I could sum up this weekend with “my lamb, do we have a lot of stuff”, but that’s no fun, is it? Why say something in one sentence if you can say it in 105.
Thursday Morning: The movers are to arrive between 8 and 8:30, so Randy and I set the alarm for 6:30. We had a few projects left to do that morning, but we had to stand around while the movers moved, so we weren’t worried. When I made it to the living room, I noticed what I thought was the next door neighbor parking her car right in front of our house. Just as I opened the door to ask her to move for the truck, I noticed it was not Angie, but Randy’s mom. Who lives in IL. At 6:50am. As she said “don’t be mad”, it registered that she was there to help as I was just puttering in my pajamas. She really was a great help that day (and next!), but if you know me, you know I don’t do surprises well. That wasn’t the best way to start my moving day. I’m so fortunate to have good in-laws. I’m just SOOO not good with surprises. Particularly on those kinds of days. Many thanks to Randy for keeping me in my place.
Since we had the extra set of hands, we were done with things we could do by 9 am. I sent Randy and his mom off to the new place while I waited for the movers to wrap up, which they did by 10:30. (Super, super fast!!) I took one sad walk through the empty place, took a few pictures, sighed a few sighs, and talked to the neighbors. (Eight years and I still don’t know my next door neighbor’s name… Think it’s too late to ask?) Then it was time to leave. Sigh.
I drove to the new place, by way of Starbucks for my daily chocolate banana smoothie fix, and got to the house to see dueling moving trucks. Our new neighbors across the street moved in that day, too. Her name is Marta. Don’t forget that Maggie… it’s Marta….
No lie, the movers were done around noon even though pretty much every piece of furniture needed it’s own direction.
Let’s take a step back here. I know I have clarified that we don’t have a usable kitchen. (Please see above for current state of affairs.) This means we also don’t have a usable dining room. And that the kitchen items that we need for now (fridge, silverware, apples) are in the living room. We have our new stove in the living room, waiting it’s turn and serving as a countertop for the microwave. The old stove (on it’s way to the duplex) and dishwasher are in the dining room. The dining room table had to go in the living room. The china went in the extra bedroom and where in the world did all the towels go?? Our upstairs bathroom is 90% done. The downstairs bathroom hasn’t been touched yet, short of pulling off a piece of wallpaper every now and then. Since the utility sink project has been put on hold, we have to use the downstairs bathroom to wash dishes which would be OK if it wasn’t a Barbie-sized sink and/or there was electricity in the space. (Electricity is off for the kitchen, which also means random outlets and lights throughout the house don’t work seeing as the house was wired before the age of Christ.)
Does this last paragraph confuse you? Make you frustrated? Anxious? Wishing you could set order where order is needed? Welcome to my next six weeks. There is stuff everywhere and yet nothing is where I need it.
Family left around 8 pm after the brother-in-law tried to set up the internet. Of course it didn’t work just like Jameel, the cable guy, had written in his notes. I had to call Friday morning, being dispatched through three different departments before finally getting them to tell me “restart your computer” and ta-da, there it was. We had gotten up pretty early since there are no curtains in our room yet and every light in a five mile radius comes right in our windows and Noah had decided to tell us he was not happy with the move by peeing on bedroom floor. Randy went out to run while I wrestled with Time Warner customer service. 30 minutes later, around 8:15, the front door opens, but instead of Randy, it’s our project manager for construction. Turns out the doorbell is also on the kitchen breaker. There I am, again caught in my pajamas and the everlasting question – doesn’t anyone call before showing up anymore??
I made up for the frustration by buying one of everything at Target Friday afternoon. Seriously, I needed two carts and a helper to get to my car afterwards. Guess this makes up for all of the times I’ve walked out of there with nothing.
Friday night we took a break in the unpacking action to pick up our race materials and eat dinner at a real restaurant with no paper plates or wrappers. I was in bed by 8:30. This mess is exhausting.
Saturday, I was worthless for the house. After getting up crazy early and running 6.55 miles in the rain (all while I was mentally prepared for 6.2… Trust me, at the time, you would have thought the unexpected .3 mile was really another 3 miles. I was dying!), and eating brunch at a place that I want to really, really like, but it keeps missing the mark, I came home to shower. And nap.
Randy came home to take the ceiling tile system off in the basement. And change the lock on the garage door. And unpack a few boxes. Overachiever.
Sunday morning, we woke up early again. No unexpected people in our house, just lots of light in the bedroom. I thought it would be a good idea to work out the legs (both mine and Noah’s) by taking a walk to Starbucks. It was time for my smoothie fix. Long story short, 30 minutes later we get home. Me wet from humidity sweat and leftover rainwater falling from the trees. Noah bloody from his nails that aren’t used to that long of a walk and exhausted from running into all of the dogs in our new neighborhood. It did not go well.
I shook it off and cleaned out the garage. (If by “clean out the garage”, you mean put the boxes that were in the garage somewhere else in the house. Or rather, moved some boxes while directing Randy for anything weighing over 30 pounds.) Next, I tackled my office which was the scariest room in the house. I wish I would have taken a picture. This space is roughly 13″ X 13″. 7″ X 9″ of it was covered in bags and boxes. The rest of the floor space was filled with furniture. (Have I mentioned how much furniture we have?!? Our last house was smaller than this one, but somehow I have bookshelves and dressers coming out of my ears.) Six hours later you could see the floor and I got to sit down.
I assembled dinner (pork loin, green beans, and sliced watermelon) on a coffee table and took a shower with the one towel I have found. I turned to Randy as we were watching Mad Men on the tiniest TV known to man and told him we’re living here until we retire.
My lamb, do we have a lot of stuf
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