From Wannaska to Jeff City

The last post I wrote was over a month ago, and boy, has a lot happened since then.

We packed. My husband went down to Jeff City with his brother James to scope out housing while I stayed and packed up our house. They got back in time for a Christmas Eve service at our parishoners' house... and ten minutes before arriving, Judah threw up all over himself in the car. So we arrived on their doorstep needing to use their wash machine. Meanwhile, I started to feel not the greatest. Somehow, through the grace of God, we made it through the service, although Judah was sick twice more during it, and I had to play the organ and take care of a wiggly Andrew, and feed Enoch, to boot. Christmas Day we did nothing except rest and sleep and get better. Andrew had thrown up earlier in the week, but the stomach flu didn't seem to hit him as hard as Judah. We started feeling more like ourselves on the 26th and continued packing.

This is a picture of our church family in the room we were renting to hold worship services. We miss them!

Enoch is 2 months old in this picture, taken Christmas Eve. Excited for Christmas!

Boys in their Christmas present jammies. I think this was taken on Christmas Day night, after we'd had a chance to feel better.

We had a Merseth Christmas at the Clearbrook farm with Great-grandma, and were there Tues night till Friday afternoon. There was a day trip in there by the brothers to butcher and do more packing at our place.

Cousin Malia and Andrew in Uncle Chris' Polaris Ranger. Andrew LOVES Ranger rides!

More packing. Last church service on New Year's Day. MORE packing.

Family picture at last service in Minnesota

Judah got to go outside with Church Gramma and have a Ranger ride, and explore!

About 9am on Jan. 2, church members from Jeff City came to help us pack up our stuff in a horse trailer and a second enclosed trailer. That was probably the coldest day we'd experienced thus far, and of course it was on that day. ;-) Well, those southern boys dressed appropriately, anyway! Later in the day, some cousins came and played in the empty house. Grandma Merseth helped them make a sign that said "Good Bye House, we're going to Missouri!" And Malia made a sign that said "Cub Foods" below it. I don't know if they even have any Cub Foods down here.

We had a few more days till we needed to leave, though. We took Judah and Andrew to the farm on Tues the 3rd to stay, while Jeff and I went back home to finish packing up the last things.

Wednesday we signed papers for a contract for deed for our house. A family is living there now and taking care of the place, and will eventually take full ownership in 4-5 years. I hope they love it as much as we did. That night, we loaded up the last of our chickens and belongings, shoved the last items in our vehicles and quick closed the door before it all fell out, and drove to the Clearbrook farm for the night. Here we are with Great Grandma Merseth. We will sure miss being able to visit. We were only 1.5 hours away.

Thursday morning we started the trek south. Jeff was hauling my dad's gravity box wagon behind his truck, so he couldn't go real fast, and had the two older boys, plus was having some truck problems along the way. I had Enoch in a packed-to-the-brim van. We got to my folks' house that night after a looooong day of driving.

After a good night's sleep, we left Friday morning about 10am, and arrived in Jeff City about 4 that afternoon, and I got to lay eyes, for the first time, on our new home. But we were staying in a hotel that night, and the pres. of the congregation and his wife took us out to eat. Here are the boys in their bed at the hotel.

Saturday morning about 9am, with the help of kind church members, we unloaded. And I must mention here the weather was gorgeous! I think it reached 60 degrees that day!! So the boys were playing outside, it was great.

We attended church on the 8th, installation was the 15th in the afternoon. Jeff's dad was able to come and give the sermon for the installation. My parents were able to come for the service, too. The meal afterwards was most excellent!

This is a picture of all the pastors in attendance at the installation. I love this picture. Someone must've said something funny.

I am enjoying our new place. We're renting an old farmhouse that is less than 5 miles from church. It hasn't been lived in for a couple years, so we've been battling with some mice with d-con, and I haven't seen much action since they emptied one of those little boxes... although I did find that they'd moved it into one of my kitchen drawers... imagine my surprise at that! And we needed to cover some cracks.

There are several outbuildings we can use for storage and chickens. Yes, the birds came, too. The long trip didn't even make them stop laying eggs. We've even started getting turkey eggs! We hope to keep them and incubate them when the weather warms up a bit. There is even a garden spot! The washer and dryer are in a building outside of the house, and I didn't realize that you need to keep the washer from freezing, otherwise it's junk. So while the temps are cold, we are keeping a wood-burning stove going in there. There is pasture land all around this farmstead, with cows grazing on the rolling hills. It's beautiful now, so I can't wait for the other seasons!

I haven't been out exploring the city yet though. I have still been trying to tackle laundry and boxes, and finding a home for it all. Maybe I'll feel brave enough soon.