My Birthday Eve!

Let the celebrations begin!

First, I had to get a new Georgia Driver's License.  I have to commend our local DMV for being the most organized, efficient, fast and friendly place I have ever been to.  It was like the Disney World of DMVs.

Once we were done with that, we found ourselves near our favorite BBQ place, so we stopped for an early lunch at Dickie's BBQ.

Next up, we had to take Poppy for her next check-up at the vet.  She has been a part of the family for two whole weeks now!

We have found out that it is hard to give really complicated gifts like puppies and cars on the exact day of the birthday.  We ended up getting Poppy a day early.  And my birthday gift this year happened two days early.

My birthday present this year is a Toyota 4Runner!

It's Poppy approved.

The Last Day of Unpacking

Mostly because I didn't want to be unpacking and moving in forever, and also because all the boxes had to be out on the driveway to be picked up by the end of the week or we would forever be in trouble with the homeowners' association, and also because we were having our first house guests, the deadline for unpacking had arrived.

And thank goodness for being done.  Well, mostly.

The boys' linen closet turned into a linen/Pokemon/Lego closet.

It happens.

And then we made a great first impression on the neighbors...

... by building an illegal box fort in our driveway...

We've been in moving mode for two weeks and it's a mess!

Day 13

In which Day 12 of the Move becomes Day 1 of Unpacking

And on the 11th Day, our stuff was delivered

All of our stuff had quite the move.

It got packed and loaded from our house in Amarillo.

It was moved to a warehouse in Amarillo and unloaded.

It was loaded onto a truck and driven to Dallas.

Then it made the trip across the rest of the country.

Then, it was unloaded from the giant truck and put into a warehouse in Atlanta.

Then, it was loaded onto a couple of tiny little trucks that would fit onto our street and brought to us.

Now, to unpack!

Day 10

The small dog has claimed the entire hotel sofa bed.

Hanging out at the Hotel

Day 9 of the Moving Situation

Tik is well-suited to being at hotels.  He loves it.  He's quiet and he likes to be close to us.

I am also well-suited to being at hotels.  Especially ones where I can play Pokemon Go right from the bed.

Lex took to wandering around the hotel in his Panda mask.

While Lex was wandering around, Connor was more content to stay put in the room with his dog and phone.  Hotel Wi-Fi is one of his favorite things.

Moving Day 7

We beat our stuff to Atlanta, so instead of living in an empty house without furniture and beds and towels and pots and pans, we were living in an Embassy Suites and eating at all the new restaurants that we had never heard of before.

Like Jack's New York Deli, which was fabulous.

Because we had Tik with us, we were kind of limited to restaurants with outside patio seating, or ordering food and taking it back to the hotel to eat there.  We made it work.

Toomsuba to Tuscaloosa

We stopped in the middle of nowhere in Toomsuba, Mississippi so that we could get some gas and let Tik out of the car for a bit.

Also, Toomsuba is the most wonderful name for a tiny town ever.

While we were at the gas station, I turned Pokemon Go on for a second.  I have never seen so many wonderful Pokemon all in one spot, without there being any Pokestops or Gyms nearby.

Later that afternoon, I realized that we were going to be driving past the University of Alabama, and that the Crimson Tide were having a game later that night.  We decided to take a short detour to drive around campus.  I got Connor as close to the football stadium as I could.

His top two picks for college are now Standford and University of Alabama.

Later that night, we finally arrived at our new house!

2:15 AM Hotel Evacuation

After driving from Dallas to Shreveport to Jackson, we had to stop for the night.  We were staying in a Hilton in Jackson, Mississippi.  Right after 2 AM, I was awoken by quite the commotion in the hall outside our room.  There were bottles smashing and people yelling and all sorts of banging, and then there was a fight with another hotel neighbor who was upset about all the noise.  Just as I was about to call the front desk to complain, the fire alarm in the room next to ours went off.

So, I woke up the kids, and we went downstairs and outside.

We were on the 10th floor of the hotel, and if some drunk kids really had set a fire in their room, I didn't want to be right next to it with two sleepy boys and a dog.  I figured that we were much safer in the hotel lobby on the ground level.  I was surprised, though, that we were the only ones who got up and left our rooms.  Everyone else seemingly just waited in their own rooms for the hotel to sort it out.

Buc-ee's

Moving Day 3

Before we left Amarillo, we did a little homeschool in the hotel.  I called it hotelschool, because we were pretty much homeless, having turned in our keys for the apartment the day before and not having arrived in our new city yet.

Driving-Across-Texas-Stop-Light-Selfie

At the next hotel in Dallas.

He said, "Push my cart, peasant!"

Moving Day 2

So...surprise! We are moving to Georgia!

I snapped this photo while the movers were at lunch.