Movers and Shakers
It was finally here. The big day had arrived.
The children and I headed up to Mom’s about a week before her closing date on her new house so we could help with the last minute packing and planning.
Our plans were extremely in flux because a beloved friend’s sister died unexpectedly, so we wanted to see how we could best offer her family support. We weren’t able to stay home to attend the Memorial Service, but Buds went to represent the family and said it was beautiful and moving.
So, with heavy hearts we packed up the car and headed north.
We had a few days at the old house:
Mom decided to hire professional movers, a decision I will forever be grateful for for two reasons:
1) Having three twenty-something youngsters to haul furniture is a huge blessing.
2) They complimented us multiple times on how organized we were for the move. They’d been traumatized by moving some hoarders before and I like to think we helped them heal.
We took time to spend a few quiet moments at the empty house to remember the joy soaked into its walls.
And then on to the new house!
We kept track of the number of boxes we had unpacked, but when we got over 80 we got bored with counting.
We worked diligently and in about a week we had everything unpacked and organized. We even took some time off.
While Mom and the girls headed off for sparkly fingers and toes, Buster and I headed to:
We attended Mom’s church’s Thanksgiving Dinner:
I had dinner with my favorite teacher from high school and his wife, and on another night my best friend from high school:
And then on one day that almost turned…interesting…I decided we could easily haul 15′ wide carpet home from Lowe’s.
We got one home by sticking the front out the passenger side window of the “5”, and letting the end of it hang out the trunk, nearly dragging on the ground. Buster had to hold it in with his ARM while we both froze with the air streaming in the through the open window and trunk. We were laughing hysterically by the time we got to Mom’s house.
And there were still two more rolls of carpet waiting at the store for me to go pick up.
Thanks to my incredibly strong, patient, and good-humored children, we got them home from the store, unloaded from the car, and dropped down the basement stairs.
And then, seemingly suddenly, the house was unpacked, and the basement was organized.
Then we decided we’d help Grandma decorate for Christmas so she’d feel truly settled in. (To be clear, The Buster didn’t want to decorate for Christmas before we’d even had Thanksgiving, but he loves Grandma so he helped.
The picture above cracks me up because it looks like Mom is cursing about an ornament.
It was a grand two weeks at Grandma’s in the old and the new. Every night in the new house we all felt a little more settled and fell a little more in love with the cozy, sunny, toasty-warm house.
Onward to more new memories.
Merry Christmas
