She dropped this off at our house (we’ve been trying to meet up every since school got out). Owen was excited to see his teacher again.
Of course I’m a huge sap anyway, but reading what Owen’s pre-k teacher Mrs. Ashley wrote in his memory book really got me.
>>> June pictures are online at Shutterfly!
I have wanted a quilt made out of Tom’s old cammies for a long time now—a friend had one made and I thought it was the greatest idea. And I’m not kidding when I say a long time—I’m talking seven or so years ago (the last time we lived here) and it took me this long to get off my butt and actually find someone to do it (I posted a want ad on a local Craigslist-type site).
Tom picked it up today… He knew I was getting it done, but I think he was surprised at the results. 🙂
And lest you think it’s just a generic quilt…the name tapes are on there (including a few actual pockets)!
I love it!!
This move has been annoying since the beginning…
We didn’t get the move dates we wanted but we got our second choice which wasn’t too bad. But even then there was a miscommunication and while we thought we were getting our stuff DELIVERED on July 3 (what we asked for and told was scheduled), we later found out they were LOADING on July 3 and since there were no deliveries on July 4 delivery would be July 5. Not awful, but NOT what we’d been thinking of and planning on.
Then the moving company sent a person to do a walk-through to estimate how much stuff we had and how long it would take to pack…and he gave me a weight estimate which sounded about right…but said something about his two packers. Wait, what? Two? I then related our past few moves—one which we had 4-5 packers and they were done early both days…and the other which they mistakenly sent only two packers and everything ran late and caused mayhem. He said his two girls were GOOD and there were three days scheduled for the packing so so he wasn’t worried. Ooo-kay. Sorry but I have zero faith in that.
So you’d think they’d try to get as much done as early as possible to avoid having to do much, if anything, that third day. But NOOOOOO…8:00 comes and goes…8:30…9:00…9:30…SERIOUSLY? The ball of anxiety in my chest was growing rapidly and I seriously contemplated taking a Xanax (which I had my doctor prescribe for just such an occasion). They FINALLY pull up at 10:00—and yep, only two women. And after they sat there for a few minutes, they literally SAUNTERED to the front door like they had all the time in the world. I wanted to scream.
So Tom gave them the quick walk through and honestly, they were both duds personality-wise. Most people in the past have been super nice and personable and they’ll chit chat with you and what not and make you feel at ease. These two looked like they’d rather be anywhere else doing anything else—like we were putting them out. Definitely not a good first impression.
So they haul in the boxes and packing material and then—THIS IS RICH—they told me they were going to their van to finish their breakfast and energy drinks. ARE YOU F’ING KIDDING ME?! You don’t show up until 10am and you still need time to finish your breakfast? Oh, and apparently take a smoke break, too. So they didn’t actually get started packing anything until 10:30.
And within an hour, I heard something crash and break. Ugh. THE FIRST ITEM THAT HAS EVER BEEN BROKEN DURING PACKING OR DELIVERY IN ANY OF OUR MOVES. So I got called in to see a 24″ x 36″ picture frame shattered on the floor. She wasn’t careful when she was taking pictures off the stack and they slid and tipped over and there you go. She apologized, but then just stood there. Oh, I guess I have to clean it up then? She has no responsibility for it?! So I was picking up shattered glass while she just stood there. The picture—the mosaic print of our wedding photo—was ruined as the glass cut a bunch of places over the whole thing. Not a good way to start the experience.
And then a mere 2.5 hours after they started? A smoke break, which turned into a THIRTY MINUTE BREAK for one of them and a 15 minute break for the other. Seriously? I MEAN SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?
And then. AND THEN!!! They decided to wrap it up at 3:30. After just 4.5 hours of work (since they took that 30-minute break). YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!! I’m guessing they know there are technically three days allotted for packing so are slacking on the front end. I’m NOT happy AND I predict they run out of time…at which point we will be VERY unhappy.
