You mention the word “moving” to my kids and they decide to get sick. Sam, Molly and Lucy are miserable with a runny nose. The most miserable is Lucy. She is also miserable to be around.
She started getting sick late Tuesday night and woke up about 2am on Wednesday morning. We had set our alarms for 4:40am and were planning to leave my parent’s house at 5. I don’t know what happened but I didn’t hear her at all! J got up and took her out to the living room for about 2 hours, returning to bed at 4am after giving her a bottle of milk. I woke up at 4:20am to her crying and cursing my bad luck hopped out of bed and took her to the living room to play until the alarm went off. I had no idea she had been up with J, Poor guy.
Waking the kids up, sending them potty and tucking them into the car with their snuggle blankets, Sippy cups of milk and baggies of chocolate cereal wasn’t as bad as I had thought it would be. My parents had woken up to see us off and my Mom made the kids hot cocoa while J and I gathered the sleeping bags and lovies from the basement.
Saying good bye to my parents was very tough. To be honest I cried until Ritzville. My mom is my best friend. I’ve never lived more than 2 hours away from them, now we’re about 7.5! I kept thinking of all the things I was going to miss; my sister Amanda is pregnant and while I’m planning on coming back for the big D-day, I will miss seeing the baby grow and her tummy getting bigger. I’ll miss going with her to register and helping her decorate the nursery. Same thing with my brother Max; he’s getting married in August and I’ll miss all the planning. My family is very close to each other. I can’t imagine what it’s like for my brother Spencer who is in the Marine Corp and is deployed in Afghanistan. He misses everything AND doesn’t get to call 3 or 4 times a day, like I have been.
I was so tired not only from waking up so early and not even from the emotions of saying goodbye for two days but also because of the hard physical work of loading the storage unit and packing my parents’ house and all of that. I literally had to fight to keep my eyes open for about 3 hours. It was horrible. I just wanted to crash and sleep for eternity. Lol.
The drive over was actually really good. We stopped in Ritzville for coffee then the kids immediately all fell asleep and slept for about 3 hours. We stopped in a little town for gas and to get the kids out of their jammies and into real clothes. They had snacks and drinks while we were there and ran around playing soccer with J. He’s such a good Daddy! We had only about 3 hours left and I took that opportunity to turn on a movie and when it ended we were just zoomin’ past The Dalles Dam. Unfortunately Lucy the miserable took the next 30 minutes to scream horrible bloody murder and also the car was starting to get hotter and hotter. A couple weeks ago we got our van serviced; oil change and the air conditioner all set for our summer and trip. The air conditioner pooped out about a week after it was serviced and for some ironic super unfortunate reason it was like 100 degrees in Oregon! Our car was about 103 by the time we arrived.
I kept chanting a mantra, “mind over matter” the whole drive. The emotions, the exhaustion, the hours spent driving, the heat and the few crying bouts. We made it alive, healthy, no big disasters. It was a true Christmas Miracle.
When we finally got inside the house it was of course hot since the windows had been shut up and smelled like paint and carpet cleaner. But oh well, I opened the windows and we got the truck unloaded by 6pm. The kids had a tough day because they kept getting into our way and getting into things and it took us about an hour before we found the playpen which of course meant Lucy sobbed and sobbed and got hurt and was generally more miserable.
I had filled a pitcher of water and stuck it in the fridge around 2pm when we got in and found the rice cooker and the rice. I made dinner around 4pm and we ate around 6:30.
I had called at about 4pm to get directions from the truck rental place so we could return the truck while they were closed. The woman gave me the directions and at about 7 we went and dropped off the truck. It was SO frustrating. She told us to take “exit 165” (or something) but it was really the exit for 165thstreet. Gah! We found it alright but all the names (I’m talking about street names, the storage unit name and the exit) were all wrong! It took forever to pull the truck into the one and only parking spot, then J slipped the key and the paperwork into a little slot in the door and we were home free.
Bed time at 8:30; we all slept beautifully for 10 hours!
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