The Act of Moving To Another State Sucks

Holy schmoly! We’re not done with this roller coaster yet (I get motion sick on them – barf). Today was load-the-truck day… and we are beside ourselves.

Let’s start out from before we went to CA…

1. Tried our darnedest to get the house mostly packed before we left for vay cay… but had some leftovers. Called in some back-up since we were having a realtor tour come through on Thursday when we were gone. Tuesday I thought there would be 2 people to finish before the tour but got a call Thursday AFTER the tour went through with a worried friend that was scared to tell me she only worked 1 hour and couldn’t finish. Well, I would’ve liked to hear that earlier so I could call in MORE back-up. Dangit.

2. So we had a 6:35am flight… woke the kids up at 4am to arrive at the airport with an unbelievable line through security down past all the baggage claims to the exit door and BACK AGAIN. We missed our flight (I would like to say I’ve NEVER missed a flight before… and I’ve flown a lot). Getting to our destinations now was going to be tricky (Ben to San Diego and the kids and I to San Jose) because we were going to fly together to Vegas. But we couldn’t manage that sweet set-up having to rearrange our plans. No point in getting pissy though, so I put my best smile on with the agents I had to deal with and got great service (don’t understand why people get all mad, just causes ulcers and bad karma).

3. The kids and I ended up flying to Oakland (further away from San Jose and longer drive for Bridgette and her 1yr old who were picking us up) because it got us there quicker than having a stop and changing planes. Because of that… we had to drive to the San Jose airport to pick up our bags (and by then my brand new flip flops from Nordstrom were KILLING my feet so I walked barefoot through the airport, not the bathroom, and on the scalding pavement). The kids were troopers and did great considering we woke them about 4 hours earlier than they usually wake up.

4. During all this flying we were inundated with phone calls from our realtor and the title company because the closing of our Washington house had reached a snag. The lendor was on vacation and our down payment amount was 60 THOUSAND dollars more than we expected based on what we agreed upon. Um, we’re not going to find 60k laying around. Trying to arrange for the notary once was a bummer but having to do it twice in such short notice before we left for CA… the one that came was great, so we lucked out. Once the down payment was figured out it was still 5k more than we thought because the 5k earnest money we paid did not go toward the down payment but, instead, went toward the bottom line (which doesn’t help us at the last minute when we’re scrounging for an extra 5k, like we have that laying around either). Holy moly… purchasing in a different state has it’s surprises too (there was a 1% thing that I cannot remember the name of that threw us off).

5. I about had a heart attack thinking Piper was drowning in the pool when she had built-in-her-suit floaties and had another inner tube around her waist. She was just showing me a trick where her head was forward and she was kicking ferociously but I thought she couldn’t bring herself back up. I yelled to Jack to pick her up but they were in the deep end and he’s not used to it so responded with, “But I’ll drown if I try!” I was about to jump in when she pops her head up and asks if I saw her trick. Heart in pit of stomach.

6. We get back to the SLC airport an hour late due to some delays for other passengers so we’re there at 11:30pm. Get off the bus. Load the kids. Load the suitcases. Turn the ignition. Click click click. Turn it again. Click click click. Um, now what? I ran to the next shuttle and asked if they had someone on-site to help. Another passenger on the bus offered to come by when he grabbed his truck and the driver radio’d dispatch to send out the rescue guy. The truck got there first so we tried jumper cables. Nothing. Wait and rev… nothing. The rescue guy shows up and we still wait for the juice to kick in. Nothing. Switch to the rescue guys cables and uber-strong battery charger. Nothing. Wait some more. Nothing. Wait some more and made small talk. Finally our rig comes to a roar. Phew. Thanks to Jason for waiting in the wings to drive out and pick us up if we needed to. On our way to pay and get out of the parking lot… can’t find the ticket that was JUST THERE. Look on the floor and between the seats. Nothing. Then I realize that sometimes stuff falls behind the dash via the change holder lid, which is a black hole. Get to the cashier and paid a default fee (which I think was actually cheaper than our 8 day stay even though we gave her our departure date – the real one not the dishonest one that would’ve saved us $10). Get home to find angels came and helped finish off our leftover stuff we hadn’t packed.

7. Fast forward to today. I thought the moving truck was supposed to show up between 8-10am but was really 8-11am. At 11am I called for an ETA. He said 35 minutes. Then I called to find out when. He’s on his way. At 12:30pm the truck is finally here but our help isn’t (I told everyone 10am). Luckily we have fantastic youth in our area… Jared, Corey and Chris worked their butts off helping get us started (got over 1/2 way) then our friend, Darrell, came for a couple hours and pounded out more work before heading to HIS job later (thank you, thank you). Mid-day we break for more packing and relieve the boys who’d been there the whole time and resumed at 6pm when more men could come after work. Apparently, and I say that because I had done all I could with packing and couldn’t help load and had plans I didn’t really want to break since we’re moving, the packing didn’t get done until about 9pm (almost 2 hours longer than we hoped). Guess they had to pull some stuff out to try and squeeze everything in (and had to leave stuff out because there just wasn’t room for it all). I think I remember Ben said that Aaron, Scott and he did all they could to make it work. Again, I am blessed to have so many kind people in my/our life.

8. The house is empty, for the most part, and I still have loads to do. Gotta figure out how everything that was left behind will get to WA, sell or give away some (still have the armoire, TV unit and TV as well as a taupe love seat, sage green wingback chair, ladders, old wood chairs that need some work, a giant classroom chalkboard), figure out how to get my Harley up there and have dental work done before we leave.

Grrr.