Moving Journal part one

In order to preserve some memories of this eventful move, I'll be posting a kind of diary so you can all follow along.

Monday, 10/15

I kind of panic that there's too much to do and things are going to be too stressful....what else would I do but bake? G and I decorate the cupcakes together, we take some to our neighbor and her kids, and the rest to the gym play-center ladies. Everyone appreciates the gesture and delicious butter cream icing, colored purple and orange for Halloween. My husband gets a haircut and I entertain G alone since he doesn't get home until nearly 8. We eat up leftovers and pack more. We try to relax before the chaos starts.

Tuesday, 10/16

The packing crew arrives. I'm still in my pajamas and don't care. I show them around and request they do the kitchen last, so G and I can have breakfast. I also run the dishwasher one last time, and work on packing our separate things more.

G and I take the CRV recyclables to the place where we get money back. (If you aren't familiar with CRV, look at your bottles and cans, many say "CA cash refund" or something to that effect. California charges you a 10¢ 'deposit' when you buy items that are labeled as CRV...and while it's great if you toss them in your weekly recycling collection, you don't ever get that money back. Thus, for the seven months we lived in CA, we watched our stash of CRV items pile up in a big box in our garage. On our final day in California, we turned them in for a 'refund' of about $18.)

We return to an increasingly barren house, as our belongings get packed away. The crew finishes around 1 pm, so I am able to put G down for a nap around 1:45. After nap time, we go to the shoe store. She tries on some ridiculously cute winter boots, that I can't bare to pay $35 for. She also falls in love with a pair of rainbow slip on shoes that don't come in her size...poor thing has tiny wide feet. I buy myself a pair of boots (brown leather, very nice) for the first time in years. We also go to Kohls to buy another suitcase because I need more room to pack...but they are too expensive there, so we head to Target. G picks our her first suitcase, a pretty blue roller one with front and back wheels.

After my husband gets off work, we head out to dinner at a place we hadn't tried, but is a pretty popular establishment on the West Coast; Mel's Diner. For the Midwestern folks, it's likvnhhe Steak and Shake, with a bigger food menu, less of a milkshake menu, and no skinny fries, but add alcohol. The cutest thing was that G's kids meal was delivered in an old convertible car box. It made it super fun :) I had a San Francisco burger, my husband had some fun-named loaded burger, and G had chicken strips. We also got a chocolate milk shake.

Wednesday, 10/17

I get up around 7:45 am, anticipating our moving crew around 8. The guy to pick up my husband's truck for shipping rings the bell first (my husband is driving my car across the country, since it's more reliable and comfortable). Unfortunately, the truck wasn't home; it was at work with my husband, because we didn't anticipate it being picked up until the afternoon. The movers arrive around the same time, and start loading our belongings in the biggest moving truck I've ever seen (not just one, but two side doors). Thankfully, my husband was able to run home and drop his truck off, so that was taken care of. G and I took him back to work before getting breakfast at Panera. G loves their pink ribbon bagels and wild berry smoothies. She is in fact, a girl after my own heart ;)

After breakfast we return the Comcast things to their office, where there is no line--lucky us! After wards I let her play in the flower area at the strip mall, to kill some time and reward her good behavior. Of course she screams when I make her get in the car. It's all for not, though, because the next two errands are for her! We head to the gym to give Ms. Joyce a thank you card because she gave G a super fun Disney Princess book with push buttons that make sounds (as a good bye present). Apparently they bonded quite well. All the ladies at the gym adored her, and vise versa. I am really going to miss letting her play there, it was wonderful.

The next event in 'operation get out of the movers way' is our last story time at the library. This has been part of our weekly routine since G was 13 months old. We both thoroughly enjoyed it and I saw a lot of growth in G through the songs and motions learned as part of our participation each Wednesday. Ms. Lisa also loved G, and said she was so sad we were leaving, but hopes our new town has story time, to which I replied that if they don't I will certainly be starting one!

After story time, we headed home to check on the movers. Things were speeding along, so we stayed out of the way, eating plenty of snacks in the corner of the master bedroom.

Our landlord came over to get our keys. We chatted some, and two of my neighbors came out to chat too. It was a funny little neighborhood gathering on our last day, when we never even had one before.

Around 2,  went to pick my husband up from work, since the movers were almost done. Sadly, G fell asleep in the car on the 10 minute drive home. I know she was exhausted and it was past nap time, but I was hoping she'd sleep on the hour drive to our hotel for the night. No luck on that, though.

After the movers had everything loaded up, we loaded our things into the car and headed for the airport Holiday Inn.

We showered before dinner, since we were both yucky from the hustle and bustle of the day (yes, we had movers but there was still a lot we had to do ourselves, like clean and pack and load). We decided on dinner at the hotel restaurant because no one wanted to get back in the car. G had chicken strips again, and my husband and I had chicken and steak salads, respectively. Oh, and a glorious onion ring appetizer.

After dinner we watched the Cardinals win, for the last time this season (sadly), and got ready for bed. G was fussy, but went down easy, with us in the room comforting her. We didn't sleep well, though, because we were anxious and also aware of her presence in the bed next to us.