Moving Blurbs

It was our last official day in the RV when I started this blog post (so if you were waiting until the last moment to buy this thing, you're now going to have to purchase from a different state), and I was sitting with a cat in my lap watching the dawn light stretch the tree shadows long and slim while using my cell phone hotspot to access blogger because our internet decided our last week in the RV was the most appropriate time to crap out on us. Really, it wasn't wrong. 

Change of Command: ignore the kids' faces

 

Had to take the dog for one last morning walk on the shore

 

Now, however, I'm sitting in our very comfortable, very well used recliner that has been rescued from the storage unit in which it has been languishing for almost two years, and I'm watching the sunlight creep up the hill covered in tall unbroken trees that I can see out of the huge bay window in our sitting room in the new house. That's right: there's a sitting room and a living room because we're fancy now. Also, we've officially moved.

Road trip buddy

  

It's been several weeks since I wrote last and a lot of big stuff has been happening in the world. Those two things are related. So, yes, while part of the reason I haven't written this month is just that it's been incredibly busy and I have been incredibly tired, the other reason is that I prefer to process slowly and quietly in my own head and not feel like I have to comment in public on something I'm still thinking about in private. With that said, this blog is not going to be about big things, but just about little things. But if you'd like to talk to me about big things, you missed my window while I was on the road driving. Kidding: you can still call and I will take a much needed break from putting together new furniture--and I will love getting to hear a familiar voice on the phone.

So much space!

 

With that said, some blurbs for the move:

• This has been an interesting move as it's happened in shifts, so when I got asked how the move prep going, I told them that it was going something like this: workworkwork...wait... wait... wait... workworkwork.... wait... wait... wait... workworkwork. But in between there's a lot of SOCIALIZE!!! and then a few rounds of recovery.
• Speaking of, self isolating did not prepare me for these last few weeks of intense pre-move socialization. My badly exercised peopling muscle got a real workout those last few days in Florida.

      My fellow introvert enjoying his quiet.
He asked me to schedule in down time those last couple weeks...
                           and it was much needed.                                       

• The last week before the move, the Man took a trailer up to the new house with mattresses in it and a few boxes of things I no longer needed in the RV. I packed nonessentials like extra clothes (don't need all those sweaters right now in FL) and lamps and school books. Guess what was left on my nightstand: a stack of around a dozen books. I know what I cannot do without. The coffee pot was also still in residence and doing double time.
• It was the curse of the last week in the RV: three wet beds (all different children--moving is stressful) and a cat barf in the middle of our bed. Every time I hoped that it would be the last time dragging our laundry to the lodge, behold, there was more laundry. What I am really enjoying in the new house: yes! the washer and dryer!

Reunited with my ginormous wok!

• I put three pizzas in the oven at the same time Friday night. I was drunk with power.
• When you can't get a massive dresser up the twisty stairs, you turn it into a hutch for the kitchen...which really needed more cabinet space anyway. But then you laugh about how you needed more cabinet space when you've spent the last year and a half in an RV.

I have since fixed that drawer...

• Unpacking a storage unit that you didn't really pack leads to lots of excitement and surprises. There were things that I had totally forgotten about, and then things missing the I expected to see (vacuum cleaner and waffle iron, I'm looking at you...except not).
• It's the little joys: like finding out that the bunk beds you ordered for the boys come with the drawers already assembled, so you don't have to do that part, and having kids who don't mind helping you screw in hidden cams, and taking the kids for a short walk in the woods without having to leave the neighborhood, and Littles and Tiny agreeing to skip the majority of the Frodo/Sam parts when rewatching Return of the King late at night in bed with popcorn.

We emerged with only one tick,
so we'll take that as a win.

• The best thing about this move has been moving with a couple of our favorite families and moving to one of our all-time favorites (even if they're leaving us at the end of the month). It's made it so much less emotionally draining, knowing that I didn't leave behind our entire support system like we normally do. When I say that's the best thing, I mean that it's even better than moving into a house from the RV, and so that tells you something.
• Some things are worth time and effort. It's good to figure out what those things are on the front end.

Hanging all those pictures in a grid pattern is somehow worth it.

• Sometimes Amazon sends you the wrong item and you unpack 80% of the box before you realize that it's definitely a twin and trundle and not a twin over twin bunk bed. This can ruin your day, or you can take a deep breath, resist the urge to slam your head against the wall repeatedly, and do your best to Tetris the pieces back in the box so it can be returned. You will then spend the rest of the next 48 hours trying to explain to the three year old why her bed isn't set up yet. Dark chocolate will help. And this is still only a blip in the radar.
• Setting up a house with the guy you've been married to for a dozen years is way easier than setting up a house with the guy you've been married to for only a handful of months. Even if said guy has to do a quick run up to Boston the week you move in. This is just a fact. However, he still doesn't appreciate when I offer to race him to see who can get a nightstand put together first.
• Want to be a real adult: go buy blinds. I have now reached new levels.

Behold our fancy sitting room.
Also, behold those blinds I bought. 
If you can see them because I pull them up the second
I get out of bed.

• Real excitement means a water leak through the ceiling your first night in a new house. 
• When you've lost both wheels on the front of your piano, you can prop it on your husband's International Law book and your Norton's Short Fiction.
• This is not move related but Rosie told me the other day that when she turns into a baby, she will not like bananas. Just thought you should know.

Pets make moving better.

• There is something really satisfying about drinking a cold glass bottled coke out of a wine glass after a hard day of work. There is something less satisfying about lying in bed with your eyes glued open because you can't sleep from the caffeine because YOU ARE OLD.
• Necessity is the mother of invention. I learn this every move. Also, just because you assure your husband that there is a printer in the storage unit (and you are right) doesn't mean that the printer actually still works (so in the long term, he is also right). Not sure how those two things are related.

It's amazing: I can walk around this bed without stubbing my toes!

And now, having gotten myself back on the blogging bandwagon, I'm going to throw some pictures in this thing, and be done. The kids are up and needing breakfast, and today is Sunday, my last day to secure house plants while the Man is still out of town and can't stop me, and also a day to rest and say thank you and not put together any furniture or unpack any boxes or clean away any dust or cobwebs. Also, I realize that this post is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to our move and the last two months, but this is about all the emotional energy I have left to write so...for now, it is enough.

We are happy to be home.