MOVING

We are finally here in our new house, and I’ve been getting lots of request for pictures, but our house is a huge pile of boxes (surrounded by brick), so there is not much to show of the house yet. It has been a CRAZY week with lots of highs and lows, but I think we might have made it…hopefully. If anyone thinks moving sounds like a good idea, THINK AGAIN! I cannot believe what utter chaos it has been, and we didn’t even have to do the work ourselves! Here is a rundown of our last week, just for fun (and so I remind myself how incredibly insane it is to move!): DISCLAIMER: This is probably (hopefully) the longest post I ever have to write. If you don’t want to read it, no problem. The moral of the post is, “don’t ever move if you don’t have to.”

Last Sunday: Milt has to leave church early to make his flight to PA to work for the week (yes, I got to do the moving stuff in Utah by myself.) He calls from the airport to say that he forgot his laptop, so he’s coming home and will have to catch the red-eye flight at midnight. “Cool,” I think, “he can help me get some things ready.” I take the kids to my parents to stay for the next few days because our stuff is getting all packed up. Milt leaves for his flight.

Monday: Two Packing ladies arrive to pack all of our stuff. I stand around and think how silly it is that I’m not allowed to pack anything (or it won’t be insured by the moving company), but then I realize how much there is to clean after they pack. They work until 6 and I run to my parents to see the kids before we put them to bed.

Tuesday: Packing ladies come to finish and they PACK UP MY COMPUTER first thing in the morning – aaarg! They finish at noon, but I have to stay to wait for people to come take down the TV and surround sound and get the washer/dryer ready for moving…which takes until 5 pm (so I sat in my boxed up house and thought about leaving). I then get down to my parents to eat with the kids before putting them to bed.

Wednesday: The HUGE TRUCK comes and blocks the entire cul-de-sac. 5 guys start loading like crazy. I run over to Jen Earl’s house for a goodbye brunch with the neighborhood ladies. Then I run home to make sure the moving guys don’t need anything before I drive around returning things I’ve borrowed from people before our cars get picked up to be shipped back east. When I get home the guys finish up and leave, but I notice about 20 minutes later that they’ve forgotten my favorite wreath on the wall (it was supposed to be placed on top gently, so it wouldn’t break.) It is too delicate to pack in a box, so there was no way to get it sent back there (other than on the truck). I finally lost it, because it was just so sad (or maybe it was the depressingly empty and now dirty house). But we figured that someone will probably come look at the house and think, “I HAVE to have that wreath, so I guess we’ll buy this house!” In fact, I did get a call that someone wanted to look at the house the next morning, so I planned to clean with Milt when his plane got in so it will be all ready the next morning bright and early…which was the plan until Milt called from Pennsylvania to let me know he’s missed his flight and won’t be able to get in until the next morning. Great. So my wonderful, saintly, kind mother (who has cleaning ladies clean her own house so she doesn’t have to) comes and cleans my house with me until about 2 in the morning – she is seriously the best!

Goodbye Brunch at the Earls

Mindi, Jamie, and Jennie (don't they look sad that I'm leaving?)

Jen Earl is so sad I'm leaving (okay, so she was just blowing her nose, but it looks like she's sad!)

The wreath we left behind...isn't it lovely? It would've looked great in our new place. Sigh.
Thursday: The people come look at the house and Milt’s flight gets in. We spend a few hours filling in nail holes in the wall and re-painting, then we load the kids up to go spend some time with Milt’s sister Lacey and her husband Brandon and Milt’s brother Ryley before we leave. We finally get on the road to drive to Vegas at about 8:00 pm and don’t get there until about 2 in the morning (and it was still 95 degrees at 2:00 in the morning there…I was so impressed!)

McKinley on the car ride down to Vegas

Friday: We are having so much fun with Milt’s family and other siblings, when Kennedy decides to start throwing up. I spent the day “sacrificing my hands and body to save the carpet.” She finally starts feeling better before bedtime.

