The Blessing of Friends!

I'm officially moved out of my house in Fergus, and now back in with Mom and Dad -at least temporarily!

The move on Saturday could not have gone any better. I am so blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life! There were 17 people (at least) who showed up just to help in whatever way they could, plus others who came by to say good-bye. I really can hardly express my gratitude! There were people just in the truck getting that packed, making decisions on what went where. There were others doing all sorts of carrying, whether it was boxes or furniture. There was a LOT of carrying to be done! Others spent the day helping with cleaning, and still others helped with a variety of anything else that needed to be done. As last week progressed, each day I seemed to lose a little bit of brain function, so that by Saturday I felt like my brain had turned to mush! It was such a blessing to have these terrific people around who were willing to just step in and do what needed to be done! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!

Here's what my house looked like all day. It was SUCH a great idea to leave the truck at the front door after getting my piano in place, as that meant less steps in carrying stuff!


I hesitate a little with showing pictures, because there were lots of other people there who didn't get in a picture. Taking pictures wasn't the priority of the day!

Here are Julie and Jane helping with all the stuff that went into the pickup truck to be taken to my parents house.


Kevin, Lee, and Wally were pretty much in the truck all day, getting it packed just right. They did an amazing job!


Laura was a great go-to-girl, and is pictured here with the plants that I just couldn't bear to get rid of. It was pretty hard to get rid of the rest, but at least I could give them to good homes!


Dad and Jared were great go-to-guys, helping out wherever was needed.


Janet and Candis were part of the cleaning team, and I need to give a huge THANK YOU to all of that team! It was SUCH a blessing to know that I was leaving the house in the best possible condition for the new owners.


Candis was kind enough to bring lunch for everyone, so near the end of packing up the truck, we took a much-needed break. Thanks, Candis, from all of us, for providing such a good lunch!


When all was said and done, Christine returned so my parents could meet her new son. I love this picture, because the two of us have a picture that was taken in almost the same spot, from when we were just becoming friends six years ago. As I saw this new picture, I was thinking about how at the time of the first picture, we had no idea that we'd end up living together for three years and that six years down the road we'd be moving me out of my house -and that she would be married, with a son, just moving back to Fergus Falls. Wow, how the time flies by! Christine was an incredible blessing to me this past week, showing up almost every day to help pack boxes or do whatever needed to be done. Thank you, again and again!


My parents and I left my house at 2:30pm and headed for the Twin Cities, after I had some time to just go from room to room, thinking of countless memories and crying a little (well, a lot!). I REALLY will miss my life in Fergus! I'll miss my home, my job, my church, and my friends. In fact, as I was driving down the road, I called my friend, Aimee, so she could remind me why I was excited about the Cities, because all I could think of was how sad I was to leave!

On Sunday, I had another great group of friends who showed up to help unload the truck. This also went way better than expected, with people loading stuff from the truck, onto some wheeled carts, and right into the storage room. I think I counted 10 of us, so you can imagine that this went pretty fast as well. It was a pretty hot day out, so they still worked hard! Unfortunately, I didn't get a single picture from this part of the move (sorry, Candis!), but I did snap one picture from when I opened the truck door and realized just how packed in everything was! This picture shows that the last few feet were all the odds-and-ends, but the first big portion of the truck were all boxes or square stuff that the guys fit in nice and tight! U-Haul had given me a bigger truck than I ordered, so another great thing about the day was that I never had the worry of "will everything fit okay?". There was plenty of extra room!


Thanks to each of you who helped, and thanks also to those of you who were praying for me as I wrapped up life in Fergus!