Even I am trying to catch up with the Carters!

Yes, we did it again. Our crazy life has brought us back to Arizona. It all happened so quickly that I am still trying to get used to the idea. Even though this is our eighth move since Jason and I got married and you would think it would come easy to me...this move didn't. For starters from the time we found out about the move, we only had 18 days to pack up our recently settled life in Alabama and move back to Arizona. We loaded our moving truck on Friday, February 19th, left town that evening to begin the approximately 1600 mile trip. Arrived in Phoenix the evening of Sunday, February 21st, to find our moving truck waiting for us ready to unload...at 8 pm at night! We are so blessed to have such an amazing group of friends...Scott and Sanda, Angelo and Lisa, Ron and Joanna, and Rob, as well as family, our parents and Jason's brother, Joe, all waiting to help unload. I could hardly believe when the guys unloaded 31 feet in a semi-truck in 1 hour and 15 minutes!

Now although the unloading may have gone great, the unpacking has been a different story. As I mentioned earlier, we packed our entire life up in approximately 2 weeks. There was no rhyme or reason to the packing, we just starting throwing stuff in boxes. This makes for some very interesting unboxing. I start out looking for a bath towel and in the process I find some sippy cups, a stuffed animal, maybe some Christmas decorations, and the adult bath towel I thought was in that box turned out to be one of the twins hooded toddler towels...oh well, I was tired, dirty, and desperate for a shower, so a hooded towel it was.

The move has also been hard on the twins, which equals more stress for me. I know they are tired of being gated into "safety zones," and in their boredom they find a way to turn those safe areas into "opportunities." Brylee managed to climb up her closet shelves, on top of the items on those shelves, and open a Rubbermaid bin with puzzles...which she proceeded to toss down to Brooke. I kid you not, when I found her, she was eight feet up! The other issue we have is Brylee does not want to sleep through the night. She tells me she is afraid of tomatoes that are trying to catch her and she wakes up approximately 3 times a night screaming to the top of her lungs. I try calm her down and get her back to sleep in her bed before she wakes the rest of the house, but after punishing, bargaining, and bribing, I tend to give in by 5 in the morning and let her sleep with us, but the good sleep doesn't last long because our early riser, Bayleigh, likes to get up around 6:30.

I feel like the last several months have been a dream. You start wondering if we ever left Arizona, since our time in Alabama was so brief, but when I look back at the wonderful memories we made there and time we spent with family, I know that it wasn't a dream, it was a dream come true. I always wanted the chance to live near my grandparents, let my children spend time with them, as well as my great-grandmother. Also, now that I am a mother myself I have a new found interest in the wisdom and advice that the grands and greats before me have to share. I formed special bonds with not only my grandparents, but also my uncle and cousins that I will cherish forever. So despite the craziness of it all, I wouldn't change any of it. The Lord works in mysterious ways, and Alabama taught me so much about myself, my priorities, and brought my family closer together than we have ever been. God is good!