The Horn Family: California or Bust

April 30th, I had surgery to remove a cyst (galactocele) from my nursing days. Everything went smoothly, and quite honestly, it was the best two hours of sleep I'd had in a long time. I did my best to "milk" my recovery weekend since Nick was on kid duty, but the real estate market had big plans for me the following week. The Monday after my Thursday surgery, we had our first of four showings for the week. It was an intense week of cleaning, but so very worth it.

We had our second of the four showings on the afternoon of Cinco de Mayo. Being a Tuesday, I spent my Mom's Day Out time sterilizing the house and then finished the job by swiffering us out the door a few minutes before our 3:00 show time. It was in the high 80's that day and with the dogs in tow, we had very few options to kill the hour. Because of my cleaning preoccupation, I had neglected to pick up the ingredients for the obligatory Mexican meal that I still had yet to determine. The kids and I ran into and out of the grocery store in less than 10 minutes to hunt and gather our very eclectic meal before the dogs could overheat.

Afterwards, we drove aimlessly around the neighborhood only to come home to what appeared to be an un-shown home. I left my offspring and fur babies in the closed garage while I went into the house to investigate. There was no business card for confirmation. Before I'd let myself be annoyed by the lack of consideration, I texted our agent in case she'd heard of a cancellation. Just as she called me back, James climbed into the driver's seat and started hitting the garage door opener with reckless abandon. The garage door came to a halt about a third of the way up from the ground, and a car bumper and two pairs of womens' feet were revealed, a few minutes after our showing window had expired. I peaked down under the door to welcome the potential buyer and her agent just as James hit the button again, effectively interrupting my sentence. He did it again and again until I could secure the dogs and make my way to him.

Because I had, thankfully, kept the kids in the garage, they didn't have a chance to reverse my day's work of house sterilization. We stayed in the garage while the potential buyer and her agent looked at the house and James serenaded them with car honks for the duration. When they were done, they kindly peaked into the garage to let us know and the kids and dogs chased them to the door waving goodbye. All I could do was laugh that if our house hadn't left an impression on them, surely the family who lives in it did.

Two days later, they asked for a second showing. Come to find out, the buyer has young children and she appreciated my kids' spunk. Like any nosy seller would, I camped out of view down the street to analyze their every move during their Thursday showing. They were there for nearly an hour taking pictures. I even noticed them do a slow drive-by a couple of hours later that day while Sissy and I were cuddling on my bed at quiet time. Later that evening, while I sat in the Publix parking lot, I got the urge to check my e-mail and sure enough, we got an offer! By lunch time on Friday, we had an accepted counter offer, for our full asking price, closing on June 17th, just under three weeks before Nick's first day of classes. God is SO GOOD!!

We gathered every bit of moving advice we could from our many Army friends who've done this countless times. Because we are preparing for a year without an income, we committed to a "partial DITY" move, which means the army will pay us, based on mileage and weight, to move our own things. What is leftover, the army will pay movers to transport. We reserved the biggest rental truck we could along with a trailer to tow Nick's car behind it. We gathered all of the packing materials we could get our hands on and set to work sorting through everything we own. We consigned, auctioned, sold via two yard sales and Craig's List, donated and threw away everything that didn't make the cut. We are moving into a furnished apartment in the graduate student community and therefore most of our belongings are going into storage for the year. Determining what was worth paying money to store, definitely put the pressure on to downsize. I must say it was so cathartic to purge!

The week before moving day, we got to work packing. Packing with all four kids on summer break was one of the harder things we've done. My first nap time goal was to tackle my fine china and glassware, something I had been dreading the most. Much to my chagrin, my big girls were hell-bent on helping, and I spent hours sweating profusely defending my fragile bridal shower gifts from their little hands. At one point, I found Hannah sucking a small vase up to her face while also saying "Yook! Mama, no hands!" I was so glad to have that behind me with, thankfully, no casualties.

One Monday, June 8th, we hired three kids to help us pack the truck as heavy as we possibly could, using a coupon from our Penske truck rental. The gun case almost did them in and made it clear that Nick would be working side-by-side with them for the day. To complicate things, there was a thunderstorm that threatened all morning, until it unleashed it's fury as the kids, dogs and I entered the Chick-Fil-A drive-through to order lunch for the hard working guys. Lightening struck a transducer and the power went out, rendering the speaker useless and the menu drastically limited. With lunch bags of what was available in hard, we drove through sideways rain to deliver the grub. I breathed a sigh of relief to see all of out belongings were safely secured within the dry truck.

