Amygdalia's Blog

The move!

Moving was . . . interesting!  I’ll start off by saying that I truly appreciate being up here, after all of the craziness that we dealt with over the past few days!  A brief summary, for those who may not know the background story – we moved ½ hour north of where we used to live, in large part because my husband and Dhoc-li Llama work/attend school up in this area.  They’ve been commuting for  . . . almost 11 years!  The commute includes a few areas that are often undergoing some sort of construction.  For the summer, both Dhoc-li Llama and her sister are attending camps up in this area, as well. 

So . . . Friday morning at 7:30 AM, I loaded all 3 children into the van.  Bob, my best friend, and one of our neighbors were already hard at work loading up the U-Haul.  We already had a POD jam packed with our possessions.  I first dropped Dhoc-li Llama off at her Fine Arts camp, and then dropped Sophie off at her camp.  Then, back down to our old area, to drop Jakie off with a friend for the morning.  I’d gotten a call from Bob before I’d even dropped Jakie off . . . the truck was FULL, so they were going to have to make a trip up to the new house, quickly unload, and then drive back to get the rest.  The truck was due back at the rental place by 4 PM.  So when I got back to the old house, there was still stuff everywhere!  I started cleaning around the piles and messes, because I knew I wouldn’t have another opportunity.  Meanwhile, another friend was supposed to be meeting us at the new place around 11:30, to help unload.  But by 11:30, the guys were already back here, lunch in hand, to eat and get the second load taken care of.  I had no cell # for our friend, to let him know of the change.  Bob and the guys were frantically trying to get the truck loaded again (remember – it needs to be returned by 4 PM, and it needs to be returned to a place near the old house!)  Other time constraints – Bob and I had to meet the buyers for settlement at 1 PM.  Dhoc-li Llama needed to be picked up from camp (1/2 hour away) at 1:15.  We had to leave . . . it was agonizing!  We left Michael and Marvin loading the truck, and Michael left shortly after we did, to drive up and get Dhoc-li Llama from camp.  They went directly to the new house (less than 5 minutes from camp) afterwards.  So, Marvin was left to finish packing the truck, and drive it up to the new house!  We still hadn’t heard from Ted, our other friend. 

After settlement (which went smoothly, thank goodness!) I dropped Bob off at his car (which was at the truck rental place) so he could rush up to the new house and get the truck unloaded ASAP.  Then I picked up Jakie, and we headed up there, as well.  Jakie fell asleep 10 minutes from the house, so I left him sleeping in the van, and helped the guys (and Dhoc-li Llama ) unload the truck.  Everything basically got thrown into the garage to be sorted later!  My mom was also due to arrive at the new house, at any time.  Just then, Ted pulls up!  He’d deleted the email with our new address, and didn’t have our cell #s to get in touch with us.  At 2:15 he’d finally realized he could call my dad to try and find us!  They quickly finished unloading the truck, and Bob drove himself and Marvin back down to drop it off.  Ted picked up his son, and then picked them up from the truck rental place, dropped Marvin off at home, and headed back up here. 

Jakie woke up, inconsolable . . . until I gave him cookies and a juicebox, and let him watch a brand new Land Before Time dvd on the laptop (thank goodness I’d seen the box with the dvd in it, in the garage!)  All special treats for him! 

When Bob got home, he told me that Marvin had left a few things behind at the house, because they would not fit on the truck!  Cable modem and router? At the house.  Organizer with screws, nails, hangers etc?  At the house.  The cable guy arrived, and set us up, but could not check the internet to see if it was working properly. 

I felt like I was in total chaos – my children, plus Ted’s son, and now Michael’s son were all over the house, there were boxes everywhere, my freshly shampooed carpets were getting filthy . . . my nerves were frayed and my temper was short.  Oh . . . and the phone line isn’t working, either.  And Bob cannot get in touch with anyone at the phone company . . . every number he tries to call is out of service!  When he finally got ahold of someone, they said couldn’t even give him an idea of how long it would take to get the service working.  So – no phone, no internet.

Bob eventually decided that he had to try and get the stuff from the house that evening, because he was missing vital stuff that couldn’t wait until the next day.  So, back down he drove . . . not knowing whether anyone was actually at the house, or not.  Fortunately, they were!  As it turns out, it wasn’t just a few things Marvin left behind . . . Bob could barely get it all into his car!!  Everything we’d been saying “I can’t find the . . .” about had been left behind!  Our carpet shampooer, I can’t even remember what else, at this point! 

By the time he got back, I was practically in tears from being so fatigued and frazzled from the chaos.  Trying to get the kids to bed was quite a treat!

If you’re keeping score – I made the trip twice . . . Bob made it FOUR times, on Friday! 

Saturday, more people came to help.  More children were running around the house.  More boxes and chaos and frazzledness.  And we still didn’t have internet or phone service.  Bob was mean and threatening, and got a promise from someone at the phone company that our service would be working by Monday at noon.  He called the cable company, and someone would come out on Sunday.  By the time the kiddos were in bed on Saturday, we were both a total wreck.  He looked at me and said “wanna go get take out, go to my office and . . . check email?”    We skipped the take-out!  Hee.

Sunday morning . . . different cable guy comes – the problem is something to do with the strength of the signal??  And there’s nothing he can do.  Someone will be out the following day to fix it.  Still no phone or internet.  We decided to take the kids to see Ratatouille in the afternoon, as a treat.  Jakie stood in the hallway of the theater and refused to go in.  ARGHHH!!  Bob finally got him to go in, and he actually enjoyed it very much.  We all did!

I’m still quite frazzled, and I can’t wait for things to be all organized, put away, and clean!  Washer and dryer don’t arrive until Tuesday.

Ok . . . so that’s the main story.  Here’s the goods – I LOVE the new house!!  I LOVE being up here!!!  We’re 5 minutes from Target, movie theater in the same shopping center, Trader Joe’s as well.  Across the street is an Indian restaurant, so we got take-out from there, this evening. 


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