Tag - Moving

Monday Musings

Don’t you hate it when you gather up enough energy and motivation to make dinner, just to find out you’re missing one ingredient?

Almost every day, between 2:30 and 5:30 PM, it rains.  Sometimes just a little, but usually it’s a pretty good downpour.

The deer around here are pretty funny.  The mamas like to walk together in pairs, with their little ones.  Just like human mamas.  We saw 2 young bucks out together on a Saturday evening.  They had small antlers that were still fuzzy.  They were probably off to some stag party.

We have a bunny that lives in our backyard.  I wanted to name it Benjamin Bunny, but Pumpkin Girl thinks its a girl, so we’re calling it Cottontail.

With all the wildlife around, yes there are predators.  I’m not too worried, though, because hunting is not allowed within the city limits.

I’ve heard coyotes barking on three different nights.  I’m hoping that in a few years they will be a deterrent to any of our children thinking to break curfew or sneak out of the house.

We’ve been unpacking for 2 weeks now and I’m pretty bored.  The boxes marked “DVDs” had books and at least one box marked “Books” was all DVDs. We can’t find our down comforter.  The Mexican terra-cotta sun that we bought in Nogales when we were newlyweds was packed flat at the bottom of a box marked “fragile.”  It arrived in pieces.

I ordered a new hammock, this time one that will fit 2 adults.  When I went to price them, it turned out that the frame alone was worth twice what we paid for the whole thing.  So we didn’t lose out at all.

School starts here in August.  I’m tempted to get my late sleeping self up early and go to the bus stop that’s across the street from our house and meet some of the neighborhood moms and kids.  I’ll probably end up just chuckling to myself as I hear the bus go by as I’m still in bed.

Ok, enough rambling, there are still boxes to unpack.

Moving In

The last two weeks have been a bit of a blur.  We’ve spent a ton of money trying to stimulate the economy through our home decorating efforts.  Pillows for the reading nook, curtains for Pumpkin Girl’s room, a guest room bed for whichever Nomads turn up on our doorstep, and a bunch of other stuff I can’t even remember.

Then our stuff arrived.  Pumpkin and I were looking out my bedroom window when a moving truck loaded with crates drove by.  “Hey cool,” I said. “There goes someone’s stuff.”  Then the truck slowed down and began to turn around.  It was our stuff, of course.

The unloading went well and we were amazed to see what happens when you more than double your square footage.  Every prior move to this resulted in our new home being crammed with boxes and misplaced furniture.  We could barely move and sometimes had to unpack boxes just to be able to reach a bed or the toilet.  Not so with this house!  Not one room is overstuffed which makes the whole unpacking ordeal so much easier. And, to our great surprise and relief, we did not go over our weight allowance, but were under by about 2,000 pounds.  Which is good because we have to pay by the pound for any excess.

rsz_dsc01846Our stuff actually took up two trucks. Still less than 17,500 pounds!

While the movers were here, the children and I spent part of the morning on our deck.  We watched the gliders from the Air Force Academy fly over us and spotted a deer behind the house.
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rsz_dsc01849(click the picture to embiggen if you can’t see the deer)

And now the days are consumed with unpacking.  It’s painful.  Even with a bigger house, it can be difficult to find places for things.  It took me 3 days to unpack the kitchen.  Just unpack – there’s still a little bit to put away.  I finally couldn’t stand it anymore and moved on to the linen closet and the children’s rooms.

And I desperately need decorating help.  More on that later.

Pikes Peak or Bust

You will be happy to know that the rest of our journey west was uneventful, boring even.   From Ohio we got to Missouri and stopped for the night and a swim in the hotel pool.  The next two days droned on as Missouri turned into Kansas turned into Colorado. Hundreds of thousands of miles, or so it seemed, of endless farmlands.  Corn, corn and more corn.  We were focused on our goal, so we resisted the temptation of stopping to see the World’s Biggest Big Mac, the World’s Biggest Prairie Dog, or the World’s Biggest Van Gogh. However, we did ponder the ability of the World’s Largest Prairie Dog to eat the World’s Largest Big Mac. Finally we turned off the interstate and headed southwest, with Pike’s Peak barely visible in the distance.  Colorado slowly began to distinguish itself from Kansas as the Rocky Mountains grew larger and at last we reached our new hometown.

As we made the final turns to our new home, my heart started to beat faster.  It still seemed a bit surreal to be going home- our home – for the first time.

And so here we are.  We’ve seen 7 deer, 2 were in the dry creek behind our house, 3 were in the park across the street and one was in the grocery store parking lot.  Apparently there are coyote in the bluff behind the park, and black bears are not unheard of.  The children have already put a hole in the hammock we bought from the previous owners.

The new roof that the previous owners are paying for is taking like 4 times longer than it should, but at least it’s getting done.  We had the carpets deep cleaned and discovered that they are actually a lighter color than we’d thought!  We also got the locks changed and the cable set up.  All that we need now is our actual furniture and that will arrive on Friday.

The other evening we sat on our deck and enjoyed the cool mountain air.  An occasional breeze stirred up the Aspen trees behind our house and it all felt so right.

It’s good to be home.

All’s Well That Ends Well

I really should know better than to make plans.  God always seems to intervene and our first day on the road was no different.

