Two Days Before Move
Moving company rep comes out and looks at everything in the house. He tells me the items that the movers will not pack/move (propane tanks, used gas cans, firearms, open alcohol, etc) and I verify with him that they will pack other open liquids (vegetable oil, shampoo, syrup, etc). He assures me that they will, it will be no problem.
One Day Before Move
We had been storing Lee's motorcycle over at his parents' house so my neighbor (who is the only other person we know that rides and owns bikes) agrees to come over with me to drive it back to my house so it can go with the movers. After spending twenty minutes trying to figure out how to start the bike (and me repeatedly telling him, "I'm pretty sure you have to hold down this red button marked CHOKE."), we get on down the road - at which point my neighbor decides that he is going to ride like an utter moron. He's racing up and down the main artery through town during rush hour, taking both hands off the handlebars, turning around and waving at me, and at one point tears through our neighborhood without his helmet on. I'm pretty sure my knuckles are still white from the experience.
Move Day One
The packers show up... two hours late. Which really blows because I'm riding on three hours of sleep and would have liked to have slept in another two hours. For liability reasons, my father-in-law and I are not allowed to pack anything, we can only direct. Doesn't sound so bad except for the fact that the one packer broke two vertebrae in his back a month ago and can barely stand and the other packer has severe rheumatoid arthritis and can barely pack. What we were told would be a four hour job ends up being a nine and a half hour job. Oh, and they won't pack liquids. $40 bottle of Extra Extra Virgin Olive Oil? Bye bye.
Move Day Two
At breakfast, my MIL is asking me about what Lily is going to wear the following week at Lee's graduation and I make the mistake of telling her I had been hunting for a cute pair of dressy, white sandals but since I couldn't find any, she would be wearing her white patent leather dress shoes with ruffly socks. BIG MISTAKE.
The truck to haul our stuff away shows up on time... the loaders are two hours late. These people are trying to kill me. Everything is going pretty smoothly except for the fact that my neighbor's dog and puppy keep sneaking into my house. We have all of the doors open because we are constantly going in and out and every time I turn around I'm tripping over one of these dogs. When my neighbors get home I take the dogs over there and she says she will lock them up. Ten minutes later, I'm tripping over the puppy AGAIN.
MIL calls: "I took Lily out shopping, thought I might be able to find some white dress sandals for the graduation. Did you know nobody is carrying white dress sandals right now??" Yeah, that probably explains why I couldn't find any previously...
As one of the loaders is helping carry out the sofa, my iPod falls out of his pocket. His explanation is long and stupid but he basically tells me he was "protecting" it for me. Riiiiiiiight. Protecting it from moving to Texas with me...
MIL calls: "Ok, no one has white dress sandals right now. But I did find this adorable pair of black slipons, would that work?" Uh, no.
Six hours later, everything is packed and loaded and the house is completely empty. It's kinda sad, really.
Move Day Three
FIL and I head over to the house to give it a thorough cleaning. Every time I flip a switch, a light bulb burns out. If this is like bells and angels are getting their wings, heaven is getting pretty full right about now.
MIL calls (no, she has not give up yet): "Initial Impression doesn't have any white dress sandals, but they do have these adorable brown and pink maryjanes. They don't match her dress, but maybe you could find something else for her to wear that does?" Oh, you mean all the dresses the movers just hauled away YESTERDAY?
Move Day 230,472,039,483
House is clean, renter is in, I hit the road for ALABAMA!!
Alabama Day One
I have a hotel room to myself and my in-laws have Lily. Sleep has never been so blissful. That evening I get to see Lee and we go out for dinner. Fun times ensue. RAWR
Alabama Day Two
Arrival of my mother. Now, my mom is a Lt Colonel in the Air Force and thinks she rocks it - HARD. And while, yeah, a Lt Colonel is pretty high up, she gets way more enjoyment out of rubbing it in other peoples' faces than is really decent or necessary. Case in point, we invited her as a courtesy and then she made us jump through hoops to make sure that during the commencement ceremony they would acknowledge her and personally thank her by name. Yeeeeeeah. That argument happened over a month ago (as I was hunkered down in a flooded hotel room during Fay) so I won't get into it here, but it was ugly and we really hadn't made amends since. So her arrival was a bit tense and I'm already stressed as it is.
Alabama Day Three - Graduation!!
Lily steals the show, lol. My mom had her at the back of the auditorium because she was being squirmy and kept wanting to talk to her daddy on stage, so when it's time for us to pin on Lee's new rank (2nd Lieutenant, BABY!!), my mom walks her down the aisle to the front. The whole way down the aisle, she is saying, "HI! Hi, Daddy! HI!" and is blowing kisses to everyone. Seriously, seriously cute.
Lee's commander (who knew all about the debacle with my mom and was supposed to be the one making the announcement that she was there, yada yada) makes an announcement, "At the present time, we would like to thank all distinguished guest for attending today's ceremony. Due to the formality of today's proceedings, we will only be recognizing generals and above." HA! Mom spends the rest of the day sulking.
During the graduation parade, Lee is one of the three sword bearers and it is so awesome to see him drill. Pictures are forthcoming, I promise!!
After graduation, we haul balls back to the hotel. We have exactly forty minutes to make the thirty-five minute trip to the airport in order to get my mom on her plane. Speeding? What speeding?
