The Move

There is a reason why I went from blogging several times a month to just a couple of times during the past 3 months...THE MOVE!

The Move has soaked up the majority of my brain cells, my emotions, and obviously, my time. I am going to do my darndest to catch up on all the important and meaningful happenings that have occurred between July and now...so just ignore the untimeliness. :-)

Thursday, July 5th, 2012

Greg e-mails me 

Subject: Greg wanted you to see this Tulsa home found on Realtor.com®

Date: July 5, 2012 7:36:17 PM CDT  To: Katie Ruley

about a house. Then, the next day he texts and asks me to meet him to see a house for the 1st time.

I admit, I was annoyed by the disruption in my day. Didn't have any interest in looking at houses  - thought for sure we'd end up building.

Little did I know...

Felt pretty moved by the house and was strongly considering making an offer. However, our oldest (Will - 13 yrs) was at camp, and I knew we needed his blessing before making any type of offer...especially since, with this particular house he and his younger brother (Owen - 5 yrs), would be sharing a room!!!

Saturday, July 7th

Picked Will up from Shepherd's Fold Camp with Abby in tow and headed home to show the two of them the house...anxious to hear their thoughts

One thing we knew we had to check was whether *Big Bertha (aka my Yukon XL) had to be able to fit through the porte cochere and then make the turn into the single garage.

It was not easy.

In fact, it made my heart race and my eyes well up with tears thinking about doing this several times a day. 

(Update, Big Bertha did get a stucco side swipe during her 2nd month of pulling through...sad day)

In order to fit through the front part, we realized we had to pull the mirrors in - Praise God for electric mirrors! If not, there was literally only 2-3 inches to spare!

One thing that really moved Greg and I's hearts was seeing our kids jump on the trampoline...and shoot hoops with the BB goal - I grew up w/ both of these things...brought back wonderful memories!

We made our 1st offer that Saturday afternoon, but then after an extremely emotional evening, I asked our realtor if we could re-cant our offer. I just didn't have the peace I needed...I wasn't ready for such a big decision so quickly.

The next morning (Sunday), I went on a prayer run before church. Following that, our family worshipped together and then went up to the altar and had a pastor pray for wisdom and clarity. That afternoon, Ella and I went over to the new neighborhood and did a prayer walk around the street...desperately seeking the Lord and what His Will was for our family.

His answer to each of our children, and to us, was yes...we were to make an offer on the house.

THE WAITING GAME

During our first looooong week of waiting to hear back about our offer, the younger two begged to see the house...as would be expected. So, we made another appointment and took them over. :-)

Everyone was anxious to see where their bedroom would be...

Abby in the "pink room"

and Ella in the "lavender room"

Owen in the girls' closet...

Well...until he saw the back room, aka "The Boys Cave" where he and his big bro would get to slumber together

Happy Boys!

(Side note: words cannot express our gratefulness for how open our oldest was to rooming with a brother 7.5 years younger...he was not only open, but extremely gracious and loving about it)

In fact, here's a copy of the e-mail Will sent me on 7/8.

On Jul 8, 2012, at 11:49 AM, Will Ruley wrote:

Pros: for house
- jenks se
- pool
- basketball goal
- trampoline
- beautiful kitchen
- playroom
- big closet
- will and Owen GET to share
- fridge upstairs
- media room
- no noise above master bedroom
- good for family time
- bathrooms
- high ceilings
- media room close to wills room
- spot for a family computer
- cool windows to kitchen
- laundry chute
- big green belt area
- lots of openness
- able to practice golf
- nice neighbors
Will :)

now for Mom and Dad's room...our precious realtor, who we adore, pointed out how priceless the backyard and view were from our room. No one would be building behind us due to the pond and tree's to the left of us. The new Traditions edition will be starting up, but will be a significant distance from our backyard. Bonus!

Remember how I mentioned the looong first week...make that a loooong 11 weeks! Our little offer turned out to be part of a "short sale" that we found out did not mean SHORT.... instead, it meant very very LONG!
Week 9, final viewing of house before we have to make yet another big decision regarding house...after mucho prayer, we decided to go for it!

Which, in turn, meant - time to list our beloved home in Audubon Park.

and time to start packing...

several visits back to the house at this point to check on furniture measurements, how to take care of pool, how the alarm works, etc.

Boys had such fun playin' hoops while we worked on stuff

Moving.Is.Hard

Moving takes more energy than having triplets. Well, what I guess having triplets would be like. I did have four kids in 7 years and this felt harder...at least at times.

