I can't believe it's been almost three weeks since I've written anything. I'm so sorry. Thanks to my mom's friend, Ruby, who finally gave me the kick in the pants I truly needed. I spoke to my mom this evening and she was telling me how excited she was that Ruby had called her but made sure to mention that Ruby was disappointed that I hadn't been writing. You're right, I haven't. I have many excuses, but I'm not going to give them all to you. The main one is that the computer did not fare well on the move and I am sitting at the laptop right now. I hate typing on the laptop, something always goes wrong. I wish I had been writing, to document all the craziness and remind myself I never want to do this again, but my laziness won over. But it's time to move forward and I just need to suck it up.
When I left off the movers were about to arrive. We've moved before, but never a huge move with movers and packers. It's always been by ourselves, piece by piece, never everything at once. It's kind of surreal to see your entire house and all your belongings packed up in boxes and then hauled off in an enormous truck. We spent that night at a hotel nearby. The next morning we packed up the few things that we had left, got the house ready for the new owners and then went to one of our favorite taco joints to say good-bye to some of our friends. It was a fabulous way to leave. All my favorite people were there and I got to say good-bye for the 100th time, but it wasn't sad it was just wonderful. Plus, I know I'm going to see them all again, just not as soon as I would like.
The first day of our drive we stopped for the night in Amarillo. The kids were great but we were all on different schedules so we stopped a lot to go the bathroom which made the trip that much longer. When we finally made it to Amarillo we stopped to have a nice dinner and Andy just broke down. It was all too much for him. I felt horrible but there wasn't much I could do, plus he was really tired and he gets extremely emotional at night when he's tired.
The next morning he was fine and we continued on our way to to Denver. We stopped at Cadillac Ranch on the way out of Amarillo. It sounds exciting but it's really just about ten Cadillacs in the middle of nowhere buried nose down in the dirt. Almost everybody there brought spray paint, and a couple of people were more than happy to share theirs plus we found a few unfinished cans on the ground. Nothing like teaching your kids vandalism at a young age.
The drive the second day was long and boring. It took us forever to get out of Texas and then when we did there wasn't much to be excited about. Lots of nothing and horrible cell reception. We drove most of the day and finally arrived at our hotel in Denver that evening, passing through the smoke and haze of the forest fires in Colorado Springs. I have to say I think the drive went so smoothly because Amanda was so good. The older kids know how to keep themselves busy with book and electronics, but it's harder for a two-year-old. She was fantastic. She didn't complain, didn't have to go to the bathroom an excessive amount and most of the time just watched out the window. I'd take her anywhere.
We spent the next two days in Denver, before heading out to the burbs where we would be living. The kids really enjoyed taking the free bus up and down the 16th Street Pedestrian Mall and then going to the movies (way to sight see, huh?). Of course they loved staying in the hotel, sometimes I think my kids are more comfortable in a hotel than their own house. The city was going through a little heat wave, it was in the low 100s. Coming from anywhere else that would have bothered us, but coming from Texas that was normal. Plus since there isn't as much humidity here it didn't even seem that bad. Of course everybody else was having a difficult time with it.
On Wednesday we had an early closing and by the time we got to the house the movers were already waiting to unload the truck. That's when the true craziness began. I had only seen the house for about thirty minutes before we bought it and then never again until move in day. The movers kept asking me where they should put things and I had no idea. Total finished square footage of the house is larger than our previous house, but this one has a basement so the livable upstairs space was smaller and the rooms overall were a lot smaller. I was starting to regret bringing some of the furniture we brought because there was nowhere to put it. Some how we got everything inside, but I'm still not sure it's all in the best place.
So the last two weeks have been filled with unpacking boxes and trips to Target and Home Depot and the Container Store to get shower rods and hangers and shelf pegs and shelving and so much more. The kitchen has tons of cabinet space but the pantry is really deep so I needed to put Elfa drawers in before I unpacked the food. That means that I didn't unpack the food for about a week after we got here and we just kept eating out. Ugh, so sick of eating out. The kids closets had bars but they were too high for the kids to reach so we needed to put in lower bars before we could put their clothes away. Best of all we sold our washer and dryer the day the packers came and went to buy one the weekend after we closed on the house. They couldn't deliver for another week, which we could muster through, but then called to say the dryer was on back order and it was going to be another week. No big deal, three weeks without a washer and dryer. Not. Luckily we found a fluff and fold. They are supposed to come this Thursday, if they don't you will be able to hear me screaming wherever you are.
So, in a nutshell, I haven't been writing because I've either been too busy trying to get my extremely messy house just the tiniest bit cleaner and more organized or I've been so beat down by the fact that it's not that I just can't muster up the energy to write about it. Either way, now that I've started again I really shouldn't stop. Plus, there's so much more to tell.
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