OK, I'm alive! We JUST got Internet last Thursday night--the TimeWarner guy didn't finish setting up until 11pm, so this is the earliest chance I've gotten to sit down for more than five minutes to update. I appreciate your time and patience...and have to ask for a little more, as DH has the camera at work with all my pictures on it.
I will try to give the Reader's Digest version, but if you read this blog at all, you'll know that's a bit of an exercise in futility.
We moved in on Monday, August 27, after expecting to do so the previous Friday and being told that previous Wednesday that that would not happen. Super. Honestly, we ended up needing the days--ever notice how 80% of your stuff takes 20% of the time and vice versa? That last 20% included all the little items that don't go anywhere except a large trash bag for easy carrying...but then half of that needs bubble wrap (or a ratty old pillowcase; whatever's handy) so it won't break and only three items fit in one box and why the hell do I even have this thing anyway? What IS this? When did I get this? You understand.
SO! While I also did about 80% of the packing, DH did the same amount of heavy lifting, so I think we came out pretty even-Steven. My mom thinks I did the lion's share--mommies are good like that. A number of lovely and strong friends of DH's came to help us move everything in that Monday, as did the gorgeous and talented A., in from Colorado on a whirlwind East Coast tour. Not only did she haul in boxes, she did so in a skirt. We schlepped everything in and DH set up the bed and the alarm clock so we could spend our first night in the house. I admit freely that I loved falling asleep to crickets and nothing rather than sirens and "HEY! WHERE YOU AT?", which did happen on occasion in the old place. For the rest of the week we put things away and straightened up, putting things to rights slowly but surely. Mom and my sister M. helped tremendously by hanging pictures, moving furniture that DH and I had obviously put in the wrong place (I write that lovingly), and buying those little touches like curtains and towel rods that truly do make the house a home. Right now we've got things more or less set, although I have stowed a few boxes in the basement (WE HAVE A BASEMENT!) or in cupboards. The whole place still needs paint, but I did have a blast peeling off the majority of the hideous old wallpaper in the front hall. Wait until I post the picture of that bit of gorgeousness.
Now, recall I moved on a Monday. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I had all-day new teacher orientation at my new school. Fortunately I now live quite literally a five minute walk away, and I kept a few nice pieces of clothes and the iron handy for just such an occasion. I don't know how other orientations for other jobs go, but picture a large group of excited people becoming more and more bewildered and freaked out as a person stands up, talks about what we need to know for this area of the job, gives us a form to fill out or something to read and know well so we can do our jobs properly...all repeated about ten times. Fortunately I'm in a group of six new English teachers, so we all spend a lot of time muttering, "Did anyone tell you you have to do X by tomorrow?" "WHAT? No! What are you talking about?" "Yeah, I happened to overhear that we have to do X." "Oh, crap."
However, everyone has been extremely nice and helpful, from neighbors to teachers, and while I'll miss the city, I know we made the right move, literally and figuratively. Plus I still have friends in Buffalo who won't allow me to become a scary suburbanite, and I'll have to go there so I can go to a restaurant where I won't know any of my students. Thus it all works out.
I'm sure my next post will include something about the glories of the crock pot because our oven is so old that you just have to turn on the burner and look at the thermometer the previous owners have mounted inside to see if it's at the right temperature. Hence we've stuck to the stovetop and microwave. Ah, the glories of house ownership. I still love it anyway.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us through words, gifts, or backstrain!
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