Moving Day!

We survived!!

I am beyond exhausted right now. But today was moving day, and everything successfully made it onto the truck and is now headed east. Hallelujah!

I should start by saying that Gus got back from Colombia (as in, South America) after midnight last night. He was supposed to be home much earlier, but his first flight was delayed by an hour and then he got held up in customs, missing his connection. He finally made it to bed at around 1am, and was up at 5:45, thanks to a snuggly little boy who was just excited to see his daddy again. We quickly got up, got dressed, got the kids dressed and fed, and tried to get as much last-minute stuff done as possible. My parents arrived at around 7:15, and I got the carseats installed in their car and the suitcases stowed away. It was a good thing they arrived when they did, because the moving truck arrived at around 7:45-- a full 45 minutes early! Ack!

Did I mention that it POURED rain all day? Because it did. It was a pretty miserable day for a move, and the house definitely needed a good cleaning afterward, but the rain didn't faze the movers for a second. Thankfully!

We got off to a rocky start, with our driver (the head moving guy) being somewhat lacking in the people skills department. He was up in arms about the glass shelves in our entertainment center and china cabinet, and demanded that we pack them. And then there was an issue in that Gus' motorcycle wasn't on the list of special items to move. For a while, we weren't sure if they would move it at all, but it ended up working out in the end. And honestly, the guy was just sort of gruff. By the end of the day, I didn't mind him so much, knowing that this was just his personality. He really wasn't so bad.

Still, the beginning of the move was SUPER stressful! I practically threw the kids into my mom's car in the pouring rain, as I stood in the gutter and let the water flow through my Converse. Gus eventually came out to say goodbye to them, since he won't see them for a few weeks. And Bonnie ran out to say goodbye to them, too, which was incredibly sweet. It was so chaotic at that point! But they got out of there at that point, driving back to my parents' house an hour away.

Luckily, things began to calm down and the movers got into their groove. Gus and my dad spent a lot of time loading up his truck and my car, and getting my car loaded onto the trailer hitch. Still in the pouring rain. Seriously, it rarely rains more than 10 inches in an entire YEAR here, and it chose today to dump buckets on us. Figures! I like to think that San Diego was crying for us today. Anyway, it went a lot more smoothly from that point, and all our stuff eventually made it onboard. I was shocked at how little space our 170 boxes and tons of furniture took up. It was about a quarter of that truck, and they still have several stops after ours! Amazing!

Anyway, they finally finished up at around 2pm, and Gus left at around that time. He's driving across the country with both our cars and the parrot, hopefully making a pit stop in Illinois to go to his uncle's funeral. Meanwhile, I put my dad on sweeping duty, while I used Bonnie's vacuum to clean up the house. I won't lie, I cried when I returned their stuff to them. And then coming back to the house, seeing it so empty and full of echoes... I think it finally hit me. I was fighting back the tears for quite a while after that. And I'm pretty sure they will hit me again a lot over the next few weeks.

Now, the kids and I (and the cat) are comfy and warm at my parents' house, our home for the next two or so weeks. It feels good to have survived moving day, and to have taken a nice warm shower. It's not over yet, by any means, but we've overcome the first hurdle. Pillow, here I come!!