Where Should it Be?

I've just come back from helping Tim and Carrie move from Kentucky to Delaware with 2 big moving Vans and 2 cars. Edith and Charles (Carrie's parents) and her brother, Quentin helped do a lot of the heavy work. I arrived by the Amish bus on Wednesday evening around 9:30 pm in Lexington. The next morning after a quiet morning, Edith and Charles and Quentin arrived with the big 24 foot truck, and from there on there was frenzy of activity. Carrie and Tim thought we were going to be packing boxes for 2 days and then moving furniture on Saturday, but as it turned out Quentin was only going to be there for Thursday afternoon, so all the heavy furniture was moved out from 2-6:00 pm. I have never seen such a frenzy of activity and men who could haul mattresses and big pieces of furniture by themselves. Quentin ran a triatholon last year and has mono, but oh my....what muscles!

I spent the entire day packing up the kitchen dishes and food. The doors were left open all day which required many layers to stay warm, but at least the weather was in the low 50's. By evening, there wasn't a place to lay our heads, so I called Trip Rewards to inquire whether I had enough points for three rooms. So we headed to the Super 8 for a few hours of rest. Charles ordered Tim to get another truck late afternoon, so we ordered another 16 foot Budget Truck, only to discover that Tim's license had been expired since August of 2007. The next morning we dropped him off to get his license renewed. We finished moving out the next morning. We could only leave 10 trash bags out front and Charles installed a new sump pump and new toilet before we left. The rest of the trash went with us to Virginia to the Beery's. We ate at the Golden Corral and then around 2:00 we began our trek to Virginia. The basement had two inches of water in it last week and so we had almost 10 loads of laundry to redo, plus all the bedding, etc. I spent all day Friday doing laundry, hanging it outside and by late Friday night around 9:00 pm I finally had almost all of it dried. Carrie and Tim got rid of trash and the boys loved the day at Grandpas.

By 6:00 AM Charles and Tim were enroute to Delaware with the big trucks, since they could only drive 60 miles per hour. I drove Tim's Saturn with a stick shift and Chloe the dog beside me on the passenger side. Carrie drove their van and had Israel in the seat behind her. Edith drove her own vehicle with Gabe. The scenery in the Shenandoah Valley was awesome and I loved the daytime driving. But it did get a little stressful around the Washington DC area. The Bay Bridge to Delaware was awesome. We arrived at 1:00 pm and by 1:30 church people arrived (after a Fellowship Dinner) to unload the trucks. They were finished in less than one hour. The Beerys left as soon as the trucks were unloaded. Two ladies stayed to help put away the kitchen items and set up beds for the night.

Tim returned the trucks to Budget on Monday morning and we began to try to make sense out of the chaos. Monday was a beutiful day in the 60's and Gabe and Israel were delighted to play on the porch deck. The two of them adjusted very well to these sudden changes. Gabe had a few nightmares and did say at one time, "I want to go home." The church people also brought in 2 meals a day for the whole week. Tim took me to the Baltimore airport around noon on Wednesday. I felt blessed that Carrie allowed me to help her with the moving, since I am quite sure I would not have wanted to have my mother in law around at such a stressful time in my life.

Carrie was 8 weeks pregnant with a three year old and one year old. She also had an earache and was very tired out. It is a difficult time to make decorating decisions and what to throw away and what not to throw away.