Home Sweet Home

Last weekend we moved a very short distance down the road to a new home. I think I've mentioned before that we really weren't intending to move. But we chose this particular home and put our house on the market, rather suddenly actually. If it didn't work out with this one, we were happy to stay put.

A week of living here and we love the neighborhood, the gorgeous view, the school district, the space, the kitchen including a six-burner stove and double oven. It was a sunny Saturday yesterday and while we worked all day, Buddy played outside with the neighborhood kids. He was in heaven and we actually got a few things done.

My mom (the workhorse) was such a big help, taking time off work to help clean and supervise my children. To put it into perspective, she cleaned five bathrooms (some at the old and some at the new) in one day and that was the tip of the iceberg of her help.

Let me take a moment to pay the proper respects to our movers. We hired two guys that busted their humps moving all of our junk. One guy literally picked my hope chest up and threw it over his shoulder and carried it up the stairs like it was nothing. Then he threw our mattress on his back and ran up the stairs with that. I was in awe. Best few bucks I have EVER spent.
But with the move came a few annoyances that I just have to tell you about. In no particular order:

*Within the first week both children fell head over feet down the entire flight of stairs. It is truly a miracle that both were completely fine. A gate has been purchased. (But I doubt the gate will help Buddy's clumsiness.)
*I've spent the past 5.5 years avoiding a particular stretch of road that is always very congested. It drives me CRAZY how slowly people drive. But now because of the location of our home I can't avoid it. A week here and I'm already driving way out of my way to avoid it, which is equally as annoying.
*Boxes, boxes, and more boxes.
*Buddy enduring a three-week long asthma attack that I finally attributed to above-mentioned boxes.
*G pestering me incessantly to get rid of baby stuff/Christmas stuff.
*No attic space in the new house and finding new spots for Christmas stuff, baby stuff, food storage, etc. Interestingly enough, G had no problem finding ample storage for his junk.
*Packing and unpacking. Oh the humanity!
*An incompetent appraiser for our old house.
*Having to lower our sales price because of that moronic/incompetent appraiser. (Our buyers had offered a significant amount higher than our asking price.)
*Pushing back closing two days because of moronic/incompetent/loser appraiser. Most people told me that's "no big deal" in the grand scheme of buying a home. But since G only took one day off work and I had already scheduled utility shut-off times and we had movers arranged, it was a bit of an inconvenience. Oh, and all four of us were sick which made the tight move-time even more fun.
*Major illnesses. Buddy had major asthma and couldn't stop coughing or catch his breath for days. Me and G had colds, and Sambo vomited for five days and had diarrhea for ten days. Which meant I couldn't farm either one of them out to friends. So, during the rush to move, we had both children under foot the entire time.
*Have you ever moved with a newly walking one-year old? It's more fun than it sounds.
*Let me somehow express how much fun it is to have all your earthly possessions packed and to have the movers working their magic, and to realize that your baby has vomited like crazy and leaked poop all over the crib/sheets/carpet. The movers were young kids who probably were repulsed by the smell of our home.
*Then let me tell you how close to nervous breakdown I was to have the same thing happen the next morning when we were in the new house. Sambo throws everything out of his crib, so he had thrown the puke chunks onto my pristine new carpet. And I had no carpet cleaner, towels, garbage bags, baby shampoo, etc because everything was still packed. And G was at church and I had to be to be there in a few minutes. Thank goodness for cell phones and *emergency* texts to the spouse to get home right away.
*Ruining G's leather seat in his car and the kitchen table when oil from a reed diffuser leaked all over both. Warning: Reed diffusers smell great but are toxic to varnish and leather. Do not use around varnish or leather under any circumstance.
*Realizing we have way too many toys.
*Going without cable and Internet for a few days (thank you very much appraiser and my need to switch utilities start-up/shut-off dates).
*Boxes, boxes, boxes. Boxes, boxes, boxes, boxes, boxes, boxes.
*Struggling with the thermostat in the new house. This house is balmy, especially upstairs. I'm getting nervous for the first gas bill...

Despite a few days of chaos, we're getting unpacked and we're able to relax a bit now. But mostly we're happy and excited to raise our children here. Here's to never moving again!