Things I've learned from moving with a toddler

While I don't have near enough time to outline the many, many things I've learned about organizing, packing and moving with a toddler, the main point I would like to drive home is that it should never EVER be done without hiring a babysitter.

Seriously - I had about 400 things to get to today and I only got to 5 of them because of my shadow and my helper.

Need to climb onto the stepstool to spackle and paint? Forget it. My shadow is climbing up behind me, which wouldn't bother me except that my one and only stepstool is actually broken and in danger of collapsing at any moment. So the walls are barely spackled and not yet painted.

Need to clean the oven? Forget it. My ever so helpful 2 year old is picking up all of the ashy crumbs that have been swept out of the oven and onto the floor and eating them. So the oven isn't clean yet.

Need to get the childproof electrical outlet covers off of the outlets? Forget it! My helper has to make sure they're still live by sticking her finger into every single one of them. I aborted that mission quickly.

Every time I leave the room, every time I switch to a new item on my to do list, basically every time I move....my shadow is right there behind me on my heels so that if I say "Oh shoot, I forgot to grab _____" and turn around to go get it, I immediately knock into her and knock her down and she freaks and it's about a 20 minute ordeal to get her back to being happy and content.

I will be so glad when this is over.

Going Away

My husband had his going away breakfast this morning. I can't believe it. He's been here for just shy of 7 years and it's finally his turn to have a going away party. He's been to at least a dozen or more of them over the years and it's finally his turn. It was nice, albeit awkward since I don't really socialize with anyone from his work. Some people who were there I met for the first time!

I got a bottle of our favorite local wine...St. James, the peach flavor. I plan on us drinking the whole bottle to celebrate tonight after the kiddo goes to bed. We'll miss having the wine readily available, but I know I can always order it online to have it delivered so we'll never have to go without it.

I just can't believe that this is it. He's done here. He got here in July of 2003 and he's leaving in May 2010. He never in a million years thought he'd be here this long. There have been more downs than ups I think, but looking back, this place will always be special because we met here and our daughter was born here. I'll always have fond memories of IL, but I never ever plan on moving back here.

I will miss the wide open spaces and seeing green cornfields against endless blue skies in the summertime. I find a beauty in the flat fields of the Midwest that I can't find anywhere else. The beach is beautiful. Mountains are beautiful. Most people think of IL, IA, IN as ugly, flat, boring states. And it's true, they are - in the wintertime. But once spring and summer are in full swing and the crops start growing and you get those crystal clear, blue skies as far as the eye can see lazy summer days of 85 degree heat, the cornfields gently swaying int he wind and a big white farmhouse in the middle of it all with a big red barn...I think that's just as beautiful as the beach and mountains. I guess it also represents a level of comfort to me that you can only get from being home - and Illinois will always be my home. I have no intention of ever coming back for more than a visit, but after 28 years of living here, I am very fond of the place - it's just time to move on to greener pastures, or maybe I should say move away from the green pastures :)

I'm rambling and I have no point other than to say, the end is here...it's just about time to pack up and ship out. I can't believe it. After 28 years, I am going to live somewhere other than Illinois. It's going to be weird. I have so much hope for our future right now.

One week

I am excitedly starting to panic. My husband and daughter leave in just 1 week. I'm leaving 3 days later. I have SO much to do. There is no way it can all get done. Deep breaths....deep breaths...

Moving walkthrough

We had our walkthrough this morning with the representative from the moving company. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was how I thought it might go. He basically took a little bit of inventory of some of the larger items that we have, things that might need disassembled, things that would need boxes and what size and how many. We went through every nook and cranny of the house, opening up all of the rooms and closets so he could see what was in them.

The landlord listed our apartment for rent on the website we initially found it off of. It will be weird to have someone looking at our apartment to see if they want to move in. It's sort of weird to see it listed on the web as being available.

We need to start putting some stuff into our do-not-pack room and then pack it ourselves into our own boxes to take down in the cars with us.

There's a complicated situation with our apartment and us leaving early in the month but having to pay rent through the end of the month and I'm worried the landlord will re-rent it and be getting double rent. And it sucks because we have no way to verify if he's doing that. The only person I would trust giving a key to this place to to check is not going to be here for almost the entire month of May. I don't want to leave it with a neighbor because I don't want the landlord to know I gave the key to someone else for a short period of time. He'll be showing the apartment, so he'll know we've vacated. I just feel really uneasy about it and get the feeling the only way to truly prevent it is to leave some stuff in the apartment and drive back up here on a weekend later in the month to get it back and turn the keys in. I do not want to spend all that gas money, but it's looking like I'm going to have to.

