Finally Home

So much has happened since we moved in, I don't even know where to start.

We closed on the house on Friday but didn't really start moving things in until Saturday. We couldn't sleep at the house since the house had an overwhelming stench of dog pee. We thought it was cat pee but learned that the previous owner had 2 large dogs in the house. Anyway, the carpets had to be ripped out before we could let the kids sleep there.

In the meantime, the kids stayed at the new house just hanging out and getting used to their surroundings while I helped with unpacking and then I ran over to the old house to get last minute cleaning and packing done. Our goal was to be moved in enough to be able to sleep there by Sunday, since my mom had new carpet to be installed by Monday at the old house. The kids weren't happy about sleeping at the old house again, seeing that everything was gone and packed away and they had to sleep on cots again.

Sunday morning our goal was to go to an early Mass, pack up a few more items that was still at the old house and then get back to the new house. But I realized we had no clothes except what we were wearing and what was in the suitcase that we were all living out of--and no Sunday clothes. I didn't want the kids to show up in shorts and a t-shirt for Mass so we decided to just head out to the new house and go to the evening Mass instead. So off to the new house we went.

Long story short, Sunday was about the worst day of the entire week. There was no rest on this day, that was for sure and we had no choice but to keep working if we wanted somewhere to sleep. The house was so dirty and grimy that everything was unusable, including the bathtub so I couldn't even give the kids baths. The only thing that was usable was the refrigerator that we had bought, but the oven was broken as was the microwave. I had no way of making a meal and no dishes to put it in anyway. As we stayed at the house, we realized that the dog pee smell wasn't getting better and was coming from other rooms other than our own. So Dennis tore out Henry's carpet next and then later we decided to also pull out the hallway carpet. We found huge stains that had gone through the carpet and the stench was terrible, not to mention the dust that came from it. It set off everyone's allergies.

Even after all that, Dennis still had to set up all our beds including our own, and being a Sleep Number bed, it takes longer to set up. I saw that our time was running out and that there was no way we were going to make it in time to Mass in Chanhassen (the only church somewhat nearby that has an evening mass) and still get beds set up. We were still dirty and grimy, I only found one church outfit and that was for Lucy, but as for the rest of us, everything was in boxes. Our clothes were all wrinkled and I couldn't find the iron (still can't find it) and Henry was tired and cranky from being up all day. I still had not fed the kids and wasn't sure how that was going to happen without fast food. We were all tired of McDonalds and that's basically all that is around here. We finally decided that Mass just wasn't going to happen, no matter how much I wanted to go. I felt guilty even though I knew it was out of our control; it had been such a hard day with so much effort and not much progress. Not only that, but me and the kids were in the way since we couldn't even unpack boxes because they were trapped behind all the furniture that was still in the garage. So I decided that me and the kids would head back to the old house and get Papa Murphy's and use the stove there; it would give me a chance to get a few more things that were left behind. (We had the truck only for a day, so we weren't able to pack everything--thus, making many trips back and forth to get the leftovers.)

I thought the kids would be happy to eat pizza and see their old home one more time, but they were cranky and out of sorts. Henry was especially mad that he was back at the old house. He kept shouting, "House!" and pointing to the car.

One thing I had completely forgotten about when baking the pizza was that I had no way of getting the pizza out of the oven. I had only one oven mitt that was left behind (thank goodness) but had to use my other hand to help get the pizza out of the oven. Of course, no matter how careful and quick I tried to be, I pretty much threw pizza on top of the stove, and pizza sauce and cheese went all over the stove I had just cleaned the other day. To make things worse, I forgot to clean it up.

The rest is a blur, to be honest. I just remember being more tired than I have ever been in years, and so was everyone else. Dennis has the "Energizer bunny" inside him though; he kept going until 1:30 in the morning, driving back at the old house to pack up the rest of the stuff and getting everything ready for the carpet guys the next day. This was after he helped me get the kids settled in bed for the first night (which didn't go well) and even though everyone fought going to bed, Henry conked right out--thanks to being deprived of a nap that day.

I don't want to be all glum but it really was the worst day I have had in a long time. We had no idea how bad the house truly was until we were stuck with it. I had no idea of the mess, grime and basic grossness of the house, and I didn't know that nearly everything that we needed on a day-to-day basis was either unusable, broken, or just gone.

I went to bed with a pounding headache but had no medicine to make the headache go away. All I could do was pray that God truly did want us here because it sure looked bleak.

More on Monday and Tuesday in the next post!