Saturday, August 09, 2008

Getting Settled

It's hard to believe that we got to Tennessee nine days ago. We left the girls with their grandmother in Indiana so that we would have a few days to paint their bedrooms. We also painted the dining room because I knew I wouldn't want to move anything later once I put away my china. It was good to try to get out and get a lay of the land before the moving truck and the girls came. What stunk was that we had nothing to sit on except for our blow-up bed. We were able to use someone's unsecured WiFi so that we could have Internet access. It proved to be valuable when we had to look up a phone number or address to a store every 10 minutes.

The moving truck came on Sunday. We were disappointed that we had several items break. We've always had at least one minor thing break in a move--one has to expect that. However, it is clear that the driver was lazy and threw a lot of our stuff in the truck. As a result, our box springs, Genna's mattress, glass from our sliding door bookshelves, picture frames and several other smaller items will need to be replaced. We are looking at filing a claim for about $1000. The moving company will most assuredly fight us on it. Good times.

We spent the next three days unpacking boxes and trying to find a place for everything. The girls came back on Sunday evening, so they enjoyed the boxes for about an hour. Then they were over it and wanted us to entertain them. This move has been rough on them. Ella has been crying daily because she misses her friends Katie, Jade and Matthew. Genna cries right along with her. They get upset if I am in another room and they can't hear me. As a result, they are following me everywhere like a couple of lost dogs. They really dislike the fact that their bedrooms are on the second floor and ours is on the first. Genna kept sneaking into Ella's room and sleeping with her in the middle of the night, so we moved her bed into Ella's room. I'm pretty pleased with that since I thought they should be sharing a room anyway. It will be good when Genna starts daycare on Monday and Ella starts school next week.

I've only cried once this week, which I think is pretty good. I usually have one meltdown when we move. It always involves my getting lost on the way home from somewhere. This time, my GPS wasn't working, so I couldn't retrace my steps. I called Corey who was rattling off the directions at 90 mph when he knew damned well that I was DRIVING and couldn't possibly remember them. Then my phone died. Did I mention that we live in the boonies where the roads are windy, hilly, wooded and really narrow? Did I tell you that it was 100 degrees outside and that I noticed that the arrow on my temperature gauge was on the "H"? I had to turn off the air conditioning, roll down the windows and try to find my way home. As I cried, I yelled at Corey, blaming him for everything. It was HIS fault that he moved me, yet again, to someplace new. It was HIS fault that I was lost because my GPS didn't work. It was TOTALLY his fault that I didn't charge my phone and didn't have my car charger handy. It was also his fault that I couldn't use my air conditioning. By the time I got home over an hour later (the trip should have been 12 miles round-trip) I was exhausted. And really sweaty.

The neighbors are proving to be very friendly. Our house is one of about 25 homes in a new development. Eventually there will be about 100 homes, but for now, it is a nice-sized neighborhood. We are connected to another community that has more than 300 homes, so we are able to use their amenities, but we have the benefit of virtually no traffic. All of the roads are built, but only a couple of homes are being built at a time, so the roads will be perfect for teaching the kids to ride their bikes. There are a ton of kids the girls' ages, so that is definitely a good thing. Ella has already decided that she is in love with Aiden, the red-haired boy next door. Since she has a red-haired boyfriend in PA named Matthew, I fear she is going to get a reputation. She is following in her father's footsteps in that he only dated redheads.

I am glad to be going back to work on Monday from home. It will be good to go back to some routine. Corey doesn't start work at Vanderbilt until the 18th so he will have a huge list of things to do next week.

That's really all I have for an update. I will spend the afternoon watching Ocean's Eleven to honor Bernie Mac.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

When we moved from QC to Calgary, we hired movers - first time ever. Our claim was over $7,000. I kid you not. I was flipping mad. Missing items (microwave, POTS & PANS - MY POTS AND PANS WENT MISSING, a bed - someone wanted to furnish their new apartment apparently). So the box with the pots & pans had other stuff in it that we'll never see again.

We ended up getting the Better Business Bureau invovled and reporting them to a national institution who deals with moving companies.

In the end, we only got $1,800 back. The rest was a loss. When we moved back to QC 14 months later, we moved ourselves. I will never hire movers again.

Good luck!! Sincerely.

kimmyk said...

sorry to hear your stuff got broke. that stinks. i wish movers handled things as if they were their own, but sadly they do not.

and i'm sorry the girls are having a rough go at it, but hopefully with school and daycare starting tomorrow they'll find new friends and a routine.

i had to laugh at your "12 mile round trip". i would have blamed jamie for the same thing if i were in your situation.

with jamie in the military omg, i completely understand your "anger" at moving frequently. hopefully come the 18th corey will have found the perfect fit in his new company and you wont ever have to worry about moving. i got to the point that i hardly unpacked things because i knew within 3 or 4 years we'd be doing it all over again.

we've lived in the same house now for 5 years and it's weird. i'm getting itchy to move again.

good luck with getting back to your routine tomorrow. it'll all be okay.

Lumpyheadsmom said...

Corey, that rat bastard. Can I blame him for my meltdown, too? Two days before I delivered, two days after moving, I spent nearly four hours in Ikea and LOST IT on the way home.