A Moving Adventure
By Allan Olson
It’s been a few years since I last moved, and then I had only one kid, and we moved just a short distance from the previous location. Prior to that it was just my wife and I, and as newlyweds and poor college students, we didn’t have much that one truckload (or two) couldn’t handle.
This past weekend we moved again. This time, we moved 20 miles from our previous home of four years. We also moved with four kids and over nine years of accumulation from living in the same trailer park.
It was a crazy, whirlwind three days.
We knew this day was coming, so we started packing early. We thought we would easily be ready, and it would be a simple process of loading the trailer and unloading.
We picked up the 28-foot moving trailer provided by the realtor on Thursday, and a friend dropped his horse trailer off to be filled.
Well, it turns out we weren’t as ready as we thought. Our storage unit was nearly full and our house was looking empty, but we still had stuff to pack.
“How does one accumulate so much stuff?” I wondered as we stuffed more boxes.
On Friday, we started loading the trailer at about noon. When we started, it didn’t look like we would ever fill one trailer, let alone a second one. Our house was virtually empty – or so I thought.
It didn’t take long before I was starting to wonder if we would ever get done.
Since I had the packing king (my father) at my disposal, I asked him to arrange the trailer to maximize the space with the large volume of stuff that seemed to be appearing almost magically every time I turned around.
The kids came home from daycare and, of course, they wanted to help. I’m not sure they really wanted to help, or if they just wanted the fun of walking up the ramp and into the trailer.
“I’m the strongest girl in the house,” Abigail sang as she carried stuff out to the trailer.
“Me help,” Alivia said, and help she did. The youngest person around carried more into the trailer single-handedly than her three siblings and older cousin. While the contribution may have been blankets or other small, light things she could carry, her many trips back and forth earned her the reward of riding to the new house with dad.
In just over four hours we had both trailers full, a truck full, the van full, the storage unit empty and the house nearly empty.
With that accomplished, we then had to get everyone and everything to our new home safely.
“I’m going with daddy,” Alivia sang, jumping up and down. “I’m going with daddy!”
The normal 20 minute drive was slightly more than double that, due to the two heavy loads being pulled by the trucks in front of us.
As we pulled into our new yard, Alivia asked “Why are we here?”
“This is our new home,” I said.
“No, it’s not our home,” she countered.
“Yes,” I said, “this is our new home.”
With that last statement, she accepted the fact that this big, strange place is indeed, our new home.
Of course, now that we had the daunting task of loading accomplished, we had to address the next phase of moving: unloading.
As I walked out of my former home – a small, three-bedroom trailer – on Sunday night after finishing the cleaning process, I felt a twinge of sadness at leaving the place that has been home for four years, recalling the many great memories we’ve had after living in virtually the same location for over nine years.
Now we are in the process of trying to find everything again, along with making some much-needed improvements. If we can’t find it, we just say it’s in a box somewhere – that we know for sure.
Now, where did I put that payment due note from the bank? Probably in a box. I guess they’ll have to wait until I find it to get paid, right?
Comments
Post a Comment