Nick had to work, what turned into be a full day on Tuesday, June 9th, knocking items off his intimidatingly long to do list. So the kids and I were left to continue packing and preparing for the drive scheduled for the next day. It was a rough, rough day...So much to do and so little time to do it.

My Mom arrived right on time just before 1 am on Wednesday morning. We got home so that we could squeeze in a solid three hours before Emmy's wake-up call. We were running around the house packing up what we could, wiping down the walls and loading the car with a completely disorganized pile of belongings. Nick, Hannah and Darla pulled out of the driveway at just about 9 am to begin the drive to Fort Smith, Arkansas, and Mom, Molly, Emmy, James, Julia and I followed suit just before 11am. We were so overloaded in the minivan, sweet Julia sat with her knees to her chest for the first few hours until our first pit stop. I think I was so overwhelmed by the morning's chaos to be as emotional as I'd anticipated I'd be while driving out of town. I fully expect to come back to visit in some capacity for military homecoming events, so I reminded myself of that in my hard moments...This isn't goodbye forever, just for now.

My Nick started the drive off with some excitement when they went to weigh the truck...A crucial step in our final moving pay-out. The truck weighed a whopping 27,500 pounds, 1,500 above the weight capacity for the truck. Of course that did't include the weight of the trailer and Nick's stuffed car being towed behind it. Nick needed to unlatch the trailer from the truck in order to get the accurate reading. This proved to be a very sporty task. He was unable to move the trailer with the car still on it, so he needed to drive it off...The trailer started moving out from under him midway through, and he, by the Grace of God, had the presence of mind to gun it off the trailer in time before he seriously damaged the car. He was rattled, and my husband is rarely rattled. Once he finally returned to the truck after retrieving his weigh ticket, he found that Darla had devoured his hard-earned pizza. We quickly realized that getting food while driving a 26 foot long truck is no easy feat, being that drive-throughs aren't an option.

Mom and I somehow got through the first day with only one relatively minor detour. It was hot, we were packed in like sardines, I had haphazardly thrown things into the car, so it was very difficult to locate anything. Mom was my hero meeting all my kids' needs, making it possible to arrive at our destination without any meltdowns. We got to the Holiday Inn in Fort Smith, Arkansas 8 hours after we started our day and unloaded our fired-up crew. We followed through with our promise to swim and then did our best to calm our littles for a much-needed good night of sleep.

After the kids stuffed themselves with all the fruit loops their bellies would hold, we reshuffled our load, unearthed the DVD player, our movies and other necessities and set off on our next leg to Amarillo, Texas. Somewhere outside of Oklahoma City, we got stuck in traffic because of an overturned cattle truck. Mom and I managed to divert my nosy 5 year old's attention to her toys as we passed by a large pile of deceased cows. A few exits later, my Nick had pulled off after a fellow motorist alerted him to the flat tire on the car trailer. We retrieved Hannah, Nick's trusty road trip companion (Darla got the boot at the first pitstop on day one after her pizza stunt,) and continued on to Texas. Penske sent a repairman to change the tire and examine the others, and an hour and a half later, Nick was back on the road.

We arrived at the Drury Inn in Amarillo at half past six in the evening, and Mom and I muscled up the luggage, pack-n-plays and wiley twins while Emmy and Hannah manned the dogs' leashes. We were both red faced and dripping in sweat after we got to our joint rooms, astounded by the rude and unhelpful people we encountered. After the kids got some good jumps on the bed, we plunked food and water in front of the dogs and went downstairs for our complimentary dinner. Turns out dinner is over at 7pm, however, and we were twenty minutes too late. We grabbed some BBQ next door and some really tall, cold beers. My Nick parked the behemoth truck in the hotel parking lot just a hair after 9pm.

One of our goals in Texas was to procure several bottles of my Nick and my Dad's favorite whisky, TX. We missed their closing time when we first arrived in Amarillo, so Mom and I made it our personal goal to kill time until the liquor stores opened the next morning. It's not really all that hard to do with a Starbuck's run, which we made a point of doing every time we passed one, it was the very least I could do for Mom. We were loaded up with our contraband and on the road to Holbrook, Arizona by 10:30am.

