Movin' Right Along

 

Contrary to the way it may appear, we actually don’t love moving regularly. This one, especially, was a surprise. We never imagined finding this place at all, and we definitely never imagined the time frame of this move. But it has happened, and we’re grateful for all it represents. And the move itself was a rapid-fire blessing.

            Our original plans were to move throughout the week this week (as in right now). Ryan has this week off work, so he planned to drive tiny truckloads back and forth throughout the week, and then we hoped that this coming weekend, we could round up some help to finish moving the big stuff.

            But we saw that the weather for this past Saturday was supposed to be as ideal as February gets in Indiana. Sunny, no precipitation, and while not WARM, not bitterly cold, either. We hated to risk waiting, in case the planned weekend turned out to be a weather fail. Plus, if we moved earlier, Ryan could use his time off to finish cleaning/repairing the house we left and settling in here at the new house, too. It felt like a better use of time all the way around.

            And so it was that two weeks before our planned move, we moved UP the move date by a week. (That feels like a tongue twister.) We rushed to finish packing, and I took a day off work last Friday to do the last packing push. Ryan came home and helped, and by midnight, when we fell on the couch to sleep (because the bed was in the garage), I couldn’t fall asleep because my feet and legs ached from all the standing and box-carrying.

            We were up early Saturday morning to get ready and await our helpers. When we moved out of WillowBridge, our former coworker, Tim, came one Saturday for a few hours to help Ryan move the big things I absolutely could not help with, thanks to my lack of upper body strength. Other than that, we moved everything entirely on our own. Just the two of us. Every box. Every other piece of furniture – all of it. We loaded it and unloaded it ourselves. It took days to transport it all, and we were exhausted by the end of it.

            This time, we had TWELVE PEOPLE come over to help load and unload. I had tears in my eyes from the gratitude of it all. They came with pickup trucks and trailers (enclosed and open) and in an hour and fifteen minutes, they had everything carted out of the garage and house and secured in trailers. (We had carried everything we could to the garage, trying to be as prepared as possible.) We provided donuts, snacks, coffee, and water, and they stayed energized enough to load!

            We drove to the lake and they started unloading. Some had to leave sooner than others, so unloading took a little longer, but we got it done before dinner! Our friend Julie stayed with me to help unload boxes of kitchen things into cabinets, and Jonathan went with Ryan to help swap out some appliances with the previous house. My mom provided pizza for everyone for lunch, and we kept snacking on it throughout the afternoon.

            For Lexi’s mental and physical safety, we boarded her for the weekend. I did not want to risk her escaping through any one of a dozen doors propped open throughout the move, and I knew the whole idea of so many people and boxes and pieces of furniture milling about overwhelmed her. When we arrived to drop her off, her trainer walked through, and Lexi lost her mind with joy. She was so excited to see her and ran right to her. (She did give me an obligatory hug goodbye, but mostly she was excited to see Mackenzie and go visit whatever friends were behind the door.)

            One of the families that came to help us move brought their preteen daughter, and she fell in absolute love with Braeya. The Two of them played in a bedroom throughout the move, and Braeya was thrilled.

            Speaking of Braeya, she transitioned beautifully to the new house. She has explored it at length, loves it, and has made her little nest on our bed, which is where she spends most of her time anymore. She was able to be here before we brought Lexi back home, so that helped give her some quietness in which to explore and acclimate.

            Lexi came home a day later and spent the first hour being a hound dog on a mission, sniffing every square inch of floor space. She’s currently sacked out in her bed beside my desk. Exploration is exhausting work. We know it will take her some time to figure it all out, but we think she will adore lake livin’.

            “Movin’ right along” has now moved into “unpacking for days,” so if you need us, that’s where we’ll be. It’s kind of like Christmas, truthfully. We’re finding all kinds of treasures we forgot we owned!