Moving Blues

I'm having a hard time deciding how to spend my last week in Utah. I'm so sad to be leaving and so I want to do all the fun things we can before we leave. Then there's so much packing and sorting to do and I've barely started. I'm determined to have an organized move this time and not roll into Washington with a truck full of boxes labeled "miscellaneous" and "stuff." Trying to pack during the day when I'm alone with the kids is kind of a lesson in futility. I'm sure that for every item I put in a box, they'd be in another room pulling two things out. Then there's all the paperwork involved in moving. I've spent hours over the last couple of days on the phone. Canceling our gas and electric, transferring power to our new house, finding out who the power company is at our new house. Finding out how to cancel or transfer my gym and zoo memberships. Transferring internet. Finding someone  in Washington to catch my baby for me in 8 weeks. Getting a refund from my old midwife and getting a copy of my medical records. Applying for, signing a lease on, and sending in a deposit and first month's rent for a duplex I've never seen. Changing my address with everyone and their dog that we've ever done business with. I have to go to the library and return some books before they send me to collections. I have to somehow use up or give away the 3 weeks of food I have in my standing freezer. Then defrost said standing freezer. Meanwhile, diapers still need to be changed, meals need to be made, dishes need to be done, ground up crackers need to be vacuumed off the floor. Playdates need to be kept since in 6 more days Hannah won't have a single friend in the world. We need to deep clean this apartment and unclog our toilet that we've been ignoring for 6 months. Our car hasn't started without having the battery jumped for about a week, so we need to figure that out before driving it 850 miles. I want to let Hannah play with her friends as much as possible and I want to play with my friends as much as possible. I want to spend time with girlfriends and couple friends and family. I want to go on a date with my husband before we arrive in Washington on Thursday night and he starts work on Saturday morning. I want to have some fun family experiences for us to remember Utah by. I want to go camping one last time. And ice skating.

But with all that bouncing around in my head, if you asked me any minute of the day what I really want to do right then, I'd say go to bed.

I know that I'm not going to be able to do everything I want to do before we leave and the the things I do get done I probably won't do as well as I'd like to. I'm going to do what I can and try not to leave with any regrets. Meanwhile, I'm counting the days until I feel settled again.

Here are some of the things we've been doing as we attempt to say goodbye to our home.

Tuesday I took the kids swimming during the day. I've missed swimming so much this summer, but I never figured out how to take 3 kids swimming by myself, especially when Ben and Rebecca were both so young. Monday was our first day without Rebecca so we've been taking advantage of the pool while we can.

Hananh waiting "patiently" for me and Ben to get in the pool.

Hannah crying when it was time to go home.

Ben didn't mind going home. He had whale squirt guns!

 

Yesterday we went to our weekly playgroup at the playground at our apartment complex. That's one of the biggest things I'm going to miss when we move. At one point I think there were 8 young moms with their kids. Never again in my life will I be in a situation where I can walk outside my home and have so many friends for my kids and myself. Oh how I love it here!

Ben does such a great job when we go to the park. At that age Hannah would have wanted me to follow her around and play with her, but Ben goes right up to where the other kids are and plays.

Last night I went to a craft night a friend put on. We made these beautiful temple pictures. You could pick any temple you want and then we painted the frames and antiqued the pictures ourselves. I love the way it turned out. I'm waiting until we get into our new house to hang it, but I'm glad I got to make one before we left Utah.

This morning first thing when we woke up we went to the zoo. It gets into the 90s in the middle of the day and pregnant Alex gets MEAN in the heat, so we don't go out much during the day. But last night before bed I decided we'd go first thing in the morning and hopefully miss a little bit of the heat. We got there a little before 10, which was later than I wanted to go, but it was still fun.

We started at the playground, which we'd missed last time we were at the zoo. 

I love this picture because both Hannah and the little chipmunk are eating their little snacks and watching each other.

There wasn't even anything in this cage, but Ben got really excited. It was so cute!

Hannah said, "This gorilla is mean. He's making a face like this..."

This was about the end of our trip to the zoo. Even with a leash Hannah was having a hard time staying with us and Ben was too hot and needed a nap.

We've had a really fun week despite the stress of moving. It's been so nice to be able to go out during the day with just my own two kids. I'm going to try to enjoy only having to take out two kids while I can.