finally getting around to blogging about moving! it was our first and only time moving (since moving just a bedroom each when we got married doesn’t count). i’ve taken so long to get around to blogging about this because 1. i was too busy to blog in general 2. the one word that could describe it was emotional. i was somewhat of a cry baby from the time we started packing until a couple weeks after we’d settled into our new place. brett thought i was crazy and that it was just a house after all, but to me it represented so much more. it was the first place we lived together, our cute little house that just needed a new neighborhood. leaving after we celebrated our fourth anniversary just made me think so much about everything i wanted for us when we got married and how where we are now compares to that. aaand cue emotional resurgence now… needless to say, since you saw my bah humbug post… we’re not exactly where i pictured we’d be four years ago. moving represented some disappointed hopes to me. i was a nutcase. when i’d gotten the guest bedroom empty and was vacuuming, it made me cry to think i was vacuuming where my dresser used to sit when we first moved in and that was our bedroom. what would i say to 2008 freya if i could go back? lots of things.
alright well on with the moving story…

i left work early the day before moving day to give the new house a once over before our stuff got there. karley’s mom who is a professional at that, joined me for the quick task. unfortunately, when we got there it was clear a deep cleaning was necessary. it. was. ridiculous. lorna said she would usually charge $300 for the type of cleaning job that was required. we cleaned from 4 to 9 then i went and got a carpet steam cleaner and stayed until midnight. it was so disgusting. the landlord obviously hadn’t come to the property at all since we signed the lease. definitely left me questioning the decision to move that i’d already been a nutcase over. (and fyi, he was mostly nice about the whole thing, saying he’d work things out with our rent to make up for it. the fix it man said he’s known him forever and to not let that taint our relationship with him, but i don’t know. we had the best landlords for four years so we’ve been used to the best.) here are just a couple shots (i took lots as evidence) to show the neglect on his part. as we cleaned i also noticed many other deficiencies with the place i hadn’t noticed in our walk through since i was only looking at the layout before  (i.e. wall paint on the ceiling, holes in the tub, loose toilet, and lots more). lesson learned.
i’m so glad lorna was there to help me see the positive side of things. she kept saying, “well looks like this house hasn’t had love in a long time, so glad you get to give it some.” when we walked outside to pack up her car, the moon was perfectly hidden behind a cloud so only a bright silver outline was showing. it was the craziest thing i’ve ever seen, and so beautiful. of course i couldn’t catch it in time or do it justice with my phone. lorna promptly said it was a sign. such a tender mercy.

i got home that night to find brett had already loaded up the entire truck (minus our mattress)! so much for the help he’d arranged for saturday morning! he’s such a nut. he emailed the guys to say never mind but of course one guy still showed up. and what did brett say when he got there? did he say, oh well we still have a mattress you can help with? nope! so i cussed him the whole time i had to help him drag that heavy thing into the truck. what is it for guys and asking for help?! we had to run and get his car from the uhaul place when i got home and that is the most tired i’ve ever been while driving. i fell asleep for the 7 minutes it took for us to get there and definitely fell into some microsleeping the whole way home while i was driving. luckily i was so wiped when i got home so i straight passed out instead of processing the fact that it was our last night in our place.

moving day dawned to be quite the beautiful day. i spent the day cleaning our house and helped take one load of car stuff to pick brett up from dropping off the truck. seeing the rooms so empty turned on the tears again. the plan was for me to finish up a couple things and meet brett at the new house, but i was such a mess brett decided we better leave at the same time and he’d come back monday to finish up. my mom happened to call as we pulled out of the driveway and i was mid break down. it helped to be talking to her though. 

our first two orders of business in the new house were dinner (thai food take out from the restaurant around the corner) and setting up that new tv. poor brett set up the comcast easy move thing, but they botched it so he still ended up on the phone with them for an hour to get it straightened out. brett had to work the next day so i spent the day unpacking the kitchen alone, then i took tuesday off so we could continue unpacking together. the first thing on my list to unpack then was the christmas tree. the handy man came over to fix a few things thank goodness. and that was the move!

i’ve given countless gripe filled tours since then, but i’m working on being positive and appreciating the goodness we’ve got. i think i would definitely be more onboard with this if it didn’t mean driving all the way across town for work every day. 10 min drive vs. 40 min drive each way is a big difference. i have started listening to books on tape though so that makes me feel productive while i drive and excited to get in the car. tonight after dusk, brett and i took a walk around the block and i was telling him i miss seeing the sunrise/sunset on my commute since we live on the east side now, without missing a beat he said, “i’m glad we live in a neighborhood we can walk around comfortably.” touche brett, touche.

one last thing to finish this post…
the song “home” by phillip phillips took on new meaning to me during this time. surprise, surprise, it made me so emotional. i’ve only listened to it once since the move. i still love the song, i’m just waiting until i can listen to it without tearing up. it’s on my phone so it came on while i was alone cleaning the new house and alone cleaning the old house. it applies perfectly…

“Home”