Sunday, February 20, 2011

Finally!





I kind of think technology is a pain. So much time and attention goes into talking/texting, surfing the web, gaming, etc. I love getting away from it all and going camping. BUT I HAVE TO HAVE INTERNET!

Not necessarily while camping of course, that is usually only for a few days and then I come back to the "real" world again and catch up. Internet is seriously my addiction/weakness. I don't play many games, but I did get sucked into Facebook and blogging/reading blogs. It's my way of accessing the world and trying to stay current (and let's face it, somewhat interesting) while being a stay-at-home mom.

We just got our internet hooked up this morning. We have been in this house for almost 2 weeks. It was good to take a break from it, but I'm glad to be back!

SO. Anyways.

Our move ended up being crazy, the packing/cleaning/turning over the keys part. We started out strong, and had the entire trailer packed up the same day we got it (Thursday). Mustache Man and I had gone through most of our possessions, and got rid of a ton of stuff, but apparently not enough. We ended up shipping 13 boxes through UPS and made last minute cut throat decisions for the garbage pile.

The housing office had neglected to tell us that our garbage bins had to be empty and rinsed out when we left. I had barely finished getting the floors cleaned when the "Housing Guy" came by to inspect and sign us off. We still had a pile of stuff in the garage that was getting packed into a few last boxes and some full garbage bags. We managed to drag everything outside the garage and finish in the driveway, just so the house could be secured and us released from responsibility over it. Mustache Man had run out to ship some boxes (he could only take 4 at a time with the car, and the truck was already stuffed with our things to move and therefore useless), which left me panicking about the garbage bins. They were full. How that happened, I'm not entirely sure, but I'm going to chalk it up to moving. We tried renting a pickup from U-haul to make a dump run and take the remaining boxes to UPS, but we had only an hour and they wanted that much time to have a LOCAL U-haul location contact us. I called every Home Depot in the area (they rent pickup's, but in the Camp Pendleton area, each store only had one truck) and managed to track one down in time. Mustache Man had to pickup the truck (thus leaving the car at Home Depot) rush to load everything, and rushed to empty and drop the truck back off. After signing the house off, this left Mustache Man's mom, myself, and my two munchkins next to our truck, with everything that was going to be packed into the car on the side walk. Thank God we were in California or we would have froze.

Once we left Camp Pendleton, the drive went well. We made good time, the kids did GREAT, and we even stopped in Oregon at an Elk Viewing Area and the Sea Lion Caves near Florence.

Since arriving at our new residence, I've realized a couple of things.

- The tap water here is AMAZING. It was definitely something I took for granted before we moved away.
- The air even smells better! It feels clean.
- I really like "green". The trees are gorgeous.

Seriously though, while I hoped that life would suddenly be dream-like and happy, I didn't have any real expectations. Life is still life - it's still going to have up's and down's and hard times. The changes that have taken place over the last few weeks are many and significant. I'm very pleased to be back to a regular lifestyle. I can't get over the fact that almost everyday, I can expect my husband to work 8 hours and then come home. He doesn't have to do overtime, and if he chooses to, HE GETS PAID FOR IT. He doesn't have people calling him after he gets home from work all night because they are sick/drunk, got a ticket, or need some gear for their next field op. It's great. We don't have all the benefits we had before, but we do have Mustache Man with us more, and that's worth it!

Our new home feels smaller to us, but we're settling in alright. It's always cold but I refuse to turn the thermostat up any more. My in-laws are installing a garage door, and I am dying for it to be completed! Our home in California had a nice big garag that we had stuffed with tools, camping things, and our bikes. Now all that "garage stuff" is crammed in a tiny yard shed and the back room (enclosed porch) that I am currently typing in. Needless to say, it's an adjustment.

One of the perks of this house is that we have a small, fenced back yard! We got a family dog right away. I'm very much a dog person - I'd have a whole pack if I could! We named her Abbey, and adopted her from the Everett Animal Shelter. They said she was a stray and estimated her to be about 8 months old. She is perfect for our family and so tolerant of the kids. I caught Zach poking her eye and she just laid there and took it! (He certainly won't be doing that again, I couldn't believe it...) Ayslyn tries to pet her, but it ends up being more of a smacking than anything - luckily Ayslyn is 11 months old and it feels more like a "tapping". Abbey is going to be a great running partner, and we're working on basic commands with her.

So far, so good.

1 comment:

  1. So are you going to be running with me this summer? :D I know! I'll come over on a Sat or something and you me and Abbey can run to the nearest coffee stand!

    ReplyDelete