3 Days Left with a Suprise

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Just after lunch, the truck arrived. We all ran to see the massive 26ft long truck. I felt light-headed just looking at it and the amount of stuff we had to put in there. Then, Johnathan informed me that one of his friends was coming to help load the truck. My burden was suddenly manageable, the sun was brighter and the mood lifted tenfold. I was thrilled, not just to have another hand at this daunting task, but, also to have a friend around while we spent our last days in Sioux Falls.

The day couldn’t have gone any faster and smoother than it did, my Grandma and Sarah came over to clean and continue packing in the house. There was bearly a squabble amongst us thanks to our friend, we listened to upbeat music, teased, and laughed together. I couldn’t have asked for a better day. We worked from noon until 9 pm, and we were tired-but not done. We had probably filled 3/4 of the truck and Landon, (who was the one who did most of the strategic placement and organizing of the boxes and furniture) was starting to wonder whether or not we would fit it all in.


  

They were best buddies

 

Boys will be boys!

Ahh, those dressers were no easy task, but they managed!

Landon, Tetris Master.

4 Days Left

The garage is getting full and with Johnathan, Landon and myself loading the truck I was starting to dread the next day. “The truck is coming tomorrow and we needed to have everything in the garage by morning!” I told my siblings constantly that day, trying to keep everyone moving was hard, people were exhausted and I was no exception. But, even now I’m not sure which was harder, keeping my siblings moving or making sure my 8mo and 2wks expectant mother did not hurt or overexert herself. (Love you, mom!)

The Nightshift Post and Morning Watch

Since Claire was born, it has been customary for the two eldest in the family to stay up into the night or get up as early as mom requires. This method has insured mom her well needed nights rest after the baby is born up until the baby sleeps well in his or her crib. Not only does this give our homeschooling mom her sleep, this also allows capable young adults to practice taking basic care of an infant child, which are skills teenagers need. It helps prepare for when they themselves have an infant to care for. I went to bed in the wee hours of the morning and enjoyed every minute I was either standing and shushing or had an adorable baby sleeping soundly on me.

This is Actually Happening

There are last minute decisions in my life all the time, I plan outings spur of the moment, I babysit last minute, My family of 10 have left on a cross-country 2-week vacation with a 24hr notice. So, I am very used to changes and last minute decisions but this will be the fastest course of action I have seen yet. These next days will go by in a blur of boxes, stress, sweat, tears, and change.

On October 10th we received a call from our realtor, there was a family that wanted to look at our house the following morning. So we quickly got the house ready for a showing that night and went to bed. They came in the early morning and we all left to go have breakfast at Burger King and few blocks away. We were almost finished eating when my dads’ phone rings which is a normal occurrence so nobody pays any attention to the call that will change everyone’s lives. My dad hangs up the phone and says “they want to move-in November 1st.”

 

August

     Everything was going well, supper was almost done. Then we would have cake to celebrate my sweet 16 birthday. It was raining and one could barely see out the windows. I was video recording the rain poring down outside not knowing what disaster awaited me in the future.     

    I hurried in to the kitchen and continued to set the table for dinner, when there is a scream of terror coming from the basement. It was Joseph and he was yelling “the bathroom is flooded!” In no less than a minute Landon and I were down scooping gallon buckets out of the sump-pump and dumping them outside through the garage steps. The basement was being flooded again. The sump-pump could not keep up with the rain that we were getting. I hustled into my room to look for water and the carpet was floating by the window. I began to throw towels on the wet carpet, but with every towel I threw they became saturated. I gave up.

     I started to throw everything I could into the nearest box only stopping to comfort the traumatized Dominic who was most upset. He was very concerned that we were all going to die. I told him the rain was going to stop and the water was only going to get an inch high, showing him with my fingers how big that was. Then he started to calm down. Landon was calling me back to help him with the rising water in the sump room so I told Dominic to go back upstairs to wait where he would not be in the way. But that just made him more upset that I was not coming with him. He said, “But I’m scared!” Then to the rescue came Sarah who had a headache at the time so she could not help carry water. She took his hand and led him up the stairs along with Claire.

     Quickly I went back to shoveling water with Landon. At around 11pm(about three hrs after Joseph screamed) we had probably taken 30 gal of water out of the sum-pump. “Happy flood day to you,” Landon said. I had to laugh about that for a while. For the next two hours we used the shop-vac hose to suck water out of the carpet which was not very effective.  There was just too much water to keep up. Dad came home with a second smaller vac to help. At 1:30am we decided we would have to pull the carpet up in the morning. This was a very distressing thought for me. The entire time I was scooping water a flash back was playing in my head when  five years ago, we flooded for the first time. Every detail was replayed in my head like it was presently happening.

 

That will be the most memorable birthday ever.

To be continued…

 

July

Sarah left for Alaska for two weeks after some major packing. It was different being without Sarah for so long, especially in the mornings when she would normally get up and turn on the light while I was still sleeping. And just not having her presents around was a little strange.  But, two weeks later she was home and everything was back to normal, the light was turned back on and under my grunts of displeasure I was pleased she was home.

January

January went very fast with the beautiful weather we were having and play practices to keep us busy. All the play practices went well. My costume weighed 30lbs and was very hot and I had a 20 inch tall wig. On the day of the performance  five plays were performed. Our play won first place. Landon got an actors award along with a few others. Our cast did so well at working together the judges made up there own award  to give the entire cast on the spot. The ensemble award. 

 

 

Nothing happened in February

Driving permit

Yay, I got my drivers permit. I am so exited to get started driving.  I did not think I would pass this test, you are only allowed to get four out of twenty-five answers wrong, and I was at three and I had ten questions left, but thankfully everything went well and I passed the test. And then I walked up to the window and the man told me to sign my name on the thingy with a pen, and that was the first time I had ever used this type of thing and my hand writing was bad. Then he went and put that signature on my permit, dang, I wish he would have told me what he was going to do with it.

 

-Maria

Poor Dominic

One day Dominic came up to me and said with a sour face and arms around his belly:

“Mawea, my tumic huwts wēlly bad.”  And I said to him”  oh, I feel so sorry for you.” then he replied “I forgive you.” 

Oh, what a sweet heart, I hope he feels better soon.

 

 

Have a nice day 🙂

Advent

Ohh, my goodness its already Advent and Sarah is talking about next semester classes, Ohh boy my head is spinning. Time is going so fast. We just finished Thanksgiving cooking and cleaning and pretty soon we will need to start Christmas cooking and cleaning and standing around in the kitchen for nine hrs, Great.

 

 How long of a vacation off of school do you guys have? I don’t know how long mine will be but all I know is Sarah has THREE WEEKS CHRISTMAS VACATION, THREE WEEKS I am so jealous.