First, we overslept, then took longer to load the car than we’d planned, leaving an hour late.  We took it stride and gleefully called out goodbye’s as we passed the landmarks of our lives.

“Goodbye, Bolling AFB”
“Goodbye, poopoo plant!”
“Goodbye, Wilson Bridge!”

And then I promptly headed us in the wrong direction as I navigated Philip through the 95/495 split.  And again as I sent us on the toll road through Pennsylvania.  Oops.

Meanwhile, the human resources department from Philip’s probable employer finally called while we were on the road  and made him an official offer, so he called them back while we stopped for lunch.  This delayed us another 30 minutes.

And then, during a midafternoon potty break, Pumpkin Girl discovered that it hurt when she peed. Then within 5 minutes had to pee again.  Which hurt even more.

Great ooglie booglie.

So while we gassed up, I got on the phone with our “insurance” company who informed me that I needed a written referral from our doctor to be able to go to an urgent care place, or sit in an ER all night.  R-i-g-h-t.  Government health care at its finest right there.  Coming to a home near you.

My original thought was to keep calling back until I got a better answer when I realized that Wright Patterson AFB was right along the way and we could stop at their ER.

Which we did. Two and half hours later, we were back on the road, meds in hand, and arrived at our final destination for the day 30 minutes later.

11:00 PM.  Five hours later than planned.

But all’s well that end’s well.  By the end of the day we’ll be halfway through our trip and Pumpkin will be feeling much better.

Eureka!

On our second day of house hunting, Pike’s Peak was clearly visible, strong and silent and covered with snow.  The rain was gone and the temperatures were mild and we were confident that God would reveal our new house to us, just as he had revealed the mountain.

We were right.

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I’m reluctant to share too many pictures here because the house is still occupied and the pictures are full of their stuff.

But I will show you the kitchen.

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And the view from the dining room into the backyard.

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And check out the staircase –

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And for good measure, this is the park directly across the street.
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We close on June 30th.

As Boo used to say so often, “God has blessed us again!”

Colorado Springs

Our trip to Colorado got off to a rather inauspicious start.  For some unknown reason that I’m sure made sense at the time, President Obama decided to embark on his trip to the Middle East from Dulles International Airport, instead of from Andrews AFB, like he’s supposed to.  So instead of taking off on time,  we sat on the tarmac and waited for the President to leave.

Finally he was gone and we were allowed to take off.   By the time we arrived in Colorado Springs it was 1:00 in the morning.

We spent all the next day looking at houses.  It was rainy and cold, and of course we were wearing summer clothes.  But we trudged on, trying to find the perfect house.  But mid afternoon we were all tired and our real estate agent let us go while he took everything we’d said about the houses and put together a more precise list of homes that were what we wanted.

After a nap and  a huge rainstorm, Pike’s Peak finally emerged from the clouds.
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I’d been talking about wanting to see it all day, so when Philip came back to our room from getting groceries, he asked the children if they wanted to go outside and see “Mama’s Mountain.”  And that’s what everyone calls it now.

I have to say that I’m enamored with Colorado Springs.   The area where we looked for homes was wonderfully suburban with every shop and restaurant you could want.  They even have “Five Guys” – a burger place that started in DC and is one of our favorites.  Everything was wide and spacious, which is a huge change from the overcrowding of the DC Metro area.  Not that DC doesn’t have a lot to offer, I just love the mountains and I always have! The Rocky Mountains are visible from pretty much everywhere and during our house hunting we saw rabbits, deer and a fox.

We hit the local mall and let Bip work out some extra energy playing in the kids area called “Tyke’s Peak.”  It was the first thing we saw in the mall and while he played I went to check the directory to see what kinds of stores they had.  I was thinking to myself that if they had an Orange Julius, I’d be in heaven.

So do they?  Of course they do!  Not only that, but a store called “All Things Catholic.”  A Catholic store! Right there in the mall!  I have only ever seen one other Catholic store and that one is here in Old Town Alexandria and run by Pauline nuns.

So we were more than a little bit pleased with the mall.  You can tell so much about a community by the quality of the local shopping.

When we left the mall it was 5pm.  On a Friday.  By all accounts, it should have been rush hour traffic at its worst.  What we saw made us laugh so hard and was so unbelievable that we had to take a picture..  Ladies and gentlemen…Colorado Springs on a Friday at 5pm:

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Go ahead and click on that picture to make it larger and enjoy the wide open highway. And the bird poop on our window.

As Little Orphan Annie once sang, “I think I’m gonna like here!”

Off We Go!

We’re off to Colorado today to go house hunting.  It’s all very exciting and if I can get all the little people to stop saying, “uh…Mama?” every three minutes, I might actually be able to get us packed, deal with the moving guy coming to take inventory of our junk household goods and explain to Boo once again how I want him to pack five shirts, one of which needs to have a collar, not five shirts plus a collared shirt.

And remember to pack the checkbook.

Dream House

In a few weeks, we’re going to go house hunting.  We’ll be buying a house for the very first time ever and God willing, it will be our only house.  We have some definite ideas of what this dream house will have, even the children have their wish list.

Boo would like a garage.

Pumpkin Girl wants a finished attic.

Bip wants an alligator elevator in the living room.

I think someone is going to have to compromise.

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