Moving

I feel like we have been in the process of moving for a long time.  I guess it kind of started when we packed up some clutter for our showing back in June.  There have been boxes in the garage for quite awhile.  It all got real last week though.  I still can't believe we made it through it.  There was so much to pack and it was overwhelming.  We did quite a bit the weekend before last, including taking a few plants from our landscaping to try to transplant at the new house.  We chose a purple day lily, a hosta and an iris.  It is not really the time of year for dividing and transplanting bulbs but hopefully they will pull through.  We planted them in pots for the time being and it has been the hottest it has been all summer so they look kind of ill!  They probably wish they could have just stayed where they are! 

On Friday night, my brother and his wife came and we started moving early the next morning.  My dad arrived on his motorcycle later that morning and my mom arrived in the evening.  I tried to take it easy since I am pregnant but we all did some lifting.  I had to spend a lot of time corralling Ben during his waking hours.  The temperatures have between 90 and 100 degrees for the last week so it was not an ideal moving weekend. 

Here are the movers having a blast moving our upright freezer out of the basement!  WHOOOO HOOO!  This was just one of the torturous pieces of furniture that had to be removed from the house.  At least a friend helped us with some heavy items earlier in the week.  Everything makes a difference. 

Poor Allan...he started out fine.  He always likes to have a box to sit in and there were lots of those laying around.   Here he is earlier in the week before chaos ensued. 

As his familiar rooms came apart he started getting really nervous and scared and wasn't acting at all like himself.  He started slinking around low to the ground and hiding wherever he could find cover. 

For awhile he preferred to hide in the kitchen behind this box of junk.  By the time we left the house for the evening he was cowering in the bathroom behind the toilet which is a place he would never want to be any other time.  We stayed at a hotel since our closing was at 8:00 a.m.  We went over early and picked him up and cleaned up any evidence and removed our last minute items and cleaning supplies and said goodbye.  Then he had to stay at the hotel with Ben and my parents in his pet carrier while we closed on our new house at 10:00.  He was not happy and when we set up an isolated area for him at the new house he barricaded himself in his covered litter box.  It had just been emptied, cleaned and refilled, but still...I knew something was really upsetting him since he wants nothing to do with his box area unless he is using it for its intended purpose.  I took him out and gave him a familiar blanket to burrow under and as soon as the guest bed was set up he hid under it for the rest of the day and wouldn't come out for anything.  He never has hidden under a bed. 

That night, after Ben was sleeping, we pulled him out and showed him around the house and he was really scared but he seems to be getting better.  He is just taking it slow!  I think he is starting to like it.  His life has been pretty sheltered so far. 

Unpacking on Monday was pretty hot and sweaty although it was rainy and overcast in the morning which cut the heat slightly.  So far I haven't discovered anything broken in any boxes.  We have our cable and Internet running and the living room furniture and kitchen table are set up and some rugs are placed.  The beds and crib are set up and a few things are hung on the walls but there is still a lot to do.  I really wish I had time to paint and sew curtains and pillow covers as soon as possible but that seems like something that won't happen for a long time.  There are blinds on the windows and some decent curtains left behind from the previous owners that are not bad at all but I love the process of making something unique.  I keep wanting to drive past the old house to see if the new owners tossed the floor length curtains in our bedroom that I made and I wish I would have had our realtor say that I was taking them in our contract.  She said it was standard to leave window treatments but there is a good chance they won't keep them anyway.  Oh well.  It will be fun to start with something new.  I'm sure they were faded since they were in a west facing window. 

I better wrap it up for now.  I am so tired!  I need to get some sort of structure back in the day tomorrow for Ben's sake and my own!