Kennedy fell asleep laying like this on the couch...which she never does! Poor little sick thing.
Saturday: We visited with some of Milt’s cousins and his Aunt Vicki and had a little pool party (and Kennedy was deathly afraid of the pool, so we made her go in it anyway because it’s kind of nice to see her vulnerable and scared of something other than car washes). I also went with my sister-in-law Melanie to buy a double stroller so that we would be able to make it through the airport….totally worth every penny!

Kennedy with Aunt Vicki, and cousins Melanie and Marissa

Maddox with Big Daddy
Milt and the kids at the pool (Kennedy was not a fan)
Sunday: Maddox started throwing up right after breakfast (a very large breakfast), and Kennedy must have felt like he was stealing her thunder, so she decided to throw up again too. No church for us! It took me, Milt, and Milt’s mom all to tag team all of the cleaning up we had to do (Maddox threw up EVERYWHERE!) We just were hoping that they would feel better by the next day for the plane ride.

Monday: No one seemed to be sick, so we somehow made it to the airport in one piece. Kennedy was a PILL on the plane…she didn’t handle having to stay in one place very well. Maddox was not real happy either. He doesn’t handle hunger well at all, and we were afraid to feed him too much in case it made him sick again. But we got to Pennsylvania in time to go the hotel and crash – we were so exhausted!

The girls and their cute rolling backpacks...they felt so grown-up!

Tuesday: Milt had to work, so I planned to take the kids to the mall on Tuesday. Unfortunately, I decided to catch the nasty stomach flu and throw up all day long. In a two bedroom hotel suite. But don’t worry. Maddox decided to throw up one more time again to make me feel like I wasn’t alone. Maddox slept most of the day, and McKinley and Kennedy had fun roaming free with very little supervision (thank goodness for the safety door locks on the hotel doors, or Kennedy would have been long gone.) At one point of my misery, I looked up to see Kennedy soaking wet and wiping her wet hands on the mirror of the closet door. I asked her how she got up to the sink to get her hands wet and she said, “I wash hands in the potty.” Yes, she had been washing her hands (and body, apparently) in the same toilet I had been throwing up in…which made me throw up again just realizing it. She also managed to get cereal and milk on every piece of furniture and try on all of McKinley’s clothes. But there was very little resting going on for me. Milt had to rush back from work early so that he could take me to the bank to get paperwork notarized so that he could be my power of attorney at the closing of our house (since I was throwing up, I decided maybe I could miss the fun filling out of paperwork early the next morning.) So I went, with no make-up, greasy hair, in my sweats to the bank to fill out paperwork. I was so glad that there was no one I could possibly run into that knew me (since we don’t know anybody) while I looked like that (that’s my glass half-full for you). We also were on the phone at the same time with the title company telling us about some last minute changes to our down-payment amount we needed the next morning for the house (they told us it was going to be $8,000 more than we had expected, but luckily it was just a communication error between the relocation company and the mortgage company.) We figured it was just more stress to make the day somewhat eventful….we don’t like to be bored.

The kids at the hotel

Wednesday: Milt went to the closing on the house without me (I was still sick), and everything went pretty smoothly…amazing! He got the keys and everything, so we took the kids over to the house later that night. They loved it! Kennedy just ran back and forth from room to room and squealed while McKinley sat talking about her new room and how she needs it to be pink soon (we’re on it…. eventually). Even Maddox loved crawling around (it’s actually just scooting, but we’re proud nonetheless)! So we went back for one more night at the hotel before our beds got there.

