The "not - so - perfect" moving day . . .

I had said from the beginning that this was going to be our best move yet! Having moved to 5 different houses/apartments in our 4 1/2 years in Philly, we consider ourselves (annoyed) experts! The whole family was excited and everyone was in on getting ready for the big move.  The boys had been shuffled around to various friends houses all week as we prepared for the moving day - trying to get in the last play date with that family before we left for Georgia!

Boxes had been purchased, many had been filled and some still needed to be filled. Our friends, The Paynes, let us stay at their house for two days before we left.  During dinner the night before we were finally going to get on the road, I said, "I'm just waiting for something bad to happen."  Sure enough, Kami had been bitten by a nasty spider two days before - and it had progressively gotten worse! Although she had been in Urgent Care the night before, she had been given instructions if the swelling, redness and pain got worse - she was to go directly to the ER....well, she was awakened by the pain every hour of the night from the pain and the swelling had spread in the morning, sooo....off to the ER we went. On moving day!

(This photo was actually taken 2 days after the IV and oral meds - this looks GOOD comparatively!)

After a few hours at the ER, where Kami received a full round of IV antibiotics to kill the Celulitis (the diagnosis from the bite), we were back at the packing.

FINALLY, with many other smaller things that seemed to keep standing in our way, after the sun was past the horizon, we rolled out of good old Jenkintown, PA!

As we drove out, we said goodbye to many of the places we have come to love.  The two older boys were in the truck with me, and it was all I could to do to hold back the tears!  I could tell all three of us were feeling the same way.

We had to stop at our local pharmacy to pick up some oral antibiotics for the wifey!  That is when the laughter started, I would say to the boys "loading zone" and they would respond with "you know you can't park here!"  It is a quote from a Curious George cartoon that we have on DVD and it was making us all laugh. It was a nice change from the sadness we all felt about leaving such a wonderful place.

I'm grateful for our friends, The Kimballs, that encouraged us to choose Jenkintown as our borough. It's an amazing small town, in a great big city.

Our family really grew stronger during our time in Philadelphia! We learned so much through the many trials and innumerable awesome experiences we had there!  Although we didn't love the city at first, over time we discovered many, MANY things to love about that history-filled, foodie-friendly, nature-trail-filled City of Brotherly Love!

We were able to spend a couple of days in Washington D.C. at the Spigarelli's home before the final leg to Georgia. Although Kami had to keep her leg elevated as much as possible, we still had a great time making more memories with family. We will really miss living so close to them and are so grateful for their support in Kami's recovery!

Now that we are down in the South - and trying to get ourselves settled - we have learned that this "perfect move" we had hoped for, has not been so perfect. Aside from out set-backs in leaving, we have been unable to find MANY things so far. Bummer.  Today Kami said to me, "Remember how you thought this was going to be our best move ever??? Welllllll....not quite, eh?!"

Regardless of the chaos, we made it! Whew!

Georgia is on OUR mind!