The Big Move

EJ didn’t have to work Friday so he and I drove down to our old house while JJ stayed at the new house to take care of the pets. As we drove away, we checked our mailbox and we had mail! It was the first day that mail arrived at our new address! And the mailperson had written “Welcome!” on a little note. So cool! It doesn’t take much to entertain me, but this is the first time in about 25 years that we have had mail delivered to our home. At our old house, we had to walk to the post office every day because everyone within the Village limits had post office boxes. Of course, at our new house our driveway is so long (and steep) that I have almost as far to walk for our mail as before, but, hey, it’s our own mailbox.

Anyway, we had driven several hours when JJ called to tell me that when he took Danny outside, he accidentally locked himself out of the house. Oops. JJ said he felt stupid…but who hasn’t locked himself out at one time or another? We helped him figure out how to get back into the house and he said, “Lesson learned! I’ll never do that again!”–except this morning he and I were in the garage and accidentally locked ourselves out. Oops. Fortunately EJ was in the house and could let us back in.

I’m glad EJ and I were able to drive down on Friday because we had a lot of work to do to get ready for the movers. We went to bed late and woke up early and got back to work. I packed the Xterra while EJ did other stuff to prepare for the move. About mid-morning, our movers arrived: Two of EJ’s friends as well as EJ’s nephew, his son, and his friend and his son. Besides our Xterra, we had a pickup truck, and a pickup with a large trailer. We spent several hours loading the furniture and boxes into the vehicles. We got a lot of things moved but we didn’t get it all so we will have to make another trip or two.

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We all left about mid-afternoon. First friends in the pickup drove away. then about 45 minutes later EJ’s nephew and crew left, and then we left. Even though we were the last to leave, we were actually the first to arrive because the others got a bit lost. The others pulled into the driveway right behind us. Then everyone helped unload the trucks and trailer.

Meanwhile, one of EJ’s sisters had driven to our new house with food to feed us all. That was such a tremendous help because we didn’t have to worry about feeding the everyone. I’m very thankful for everyone’s help.

After everyone left, we still had work to do. EJ put together our beds. I worked hard too, but I was so tired that I really can’t remember what I did. We were totally exhausted when we finally got to bed. As we lay in bed, several cats settled around us.

We worked all day today getting settled in. We got most of the furniture in the places we think we want them. I mostly sorted through our clothes and put them away in dressers. I worked all day with only a few breaks. I had a hard time stopping for the day because I kept finding one more thing to do, and one more thing, and one more thing. I finally stopped because my feet were aching so much it was intolerable. There is still chaos in the house, with boxes everywhere. It’s going to take a while to get everything put away. And we also need to paint the walls and install new flooring. We wanted to do the painting and flooring before the move, but we ran out of time.

So, I finally quit working for the night, and I’m sort of laying on the couch with my feet up. I can look out our big living room windows and enjoy the beautiful scenery. And then I saw a doe walk out of the trees and graze. And I thought “This is why I wanted to move…I love being able to see wildlife in my yard!