The nicest human beings on the planet.

So, we closed on our house last fridee and since we wanted paint the whole durned thing, we decided we'd start last saturdee (details to follow on that) and go all week until we moved in yesterdee. Here is a photo of the outside. I'll post the before and after pics when I dig up my camera/ computer wire out of the morass of boxes in the garage but at least for the moment, here is a sneak peek.

Anyway, we got all ready on Saturday morning, drove out here and realized we had no idea how to get a ladder we had to buy to our house b/c (go figure) it wouldn't fit atop my tough guy of a civic. So we decided we'd call Dale and Steph and ask if they could cruise on over and let us use their SUV to bring it over to our house. They said yes and they'd be over when the girls got up from their naps. Then, less than a half an hour later, I get a call from Steph saying that the girls aren't going to take their nap and so they were going to head over right away...

And head over they did, with all three of their kids and showed up in their painting clothes. They stayed all day with us, made countless Home Depot runs, helped us pick out colors and then taped, primered, and painted untill the wee hours of the morning. But there's more. Steph and/or Dale came up every night that week after work (which is kind of a hike, especially after commuting to and from work) to help us paint until the itty bitty tiniest hours of the morning, despite having real lives and stuff they needed to do all the next dee.

And just when you thought they'd be translated, Steph spent two entire days during the week, both times with all her kiddies to paint our house one day and the other, to SIT IN THE GARAGE (b/c the carpet glue fumes were so bad) and keep an eye on the rather sketchy gentlemen who laid our new carpet.

But wait, there's more. On Saturdee morning, Dale came and helped us haul all of our furniture up and down 3 flights of stairs and then trekked it all the way over to our new place to help us unload it. And all the while he was marking up and making changes to a merger agreement. In fact, at one point, he was sitting on our carpet, cell phone in hand and pen in the other, actually marking up the document in the middle of the move.

Honestly, we had planned to have to do this all ourselves and we can not express how profoundly blessed and humbled we feel to be the recipients of act after act of truly selfless service. And without ever having to be asked, Daleums and Stephdiggity just showed up and asked to be put to work...day after day. Steph, I couldn't have loved painting the blue room anymore than I did. Thanks for your music selections. It made the job so much fun. And Daleums, were it not for your hurculean strength, I would still be stuck at the top of the stairs with the world's largest rubbermaid crate. We love you guys and feel blessed to live close by. When are you guys bringing the kiddos over? Chloe and Zoe miss them!