To your parents? For everything.
Paul's parents originally booked their flight to come visit us over Christmas and I'm sure envisioned a nice relaxing vacay, spending time with their favorite grandson and just enjoying a week with the Colorado Hogans. Instead, from the minute they arrived, we put them to work :) From packing up probably half of our house (no joke), to painting our kitchen, to taking care of Declan because his daycare lady was off that week, I mean there was no break. Not one second. They cooked meals, they talked us off the ledge a number of times (mainly me), they scrounged up every free box you could think to scrounge up, they are currently giving Paul their time share to stay in in Myrtle Beach while he looks for a rental for us, they are letting us store the 16 foot truck full of boxes in their garage, they've already driven 6 hours up to the beach to see Paul, check in on him, stock his fridge and just bring him some odds and ends to help him start this crazy journey............I mean the list could go on and on. Every time we spend time together, I learn something else about this awesome family I married into, and this go-round showed me just HOW HARD of workers they are. I couldn't believe all that they got done in such a short amount of time. They do do do. And I am thankful thankful thankful. They love us so much and it is clear they will do anything to help us on this next leg of our journey - they certainly gave us a MASSIVE jump on moving and we 100% could not have done any of this, in such a stinkin' short amount of time without their help. WE LOVE YOU NANA AND POP!!!!!!!
So let's see - the Hogan's left on Monday morning, Paul and I spent Tuesday packing up his truck, he left Wednesday morning and then my mom came Thursday - THANK THE GOOD LORD!!!! Our realtor had emailed in that Mon-Wed time and said she wanted to put our house up the next Wednesday - whaaaaaaaaaaat??????? Enter, Ginny the amazing get-er-done mother :) Thursday night we got to work - started with the downstairs closet, and it just kind of went from there. My mom has before and after pics and when I get those I'll post but holy moly!!! She called my brother the night she got here and told him that she was coming home ;) Either way, we got it done and that is ALL due to my mom. She's a master organizer, she has a great eye for decorating and she was able to transform our house from a disaster to a great looking potential home for someone looking to buy! She did everything from rearranging our living room to getting on her hands and knees to clean the absolutely disgusting corners of our kitchen floor. Gross, but she did it all. AND in the meantime she made some killer meals for me to come home to after work :) There is no doubt in my mind that I wouldn't have been able to get our house up for sale without my mom. Again, she has come to the rescue and while it was a full-on whirlwind of a 10 day trip, there's no one else that could have done what she did for me so thank you mama!!!!
AND to top it off, my baby brother flew out on Thursday and we got to spend the weekend together, touring CU and just enjoying Boulder. It was BEAUTIFUL weather so we walked around a lot, ate good food and were finallllllly able to relax because our house was up - nothing more we could do. Graham has turned into such mature, smart, interesting and adventurous young man and I am so very proud of him for even thinking about coming out here to CU. It will be unbelievably ironic if he does in fact end up out here just as we're leaving, but if he does, you can bet your @$$ I will be out visiting every month ;) So, Boo, CU?! Yes please!!!!! :) Truly though, I'm so proud to be your big sister.
Alrighty so back to to the real topic - thank you Nana, thank you Pop, and thank you mom for helping us for those crraaaazy 3 or 4 weeks that we had there. I know the feeling when I look at Declan, the feeling that you would do anything in the world when it comes to your kids, and it just makes both Paul and I appreciate you even more because we can finally understand the love and sacrifice that you have for us. You guys are nothing short of amazing. Thank you. Certainly not enough, but thank you.
