The move!

First, I just want to say that I always have the intention of posting more regularly, but life just seems to get in the way!  I am going to try...again...to not let so much time go between postings.


So, that brings us to our big move.  Where to begin?  I guess I need to revisit our previous move first--the one from NY to OH.  I'm not sure I really let on at the time, but that move was an awful time for me.  It actually landed me in the doctor's office with shortness of breath that I thought was my asthma acting up, but it ended up being anxiety.  My doctor prescribed anti-anxiety medication for a couple of weeks to "take the edge off".  The medication worked, and at the time I was very thankful for that, but I was also very surprised and a little disappointed that I was to the point of needing medication to get me through it.  Needless to say I did NOT want history to repeat itself, so I did everything I could not to get so stressed out this time around.  This meant that I had to be okay with letting some things out of my control and I had to be ready to roll with whatever was thrown our way.

Luckily, this move went much better than the last one.  We started by trying to be a little more prepared.  First, we went through the house and purged quite a bit, and even squeezed in a garage sale the weekend before we moved.  We still have a ton of stuff--WAY too much--but it's better.  I'm hoping that by the time our next move rolls around that we will have about half the stuff we do now.  Secondly, we tried our best to group our belongings in a way that will--hopefully--make unpacking more organized.  A few months ago I was talking to another Coastie wife who has moved 10 times in the last 15 years, hoping to gain some insight as to how to make the move easier.  Her best tip was a simple one--group like things together.  She used linens as an example and told me to make sure ALL the linens are together when the movers arrive to pack.  Then, when you are in your new house frantically unpacking a box marked "linens" looking for sheets so you can go to bed, you know that ALL the linens are in that box.  The same goes for toys, glassware, china, movies, etc.  So simple, yet it made so much sense to us!  I can remember unpacking all the china, getting my cabinet *just so* so that everything fit, and then coming across another whole box of china in the guest room or something because it wasn't in the same room when they were originally packed.   So we spent a few days pulling items out and grouping them together throughout our house, mainly china/glassware, toys, linens and towels, books, movies, and pictures.  Lastly, we tried to pack everything we were going to need for the next month into our cars the night before the movers came.  We had to make sure we had things for Anderson's last week of school, staying 3 weeks at my mom's house, stuff for our FL vacation, David's new uniforms and stuff for his new job...there was quite a list.  It was inevitable that we'd forget something, and we have, but nothing major...yet! 

Because of my experience last time trying to live in a house while it's being packed up, I told David that I wanted to be OUT of the house once the movers arrived.  So we moved ourselves on over to a hotel.  This part did not go as smoothly as we had hoped.  Let's just say 3 hotels later we finally found one that was going to work for us.  Since Anderson was still going to school at this point, we wanted to make sure he still went to bed at his normal bedtime, so we needed a room with a separate bedroom.  Most hotels have rooms like this, but we wanted the separate bedroom to have 2 beds.  Most have only one, which meant that someone (or two someones, in our case) would have to sleep on a pullout couch in the living area.   Neither David nor I really relished the thought of sleeping on a hotel pullout for 10 days, so we searched high and low and finally found a hotel that met our needs.  We did find out, however, that "staying" in a hotel and "living" in a hotel are two VERY different things, but we tried to make the best of it.  Anderson liked having a pool and cookies available whenever he wanted them! 

Once school was out for summer break it was time to say goodbye to Cleveland.  We've really loved living there, and we've made some great life-long friends.  We were sad to say goodbye.  A few weekends before the move we went on a "Cleveland Photo Safari" and spent the day taking pictures all around Cleveland.  We made a list of things ahead of time so we didn't miss anything, and we had a great time.  All 3 of us loved it so much that we plan on doing this in each place we live.  We have some great shots of the city that was our home for 2 years. 

Anderson and I are staying with my mom for a couple of weeks.  David was with us for a few days, but he had to report to his new position last week.  Although we would've preferred a door-to-door move where we all stayed together, there are some positives to this situation.  David's new job is pretty intense, so this gives him time to get acclimated without having to worry about unpacking, or how Anderson and I are adjusting.  Anderson likes being here because he gets to spend time with his "old" friends.  And I get a little time to catch my breath and get ready for the next thing on our list...vacation! 

Every summer Anderson and I (sometimes David, but not this year) head back to Panama City, FL to visit my best friend Jennifer and her family.  This year we scheduled it WAY before we knew we were moving, and we scheduled it for the first week of July--the same week we are now able to get into our house in Cape Cod.  David encouraged me to keep our trip as is--he knows how much I look forward to this trip every year--and said that he would take care of getting the keys from the landlord, receiving our household goods, and unpacking.  I feel incredibly lucky to have a husband who is willing to let me go on a beach vacation without him AND will unpack an entire house before I get there.  He's awesome.  It will make it a lot easier on Anderson (and me) when we get to our new house after 3 weeks in NY and 2 weeks in FL and things are situated his LEGOS are unpacked and ready to go!

So...that brings us up to date!!  We're *almost* done with this move and we all survived!  I'm so happy that it has gone so well, and I hope that the last little bit will go just as smoothly.  I can't wait to get out to the Cape and start exploring!!