It almost seemed like Kansas didn't want us to leave, as we were pounded with some horrific storms this week. So many potentially horrible things happened that I almost felt like crying, but I landed up just laughing about it. Because it figures that when you're doing a move this big, everything is bound to go wrong.
Our movers came on Monday and worked all day, tirelessly packing up our house. The boss lady actually said they would finish on Tuesday, but we had allotted four days for them to pack and load the crates, so we asked that they take Tuesday off. It would later come back to bite us in the ass. Tuesday Andrew and I had a somewhat leisurely day which involved cleaning out cabinets and finishing our personal packing, but I really do wish we had had the movers come that day. Our reasoning was that we didn't have our hotel booked till Thursday evening, and Andrew didn't want to pay for the hotel for a couple extra nights. Hmmm... Well....Wednesday came along, they landed up not finishing the packing that day, but loaded up 5 crates worth of our items. We were left with furniture, beds and our TVs. It was going relatively easy, but then they quit for the day and said they'd be back Thursday to load up and finish the last few items to pack. I was even able to sneak away that afternoon for our middle daughter's Grad 8 Graduation.
Do you know what happened Wednesday evening? Tornado warnings. Rain. Wind. The best lightning storm I've ever seen here. Scary crap. Actually, there was a mile wide tornado less than 10 miles from Fort Riley, and 20 minutes away some homes were destroyed. Man I was on high alert. Here we are in our house...almost no food, 90% of our belongings gone already, NO emergency kit prepared. I just wanted the damn tornado to pass us by. I did have the kids put a change of clothes in the storm shelter, but that was all we had! Then the power went out. We had no candles but a few tiny tea lights that I found, and Andrew dug through the trash to find a lighter. I was nervous. Normally the storms don't stress me out more than is normally expected, but this one had me on edge because of the tornado and power being out.
Thursday morning dawned bright and clear, very humid, and we awaited the 0800-1000 arrival of our packers. I cleaned, and cleaned some more, trying to alleviate the cleaning we'd have to do Friday before our housing inspection. Well wouldn't you know, I kept cleaning because the packers didn't arrive till 12:30. About 1-1:30 is when shit hit the fan. You know that sinking moment when you should have just paid for another night in the hotel and dealt with the hassle? While Thursday had dawned a nice beautiful day, it decided to turn on us. The afternoon was filled with very hard sideways rain, even more lightning, wind so strong it broke trees in half and flooded roads. All the while our packers were finishing up our house and loading furniture into the crates. Ugh. It was so bad at one point they had to stop and hang out in the house. Thankfully it cleared a couple hours later, and they were able to load the last items and drive off!
Somehow, all of that stuff above is going on the plane with us! (minus the bubble wrap & drying racks)
Thursday afternoon, before the movers were done. Most of this stuff was tossed!
Thursday evening when we were finally settled in the hotel, I realized the packers had packed my PCS Binder. Ahhhh Shit. Shit shit shit. I screwed up big time. Guess what was in the binder? Our plane tickets.
Here I was in the hotel freaking out, while Andrew was at the house installing lightbulbs, clearing out trash and doing other stuff to prep for Friday. I was feeling an impending sense of doom. It seemed bad things kept wanting to happen this week. I messaged the BWI passenger terminal explaining what happened, asking what do we do? I was SO flipping worried because it's also a four day weekend and I didn't know if the Port Call office would be open to give us new tickets.
I also forgot to request the kids' school records for us to take to Germany.
Well it got worse, and then better, and then bad again. And then good!
Friday morning I was at the house with the kids, and we were cleaning up a storm. I'm a little anal retentive when it comes to move out cleans. I know the kids were really irritated with me. I should be that way normally. Andrew went off to our youngest daughter's school and thankfully they had her papers ready to go, then he went off to Port Call and THEY WERE OPEN. Praise Jeebus, we were able to get our tickets reprinted. The day was off to an amazing start. We cleaned all day, scrubbed corners out, vacuumed and re-vacuumed carpets because I like nice carpet lines, painted over small spots a half our before the inspector came. The house looked amazing. And rightfully so, as we walked out of there with NO damages. She said she couldn't tell we even had pets in the house (Woot!!), and we are getting $428 back in prorated rent and our pet deposit is being refunded.
We celebrated with a steak dinner.
Saturday morning guess what I realized? I couldn't find the title to the Honda so we could ship it. I thought everything was good. But now how would we ship the Honda? I felt a paralyzing sense of doom again. FML. I thought the movers packed it and I couldn't find it in ANY of my files that we had on hand. I searched and searched, and realized that I'd have to beg and plead with the WA state DMV to fax me a copy Tuesday morning, and I knew we'd have to pay $80 for it. We were prepared to pay that.
I found the title and just about cried tears of joy. I handed over all the important papers to Andrew and said "I wash my hands of this, it is your responsibility now". The title was hiding in a small accordion folder I had all my jewelry documentation in. Now we had everything we needed!
Then our youngest daughter broke her glasses. Sigh. Really? REALLY????? And the 1 hour glasses place refused to use the prescription I have from Zenni optical because it was uploaded to their website, and I didn't have the original copy from the doctor. It was only from February!!! But it's a holiday weekend, how am I going to get a hold of our optometrist on post? Their idea was to see their eye doctor and pay $90 for an eye exam to get a paper prescription. I didn't like that idea, so we had to find a frame that fit her lenses as close to the original as we could get, and we did that. They put a liner in it to help it fit better, and I walked out of there $65 poorer with her lenses in a frame that didn't fit 100%, just 95%. We will get her new glasses as soon as we get to Germany.
Whew. But after that everything seemed to go well. We ended yesterday with a fun BBQ at my lovely friend Liz's house. We don't have much to do now, just hang out in the hotel. It's laundry day for us, and tomorrow Andrew and I will head to Manhattan to clean out the car really well before we drive to Baltimore. Counter productive I know since we will have the dog and cat with us, but I wanted to still get a bit ahead of the mess so it's not as much to clean when we ship it later this week.
Tuesday morning we are out of here after a final health inspection for the pets. I'm going to be a bit sad leaving Fort Riley. One of my closest friends here just arrived this past fall, and I don't want to leave her, and the other close friend already left. She's headed to Italy in a couple months! It seems I find the ladies I need most in my life when we know we are leaving, but thankfully for this digital age, we can still keep in touch.
Pictures of the living and kitchen area after we had cleaned, right before the inspector came.
I'm going to miss this house. We lived there for three years, and while it took me some time to get used to Kansas, I grew to love it. Never thought I would, but sometimes you can be pleasantly surprised. I shall miss the hot summers, my friends, the lightning, the views from I-70 and the Flint Hills, Varsity Donuts in Aggieville, Big D's Burger Shack in Manhattan. Farewell beer battered fries, may we meet again one day.
Look for an update sometime this wee or next weekend!
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