Greetings from our new home in Charlotte.
I have started and re-started this post half a dozen times and can’t seem to come up with any way to adequately express how utterly exhausted and overwhelmed I feel right now. So I figure the best thing to do is just to start chronologically and work my way forward until my brain freezes up.
Here are a few last shots from our final Sunday.
(next three photos by Jannie Kenyon and Greta Sharp)
I made sure to get a shot with my little friend, Faith. She and I have enjoyed getting to know each other over the past year or so since I started teaching her class.
She even gave me the honor of doing her water baptism which was extra, extra special. (Especially when I got knocked off my feet by a rogue wave and got re-baptized myself.)
And also, a few more photos from Randy, Debbie, and Nathan’s visit.
It was fun to just sit and talk and hang out–even if we had to do it on pre-wrapped chairs.
The three out-of-towners took a tour of Sarah and Gage’s workplace.
Steve and Randy go way back–from marrying sisters to living in an RV together with said sisters and doing hundreds of concerts in thirty states. It did my heart good to see them hanging out together.
All of the assembled family members jumped in to help pack. I told them I felt bad that they couldn’t come to our house and just relax but they very untactfully ignored my pleas to relax and kept right on working. So grateful for the three of them and for Sarah and Gage.
I took this photo of Gage without him knowing it. He is one of those people who just finds things to do without even being told. He noticed that one of our outdoor trash cans was smelling less than pristine so he took it upon himself to drag it to the back deck and give it a washing. He’s a good man.
On the day of the move, I woke up at 4 a.m. to try and get a jump on taming the bedlam and immediately burst into tears.
Too much to do. Too many goodbyes. Too exhausted. Too hard to think about getting through the day.
When Steve woke up I told him, “I need a miracle or I need caffeine. There is no way I am going to get through this day.”
But I made it!
I appreciate my friend, Jean, packing up the books in Steve’s office and coming over to pack at the house, as well. She is a true gem.
I had to laugh when I saw one of the boxes from Steve’s office.
“Teeth, etc?” What?
Turns out Steve had some funny outfits (including hats and fake teeth) stored in his office for different skits and funny events. After they landed in this box, they were duly marked in the table of contents. I tend to think there is no other moving box on the planet that is marked with “Teeth, etc.”
Our Dare Challenge friends showed up at 7 a.m. and worked with very few breaks until 4 p.m. What a great bunch of guys! (Note: they usually don’t help people move but made an exception because of Steve’s ten-year involvement in their ministry.)
As this video shows, they made short work of it.
Steve had such fun hanging out with “his guys” who he loves so dearly.
In the midst of the hard work, he found time to proclaim to everyone that he is fragile.
(Except he pronounces it fra-GEEL-ay in his best fake Italian accent.)
He rarely stopped moving the day of the move–working himself while overseeing the guys.
My biggest helper throughout the moving process has been this gal, Greta.
Greta has spent at least twenty-five hours at our house over the past couple of weeks helping to pack. It’s not an exaggeration to say that without her, Steve and I would not have gotten it done.
With seventeen moves under her belt, she helped us wade through seemingly insurmountable piles and clusters of chaos. She inspired us and cheered us on and wouldn’t let us quit. So thankful for God-sent friends.
She even provided expert first aid when I sliced my finger on a tape dispenser. Seven neat cuts, all in a row.
At one point in the day, I just decided to call it in and flung myself down on the only spot available. I’d still be there except, for some odd reason, people insisted that I needed to move. Party poopers.
And at the end of the day? The house was empty of our things and full of our memories.
We had a few things remaining we didn’t have room for so we are going to have to make another trip back to Manteo soon.
In the meantime, the downstairs floors are being stripped and polished. A painter/handyman has been hard at work repairing, painting, and sprucing things up. The kitchen, laundry room, and bathroom floors will be replaced, new cabinet fronts installed, new fixtures installed in the master bath, etc. The house should go on the market within the next two weeks and we are doing everything we can to ensure we get the best price we can.
I have to say it’s just a wee bit hard to leave a house in pristine condition and move into a house that needs tons of work. But that just means that we will get to be a part of the process of improvement and rejoice in every bit of progress we make.
Gage took this photo as we pulled out.
We were packed to the gills with all the boxes, all the belongings, and all the “teeth, misc.” 🙂
I’ll close out with the video from last week of Nathan surprising Steve. (We got it from two angles.) There’s also a snippet of him with Sarah and Gage.
It was so wonderful having him and Randy and Debbie with us for our last Sunday. I will never forget the joy and the encouragement it brought my weary, overwhelmed heart to be surrounded by those wonderful, beloved people.
What about you?
Name one thing that happened last week that was interesting, fun, sad, dramatic, or especially enjoyable. I don’t want to be the one telling all the stories around here!
It’s all amazing! The fact you got a post done in the midst of exhaustion and upheaval, your incredible helpers, the end of one chapter accomplished and another one begun. Yep, amazing.
