The Move

Well, we did it. We moved. We left our charming little BBQ-filled life in Kansas City and moved to the great metropolis of Springfield, Missouri. First and foremost, it was super awesome having a moving company do all the work for us. I was reflecting on how remarkably easy this move was compared to our others, and then I remembered that I hadn't actually yet picked up a single box. Those poor packers who showed up (all two of 'em) and spent two days packing our house (one guy did the entire basement single-handedly) were, I'm afraid, a little underprepared for the monstrous task. When we all sat down for lunch the first day, they were like, "WHEW I forget how hard this is on my back..." and I was like, "Well, I guess I'll just go upstairs and take another nap..." ha ha! Kidding... well, not really, but I didn't say that out loud, I mean. I believe the word "nightmare" was how Basement Packer put it. We had a great send-off from our dear friends, the particulars of which I will blog about extensively later, cleaned the house, attended a wedding, went to church one last time, and then drove to Springfield that evening. I will say that even considering how little work I actually did, the whole moving and unpacking (and cleaning) process is still pretty exhausting. You will notice the common motif of sleep throughout these pictures. And unpacking. And more sleep.

  

   

So several weeks before, we had come down and chosen a house to rent. We were choosing from a pool of very slim pickings, mind you, and by the end of our trip were so exhausted that we snapped up the first 3-bdrm house at the low end of our price range that popped up. We went to see it and signed the lease within a few hours of our landlord closing on the purchase. We didn't survey the condition of the house so much as the size and layout of the space (tiny, by the way), but it didn't occur to us that this would be an issue since our move-in date was still about a month away.

Well. We pulled in late Sunday night. Travis opened the garage door and was greeted by a gigantic spider the size of his hand. I kid you not, this is the largest spider I have ever seen outside of the zoo. Travis bravely killed it with a pool noodle. We might have guessed that this was a bad omen... We walked inside, and the entire house was a complete disaster. The landlord had not set foot in the house since he'd brought us to see it that day. It hadn't been touched and was full of dirt, grime, dust, mold, random furniture, insects, etc. The toilets had not even been cleaned. Really? That's the bare minimum, I would say! One even had something growing in it. The carpets were somewhat crispy (our landlord told us later they had just been shampooed. Um...? Very doubtful) - they were edged with black. At one point Kate knocked a plastic knife off the countertop, and it didn't even hit the floor, because it was caught in a cobweb. I kind of panicked, and we texted the landlord in a frenzy, since our movers were arriving in the morning to unload our things. In the morning, our landlord hurried over to see what was wrong while I took the kids to find some breakfast. Apparently his standards of acceptable living conditions and ours are somewhat different, and the short story is he and Travis got in a heated argument that I'm glad to have missed. In the end we were left to do the cleaning ourselves. The beginning condition was very carefully documented, but I'll spare you those pictures because you are probably eating breakfast. Okay, here's a mild one.

But there was some profit to come of our efforts. First, I was on the phone with my mom while I was cleaning out the freezer. I said, "Oh look, a gold coin!" Because I found a gold [foil-wrapped chocolate] coin in the back of the freezer. Um, my kids may or may not have eaten it before I could stop them. I joked with my mom that maybe we'd actually find some real treasure! Well, just then Travis found this old leather chair in the shed out back and noticed that it jingled. He slit open the bottom lining and out poured a jackpot of coins! We were thinking of tracking down the lawyer who used to live here and advising him to check his pockets before sitting down. Total haul was about $15 - and amongst these, a gold coin! No joke! It's a gold Lincoln dollar.

One week later - I finally took off my flip flops for the first time in a week! The floors were that disgusting. I got about halfway through scrubbing the grout on all the tile floors. That is back-breaking work, but a billion times better. The kitchen is clean and entirely unpacked and organized. And that was my week. No other unpacking has been achieved, on my part, though Travis has made a lot of great progress. For me, I still haven't found my shirts. And yes, that means I've been wearing the same clothes I packed for the weekend before the movers came. (Don't worry, I've washed them!)

Before:

After:

On the bright side, I went biking yesterday and found the most beautiful trail near our house - seriously, I almost felt like I was in Utah. Then we went to church today and received the warmest welcome from our new ward. I was sorry we'd had the foresight to put dinner in the crock pot, since we received three dinner invitations later. We had dessert with one family, another dropped off a freezer meal, and another offered to watch my kids tomorrow so I can get some work done. Heaven on earth, I tell you! We also have the coolest elderly next-door-neighbors. They loaned us their lawn mower the day after we moved in, as our yard was looking unkempt and we hadn't acquired a mower yet. He had also been mowing our front yard the entire time the house was unoccupied. We baked bread and brought it over to them today to thank them. Their names are Phillip and Cremilda (sp?) -- she is German. Fantastic, right? We went over with all the kids, and Phillip remembered all their names from having met them the other day. He also told us that the sound of the children playing was more beautiful than music from an orchestra. THAT was music to my ears, since I always worry about how much our raucous-ness is annoying the neighbors! Oh and Travis pointed out later that he thinks Cremilda thought I was Latin, and that's why she made a comment about there being a Hispanic family living down the street. I just thought it was a random remark! Ha!

Also yesterday, we took a much-needed break and took the kids to the farm park. Those poor little ones - they've been bored to tears all week.

I want to remember this. I walked over to watch him go down the "yellow slide" (not the "red" slide because the red one shocked him), and some parents sitting there commented to me that he was "so polite." They said he climbed up to the top of the slide where their son was sitting, and he said, "Excuse me, boy," when he wanted to get around him to go down the slide. Ha! "Excuse me, boy!" At least he's using his manners!

At least we have a playground in the backyard. Oh, and with plenty of wildlife! Someone has released a couple of domesticated bunnies, and they hang out in the neighborhood. One has adopted our backyard. I even saw it befriending one of the local wild bunnies the other day.

Although this scary other animal - groundhog, maybe? - tried to chase it off! It was getting territorial.

And speaking of wild animals, Travis has made a thorough study of all the spiders he has found and killed.

Seriously, they are everywhere. One even crawled on Kate as she went sifting through a pile of clean laundry. I try to be pretty tolerant, but I toe the line when they threaten my children! *shudder* This specimen is a hobo spider. Only slightly poisonous. Not fatal.

And finally, we come to the reason we are here.

Every year, around this time, I take the traditional "first day of school" pictures.

I have far more of these pictures of Travis than I do of all the kids, combined!

He likes to go to school.

WELL, last year I took pictures of Travis's LAST first day of school. It was a big day. It was the 8th year of graduate school for him. That is 8 back-to-school pictures in our married lifetime.

On Friday I took one more, but this time it is the First Day of Work picture!

This is the first time he has actually had a job since we started having kids. Which was 8 years ago, if I didn't mention that already. I'm just trying to give you a sense of the magnitude of this day.

Are you feeling it?

I can't even begin to put into words how grateful I am for the end of the most trying years of our lives and for the new opportunities ahead. Most of all, for all the time we'll have to spend together now and for the end of that awful year of long-distance rotations away from home! That far-off, elusive, proverbial light at the end of the tunnel is finally here!!!

Perhaps a moment of silence for the demise of our student years.

Rest in peace, you old glory days!