It never fails – the weeks surrounding a move are always a little bit off-kilter.
The last 10 days have not failed these expectations.
My last post indicated some quiet time of editing and writing and completing our home school lessons, as well as my own expectations of getting back on track with some sort of routine.
And then life laughed.
A 2:00 am ambulance ride through the streets of San Juan punctuated the start of a busy week. Note: 1) everyone is FINE, and 2) that is an entirely separate story.
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An overwhelming sense of anxiety led to the creation of this:
Our countdown calendar: sticky notes marking what needs to be done and who needs to be where. With every morsel of our lives about to be placed in cardboard boxes, this was my answer to organization.
For those who have not packed up and moved house 7 times in the last 16 years, here’s a little overview:
A PCS (Permanent Change of Station) has happens for most military families every 2-4 years. Our shortest stay was 11 months and our longest 4.5 years.
YES. We are provided with packers who come into our home and pack EVERYTHING – right down to the trash in your trash can if you don’t watch carefully. I’m not joking.
YES. There are some people who just sit back and let the packers do it all. Empty their drawers and go through their closets and clean out the pantry.
NO. I am not one of those people.
Why?
1) I like to use this time to purge and sort – I do not want anything packed that I don’t want to see again on the other side.
2) I think it is creepy to let strangers touch my underwear.
3) We are living in a semi-furnished apartment – some of the things are ours, some are theirs. I had to make sure every item was carefully sorted so that the right things got packed and not the wrong things.
We are in the midst of an over-seas move. We will be separated from our possessions for the next two months (give or take a week.) The items will live in a crate that will spend time on a truck, a dock, a boat, a dock, a truck and possibly a warehouse before we see them again in Illinois. (Scott AFB – just across the Mississippi from St. Louis.)
With that in mind….. If you had to pack only a suitcase for 2 months what would you put in it?
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Over the last few days we have put our hands on everything we own. Every room had elaborate piles of SHIP ….. GIVE AWAY ….. SUITCASE ….. STAYS.
And of course we came across a few items that needed to be used up.
One night we enjoyed stray Christmas Crackers with our pizza.
Re-discovering the sombrero and a package of stick-on moustaches were timed perfectly with our Cinco de Mayo dinner.
Now who says moving isn’t fun?
We sorted through books and toys and clothes and cooking utensils, ultimately emptying all the bedrooms and creating organized-ish stacks for the packers.
We went to bed tired and little bleary eyed from the stirred up dust.
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This morning packing day finally arrived.
Today we passed the hours listening to the crinkle of paper and the screech of tape.
What looked like this at 8:00 am:
Looked like this at 4:00 pm:
Tomorrow, they load the truck.
Adios stuff, we’ll meet you in St. Louis.
Fun Moving Fact: My Prince Charming once lost his wedding ring in one house, only to have it found by one of our movers in the next house!
