So Glad It's Over

Of the five moves we've made, this has been one I'd like to completely erase from my memory.

Two ladies showed up at our house in Virginia to pack everything in boxes and I thought we were about to have a fabulous experience. Women just tend to pack better than men, so I was ecstatic to see them despite the fact that there was a large communication barrier between us. They were very kind and they showed a lot of interest in my two kiddos who were running/scooting around like monkeys. Things were looking good.

Until the truck driver and his moving crew arrived.

Lord, have mercy.

There were four men on the moving crew, one of which was 70 years old and could barely move and another that clearly didn't give a hoot about working. The two others were on the latter side of middle-aged and probably weren't what they used to be.

Loading the truck began at about 8:30 a.m. That truck didn't leave our drive until after 7 p.m.

When I saw what we were dealing with that morning, I loaded up the kids and took them to the indoor playroom where they were nearly trampled by some big, obnoxious kids whose mothers were too involved in their own conversation to notice how aggressive their children were being around all the toddlers in the place.

Still, I was happier to be in that playroom than at my house witnessing the chaos. I knew that anywhere was better than there.

The day went on and things just got worse. The movers were arguing and yelling with one another and I was just waiting for some sort of street fight to break out in the middle of my living room.

Despite numerous attempts to explain to them how tricky it was going to be to get our bed down the staircase, the men waited until the very end of the day to get it on the truck. In their hurry and scurry to get the day's work done, they wound up putting a huge hole in the wall with our box springs. Nice. Now, we are trying to deal with having that fixed from afar.

Anyhow, all the crazy details in between don't matter, but I must say that upon delivery of our belongings, I had to retract my assumption that women always pack better than men. We've been fortunate in the past to not have many things damaged or broken beyond repair. This time, the front corner of our garage is dedicated to all the things we'll be claiming through the Air Force and trying to replace.

It's just been a mess. Let's leave it at that.

The blessing is that we are finally in Florida, safe and sound. All of us, including Miss Kitty, are glad to be on this side of the move. It's easier on this end, for sure.

The best part of the move (beside it being over with), was that we were able to make a couple of stops along the way to visit folks. We spent the first night in Charlotte, NC and then traveled to Georgia. We stopped through Snellville to see my grandparents for a couple of hours and then headed to my dad's house to spend two nights. It was so, so, so wonderful to see familiar faces. It gave us just the pick-me-up we needed.

And, I got to go to Hobby Lobby. Hallelujah! It had been well over a year since I'd seen the inside of a Hobby Lobby and my eyes were big as saucers. It was definitely the highlight of my travels.

Now, we are almost finished unpacking boxes and we are learning our way around Ft. Walton Beach. So far, so good. It's been raining almost non-stop since we arrived, so that's been a bummer, but we are hoping once the hurricane (Hurricane Alex??) out in the Gulf settles down, we'll see some beach-like weather.

Rain and all, we are glad to be at our new home!

Visiting with Grandmother and Granddaddy in Snellville

No trip to Snellville is complete without a tractor ride!

Lydie got to walk in Granddaddy's pretty grass. She has gotten to a point where she wants nothing to do with sitting down. We hope she will hurry up and walk on her own because our backs are hurting from all the stooping over we're doing to help her get around!

Pine straw!!

At Granddaddy and Mimi's, the kids made themselves right at home (as did Miss Kitty). Sammy, however, was kept oblivious to the fact that there was a cat in his house!