I was debating calling the moving company when they happened to call to check on the progress (ironically about 10 minutes after the packers left)! I let them know we really weren’t expecting a five-hour work day and she was surprised when I told her they didn’t arrive/get started until 10:30 (she said she’d check on that but I’m sure nothing will come of it). But she assured us it would all get done. We’ll see. I will sing their praises (for the most part) if they do get it all done…but right now I’m not feeling hopeful. At all. They only got the first floor done today—they barely got started on upstairs (they did the kids’ rooms) and they have the entire garage (which has all the household stuff that was in the pod!) plus the living room (with the storage areas) left. Can you see why I am not hopeful?
Unfortunately, this is the busy season (we’ve never moved in the summer before) and I think we’re lucky to have what we have on the approximate dates we asked for. I mean, that’s the basic attitude we seem to be getting. I’m not happy but it could be worse. /knock on wood
Stay tuned.
P.S. The kids were actually VERY good. They watched movies all day and were well-behaved for the most part. Katie didn’t take a very long nap but at least she took a nap. Owen has been bribed with a Star Wars Lego book… 🙂
If you’re paying close attention, you will see I skipped Days 26-32. That’s due to us having had a garage sale and donating 90% of the remaining things to a resale shop [that benefits a women’s shelter]…which I equated to about seven days’ worth. 🙂
Over the past few days we’ve been burning old paperwork—we have a shredder but why shred when we have a perfectly good fire pit?!—so between that and random garage junk, I’d say we’re down another bag!
Tonight was a Pampered Chef birthday party for Jacqueline…and the last time I’d see her or Katherine (until they hopefully come visit this fall for a girls weekend). They were part of the mommy group I got involved with here and they grew to be great friends. I’m REALLY going to miss them.
Lately, out of the blue, Katie will ask to color. She can even get up onto (and off of) our bar-height dining room chairs by herself so she’ll climb up there and wait for you to bring her crayons and paper. 🙂
So over the past few days, Owen has mentioned that his ear hurt and that he had a headache (though not at the same time). We didn’t think much of it and just gave him Advil. This morning he complained that his ear hurt and his head still hurt…and still nothing clicked. Bad mom. It wasn’t until Tom got home (early) and we were talking about something and AHA! I thought he had an ear infection. I immediately called the sick clinic and got an appointment in an hour.
She asked if he’d been in a pool recently and I said just our tiny splash pool on the deck. She asked about any other water. Nooo. Then it hit me—AHA!—two days of the waterslide! But that was five days ago?!
Then she diagnosed him with Swimmers Ear—basically an outer ear infection. She said it could happen quickly (same day) or days later…which then it all came together…he’d been complaining for a few days.
So now he gets drops twice a day for 10 days. He doesn’t love them but he’s good about them.
I had to go in the file cabinet today and happened to pull out a huge stack of REALLY OLD credit card statements. While on one hand I was surprised (I was positive I shredded all that stuff years ago)…it brought back good memories!
This is one of her favorite scenes in Despicable Me 2 and if she’s not already in front of the TV she comes running to do this:
This happens.
Watching TV while daddy picked up his commemorative Sig Sauer deployment pistol.
I told Owen we were going to the chiropractor and he was super excited: “Katie! We’re going to the chirocracker and get to play with toys!”
She was excited about the unicorn!
Owen went with Tom to the police department to pick up his pistol purchase permit…and I got this picture.
Riding in the car:
Owen: Mom! Katie took her shoes off!
Me: Katie, you need to put your shoes on if you want to go outside.
Katie: *raspberry*
Owen: Katie, that is not a good decision.
Playing in the pool:
Katie: Are you hungry mama?
Me: No.
Katie: Are you hungry Owie?
Owen: Yes! I want electricery soup with guns in it.
Owen pooped in the potty and I said it was a small poop.
Owen: No, it’s big.
Me: No, it’s small.
Owen: Big.
Me: Small.
Owen: If you say that again I’m going to punch you in the face.