I’m just sorry it’s been stress upon stress with the seeing of two moms to heaven and all the travel and emotional drain that was. And then so much hard labor and stress for you and Steve working on two houses at once and wrapping up 13 good years at Manteo First. But you have persevered and are accomplishing the seeming impossible! Proof that faith and sweat can move mountains!
What a joy to be there with you guys, Sage and Nathan for a few days. It was a privilege for sure.
I love your new/old place! It will be simply lovely. Very proud of you both! ❤️
Love, Deb
Deb,
Your comments are always like a whiff of fresh air on a desultory day.
So thankful you and Randy were able to come and grateful for your invaluable help. Plus, we got to sing and hang out!
What a great word desultory is! I’ll have to try and use in a sentence tomorrow. 🙂🤔
Deb,
I sort of liked that one myself!
Wow!! What a journey you have been on! I’m excited to hear all about your new home and the adventures you will soon have there!
The best thing of the past week was taking our new third child on a day trip to the lake. He h a d so much fun riding go-karts and picking out ice cream from a counter that had about 100 choices!
Jenna,
I’ve so enjoyed reading your stories about this new chapter. So much joy coming through each word.
I absolutely LOVE the video of Nathan surprising Steve (and Sarah) !! Such a fun & haIppy end to a bittersweet post. I look forward to following along as y’all make the Grandparent Smith Home your own. This past week was pretty “normal” for me, but maybe I was channeling your exhaustion, as I felt unusually tired/run down pretty much all week. Wishing you a productive week with rest thrown in.
Sue Ellen,
Yes, hard to believe we are the new grandparents!
Sorry you had you felt run down last week. Hopefully this will be a week of pep!
I have started and re-started this post half a dozen times and can’t seem to come up with any way to adequately express how utterly exhausted and overwhelmed I feel right now. After reading this sentence, I thought, Becky Smith – we can wait for your blog until you get some much needed rest. Know there are many things that need to be done, but I believe I can wait for more news until you no longer are exhausted and overwhelmed. By the way, Loved the blog and the videos.
Sharyn,
Thanks for your sweet words. I don’t think I’ve missed a Monday post in a long time and I’m reluctant to break my record. But I know my sweet readers would perfectly understand.
Glad you enjoyed the vids!
My Mom moved from our family home to Roseville about two months ago. Her new house sits facing the golf course, which she enjoys immensely. My sister and her family live about five minutes away from her new home, so she has family over often. Hard to believe she is 94 and still living by herself! She plans to get a kitten soon, so she will have constant companionship. So the family home is now on the market for the first time in 62 years. Wishing you much joy as you get settled and flourish in your new home.
Cindy,
Oh, I love the idea of your mom getting a kitten. I can just picture the two of them having a grand, ol’ time. Glad her last years are filled with golf-watching, family, and felines!
Nothing especially exciting happened around our home this week. I love your box with the “teeth”. When the estate sale people were clearing my folks garage they came upon a box that said “Patti’s bones”. The got quite a chuckle when they carefully opened it and found an old cow skull. I had intended to use it for science with my kindergarten class but never got it to school. I had no idea my dad had labeled it as my bones…Prayers for energy as you settle into your new home.
Patti,
I’m surprised they had the courage to open the box. Who knows what one might find? What’s funny to me is that your dad saved it! You never know when you might need Patti’s bones or something. 🙂
For clarity, it was grandma’s son, who was my colleague’s father. Just in case you weren’t too grossed out to care.
Congratulations on becoming Charlotteers! I wish you much joy in your new(ish) home.
I’ve been a hermit this past week, so I’ll tell you a few anecdotes to try to do my share of the conversation.
– I absolutely loved the “teeth” marking on the carton. My mother had Alzheimer’s. Things would be “lost” because she’d put them somewhere and forget where. This happened most often with her dentures. This was also a long time ago, long before we all had boxes of latex gloves in our homes. So each night I’d go to her house and dig into all kinds of places, part of me hoping to find them so she could eat, but cringing at the thought of what might be on them when I did find them.
– I had a colleague whose grandfather died. Her grandmother had dementia. Her father stood near the door with her. People would come in and Grandma would hold out her hand. When the visitors held out their hand, Grandma would take out her dentures and put them in the visitor’s hand. Her son would then use a tissue to take the dentures back, and a grandson would hand out Purel wipes.
– I loved the video of Nathan surprising Steve. For quite a while my younger son lived in NY City and I lived near Buffalo, NY. One time he decided to come home for the weekend as a surprise. A friend picked him up at the airport. I was home when the doorbell rang. I opened the door to see two nice looking young men grinning at me. I DIDN’T RECOGNIZE MY SON UNTIL HE SAID, “Hi, Mom!” (I took a lot of heat for that one for years.)
– That’s all I’ve got, hope it kept your mind of unpacking for a while. Back to hermiting for me!
Jan,
Well, I think your teeth story outdoes my tooth story because you are talking about actual teeth–er, actual fake teeth!
I loved your teeth stories; definitely a good distraction from what’s going on here. Also, the stories make me thankful I am not prowling the house looking for missing dentures.
It’s hilarious that you didn’t recognize your son at first. I can only imagine the laughter that ensued!