peppermint tea.

 Levi was so thrilled with his new jammies that he wore them all day.  He had a purple upper lip from the grape juice he drank all day and twice today I found him watching a DVD that he had gotten out and ready by himself.  How does he know how to do this?

We had a wonderful Christmas celebration with the entire family.  We completed 2 3/4 puzzles, colored pictures, played hide-and-seek and football, watched movies, took naps and laughed a lot.

Paint & Clippers

 Sue found a fantastic recipe for making finger paints online and Noah helped her whip up a batch.

 We had a great time making all sorts of gooey colorful creations on the glass kitchen table.

 And later in the day, Levi agreed to a haircut, while Ben took Noah out to a local place to get his hair cut (he continues to refuse to get his hair cut by anyone he's related to).

And after the haircut wrapped up, Levi vacuumed up all his little blond hairs from the floor.

Thanksgiving Fire

 Grandpa took the boys outside this morning to gather sticks and rake leaves.  The boys were pumped to help make a fire and getting some sticks and leaves picked up from the yard is always a good thing.

 The boys worked hard and had a great time raking, jumping into piles,

 adding leaves and poking the fire to help it keep going.

 Levi was not so helpful in picking up the leaves,

 but he made a wonderful cart driver - sound effects and all.  Happy Thanksgiving!

9 Hours Later

It took us 9 hours to drive to Illinois on Tuesday afternoon/evening and when the boys got up on Wednesday morning, they were READY TO GO!  It's exciting to be at Grandpa and Grandma Schrag's house.  There's always lots to see and do.

First things first, help grandma in the kitchen.

 They helped Sue mix up Sourdough bread.

 And then Ben and I took the boys to the Children's Museum.  As soon as we told the boys we'd be traveling to Illinois, they asked to go to the Children's Museum.  So, we put it at the top of the priority list.

 I think we spent about an hour in the farm section.  The museum has a wonderful set up of combine, grain cart, auger, bins, feeding troughs and grain elevator all connected by tubes. The grain are the little green balls you see below.  Air flows through the tubes, so when you put a green ball in, the air whisks it away to the next place grain goes.

 The boys fed the cows, made the grain go up the auger, gathered more grain in their buckets, 

 then they'd run their full buckets to the cows, 

 and run their empty buckets back to the grain auger.  

 They spent time picking corn on the combine and then they were finally ready to move on.

 We spent quality time in the painting area.  I could tell they were a year older than the last time we'd been to  the museum.  They both painted their names, rainbows and shapes instead of randomly brushing paint on and spending most of the time washing it off.

 At the pretend stage, Noah got involved by operating the curtain and lights.  He wasn't interested in putting on a costume and acting in the show the other kids were putting together.  

 Levi wasn't interested in the big stage, but did have a good time with the hand puppets.

We had a great time and thanks to the Amtrak train just outside the museum, we were able to lure our kids out so we could go eat lunch.  Without that train, I'm not sure when we would have got them to quit making pretend pizzas.