Me: NO SIR.
Owen: Then I will…touch you in your eyeball.
I still hadn’t eaten lunch at 3:30 so was eating a small snack of tortilla chips, nacho cheese, and guacamole.
Owen: Can I have some chips and guacamole?
Me: This is my lunch. You already ate lunch with daddy. Remember? Your egg sandwich?
Owen: I can have double lunch!
Out playing in the back yard.
C’mon Maggie, follow me!
It was too quiet so I went looking…
Mama! I play Owee’s Legos!
I always tell Katie to eat _fill in the blank_ one at a time. This morning she was feeding me cereal pieces.
Me: Thank you!
Katie: One at a time. One at a time.
I went in to get Katie in the morning.
Me: Good morning Katie.
Katie: Good morning mama. I love you mama.
Me: Awww, I love you too, Katie.
Katie: Mama?
Me: Yes?
Katie: Chicken butt!
I was trying to catnap in the chair.
Katie: Mama? Mama?! Are you sleeping? Mama? MAMA! Are you sleeping? Mama! Wake up! Wake up!
NEW WORDS
Breakfast
Bumble bee
Careful
Despicable Me
Dinner
Dirty
Duck
Hungry
Minion
Pillow
Seat
Stinky
Unicorn
Plus a ton more I just forget to write down.
She was so proud of herself for getting these “bracelets” on (really Owen’s magnatiles)…
We had invited everyone back over today but no one could make it…so I was glad that I had talked to another pre-k mom at the end-of-year party and had invited her and her kids over. Owen loves the slide, but enjoys it SO MUCH MORE when there are other kids to play with. 🙂
Izzy (Owen’s classmate) and her sister, Cory:
After awhile I convinced Vicky to go down the slide as well. She agreed it was a blast!
Yep, we splurged on two days of the waterslide—why not? (Yes, it was mostly guilt—I still feel bad we have no back yard (per se) at the new house and they lost their playset.) And what fun is life if you can’t spoil your kids now and again? 🙂
Unfortunately, Katie was NOT into it today…this is all she wanted to do:
Then Katie climbed up this far then stopped and wanted help getting down. She refused to go up and refused to go down and wouldn’t let Owen help her. I wanted her to figure it out herself so just left her there for awhile while I watched Owen play.
I eventually had to go up and get Katie down because she would. not. move. And then it was time to go inside to rest for a bit before more friends came over for a waterslide play date! 🙂
Thankfully Owen’s injury didn’t even bruise much, let alone turn into a black eye. You might not even notice it if you didn’t know it was there.
She saw me taking Owen’s picture and wanted her picture taken, too. 🙂
We decided to have a going away party before we left—but I called it an “Until We Meet Again” party because I HATE goodbyes. It was also a perfect excuse to rent a huge waterslide for Owen because he loves them and our new house has zero place for one.
As it was being set up, the kids were VERY excited watching out the window. Katie was saying “Slide! Katie slide! Katie slide please!” 🙂 I was busy getting the last few things ready for the party and Tom was running our last errands so I made the kids wait until he got home…but then it was game on! Owen had no issues with it, of course, but Katie was a poop. She loves climbing on things but put her on the slide where she HAS to climb (and can pretty much climb without much caution) and she wanted NONE of it. This is where she’d stop:
Even after Owen went down a few times, this is the farthest she’d go:
Finally I had enough of trying to verbally coerce her into climbing up, so I got on the slide with her and basically pushed her up each rung of the ladder. Once we got to the top, she didn’t want to go down…so I put my arm around her and we went down together—AND SHE LOVED IT! And immediately went to the ladder…and climbed up all on her own (the little shit!)! I did go up again behind her to make sure she didn’t slip backwards, but she did it just fine!
