Hollister Happenings

Friday, March 23, 2012

Settling in......

This past week has been crazy. Last Saturday our moving truck arrived and unloaded the contents of our house which included a three car garage and a large storage area into an apartment and a POD. Despite the fact that I got rid of tons of stuff, literally tons; it still felt like we had too much stuff. We were concerned that we would have to get another POD or have stacks of boxes looming around our apartment. Fortunately when everything was unloaded we had plenty of room in the POD and the apartment. It turns out that the packers use alot of paper and pack the boxes so they aren't too heavy which means lots of boxes. The first order of business was to unpack the kitchen. It was quickly apparent that this kitchen was too small. There are three drawers that are about ten inches wide, not even close to the size of a regular sized utensil organizer and no pantry. I had a rolling wire rack that I used in the garage for food storage which now proudly resides in the dining room and is packed with everything from mixing bowls to a blender. I don't love having the contents of my kitchen visible for all to see but it works.
The kids finished their first week of school. We had a few rough spots but by the end of the week I think everyone was feeling okay about their new classes and everyone has a found a few friends.
The weather continues to impress me but I am not thrilled with the air conditioning situation. I feel like I am more cold than ever ; I guess I just need to find things to do outside. Magen is soaking up some rays on the sidewalk outside our apartment.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Tennessee Transition

Last Tuesday a big orange truck pulled up to our house. Movers quickly began the task of packing the contents of our home. It was strange at first to have complete strangers opening my cupboards and drawers but it was clear that these people knew exactly what they were doing. By the end of the first day most of the interior of the house was packed and we left to spend the night in a hotel. The following day the movers continued to pack items from the garage and then began loading the truck. Around 6:00 the truck pulled away from a nearly empty house.
The next three days were spent cleaning, making trips to the dump and the D.I. trailer and spending as much time with friends and family as possible. I have always known that I have wonderful friends and family that love me and my family; this past few weeks so many have come to my aid and expressed thier love for us. I have felt an overwhelming gratitude for all of the wonderful people in my life and an intense sadness that I will not be in daily association with them.
Early Sunday morning we arrived at the airport and began our journey to Nashville. I volunteered to get bumped off of the second leg of our flight in order to get money toward future airline tickets. I spent most of the day in the Denver airport and finally arrived in Nashville at 11:30pm.
Nashville has welcomed us with amazing weather. It has been in the 80's everyday since we've been here. The locals tell us this unusually warm but I'm not complaining. Late in the afternoon storms blow in producing thunder, lighting and lots of rain but its warm.
We have spent this week finalizing plans for the house we are building and making preparations to move into our apartment. Today we got the kids enrolled in school (they will start on Monday) and took a quick trip into Nashville to be tourists for a few hours.
Tomorrow the truck will arrive and we will be busy setting up our little temporary apartment.