The drive was long and very hot, as were our pitstops. Getting six people and two dogs potty-ed takes some coordination, especially with blow-out diapers. We decided that puppy pads are an absolutely necessary road trip companion to put under small children.

Driving through the desert in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona gave me such a greater appreciation for the term "big open sky." Something about being under it makes you feel so very small, and appreciate the magnitude of God's creation.

Julia had a surge of vocabulary while we were in the car. And every time we'd slow down, she'd remind me to "Go Go Go, Mama!" No better encouragement than Julia's sweet voice piping up from the backseat. :)

By the time we got to Holbrook our kids were going nuts. They were climbing the walls at our little roadside inn, but who could blame them? We grabbed dinner at the highest-rated restaurant in town and went for a late-night swim to gear up for our expected longest-day of travel.

Day Four, we were set to drive through the Mojave Desert and Tehachapi Mountains on our way to Bakersfield, California. There were miles beyond miles beyond miles of nothing but open space and very, very long steep inclines. Mom and I were able to keep a much faster pace in the minivan and I was sweating bullets for Nick knowing the mountains he had yet to drive over with his extremely over-weight truck. We kept close tabs on how many inclines there were to pass through and we both breathed a sigh of relief each time he and Hannah cleared one successfully. Emmy was mesmerized by the windmill farms on the back end of the Tehachapi Mountains, we were all awestruck by the monumental task of erecting each and every one of the hundreds and hundreds of windmills situated on the mountain sides.

Hannah accompanied Nick for the majority of the drive, but there were a couple of stretches that Emmy wanted to ride in the moving truck. We had a great thing going in the van with my mom, Emmy and the twins. Emmy was super self-sufficient, the twins were pretty easily appeased, but Hannah kept asking for purple unicorns and wouldn't quit until she got them. We were always happy to hand her back to Nick. At one point, as we were veering off for a pit stop in Avenol, California, Mom and I heard Hannah singing the chorus from "Fight Song" in the back seat: "This is my fight song, take back my life song!" We couldn't help but dissolve into giggles.

Mom, the dogs, kids and I arrived at the La Quinta in Bakersfield, California just after 7 and were met by an extremely unhelpful customer service person who unapologetically informed me that our two rooms were on different ends of the building. After days of experience, Mom and I decided to unload the car in shifts while the other watched the kids and dogs in one of the hotel rooms. During my shift, James flushed the toilet and it proceeded to spray water from the tank all over the bathroom. I dragged him and the others to the bedroom so I could call the front desk of what I perceived to be a plumbing emergency, only to find the phone was non-functional. As soon as Mom returned we grabbed our bags and carried the twins like footballs to the other end of the hallway to our second room so that I could call the front desk. I was, once again, met with an unapologetic reply, and an offer for a new room (as if that was even a question...) Later, when I went to draw a bath for the kids, brown water came out of the faucet. SO, Mom and I wiped the kids down with washcloths, and slept in our clothes, SO READY to just get back home.

We were up with the sun to get going with our 4 hour drive to the east bay. Nick had masterfully coordinated with our incredible family and friends to unload as much as we could from our truck into a storage unit in San Leandro. I was overcome with goosebumps pulling up to the storage unit to see all of our brothers and so many of our big strong guy friends carrying all of our things off the truck. The windfall of help meant the world to us both. We were able to get a huge majority of our things packed into the storage unit from floor to ceiling. It was a very bizarre feeling to see all of our things stashed like that, but a huge relief to know that most of our household goods fit into a 10x18 foot unit. I am praying for no earthquakes!

After we stuffed the storage unit, we headed over to Nick's parents' house to unload the last bit into their garage and to enjoy a special welcome home party with all of our families and friends!

In the waiting room at the Toyota dealership to have the car serviced before our road trip!

Jill and Lindsay, my Tennessee sisters.

Julia clinging to Daddy on one of his last days at work.

Lindsey and her boys were just passing through Clarksville on their way to the beach. So grateful to sneak in one last play date and hugs before our departure. We shared our newlywed years and many deployments together in Clarksville.

Nick brought the truck home and my jaw hit the floor!

Lunch at Sam's Club after buying road trip snacks!

We had an incredible farewell party with so many different families with whom we've been in church small group over the years. Oh how we'll miss them all!

We joined this small group when we were newly married. I'll never forget leaving the first group, feeling disappointed that we were the only couple without kids, haha! They've been with us, encouraging and supporting us through it all.