Anatomy of a Frymark Move -- Part II

For my concerned friends, let me assure you that we have been laughing through our crazy move. The only parts that were stressful were the car troubles. When your car is as packed as they were and you are pretty much living out of it…and traveling 800 miles to your next home…well, car troubles aren’t funny. But crazy new hotels are! So no worries...we are laughing NOW.

So, we survived the hotel. Hubs got some cool shots of the fire trucks while we were standing outside, but they won’t email for some reason so I can’t share.

Monday morning Hubs thought the movers were going to show up about 9am. He was told between 8-9. So I made sure I was up at 7am. I’ve done this a few times. Yep. Sure enough…at 7:40 they were ringing the doorbell. So I had to kick everyone out of bed…but hey, I was showered and dressed. Hubs should have known better. It’s the government (or in this case, government contract, which is pretty much the same thing). They don’t do what they say when they say. Get real.

So the movers come in and are appalled. How are they going to get two truckloads – 600 boxes and furniture into THIS place???? Seriously, the guy had wide panicking eyes and kept shaking his head no. Hubs let him know that we had less than stellar packers on the other end. See, the good news is that they couldn’t write small so they took up 3-5 lines on the inventory to describe one thing many times. We really didn’t have 600 boxes.

They still didn’t look convinced since it was two truck loads.

We weren’t really convinced either. I think we were both sweating it. Going from an 1800+ square foot home to a 1300 square foot government hole was not an easy feat. Not only physically, but mentally. But its not like we had a choice since our house hasn’t sold in Texas. This was the most affordable option that kept our family together in the same place.

So, as the day progressed Hubs checked the inventory outside and I directed traffic inside. I ripped open wardrobe boxes and crammed clothes in closets as they came in and then threw the boxes back outside for the movers to haul away. Those boxes are so big that it made a big difference. I could sort the clothes out later.

Something you might not know about me. I’m a jigsaw puzzle nerd.

So, as the day progresses and the word “storage unit” is thrown out over and over, I am inside putting together this brain buster of a puzzle.

To make a long story short….at the end of the day….after many swaps and switches and rearranging…we got everything in.

The guys were so astonished that they assured me I needed to come to work for them. They really didn’t think it could be done and I made it happen. Thanks guys…but as you can see, I do this so much on my own time, that it’s the last thing I’d want to do as a job. Even the paycheck would not be worth it.

So. We did get everything into the house and garage. What we don’t have is the space to unpack it! Hahahaha! Okay, not funny.

We are so packed that we are really having a hard time unpacking. Add to the craziness that we can’t have more than one box pick-up (and they can’t be wet from sitting outside) and it really gets crazy. The good thing is the recycle people will take boxes and paper…but they only come once a week so that’s not so great.

It’s going to take us longer than ever before to unpack and settle this house.

But we are all here together. And we had surprisingly few casualties. Unfortunately they broke the access panels on both tv’s so the Mr. is livid. It’s such a small part really…but it makes the tv’s look like something you picked up beside the road. Not sure how the company will handle that.

I can also say that there won’t be any more keeping stocked up on foods and toiletries. NO SPACE. It’s all I can do to get the daily stuff in. My kitchen stuff is actually overflowing into the garage. And we aren’t even talking the food.

We don’t have internet, cable or a phone at this point. Internet will probably be the only one of the three that we get anytime soon….or at least until the house sells. Lucky for me the Mr. is in the middle of an on-line college course and MUST have the internet for his work.

The girls are signed up for school. Songbird starts next week and Mighty Mouse the week after. Our fiery darts there are that MM needs a physical to start school and with the GOVERNMENT INSURANCE and GOVERNMENT HEALTHCARE we can’t get one. They want us to get all the papers filled out on our move, switch from remote to on-base care and WAIT until all the paperwork goes through – 6 to 10 days. And we have to go to the website to fill out the form to print off and take into the office that handles it. Or fax it. Keep in mind that this is active duty military and nothing has changed except location. We are all still in the computers. Its just what the government does. For all those in favor of the healthcare reform…remember this…cause this is NOTHING when it come to government healthcare and insurance. This is the every day stuff. So – MM might not be starting school on time after all.

And Songbird has $91 in student fees for her classes. Welcome to high school!!!!

So friends….we are still alive and kicking and doing well. I was waiting for someone to come down with the swine flu or something just because we were in the middle of a move…and our GOVERNMENT INSURANCE AND CARE is not going to take care of us at the moment.

Maybe that’s next week.