This moving thing has taken up all of our time.
Nick winged, family left, we packed for 5 days (and by we, I mean me since Nick was still working 12 hour days), headed to Jax to house hunt for a week, came back and have been packing the past 3 days. Only two more days left to pack, one day to load the truck, one day to clean, then we leave to start our new chapter!
Here is just a a quick update for you all:
- We are beyond excited for this move. At first, Nick was pretty bummed to not be flying the MH-53 but it didn't last long (as we all knew would be the case because Nick is truly incapable of being in a bad mood or being a glass half empty kind of guy). Virginia was most absolutely NOT our first location choice (or second...or third...or fourth) so we're happy to be in Jax, our first location choice. I know some think we're insane for wanting Jax and being excited about it, but I cannot express how excited we are. All of Nick's sadness has left and he's stoked about this next adventure. Every time we talk about our new home and life, we find more and more reasons to be excited.
We're happy to be in city larger than Pensacola with a lot more going on. We're happy to be in a location that still does not get winters (well, not cold winters). We're happy to still be a day's drive from St. Louis. I'm happy to start volunteering at the Mayo Clinic. I'm happy to still be near beaches. And we are beyond thrilled to be near so many friends!!! Nick's best friend from enlistment, stationed at Kings Bay, lives in Jax, not far from our (hopeful) new home. Our best friends from Pensacola are there (in the same neighborhood!). My other Navy bestie is there and has offered us so much advice (as well as letting us crash with her the past week while house hunting). Not to mention we are so close to Charleston and we have LOTS of really good friends there and plans to go visit them all are already in the works. We also plan to take mini-vacays to Savannah and of course next spring we'll head to Jupiter for Cardinals spring training!!!
- I'm still having a very difficult time with Grandpa's passing. Luckily I've been kept very busy and this has helped keep my tears at bay. But when I do finally get some down time, I can't help but cry over how badly I miss him.
- I'm really annoyed that I've yet to update my resume from my previous job. (I'm so bummed we're leaving so soon because I truly loved my job, the kids, and my co-workers and I was looking forward to working with them all again for a little bit longer.) But moving, house hunting, and all that comes with that has taken up every free second so the resume and job searching will have to wait until we're there.
- We're eating the oddest combinations of meals as we're trying to clear out as much from our fridge and freezer as possible. We've eaten an insane amount of fries lately. I'm sure we won't succeed and I'll be calling friends to see if they'd like to take any of it before we toss it in the trash. As for the pantry, that's a lost cause trying to consume it all. We (Nick) keep far too many things in there! He has so many bags of chips, boxes of Rice-a-Roni, cans of Steak n Shake chili, tons of cereal, Pop-Tarts, etc. The kid loves his (pre-packaged, pre-bagged, processed) food. We will have many, many boxes of food. And I'd say maybe one box is my stuff (and it's primarily baking ingredients).
- I'm doing my part to minimize the bottles we need to bubble wrap and box by drinking wine each night (and during the day...no shame). I'm just looking out for what's best for us...saving money on packing supplies and saving space on the truck ;) Nick has no complaints as the wine helps my anxiety and therefore he's not as tempted to use the packing tape on my anxious, whiny, bitchy mouth. I will not deny I'm an unpleasant packer. I'm constantly complaining "I hate this" (or "I hate you" since Nick is the one strongly against letting the military move us and he hoards and owns more than half the shit we're packing) or I'm worrying "We're never going to get this done!" and "All of this is not going to fit on the truck!" And then the bitching "Get off your phone and pack! What are you doing? You're wasting time!" Surprisingly, Nick stays calm and keeps his eye rolling at a minimum (which is really in his best interest. Sometimes he even makes us a drink (the best move for both of us.)
- Sadly, this move has not prompted Nick to purge any of this stuff as I had hoped. Nick is a certified hoarder. He has so much shit he doesn't need (ie. pogs...a massive amount of pogs and slammers. And, a UNICYCLE! Really?! C'mon! We aren't circus performers). But would he part with any of it? NOPE! Now, there are times during this packing process where he's said "Let's sell this." Yeah, good call jackass. Let me go ahead and list it on Craigslist considering we have two days left here. Or he'll say "Let's go through this box of papers." (Yes, he has boxes upon boxes of nothing but papers.) Um, we don't have time for that!!!! And the same with clothes. He has an insane amount of clothes he could easily donate if he had the time to go through them (not kidding you, four 44 gallon tubs of Banana Republic slacks, hundreds of Express button down shirts, etc. It's sickening.) But because we have limited time, all this shit has to go with us. The good news is Nick is crazy motivated to have a nice and organized garage in our new home which means he's willing to finally go through and purge this stuff. Unfortunately, it can't happen before the move. Why couldn't he have decided this in the past two years we were here?!
- Our dogs are so confused as to what is going on. Dogs thrive off a routine and normalcy, and life has been anything but. I was gone for 2.5 weeks. They drove 12 hours to STL and stayed for a long weekend. They drove 12 hours back to Florida and I was gone from them for another week. I returned but that same day so did a lot of family and friends (for Nick's winging). They left and the house began being tore down. Friends and their dogs came for a weekend. They left, and we followed, to Jacksonville where they stayed in a new home, with new dogs. We returned and the house became even more of a disaster as everything they know is being packed up.
Sadly, this chaos won't be stopping anytime soon. We pack them up and move them to Jax where they'll live in another new house (a friend's house) for a week. Then we go stay with my sister for two weeks. Then we return to Jax to stay in that new house again for another 2-ish weeks. Then we finally (hopefully) move into their new home and their belongings, the things they're familiar with, return. I cannot wait for this. The girls anxiety is driving me nuts. The constant (more than usual) need for attention and their utter confusion makes packing so much more difficult! I just wish I could explain to them what is going on!!!
So that's our life update. Nothing exciting and almost all of it revolves around this packing and moving ordeal. Hopefully next week I can work on Nick's winging post (once I get all the photos together)
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