After we get her there on time (don't ask, lol), we go to pick up the U-Haul trailer. We are seriously in the middle of absolutely nowhere. It takes us two hours to get the trailer. They didn't tell us you were military, blah blah blah. The printer just ran out of ink, blah blah blah. The nearest supply store is twenty minutes away blah blah blah. And in the mean time, Lily is READY TO GO. We finally hit the road and are on our way to Baton Rouge - three hours behind schedule.
Ok, that's all for now... I'll post a Part II later!
---- PART II ----
San Antonio Day One
The trip from Alabama to Texas was fairly uneventful, thank goodness. Lily was a trooper and blissed out on DVDs the whole trip. She never, ever watches tv so when I would pop a DVD in, she would get this glazed over look and just sit there going, "Hiiiiiiiiiii."
That morning I go to check out of the hotel and Lee says he will drive around to pick me up. He completely forgets that his new bicycle is on top of my car and he attempts to drive under the registration canopy. We still don't know what the total damages will be, but the last update we got was that we were up to $575 in parts and labor. Ouch.
After my little cry-fest over the bicycle (it's not even mine and I bawled, lol), we head on to our new home. We meet the property manager there and he does a walk through and hands us the keys. According to the listing and my verification with the office manager, our new house should have a garage door opener and the washer/dryer set is about two years old. Yeah, that would be a no on both counts. There is no garage door opener so we have to pay to have one installed and the washer/dryer set is easily 10-15 years old. I had a lovely new set that I left for MY renters back in NC. GAH!
After the prop manager leaves, I go to back my car up into the driveway to unload a few things and completely forget that the hitch is on the back and love bump the side of the garage. No damage to either the garage frame or my car, but still. Ugh. At this point I am ready to crawl back in bed and wait for the month to be over.
San Antonio Day Two
I realize that we forgot to ask the prop manager for the number to our mailbox and what day trash day is. There are about forty mailboxes all grouped together and there is no number on the key, so I need to know which one is ours. He tells me, and I quote, "Take the key over to the mailboxes and start trying each box. The one the key opens is your mailbox." GENIUS! Why didn't I think of that?? As far as trash day is concerned, he says, "Trash day is whatever day all your neighbors roll their trash cans out to the street." It's official. My property manager is an as.shat.
The movers still have our stuff so we are staying at the hotel on base. The driver calls me that evening to tell me that all of our stuff is stuck in Boston and the best case scenario is that it will take another week to arrive. I start to wonder how I will survive three meals a day with a toddler in a restaurant. Tell Lee we are going to Wal-Mart and picking up essentials and moving into our house. Basically we are camping under a very nice tent, lol.
San Antonio Day Who's Still Keeping Count?
Dude comes out to install the garage door opener and can't because the garage door has a broken strut (not anywhere close to or related to the love bump I gave the garage frame). We had already marked this on our move in inspection sheet but the prop manager comes out and tells us the damage wasn't there the day he handed us the keys and it doesn't matter that we put it on the move in inspection sheet - it's our responsibility to pay for it. Umm, excuse me? We even have photos taken the day we did the inspection of this particular damage and he STILL tells us no dice, we have to pay to fix it. #$%$#&@#
Lee checks in on base and finds out that he will be leaving in two weeks and will be gone until Thanksgiving. Em-effer.
Another Day Later
Our stuff arrives!! We only waited an extra two days instead of another week, so I am VERY happy. One of the unloaders is blind and the second one is older than my grandmother so it's an all day job again. Only three pieces of furniture were damaged but two of them are heirloom family pieces. *sigh*
As we are unpacking stuff, we realize that the packers at my old house packed all of the electrical outlets from my old office. As in, the boxes that go in the wall. But just from one room, how bizarre is that?! Boxes are labeled incorrectly and we're still trying to track down some stuff, but holy CRAP y'all!! Our stuff is here!!
Some Other Day
I have an OB appt that I specifically scheduled for when Lee said he would be free. But then he wasn't free, he completely blanked on a dental appt. Ever tried filling out 200 pieces of new patient paperwork with a squirming toddler? "Nuff said. Oh, and then when we got home, Lily found Lee's cup of blue slushy from the night before and dumped it all over the beige carpet. Stars are aligning to kill me, I swear.
The new washer we bought isn't working properly. It makes horrible clunking noises between cycles and vibrates so hard it dented the wall behind it. Technician comes out and says it needs to replaced. Loverly. I only have eight tons of laundry PLUS a whole load of dirty cloth diapers that needs to be washed.
That cyst I have on my ovary that we've been monitoring for the past four months? It pops. I spend the entire night writhing in pain (nothing stronger than Tylenol for ol' pregs!) and cursing everything in sight.
Yet Another Day
Internet is down. Internet is up. Internet is down. Internet is up. Internet is down. Blood pressure is definitely UP. Spend over an hour on the phone with AT&T trying to get it fixed, only to get disconnected. The callback number I gave her in case of disconnection? She never used it. I call back and guess what? The call center is now closed. #$%&$%&$#%
And that pretty much brings us current. I could use a really, really, REALLY big cocktail right about now. Better yet, just pump the vodka into me intravenously.
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