And then at the top of the slide…I realized my phone was still in my pocket!!! @$&#%! I obviously hadn’t planned on going on the slide (I was still wearing clothes, too) but got caught up in the moment of being frustrated with Katie. 🙁 I yelled at Tom to come get it and instead of coming up the ladder calmly, he was a bit upset and wasn’t being careful…and instead tried to come up over the side of the slide and pulled a leg muscle while getting back off. Like pulled it badly enough that he was limping. 🙁 But the slide was a blast and I knew I’d be on it more throughout the day…so I just gave in and put my suit on right then. And since Katie was still going up and down, I put her in her suit, too.
This is where she liked playing the most. And she was pretty good about moving out of the way when you said “Katie, watch out!” She’d go wait on the side until Owen came down, then she’d go back in the water. 🙂
Even though the slide was fun, I thought it might be out to kill me. After the kids had been playing for a bit (while I was working on party prep), Katie refused to come down (it was her naptime but she didn’t know that—she was just being stubborn). I told Owen this was his one chance to push his sister down the slide—and he tried but he said she was too strong and he couldn’t do it…so I had to go up the slide again to get her down. So I climbed up and we came down together—and I smashed right through the end buffer and landed on the ground with Katie on top of me! HOLY CRAP. I knew it was possible (other adults have done it before) but I had already gone down “successfully” a handful of times so definitely wasn’t expecting it. Katie wasn’t hurt (or crying) so that was good, and for the most part I was okay, but I had actually smacked my head on the ground. Ugh—instant headache. Then Katie was trying to get back onto the slide so I had to grab her…and I slipped on the wet tarp while carrying her! Thankfully she wasn’t hurt and I wasn’t really, either, though my butt and back hurt. Good times, right? I handed her off to Tom and took some pain pills. AND THEN…I was going down the slide with Owen and we were having a blast…and he was excited and wasn’t following the rules (waiting for the area to be clear before sliding down) and just rammed his feet straight into my side. Needless to say it was time for me to take a break.
Once the other kids arrived, things got a little more hectic. Pool toys came out and were part of the slide and kids were going down together (as you can see here)…and the “rules” kind of went out the window. 🙂
The girls loved Katie and basically thought she was their own little doll. 🙂
Ursula was the first adult to go down and she went tandem with Virginia! She agreed it was a blast!
Everyone had fun and the slide was (of course) a hit. There were a few minor bumps and bruises once all eight kids were on the slide at the same time and Owen ended up with a sure-to-be bruised eye. But it was super fun and it all went really well. The only minor bummer was the weather—in the middle of the party we had a downpour just long enough and with just enough thunder and lightning to send everyone inside…for 15 minutes! So then it was back outside! It started to threaten a storm again about 7:00 which sucked because all the adults were going to get on the slide (and I had planned on being able to use the slide most of the evening)…so we just sent the kids inside and a few of us went down a few times in the rain. There’s even video of me catapulting over the end (which may get posted privately) but I’ll gladly post the one of Tom! 🙂
Once it started storming and we were all inside, the kids were watching a movie and the adults were visiting and snacking…and Jacqueline was doing my dishes. There was plenty of room in the dishwasher but she actually LIKES doing dishes so who am I to stop her? 🙂
It was a really great time and I am so glad we did it…and it wasn’t until everyone was gone that I got really sad thinking about how much we’re going to miss everyone. (It’s always sad leaving, but the last time we left, we were just going to be missing two families…this time, we have more friends that we’ll be missing so it will be even harder.) But at least we have some great memories!
The playset was coming down as the waterslide was going up! I couldn’t watch too much of the playset teardown because I was really very sad about it. I worried how Owen would handle it…but he literally looked out the window and said “Awww, I’m going to miss the playset…BUT THE WATERSLIDE WILL BE SO FUN!” And we didn’t hear another word about it.
Today Tom and I did a long round-trip to the new house to drop off a FULL 14′ U-haul. Why, you may be asking?