Thank the Good Lord above that I had a very precious person show up to help me...that person was my amazing Momma! I cannot tell you how priceless this act of love was during one of the hardest two weeks of my life! Now that is LOVE...

The other person who blessed us with her muscles was my sis 'n law Amy! She and I probably hauled 70+ boxes over one day...we were serious She-Men!!

Friday, September 14th, 2012

At loooooong last, we closed on the new casa! Mucho thanks to our amazing realtor, Susan who worked her tail off for us! After spending so much time and emotional exhaustion with her by our side, we became very close. I am super blessed to get to see her most Sunday's at church...otherwise, we would miss her so much. She was a *Jewel!

The weekend prior to the move...we were given permission to go over and start cleaning and moving boxes to the garage. The boys went straight for the basketball!

Time to start trying out furniture...IO Metro ended up the Jackpot Furniture Store for us with the new home. I was wanting a fresh start with a more modern motif...their pieces helped me do just that!

Abby and Ella got to pick a new bedroom color (since their rooms needed painted) - Abs went with Turqoise (Sherwin Williams "Mariner") 

and El went with a beautiful coral

I realized after painting that I was super grateful the coral landed on the right - as that room is visible from the street at night...turquoise woulda been quite a site!

Here are the kids having a snack and anxiously awaiting diving into their new pool on one of our pre-move cleaning days

O-Man scaling the master closet

Friday, September 16th, 2012

THE BIG MOVE

We had SO much stuff, that we needed not one...but TWO Moving Trucks!

I was up at the crack of dawn and had my body builder protein bar ready to go!

I began by stripping each of the kids' beds.

Here's what I found laying on Ella's bed...priceless

And hanging from Will's bunk bed...the lyrics to Amy Grant's "Thy Word" and then a drawing of Jesus along with Will's definition of what Love is...another priceless moment.

Meanwhile at new casa...master bedroom furniture moved in

The girls' piano getting hauled up the stairs by four grown men...not an easy task

The move took around 12 hours...it was an arduous day to say the least!

(sadly, we still had a garage and 2 attics left at old house to still retrieve)

Me on day 2 of move trying to conquer the 100's of boxes...words cannot express the overwhelming feeling I had in side. And, of course, everyone wants to stop by to "see the house" in the midst of all the chaos. One wants to be hospitable...but really?!! 

My top goal was to get the kitchen stuff unloaded so we could start eating real food. ;-)

My Abby Lou was the 1st to have her closet all put together...oh how I loooove a pretty closet!

Speaking of closets, the pantry was in desperate need of addt'l shelving so we had a carpenter come add  some - he did a marvelous job!

Momma loves her some pantry storage!

Our most precious neighbor next door blessed us with a homemade dinner and a dear friend of mine surprised us with a dozen delicious cupcakes! We were counting our Lucky *Stars* that night!

Day 3: after several dishwasher loads, I finally got all our glassware unpacked and ready to find a home somewhere. (This experience made me regret every glassware/plate purchase I had ever made)

A typical view of the new house on any given day the 1st week

Our new dining room table arrived a week in...we were so anxious to finally have chairs to sit in and eat as a family! (been eating off of boxes for over a week at this point - our island barstools weren't in yet either)

Our 1st Family Dinner at the new Table - extra bonus: Will's BFF Dalten

1st Sunday Morning breakfast...a very meaningful meal for us each week

One of my favorite moments of the 1st week...Bella Boo coming down in her pretty pink gown to visit me in my office ~ I loved the glass windows and view behind her...so picturesque

My 1st time to take a moment to catch my breath and enjoy our new backyard - sent this pic to my Honey telling him how happy I was to be there...he was the one who had really pushed buying the house. I was very skeptical and had a very hard time letting go of our old home.

Another favorite spot in the new house - our little peek-a-boo windows up in the playroom that open and look down over the kitchen and den. So fun for the kids!!

One of the biggest projects we did when we moved in was refinishing the kitchen island. Wanted to get some of the yellow out of it and make it a little more modern. Unfortunately our painters could not quite grasp the vision I had...

So, Momma had to put her work clothes on and join forces to make it happen! :-)

Last, but not least ~ 

This is the place in my new home where I need and hope to be spending mucho time in...our master bedroom alcove. It is the perfect spot to soak up God's Word, pray and give thanks to Him who has blessed us beyond words. God is so good.