Packing Day Eve

The packers will be here tomorrow.  

We have been tirelessly, cleaning, organizing, packing things we will keep with us, yelling at the kids to stop making messes, cleaning some more, and then repeat each step again.  

The camper and all of the things we will need for the next 2 months are at a friends house, where we will be staying until April 21st.  As of tonight, that will be our new home.  

Since I have been washing all of the bed clothes, curtains, rugs, etc., we all had bare beds to sleep in last night - and I was not putting sheets back on.  There just happened to still be a couple of blankets that needed washing, so we laid those back out on the beds, then made the kids sleep in their sleeping bags, which of course called for a sleepover.  

Shawn and I went to sign our closing paperwork today.  That's one less thing we have to do.  I also called and got all of our utilities cancelled.  We set up a post office box, because we won't have an address once we're in the camper!

Lastly, I don't know how I'm going to update the blog while we're out of a house for two months.  We won't have a computer with us and I can't do it on my phone (because, how would I download my camera photos onto my phone in order to get them to the blog?  I am not tech savvy.)   I just don't know.  But, I know there is no way that I can not, not update the blog, so I will have to find a way to make it work!  

So, until then…..The Capps Family is signing off…..unless you have Facebook and then you can see us there too:o)

Easter Weekend

We got a lot accomplished this weekend.  Friday, Shawn took the swing set apart and left the two fort ends intact.  They wouldn't fit through the side gates…..

So this happened.  He took a panel out of the side and our neighbor, who bought the swing set from us, pulled his trailer right up to the opening so that we could take it out that way.

 Now it sits two houses down, where our friend, Donovan and his baby brother can play on it.

 Saturday, we did lots of packing and organizing and throwing things away…etc.  We made time to make some Easter Rise Krispy Treats and a carrot cake, then we painted Easter eggs.

 Shawn eating the one that got cracked.

 They woke up this morning to baskets full of great things - candy, travel toys and new kites.

 Amelia got a fox and Caleb got a shark.

 We went to church with our friends, The Kempf's and The Plot's.  Afterwards, we headed to The Plot's for Easter dinner - Mexican style.  Since it was raining out, we had to have the Easter egg hunt inside.

 Sheppard, Molly, Emma, Amelia and Caleb (Sophie didn't want to get in it:o).  

Happy Easter!

A Little Trim

Amelia had spring pictures today.  It was a little chilly this morning, but the afternoon turned pretty warm.  She chose braids - Anna style.

 After school, we headed to he salon for a little trim.

Mom also got her hair cut today, so now we look like twins:o)  

Beginning Goodbyes

Our movers will be here one week from tomorrow.

So, we invited a few of our neighborhood friends over.

And by a few, I mean there were 24 of us.

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  God always gives us great friends everywhere we've been.  Watching the kids say goodbye to their friends will be hard.  As they get older and begin to understand better what moving means, they also begin to realize leaving friends behind is hard.  The other night at bedtime, we were talking about leaving friends and how that's going to be sad and Caleb said, in such a grown up way, "Yah Mom, but we'll make more when we get to California".  

Left to right: Taryn, Heather, Amelia, Kara, Emily, Donovan, Asher, Tristan, Carter, Caleb, Ryan and Kyle.

Yellow Haze

It's that time of year again.

When we are surrounded by a yellow haze at all hours of the day.

When you're sneezing and coughing and your lungs feel like their on fire.  When you're tired for no other reason, than this.  

When just two days earlier, this black metal roof was black and now it's covered in pollen.

 When we take in the patio furniture and hose off the front steps daily.

When we hose down the car and it looks like this.

I hate this time of year in North Carolina.

 But, I look out my bedroom window and decide to walk outside.  

I don't know if I knew flowers even bloomed way back in that corner at the back of the fence among the weeds and thorny vines.

 It's also a time when the four bushes on the side of the house look like little white pom-poms.

A time when the entire back fence row is blooming in colors of dark pink and light pink and even dots of white.

So, while I hate the pollen that is floating around in the air, 

this time of year is absolutely beautiful!

"For behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone.  The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come…they give forth fragrance".

The Song of Solomon 2:11-13

Spring Fever

Technically, it's still winter!

Donuts Will Make A Heart Feel Good

Caleb wanted to raise money for Jump Rope For Heart.  

His first idea was to sell his books, but I told him that only kids would want to buy his books.  So, we came up with donuts!

Making their sign last night.

 Bright and early, 7am, mom drove to Dunkin Donuts and bought 3 dozen donuts.  I was sure we'd sell one box and then be left with two more…to eat.

 But, they were good sales people, waving to every person and car that drove by and sold every donut except 1!  

(Well, if you count the ones we ate, then that would be 7 more:o)

 Selling is hard work.

 They sat out there for 2 hours and made $43.  I told him we'd round it up to $45…AND...that mom and dad would match whatever he made (I didn't really think he'd make $43!).  We might as well be nice and just go ahead and round it up to an even $100!

Great job, Caleb and Amelia!!

Amelia Grace

Just because...

A WHOLE LOTTA Stuff

We have been up to...a lot!  

We haven't been crazy busy, but we've just got a lot going on.

We sold the house.  Had the inspection.  Had a plumber come in to give an inspection.  The buyer came back to show her dad the house (so we had to clean again).  She sent inspection report and what she wanted fixed and the money she wanted to fix a plumbing issue.  We countered last night.  Our realtor called today to say she accepted and now we wait for our closing date of April 7th.  

Shawn set up our move yesterday, so now we wait for the moving company to call and come out to access our house (to be able to give us how many days they expect to pack us up and move us out).  More than likely that will take place the last week of March - Spring Break week.  Which is only 4. Weeks. Away!

Just before closing, we will move ourselves into a friends house for a couple of weeks while he's out of town…

THEN…

Please pray for us...

We will move ourselves to the campground on base.  Yes, 4 of us and a dog, in a 18 foot camper.  I'm trying not to think about it too much yet.  Not only that, we can only stay there from the 21st through the 29th, because they were already booked up for the air show that weekend.  To which we will have to move the camper  for 2 short days, somewhere, then come back.  I will have to drive them to school 30 minutes away for the last month, fill my time with things up there, because I can't drive back and forth 4 times a day - seriously.  And also fill Amelia and I's time after I get her from school, because we will still have 2 hours until Caleb gets out.    

Oh and I almost forgot, after we get to the campground on the 21st, Shawn will be going to TX for Shawn Campbell's funeral from Friday afternoon to Sunday night.  

Camping. By. Ourselves.

Shawn will more than likely be finished with work May 20th and Caleb will done with all of his testing May 27th.  Since he will only have a week left, Amelia will already be out of school and Shawn will be done with work, we figure this might be Caleb's last day of school too.  

If that's the case, we will probably head to IN for a short visit (Memorial Day weekend plus a few days), then set out for CA.

On top of all of this, we are searching for a house everyday on the internet.  Trying to find a house (or townhouse even) that will accommodate all of us, have grass for a dog to use, even allow pets, have a refrigerator (yes, I would say around 75% of the rentals listed do not have refrigeratos, so we would have to buy one), go to a decent school, within a 25-30 minuted drive to work for Shawn, is like finding a needle in a haystack.  

But, we know that in all of this, in all of THIS craziness, God will work it all out and so we (ok, me) are trying not too stress to much.  

All I know is that we are creating memories.

That's a good strategy for making all of this not sound so crazy!