Moving Day

Really, it felt like moving day for a solid 2 months.... at least. I felt like I never, ever sat down to read for a minute, or just enjoy being with my kids. I had parenting alone, packing and cleaning, and it was soccer season. Thankfully, I had a very helpful support group, mainly my mom and dad next door. I think I mentioned it in a previous post (I've been so sporadic the last several months, I don't know what I actually wrote about or just thought that I should write about) but Andy got a job back here in late April and has been in Utah staying with family ever since, until moving in here. I came back on a house hunting trip in August, and this one ended up being the house that we bought.

(*photo above is the backyard. We are on a corner lot, so I took this from part of our very long sidewalk. If you look closely, you can see Drew and a neighbor kid sitting on the fence by the playground. )



Here we are in early October, on the day that Andy picked up the moving truck from Penske. Of course the kids had to check it out, and also spent a bit of time climbing in the back. Andy and his Dad rolled out for the cross country trip a few days later, with the vast majority of our things. The kids and I had about 3 weeks of time in MD finishing up the school quarter and because there were cheaper tickets for our favorite Southwest nonstop flight to SLC at the end of the month.

For those 3 weeks we camped out on air mattresses, and lived very minimally. I kept 4 bowls, forks and cups and my favorite knife. I also had a set of camping pans. It was remarkably liberating in a lot of ways to have so much less stuff, and I vowed to myself to live with less when I made it to the new place. I had a big yard sale and sold things on Craiglist that didn't make the cut. Some women from Cameroon came to the yard sale, and I gave them a great deal on bags of clothes after they told me that they are sending it home to their village. So someone in Cameroon might be wearing one of my old shirts soon.


When the time finally came for us to leave, I was sad as mentioned in my last post. But, I was excited to be reuniting with Andy again. My wonderful Mom gave us a ride to the airport, and due to a variety of reasons and a few unexpected laps around the airport, she had to drop us off at the curb in a rush before she could park. So Drew and I took 2 carts full into the airport with our stuff, and then I ran back outside to get Sydney and Matt while Drew was left with the luggage. Did I mention how much stuff we had that for one reason or another didn't make it onto the moving truck with Andy 2 weeks before? We had 8 large checked pieces, 7 carry-ons, Matt's car seat and a stroller. While I was trying to push a giant cart of luggage, pull a couple of carry-ons, and give orders to Drew (who had the other cart) and Sydney (she was pushing Matt in our lousy umbrella stroller) I had one of those moments were I knew that I really looked pathetic... like a tired looking woman who has bit off way more than she could chew. But, thanks to that a lady opened up the retractable rope and I went straight over to what I think was the handicapped luggage check in area, bypassing the snaking line. The very nice woman at the desk (Jodi) was very friendly and even overlooked the fact that some of my bags were overweight. We headed to security for all of the shoe removal etc, and my mom caught up with us just then after getting a gate pass from my buddy Jodi. Fortunately, it was time for us to line up and board just minutes after getting to our gate. It didn't give me or my mom enough time to be too sad since we were so busy getting to our flight.

Once on the plane, things went as well as they could have. Matt had a few mild moments, but I got several comments from the people around me how good my kids were so he must not have been too loud. So after 5 hours of giving out the lunches that I packed and the surprise toys that I had wrapped for those who were helpful getting on the plane (they all earned one), and various tactics to keep everyone quiet and happy, we landed in Utah. Andy got a gate pass on the other end, and we were all thrilled to see him when we walked up the tunnel into the terminal. An hour and a half later, we made it to our new house. Uncharacteristically, I didn't take many pictures of this whole process, since I had too many other things going on. I explored the new place right along with the kids, since I had only seen it twice for a few minutes each time. They liked it right away. My mom in-law, dad in-law and sis in-law were also sweet enough to do much of the unpacking before I even arrived. Here are pictures of the outside:


I liked the eastern look of this place... it has mature trees, shutters, and the garage is not so prominent since it is on the side. But it also has our favorite Utah features of a good mountain view, loads of kids, and air that smells like pine trees when the wind blows out of the canyon at night.

And a basketball court in the driveway.

I'll end this super long post for now. I'm hoping to do a better job of blogging now that I am not so rushed to get moved. I hope you will all forgive a little bit of back tracking mixed in with actual updates.