The Move

To call our recent move smooth would be like calling a porcupine soft. For the most part, if it could go wrong-it did. Nothing major, thankfully, but enough to make us a bit more stressed than necessary. I write this all with humor, as it is pretty funny. . . now. It all began when we went to pick up the truck. . .

The plan was for Rich to drive the truck, as driving a 16' truck is pretty much torture to me. We were informed that only the person who's name is on the credit card that rents the truck can drive it, unless we paid an extra $20 per driver. That made me drive the truck alone for six hours, while Daddy and Josey took the screaming baby in the Saturn, and Rich drove the van with no air conditioning and a whining cat. I think we were all tortured in our own way!

We all got to Hudson fine, and my mother-in-law got the key a day early. My plan was to set up the crib and spend our first night in the apartment, to make it easy on Gracie. We ended up at my in-law's and it got late visiting, so we stayed there. Friday we unloaded the truck in record time, thanks to lots of friends and family that came to help. As soon as they all left, I started putting Gracie's curtains up (they leave a blue glow in the room, so I figured they'd make her feel like she's home) when I heard Josey say "Um, something's leaking." Daddy and I went into the hallway to find about 2" of standing water in the hall, bathroom, and entry to the master bedroom. He got the leak (coming from the tank of the toilet) to stop while I ran down the hallway to see if the landlord was still around. She wasn't. I called the "emergency" number, which is a pager (who uses pagers?) several times, but never got a call back. After mopping up the water and putting fans on the carpet, we went to our upstairs neighbors, who we had already met and been told to come to for "anything," to ask if there was any other way to get a hold of the property managers. He paged them from his phone too. We ended up at grandma and grandpa's again that night, and Sunday night. Monday the manager was very upset to hear about our weekend, and was very prompt in getting maintenance to help us out, and he checked in with us every morning until it was all taken care of.

My friends and family have been amazing at finding us new-to-us furniture so we wouldn't have to move any of our junky stuff from our old apartment. My brother's family got us a couch, loveseat, dresser, and crib, Jon and Carrie had an entertainment center, and my in-laws gave us a computer desk and another dresser. Jon and Carrie delivered the entertainment center about a week after we moved in, and our t.v. was about 2" too big to fit in it! We traded t.v.s with my in-laws, who have our second t.v. (we don't need two!), and Daddy keeps telling me he downgraded for me. I am quite appreciative, as the new set up has glass doors on the bottom so Gracie can't get into all the electronics.

I called for cable and internet and had an appointment a week after we moved in for installation. I opted out of paying for installing internet, as I can easily plug in a modem. We were excited to have it set up and hurried home to wait for the cable guy. We waited. And waited. And waited. He no showed. I called the company, and they said they had another appointment a week later. I lost my cool. I explained that this was their fault, not mine and I therefore expected to be taken care of the next day, for free. Funny, they suddenly had an appointment anytime I wanted the next day. After the cable guy left I started installing the internet. Imagine my frustration when I discovered that I needed an install CD that they didn't give me in order to complete my installation. Maybe they could have mentioned that on the phone?

Of course, in the middle of all this our van started overheating. It needs a new water pump, so we are down to one vehicle for now. I find all of this funny now, but at the time it really felt like "what else can happen!" I think we're getting settled now though. I have yet to get the dressers here, so there's lots of clothes all over Gracie's room, and I still have some boxes of books to put on the shelves. Our new place is smaller than the old one, so we've needed to get creative with our storage but when we went in after the Great Flood to sign the lease we learned that the apartment comes with a garage! So far it's empty, so it's an option for storage if we get too frustrated.

Our patio overlooks the playground, and Gracie has already learned that grass and sand are fun! She was a bit scared of them at first, but we got her a shovel and sand sifter at the dollar store and she sits for hours digging in the sand. It also has a big slide and swings that she loves. Stay tuned for pictures of her playing with Josey.