The Great MOVING Adventure

Please note the dates- this all takes place in a matter of 3 weeks= formula for insanity ( as LaJuan would put it):)

May 18th-June 18th
- packed up our home in Mobile (not many pics during this time b/c I was constantly pulling kids out of boxes...

Big thank you to all of our helpers- we would not have made it without you guys!

Chloe was determined to go with us, and we were determined to take her...sadly enough our landlord wouldn't let us :( this has been the most devastating part of our move- we really miss our sweet Chloe!



June 18-19th
- -My 10 year class reunion in Enterprise, AL. It was great= Great Fun!








June 20th –
- After the reunion we left the twins in Enterprise with my mom. My brother-in-law deployed to Iraq a few days before and my sister also moved cross country (from Wisconsin to Enterprise) so mom flew up to get her baby while my sister made the 2 day drive down. Mom flew with a 10 month old baby by herself and kept 3 babies under the age of 13 months by herself for nearly 2 days (for 10 days total but my sister was there also by then). BRAVE WOMAN. We headed to mobile to load our U-haul -which took 4 hours instead of 2 and we still didn’t fit everything into it…A good friend (thanks Tory ) stayed after the packers left to help us try to cram some of the things left on the lawn into the truck . Moving is such a stressful thing, so many details, stuff getting banged up/broken, finding more stuff that didn’t get packed, ect. I was ok with all of that, even with the dilemma of everything not fitting. But then mom called (it’s like 9pm at this point) and she was “frazzled” (p.s. my mom works ICU and she doesn’t really get frazzled…) and said the twins had been screaming a loooooong time (and that was all I could hear on the phone), they were waking up Addison (my sister’s baby) and she didn’t know what to do! AT this point in the process, I sat down on my empty kitchen floor, in my “nearly” empty house, and had a melt-down…

June 21-
• Time to head to St. Louis! But before I had to spend 5 HOURS in 100 degree weather cramming everything that wouldn’t fit into a Ford Escape (a small SUV) including but not limited to:
- a lawn mower, our kitchen table, 2 tv’s, 3 computers, 4 packed suitcases, a large cooler (full of food), 2 big pantry boxes, my bookbag, an 8 foot ladder, a huge world map framed, dvd player, vcr, comp monitor, 3 queen bedding sets, 2 sleeping bags, and a large storage Tupperware of cleaning supplies!
- (Remember that brave woman from earlier…well she is also a highly skilled in the martial art of “packing”! She can make nearly anything fit into nearly any space…and she taught me well. )
• We drove from Mobile to . We had an 1 ½ hr detour in Harrisburg, MS because my cell phone totally shorted out and Ben and I couldn’t communicate at all. 
• Minor wreck: So we landed in Memphis, TN around midnight absolutely exhausted. As we were trying to check in, we got stuck in the parking lot (it was basically too small for our truck and too dark for us to tell until too late). The only way out was under the awning, which the owner said we would clear, but we didn’t. 

June 22-
• Drive to st. Louis! Arrive and see the house we are renting for the first time. The previous renter wasn’t out yet so we helped him (another long story) and then started the cleaning process…

June 23-25-
• unpack as much as possible without kiddos!

June 26-29
• take a train ride to Chicago to meet our friends for Brandon’s birthday and get a ride back to Alabama (which we didn’t have form St. Louis). My favorites were the Museum of Science and Industry and the Tall Windy Ship!

June 30- july 5th
• Enterprise, raise support, be with my sister/family









July 6-8th
• Take twinsies to the beach for first time, goodbye’s to Ben’s mom

July 9
• See dr. crissinger the (twins GI specialist), then drive halfway to Nashville and stay with Aunt Debbie! (whom they love because she gives them everything they want- including remotes :)







July 10
Drive rest of the way to our new home! (Pit stop in Cadiz to see my grandparents)

So…we arrived in St. Louis on the 11th of July.

May Memories (and several "firsts")

May 1st-
• Twins 1st Birthday! (many pics to come!)
May 5th-7th
• Brewton for Ben speaking, support raising, and catching up with old friends




May 15th
• Our good friend Hannah’s birthday party at the Watermelon patch


• Aiden’s First haircut!



May 22
• Our moving Yard Sale (combined with 4 families)- huge success, cleaned out the whole house, sold $1300 worth of stuff/furniture!
"How much do I cost mom?"




