Everything in the house is topsy turvy. It’s appropriate for the situation though, thus my acceptance of it all. I know I’ve said it a million times already but where in the world did I get all this stuff from? It’s unbelievable to say the very least. The good thing is that the closer I get to the actual move, the easier it is to throw things out. I simply don’t have the room for this stuff in the moving pods. The pod company dropped three pods off in spite of the fact that I only plan on using two.

These pod companies must know that people usually need more pods then they request. My bill will jump up considerably if I wind up using that third pod so you know I’m trying exceptionally hard to limit myself on what goes and what stays behind.

I’ve been pretty good about getting rid of clothes I haven’t worn in the past year or so. I look at it this way, it gives me an excuse to buy some new things. My kids say I need to let go of the hippie generation and live in the now. I like my clothes!

Tomorrow is the day that my youngest and her beau leave for school in Los Angeles. It’s also the last time they will ever be in this house.

I think my daughter felt a pang or two of sadness. It will be a new beginning for her, a new chapter in her life’s story. She will be on her own now. She knows that if anything happens she can always come to my new home. I told her the new home comes with a new set of rules though. She knows I won’t abandon her.

Home is where Mom is.

My daughter’s flight should be on the runway now. Much to my surprise I didn’t cry the way I usually do when she takes off. I guess it didn’t affect me the same way it did when she left to go to school in London. She is still in the good ole USA and only a short flight away.

She left everything in a mess like I knew she would. I’ll have to go through the stuff she left and determine if she would want me to keep it and take it to my new house.

I sure love her.

Dear Lord! I moved. Not without all the trauma that accompanies a long distance move or any move for that matter.

In the back of my mind I kept telling myself that at some point in time I would be on the other end of the move. I am now with many blessings from my Lord.

I’ve much catching up to do if I want to get this month under my belt. I haven’t been able to write because of all the other things that had to be done. I’ll start catching up from wherever it was I left off.

So let’s see. My last day at work was Friday, July 6th. I now know why my husband wanted us to stop working sooner then we did. We needed every second to do what needed to be done. We didn’t have enough time to do it all. Some things were beyond our control as is always the case. My husband says that if we ever move again the only thing he’s bringing is his wallet. I couldn’t agree more.

It was complete and total chaos, believe me when I tell ya. Constant bickering morning, noon and night, and then some.

Not only were my husband and I moving, we also had 2 children and a fiancee moving out. With that much activity in the house it was hard to get anything accomplished. Poor planning on the children’s part but typical as they tend to think only of themselves and what is convenient for them.

We had 2 moving to L.A. and one staying in the Philadelphia area. The two moving to L.A. were off to school and planning to make California home, so they took 2 suitcases a piece. Their other precious belongings are stored with us and his family.

We probably have five or six boxes of their stuff in our garage. I didn’t want my daughter to get rid of things that mean something to her. We did however have to repack her boxes. She has no concept of how to pack. Some of the boxes my husband couldn’t even lift.

When I opened them to see why they were so heavy I discovered they were packed with nothing but books! Most people know you can’t pack large boxes with all books. So now her two boxes of books total 4 smaller, more manageable boxes, some items discarded.

The items we removed were her fiancee’s GED study manuals which are as large as the Yellow Page directories. He’s in college now so what in the world were they saving those for? I put them out in the recycle bin and then my oldest daughter told me to take them to the local library and donate them. I had planned to do just that but wound up leaving them. I felt badly about that but it wasn’t the most important item on my agenda. We donated many other things. I think I’ll be forgiven for not remembering the manuals.

The two of them were supposed to clean out their room so I wouldn’t have to spend any of my invaluable time doing it. It didn’t get done. I spend a good couple of days going through the room, packing things I know she didn’t mean to leave behind. This only put me further behind the eight ball. We took them to the airport a week before we were scheduled to leave. Lots of hugs, kisses and well wishes. Not exactly the send off I had in mind, but considering the circumstances everyone was okay with it. So much anxiety.

