Saturday morning – William thought it was Christmas. He couldn’t wait to move so he got up at 4 a.m. and consequently, Roger and I (who were planning to get up at 5 am) woke up then too. We had 95 percent of the house packed and ready to go the night before so we spent a couple of ours completing the last minute items before we headed to U-haul at 7:30 am to pick up
our truck.
Everything went seamlessly. The truck was ready and even though Roger thought to himself, “I don’t know if this will be big enough …” we took off. I dropped off my kids to play with their friends, Marshall, Max and Marcus and Roger parked the truck in front of the apartment. I returned to the apartment and continued packing the last minute items. Kim Hatch was a huge help with helping with packing the last few odds and ends. Honestly, she kept me sane and on task while Roger was down at the truck with the guys.
By 9 am we had several friends show up to help Roger load the truck. They started with the largest items first. When they were 2/3 finished loading the larger items I got word that not everything was going to fit. My heart sank. Ugh. We would have to make another trip. We spent the next hour or so loading all that would fit in the truck. Most of the apartment made it, but we had our large food storage pile, Roger’s weight set and some more boxes in the storage room that didn’t make the cut. We loaded the piano into my van along with several more fragile items.
We were all eating muffins and drinking juice by 11:30 am when Roger and I thanked and said goodbye to our friends. Rog and I finished the last few things, packed our cooler with stuff from the refrigerator, and took one last look around. I snapped a few photos of the empty place and was off. I knew I wouldn't be back ... at least for a while.
One last look. It won't look like this in a couple of weeks. The whole apartment is getting a face lift. The entire bathroom is being gutted and re-tiled and a new vanity & toilet will be installed. The windows will be replaced with double-paned windows throughout. New blinds have been ordered. The carpet is coming up and the wood floor underneath will be refinished. The entire apartment will be repainted. The gas range & cabinetry in the kitchen will be replaced. The refrigerator will stay. It was replaced while we lived there. Unfortunately, these walls will not regularly hear the pitter patter of little feet as there will not be little children in the half-bedroom/closet. The new resident is single woman with a grown son and she will use the area for a home office.
Goodbye little apartment. You have been a good home to us these past 3 1/2 years. We will miss opening your doors to have the kids run and kick balls "outside" in the hallway. We will miss visiting our neighbors barefoot. We will miss William wandering into Stan's always open door or running down to the garbage area to smell the great outdoors ...
***Sigh Sob Sigh ***
We picked up our kids and some pizza on our way out of the city. I have to admit, I was really, really sad. I didn't think it would be so hard moving 45 minutes away. I called Natalie to keep from crying the.whole way. The rain-filled sky must have been feeling my emotions for as we rounded through Oakland and Berkeley it started to downpour. But an amazing thing happened. As we passed through the tunnel, passed neighboring cities and started to see signs for Walnut Creek, I felt the most calming peace. Sun was peaking slightly through the clouds and I knew this is where we were supposed to be.
We arrived around 2:30 pm and Roger and I started unloading the truck while the kids slept in the van. I decided to let them sleep for a little while before dropping them off at my friend Marisa's home. I couldn't help too much, but I was able to bring in a few boxes to their designated rooms. I left at 3:15 pm to drop off the kids and by the time I returned at 4 pm there were half-a-dozen men and the Relief Society President at our home unloading our truck. In the next few minutes another 5 or 6 people arrived to help. I couldn't believe the overwhelming support we received from our new ward! All were complete strangers, but all so happily volunteered to help! The truck was completely unloaded by 4:45. Oh how we were wishing we had gotten the bigger truck! Everything could have been unloaded by 5:15 and we could have spent the night just organizing boxes. But alas, at 5:30 Roger was on his way back to the city to load the rest of our "stuff."
First Load (partially unloaded):
Unfortunately for Roger, the traffic was M.I.S.E.R.A.B.L.E. It took 2 hours to get back. The Saturday evening-holiday party-rainy traffic. But luckily, when he did pull in, he was able to recruit a few helpers to get the food storage, etc. into the car. The only catch was that he got to first drive the truck to the Presidio to pick up a new tenant's bed. It was definitely worth the tradeoff. As it was, it took another 2 hours to pack up the remaining items before heading back to the Walnut Creek. Roger pulled into our driveway around 11 pm and started to unload. I heard him arrive and came down to help soon after. We pretty much loaded the rest of the truck directly into the garage but it still took 2 1/2 hours. Apparently, the etc. stuff was a lot more than we thought! (Notice Roger's super tired eyes.)
We finally laid down to sleep around 2 am. It felt sooooo good to lay on our bed. (I had made up our mattresses on the floor so we could at least feel comfortable amongst all the boxes!) Roger only got a short nap before taking the U-haul truck to the drop-off spot at 6:30 am. He rode his bike back so I could sleep in with the kids.
We were very thankful that church didn't start until 12:30. It was nice to have a little time to put away a few things and find our bearings before heading out the door. I was grateful I was prompted to set aside our church clothes so I didn't have to spend time digging through boxes to find dresses, shirts, pants, shoes, socks, etc. We loved meeting the members of our new ward and the Christmas program was just great. William fell asleep in Roger's arms (completely uncharacteristically) towards the end of the meeting. For Relief Society we had a Christmas brunch with our lesson. What a perfect first Sunday! We feel completely welcome in our new ward and we are excited to get to know more people and make more friends.
We enjoyed our first dinner together as official residents of our new home. I luckily had enough ingredients to throw together a stirred lasagna. William didn't like having to be locked down to eat, but otherwise it was a momentous occasion amidst the boxes and partially remodeled rooms.
I think I'll sign off here. In a nutshell, we feel so blessed to be in our new home in such a wonderful area. We feel surrounded by love and support. We are super excited to work on our home and make it a sacred place of peace and love. Hooray for new adventures! More to come ...
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