May 23
• First time swimming- Aiden loved it, Abigail not so much at first, but she warmed up!






June 6th
• Very sweet going away/send off from the church with a prayer time and supper. I'm soooo sad to leave Grace- we have such a community here and this church has been so wonderful to us.
June 12th
• Going away party with friends. Each of you has been such a blessing to us and we love you all dearly!:(

Re-wind...

Now that we've moved and things have somewhat settled down again,I will be doing a lot of "backposting"- from our adventures during the move, pictures from the last year, ect...

"Oriented"

School starts this week! I must admit it feels quite strange and a bit intimidating to be going back to school after being out for over 6 years, and having 2 children (and losing half my brain with each one). Literally, sometimes I feel like my brain is mush…However, I am really excited about the opportunity to deepen my knowledge (and therefore my love) of God and also of how to learn to better share him with the world. I will be taking one class a semester (and hopefully graduating with a MA in Religion in Cultures when Ben finishes.) We had orientation today and it was so encouraging to hear all the obstacles that people faces and all that it took for each of us to get here.
In the meantime…last few weeks

• We decided to have our first dinner out and ventured out with the twins to find somewhere that served breakfast all day. Well, next time I will research a little better (and not just ask the lady at Lowes . We ended up at Uncle Bills, which we drove 16 min to get to, and it was like 2 steps down in quality from Waffle House…maybe it was a blessing in disguise though because my kiddos made a huge mess (which didn’t matter because it was already dirty), it was super fast since we were the only ones in there, and they could make as much noise as they wanted (and they do).  it certainly made for comical and memorable evening

• They have a HUGE farmers market here- which is fabulous for me, my family, and for my budget!
• We’ve been to several picnics- one for the seminary and one for a church we visited. They are not very fun right now because 1- there is no where to put my children, 2- my kids don’t eat anything, 3- we don’t get to eat either 4- conversation is limited to a few words while chasing kiddos…so we are still trying to figure out how to make these work and I am open to suggestions from experience moms!
• Ben and I had our first date night out on the town! It was so fabulous to get out with him and have a few hours to just talk and explore the city! We had dinner at Sage’s (a really nice restaurant that we had a coupon for, of course), dessert at Baily’s Chocolate Bar (my favorite part of the meal- the Baily’s Irish Cream Frozen Martini it was to DIE for), and walked around in this really cute and quaint part of St. Louis. It was so relaxing and fun!

Where in the world are the Nelson's???

We are finally here! It’s been almost 3 months since I’ve blogged. We have just packed up our family and moved cross country from Mobile, AL to St. Louis, MO with one-year old twins. So I have plenty of excuses for not blogging (including having no internet access for about a month and a half). We had many great adventures along the way, and also hit some major bumps in the road, all of which I will post about later. We arrived on July 11th so we’ve officially been here for about 3 weeks.

The first week was crazy due to the fact that none of my baby gates worked and we have stairs in our house- which is new for me and the twins. Since we didn’t know anyone, or how to get anywhere, it was mostly spent taking turns going to different places (getting lost of course) and trying to baby-proof the house, get groceries, utilities, ect.  I was so exhausted from our month of traveling/moving (not to mention the months before of packing) that it took me a while just to feel like I had energy again.

The other two weeks we have spent unpacking, trying to find furniture (we sold a lot of our furniture to move), trying to find our way around, and get health insurance (which has been difficult since I got denied). Basically, we are trying to get our bearings. We have been living out of boxes for a looong time & I’m really ready to be settled. A wise man told me that we weren’t really made to move, it’s too hard on our hearts. Heaven (what we are created for) is a permanent dwelling. Moving creates a major lack of security and stability. It’s kinda like you are floating for a while…I just feel like I’m trying to figure out where/who I am again! In the midst of this major transition, the Lord has been walking my heart through a painful and difficult season of questions I have for him about pains I continue to face in my life and His presence in those. My cell phone doesn’t work in my house so I haven’t even been able to talk to my wonderful friends back home (thanks to all who have tried calling me anyways- I miss you guys). On the bright side, St. Louis is such a cool city and we are so excited to be here. It has been fun to explore new things and the weather is NOTHING like Alabama heat!