The Big Move

It's almost been a week since the big move from Bellingham to Redmond, and it still seems a little surreal of an experience. It's like this extended vacation because we've been eating out more for convenience, and sleeping a bit less because the babies have a slight problem adjusting. Except this time, there isn't a home in Bellingham to return to, and that's a little strange.

Neither my wife nor I have ever really been that attached to a house, but somehow, as we were packing up the last day and thinking about all the little things we've done in the house, and all the strange experiences we've had together, it made the house seem a lot like losing a part of the family. After, this was the house that we first moved into together as a couple. I still have the video of the place being in shreds, with nails still sticking out of the staircase and we had to have everything jammed into the garage because the interior of the house wasn't ready yet.

Since then, a ton of stuff happened in that house that defined our new life together. We had a few Thanksgiving dinners, 2 babies were conceived and brought home from the hospital there, my wife and I were married there, we've entertained tons of friends and family there, played water games, food fights, crazy superball fights, just plain temper fights... just tons of strange little things that happened when we lived there. Like Franklin getting stuck on the roof and me climbing out there to try to get the cat down; or when I myself got stuck in the bathroom and had to escape through the 2nd story window; or when we saw our neighbor have a domestic dispute right outside the bedroom window and we had to call the cops (that was fun); or when Brendon and Maralise always come over and we'd sit around and watch the tube, Pre-babies...

Of course, we were going to have to move someday - it wasn't meant to be forever, but we just didn't expect it to be that hard.

Anyway, moving itself was an adventure, when our 24 footer truck got wedged into the pavement on our driveway, which is on a hill. It took 2 neighbors, a Ford Explorer, and a lot of truck damage to get the damn thing out of the ground. The hitch was even picking up asphalt, leaving out indelible mark on Bellingham. Packing was a cinch, since I had a high fever and total fatigue. Lucky for us to have friends like Brendon and Maralise, who helped us do a lot of the packing while I was either out of commission, or simply moving too slow to be anywhere to being productive.

I was better the next day, thankfully, to at least make it through the afternoon, which had been my biggest hurdle. I worked okay in the morning and evening, but the sun pretty much disabled my sick ass. So we got packed, headed out in the giant deathtrap, which flashed a "Check Engine Soon" indicator on not 10 miles on the road, causing me to panic. Furthermore, I was monitoring the engine temp, which was a notch below "Exploding Hearst of Death." When I finally reached 60mph after 10 minutes of flooring it and gaining some decent momentum, I had to deal with idiot drivers, all of whom seem to think that a 24 foot truck is anywhere close to manueverable.

When we got to Redmond, we found out that we couldn't park the Uhaul truck anywhere, so we would have to do all the unloading that night. So we hauled ass, and got it done. At 3am in the morning, the truck was returned, and we were exhausted.

The first few days we were surrounded by boxes and boxes of junk, living out of them and keeping the kids from eating/handling/maiming anyone else with stuff in them. So far Zoe's tasted a lighter, several electrical wiring, and a whole battery. Alex has had a field day just going around, taking assorted hazardous and sharp materials out of boxes and waving them around.

We're just starting to get into a slight groove - today's my wife's first day of work, and unfortunately, it's also her first day of the fever that I've been nursing for the past week and a half. So she's been napping for a while, and we'll see how she does today. I work Wednesday morning at six, so we'll see if I'm even able to function quite that early.

But the kids are well, as are we. Photos later.