Thursday: MOVING DAY. We had to wake the kids up super early to pack up and get over to the house by 8:00 am for the moving guys to show up with all our stuff. We knew everything wasn’t going to go perfectly (no moves ever go without a few casualties), but boy did it top even our worst expectations! Here are the highlights: Our cherry wood bed footboard got all scuffed up (shaved off on pieces), McKinley’s bed got pretty scuffed up, and my treadmill is in pieces (not intentional pieces, ripped off pieces). I know – my treadmill! There is insurance for everything, but it’s going to take a couple of weeks and I don’t know if my pants will still fit by then! Can they reimburse me for that? But here is the real kicker in the pants of moving day. Milt went and bought the moving guys lunch and when he got back, he left his wallet on the counter (dumb, trusting Utah people that we are). After the movers left, we were heading out to grab a bite for dinner and Milt couldn’t find it anywhere. So we thought it was probably just under a box or hiding in the mess of our kitchen. When I went to pay for dinner at the restaurant and my card was declined, we totally freaked out! We called the card company and they told us that someone found Milt’s wallet on the side of the road and called to report it lost before they took it to the local Police Station. Hmmmm, we thought. Could Milt have accidentally lost it on the way home from getting lunch? So we called the people who found the wallet and they found it while bike riding on a road just past our house that we had never even driven on before (about 20 minutes after the movers had left). So one of the mover guys must have grabbed the wallet and then threw it out the window when they saw there was no cash inside (Milt is not a cash guy…thank goodness!) But can you believe that! WE HAD JUST BOUGHT THEM LUNCH! We were so upset. These guys had been in our house talking with the kids and us ALL DAY, and then they did this? Yuck. Hard lesson learned fast…protect all money stuff. Luckily, the people who found the wallet were so honest. It gave us hope that Philly wasn’t full of a bunch of criminals! Anyway, we went to sleep very glad that our house has an alarm, because we were pretty on edge.

Milt and Maddox in front of the moving truck

The girls trying (for a few minutes at least) to stay out of the movers way

McKinley loves unpacking! My poor treadmill
FRIDAY: Unpacking while Milt was at work. My main goal was to get the kitchen all unpacked and situated – and I barely made a dent in it (But I did get the computer and a TV all ready to go...gotta have priorities). Kennedy spent the day trying to get away from me so that she could get into stuff she’s not allowed to. First I found her standing on the edge of my bathtub by the sink (with MY toothbrush in her mouth) trying to fill the bathtub behind her up with water from the sink with a tiny little Listerine cup (holds about half an ounce of water). I then couldn’t find her anywhere (which is NEVER good), but finally found her in the back of my closet behind some clothes putting Carmex lip balm all over her legs like lotion. After that I made her stay with me in the kitchen, until I found her hanging on the handle to the top oven (picture below is taken just after). Seriously, is it any wonder I can’t get anything accomplished? But I did get a chance to go to the grocery store that night (Wal-mart) and I realized that while the gas here is cheaper than Utah, the groceries are definitely not! It’s cheaper here to get a gallon of gasoline than a gallon of milk – how wrong is that?

Kennedy's new favorite place to hang out...and play in the water and with Mom's make-up at the same time!

Kennedy was found swinging on the handle to the top oven....eeeek!

McKinley was very proud that I hooked up a TV by myself (even if it was the old school one!)

SATURDAY: Unpacking again. Goal is still to finish the kitchen, but still had a few boxes left. McKinley said to me tonight, “Mom, I need to make some friends here. When are you going to walk me around the town so I can meet some kids?” Yeah, lets go walk around the “town.” Do we have a town? We have a separate city name, township name, and our mailing address is in a city different from either of those. I don’t understand any of it. I’m still trying to figure out the neighborhood! Also, Milt had to check the BYU score online...he felt so deprived!

Putting together a toy closet from IKEA

Milt is checking the BYU score AGAIN!
SUNDAY: Church! It was really nice to go and feel welcomed to Pennsylvania. Everyone was so happy to see us there, and the bishop hinted that we could be in Primary (Milt was very excited). After we dropped McKinley off to Primary, we went to take Kennedy to her class. A lady came in not 2 minutes after we had been in there and said, “Oh, are you McKinley’s parents? I just met her – boy is she a hoot!” At my frightened expression, the lady told us that McKinley had just told everyone about her family and that she had one little sister and a “plump” brother. WHAAAT? Only McKinley! Anyway, we just got back from taking a walk around the neighborhood. Our neighbors have not yet brought over cookies and introduced themselves, but we decided it’s probably just because they’re all out of town for the long weekend. I’m sure they’ll start baking for us when they get back. But the kitchen is done! Yeah! Tomorrow we are going to run errands and unpack (again), and then McKinley will start school on Tuesday. She is so excited! We went to the school and met her teacher on Thursday, and McKinley can’t wait to go back.

Kennedy and Maddox after church

Here is a picture of some trees next to our neighborhood for Lisa G. and Andrea D. It really is beautiful!