Well, we somewhat recently found out that our last move was about 5,000 pounds over our allotted weight limit. Technically we could have been charged for it—but weren’t—so we didn’t want to take any chances this time. We’ve gotten rid of a lot of stuff (see the #40bagsin40days posts) but it still just felt like A LOT. Yes, we likely wouldn’t have been charged…but this way, we can make 100% sure AND we also get paid to do a “partial move” ourselves (they pay gas plus a per pound price, if I recall correctly).
So we had loaded up all of the small heavy things that we could—everything from his garage cabinets to pantry goods to tools to golf clubs to cat litter. We even took the garage freezer (so we wouldn’t have to empty and defrost it) and our new refrigerator (we were NOT leaving a $3000 refrigerator for our potential renters/buyers). We managed to stuff just over 5,000 pounds in the truck (quite impressive, I thought).
The original plan was for Tom to go up himself and unload then drive home. But once we decided to take the refrigerator and realized we needed to upgrade to a full truck vs. just a trailer, that meant Tom would need a way home (since it was a one-way rental). I could follow him up, but it didn’t seem to make much sense to drive if we could tow the car instead. Loooong story short, we ended up with a full trailer (vs just a tow dolly) which likely ended up to be more difficult than the dolly would have been…but it was nice not having to drive two cars.
So this is how we traveled to Virginia.
Unfortunately, the whole road trip part SUCKED. With such a beast of a load plus towing the vehicle, our speed was limited—and then of course we hit traffic around Stafford (the parking lot that is 95) so it took us 6.5 hours to get there (best case scenario the trip should take five hours). So, ugh.
The unloading didn’t go too badly—it was warm but not ungoldly hot. We met a neighbor who was very nice and has a 4yo and 2 week old and was excited someone was finally moving in (it’s been empty for like six months). She told us the street is mostly Army and Air Force—we’ll be one of the few Marines. We met with the landlord to pay our rent and pet deposit. We asked about the fence (as it wasn’t up yet) and he told us he was just waiting for the association to approve his request. It’s been 1.5 months since we signed the paperwork so either he didn’t ask right away or the association is slow—neither of which is a good thing in my mind.
I had also taken some measurements of our stuff to the new house so I could see just how things would fit—and some stuff is going to be TIGHT. The space looks big, but once you put our big stuff in it, it doesn’t look quite as big. Our table and chairs will fit in the eat-in kitchen space, but it’s going to be close—and we may not be able to open the leaf…because our huge sectional will be taking up ALL the living space. (I’m going to have our real estate lady go back and check measurements of a space in the basement to see if there’s room for the sectional there instead. We may end up selling it if it won’t fit nicely. We bought it for this house with the HUGE bonus room…which most houses don’t have a room that big and it’s very hard to fit.) Our table would fit fine (with the leaf, too) in the actual dining room space, but I honesty don’t want to eat there every day—it’s not convenient to the kitchen at all plus it has white carpet. There’s also no room for our current island (where we have the dog and cat food) in the kitchen…so not sure where we’ll be putting that food or the island. It’s just bizarre that this house is SO huge but the space isn’t allotted quite how I’d prefer (like our master bedroom is twice as big as it needs to be). So, time will tell on all that stuff. It will all work…it will just take time.
So then, the ride home. Ugh. It was worse than the ride up. Apparently there had been construction on 95 South so traffic was already backed up. Then there were storms farther South so that had backed up traffic even more. And then there was an accident somewhere along the line… The parallel road (Route 1) which we can sometimes take to escape 95 was also backed up due to trees down from the storm. It took us almost two hours to go 38 miles…and took us seven hours to get home. We had hoped/planned to be home by 8 but it turned into 10:30. At least the kids were in good hands—Virginia was babysitting. 🙂
Owen wrote everything. I’m not sure why he did both Rs lowercase. 🙂
He had a blast at the party. They’re waiting for cake:
S’mores!
Messy with mama!
Owen’s friend Jocelyn:
Braxton’s mom, Alea, after a marshmallow attack! (She was in our mommy group. You can also see why Braxton is so petite.)
Their final hug:
She’s getting better on the slide!