This left me with one child behind and nowhere to go. He’d known for ten months we were moving and made no attempt to secure a place to live. One of his best friends owns several rental properties and offered him one of the apartments. My son accepted but did not have the security deposit. Mother to the rescue. I couldn’t leave knowing my grown son who had months to prepare, had no place to stay. More money out of the account. It’s only green. The Lord blessed me and I can certainly pass those blessings on when I can.

In spite of the fact that money had been an issue with my son, this did not excuse the fact that he hadn’t packed a thing in preparation for the move. Nothing at all! He lived in the basement. It looked like an apartment. Some of his things were in the way and I couldn’t get to my things. The pods we rented were being taken away in a matter of days so we desperately needed to get to our belongings. Hello! Can you move your things? Pack and prepare to move son. Anybody home in that head of yours?

We scheduled last time doctor’s appointments which enabled us to have at least a year’s prescriptions for our meds. Last dental appointment for teeth cleaning until we choose another dentist. It’s a shame we had to work this into our already busy schedule. The wait time to see our family doctor was ridiculous and killed way too much time. It was his first day back from vacation and some lamebrain triple booked him starting at 7:30 a.m. and he doesn’t come in until 9:00. Our appointments were scheduled for 10:45 and 11:15. Need I tell you how long we waited.

Back home after a two hour wait for the doctor. We rushed him through our exams and didn’t get blood work done because that meant another wait. The company we used for moving was scheduled to pick our pods up between three and five and it was now already one thirty and we still had packing to do. We were still on our way home when they called and we told them we weren’t ready. The driver said he would wait as long as we wanted. He was very kind and understanding. What followed was a maniacal attempt to load.

My husband was trying to organize boxes while I just took things to the pod that I didn’t want to leave behind. Instead of packing my pots and pans I literally carried them out and told him to throw them into the pods. He stood looking at the loose items I had just piled up in amazement. He came into the house and I heard him making more boxes. He proceeded to pack the things I left at the pods. I really don’t know what I was thinking about. I was afraid my things were going to be left behind.

Now that I look back at that particular time in our move I have to laugh. I can clearly remember the expression on my husbands face and it was priceless. Definitely a Kodak moment.

At any rate, the pods did leave the premises around five. I cannot say enough how nice the driver was to wait. It was such a relief to see them gone. It made our move a little bit closer. So back into the house we went, completely exhausted. It was right about now that we started seeing things we should have put into the pods.

Damn!

Deep down in the essence of my being, I knew that there would be things we had overlooked. Doesn’t this happen to everyone? Surely it does. No problem, we’ll just pack what we forgot in the car right? Along with the things we had already planned to take in the car. More on this later on.

We still have a week before we leave which one would think is more than enough time to tie up loose ends. The one major problem we had was that we still hadn’t sold our house which meant we were still paying two mortgages.

We let a friend of ours talk us into letting him sell the house for us as a for sale by owner. Good intentions but it simply did not work out. My son also told us a friend of his wanted to buy the house and was pre-approved for the loan. It sounded promising but this, too, didn’t work out. We wound up putting the house on the market with a real estate agency at the last possible moment. I’m surprised we were able to work through all the details so quickly. It’s amazing what God enables us to do.

From the time we decided to relocate God has been at our sides. He has led us in the direction that He wants us to go. For years I have prayed for a change. I didn’t know what kind of change it would be or how it would happen, even when it would happen. I just knew that He would answer my prayers.

Luke 11:9 reads, “And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; Seek, and ye shall find; Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”

By the Grace of God my prayers were answered.

God didn’t promise me it would be easy. Nothing worthwhile ever comes easily.

In that last week we had still so much to get done. As it turned out, my son waited until the day before we left to move his things out. What he didn’t want, he just left behind, and that was plenty. How were we to allow the real estate agent to show a home left in shambles? We were leaving in a matter of hours ourselves, to drive across country. We gave him most everything. Refrigerator, bedroom set, towels, linens, couches, kitchen table and chairs, etc.

I simply could not believe he had no intention of cleaning up the mess he was leaving behind. He knew we were trying to sell the house. When I asked him about the mess he said, “Aren’t you paying someone to clean up the house?” I wanted to cry. I told him I hadn’t planned on paying someone to clean his mess. No time to think about it now, we were leaving in the morning. It would have to be dealt with later. We had a car to pack, and a sedated dog who had surgery a few days prior.