Junk

One of the better things about being in a military family and moving around every so often is that you get a chance to get rid of useless junk that has accumulated.

When you look around and survey your belongings, you start to get this sense of dread....

"Do I really want to have to unpack that?"

"Do I really want to drag that along?"

"Why did I ever buy and keep this?"

I'm a minimalist. I don't like junk laying around and I don't like clutter. My house is very clean at all times and 95% of my belongings have a specific place they belong and I return everything to it's place at the end of the day. People always remark that I didn't have to clean my house for them. Well, I didn't do anything I don't normally do on any given day! I just prefer a clean look with everything in it's place because as strange as it may sound, clutter makes me anxious. This is coming from a girl who used to have a bedroom so messy while growing up that she would clear little walking paths just to get around! Not like on a Hoarders scale, but on a normal teenage girl scale.

I actually enjoy the opportunity to move so much because it forces me to get rid of things that I would otherwise accumulate. I just went today and bought 2 brand new bathroom sets for the new house at the new base. Mickey mouse for my daughter's bathroom and a whimsical earthy theme for my bathroom. So, I gotta get rid of all of our current bathroom stuff, which I undoubtedly would have kept for 5 more years if it were not for our move. It's in good condition....not good enough to resell, but good enough to donate to a charity or give away to someone.

I'm trying to go through the house and look in cabinets, in rubbermaid containers and in drawers and say "What do I not want to unpack at the next base?"

Clothes...I have a ton of size 14 clothes to get rid of. I'm a 12 now, though if I don't stop eating junk, I'm going to need those size 14 clothes before too long. I am stress eating like there is no tomorrow....lots of sugary stuff! I've been running 3 miles a day 5-6 days a week to help keep it at bay, but I've also gained 10 pounds since my husband got back from his deployment, so I'd like to stop stress eating and lose the weight. I tell myself every day, "Put the junk food down" but it's like crack, I swear.

I have some shoes to get rid of.

Some food to give to a food pantry.

A crapload of mismatched towels.

A whole bunch of stuff I got for free at Walgreens when i was couponing last summer just for the register rewards (the item and the RR was free, don't worry) and some stuff I'm not sure I'll use anymore.

I'm so glad that I'm anal about being clean...I have to clean up all of the kitchen appliances we're taking with us and since I regularly clean them, a final cleaning should be a breeze.

Sorry I was so all over the place with this. As you can imagine, with moving being in just 2 weeks, my mind is going a mile a minute.

Busy busy busy

I have been going nonstop all week now that we have a moving date! We've been getting some things done around the house, but mostly I've been busy trying to spend more time with friends and my mom's group. We've been making lists of all sorts of different things, from things we need to take with us in our cars to things we need to buy as soon as we get there.

I'm trying to get all of the food emptied out of the refrigerator and freezer. So it's been pretty slim pickings around our house and we've been eating interesting combinations of things. The freezer is almost emptied out except for some leftovers so we've been pretty successful. I just hate to see food go to waste. There is a very small amount of nonperishable food that I'll be taking down with us, but I'm not even sure it'll fill a small box. Just a few canned goods and oil/flour/spices, that type of thing.

The movers are packing on the 4th now instead of the 3rd and will move everything out on the 5th. We could have it back in our new house as soon as the 11th. There are still a ton of empty houses at the new base so getting into one should still not be a problem.

Sorry my thoughts are so jumbled right now. My mind has been going a million miles a minute with to-do lists and packing lists and trying to keep my current schedule straight. It's amazing that I even remember to pay the bills.

I can't believe that in just 3 weeks, I won't even be here. I look around my apartment and realize that none of my belongings will be here. Someone else will be moving in....that is so weird to me!

...and we're off!

My husband has his orders in hand, finally! He coordinated with the traffic office (TMO) about moving and they will be coming the first week of May. We should be at his new station by the end of the first week and into a house by the second week.

We also might try to have he and the kiddo go down at the beginning of the first week so that she's not in the way of the movers and go ahead and get a house and then I'll go down later in the week after the movers are finished and I've cleaned.

I am finally glad that things are in place and moving along. It's hard to believe as I look around my house that in a month, I won't even be here. None of our stuff will be here. Someone else might already be in here. That is just crazy to me.