I forgot to mention that we also had a cat we had to board. We couldn’t take the cat in an already jam packed car. It would be cruel to have an animal crated for 30 hours, unable to poop, pee or stretch its legs. This was another expense we really didn’t need but one that could not be circumvented. Just biting another bullet.

The dog had surgery the Tuesday before we were scheduled to leave. She was adorned with a lovely lampshade to keep her from licking the stitches. Lampshade off and in with the sedation. Sleepy dog syndrome!

My brother was kind enough to use a scheduled week of vacation to fly in and help us with the drive. This made three drivers instead of two.

We all retired around eleven with the anticipation of leaving between two and three in the morning. My husband couldn’t sleep so he got up at one and cleaned up the kitchen which had been left in a mess by the son who emptied out the refrigerator and left everything on the counters. Just what hubby needed instead of sleep. He then went out and got breakfast sandwiches and coffee for us.

If you haven’t already guessed, we did not leave at the preplanned time. We couldn’t fit everything into the trunk of the car so I had to make some quick decisions on what I was willing to leave behind. Not wise when you’re working on a few hours of sleep on the floor. I knew my husband had to return in a week to get the cat so I figured he could pack anything that was important and would not fit into the car. I left behind two plants from my father’s funeral. They just took up too much space.

It broke my heart but I had to be adult about it. I made my son promise to take the plants with him to his new apartment. I figured that his girlfriend would water the plants in the event he forgot to. In the back of my mind I also believed that I could carry the plants back on an airplane ride if necessary.

I repacked the trunk that my husband packed and was then able to get everything in that had to go. I also used the floor space in the back which made for an uncomfortable ride there.

We finally took off around seven, only four hours behind schedule. We left on a Saturday to avoid a lot of traffic. With thirty hours of travel time ahead of us, that would still put us at our new home around twelve thirty in the afternoon and that was respectable. We intended only to stop for fuel, food and restroom relief and that is precisely what we did.

The drive was beautiful. We drove through Virginia, Tennessee and Arkansas. Just a bit of Delaware and Maryland. The only rain we encountered was in Arkansas in the middle of the night.

We used AAA’s trip pack directions and they were phenomenal. Everything went exactly as they were meant to.

My stepson the vet gave us sedatives for the dog and all she did was sleep. She doesn’t like the car as it is and this would be quite a long time in the car for her. I stopped giving her the sedative twelve hours before we arrived in Texas because I wanted her spunk to return and the droopy eyes to disappear.

It seemed as though the longest part of the drive was from Dallas to Austin. And we got lost.

We got lost not because of bad directions on the part of triple A, but because in Texas they have two names for every major roadway. And, they are known for changing the names whenever they want to. We were looking for a roadway that no longer existed so we wound up going beyond our turn off. No problem. My realtor called to see if we were at our house yet and I was certainly glad she checked on us. She was able to get us all the way to our new home from where we were, just minutes away.

We were all so excited as we pulled into the driveway. I had to pee so bad all I could do was run into the house. It was nothing more then being excited! Home sweet home. It was my brothers first time seeing the house so he was excited too. We were no longer exhausted from the drive. We forgot all about being tired. To top it off, my daughter and my realtor split the tab and had my whole house cleaned so I wouldn’t have to do anything when I got here but unpack. I cried like a baby.

The only misfortune we had was that we paid a landscaper to get the back together and he didn’t do it. We had been advised by the pool keeper of this so it wasn’t a total shock. The landscaper did come by and apologize and has promised to return our money and to mulch the yard for free when my husband is finished doing what the landscaper did not. It’s been two weeks and still no money has been returned. I trust that God will have the money returned to us and the landscaper can forget about the free mulching.

My brother and husband spent two days clearing the yard of debris. They cut limbs off of trees that were too close to the pool, pulled weeds, etc. They were bitten by chiggers and mosquitoes. I am so happy that my brother was here to help my husband. It would have been far more than he could handle, but he would have done it. Now the yard needs only to be mulched and enjoyed. The pool keeper can get around the pool without falling in.

Through God’s grace we are starting a new chapter in our lives. Thank you Jesus!