Let's not do this again some time

Summertime is the most advantageous time to relocate. The weather is nice and items that need to be loaded on and off the truck can be staged in the yard with no fear of inclement weather. If one has children, they are most likely out of school and if they are old enough to help pack and carry boxes even better. Once the move is complete the new tenants can enjoy the sunshine by walking the block, meeting the neighbors and sitting in the yard. Unfortunately, the lease for our apartment was up at the beginning of September or the beginning of the end of the good weather in Northeast Ohio. David and I were lucky the weekend we moved it only threatened to rain, the sky hissed and spit but never opened for a downpour. This move wasn't the easiest or hardest I've ever had to make.

At this point I estimate that I have moved at least a dozen times. Averaged out that's a move every 2 years. I am a seasoned and organized mover. I've moved across country, counties and towns sometimes by myself and sometimes not. I estimate David has moved half a dozen times with the most activity being in the last year for an average of a move every 4 years. David has moved more times by himself than I have and yet David is not an organized mover.

A week before the move David brought home boxes and assured me we would have help on moving day. I started to pack unneeded items and made a Goodwill pile. I packed the bathroom, kitchen and bedroom last. Those rooms would need to be unpacked first when we reached the new rental. David dragged his feet a little renting a U-haul and made me nervous but a truck was eventually secured. I staged as many boxes and furniture in the living room so when moving day came we wouldn't have to trek through the apartment to get stuff. I put items that couldn't go in the truck in a closet, to go in the car later, and closed the door. Mostly breakable knickknacks because the only packing material we had were the bath towels we registered for and those had to be used to pack the kitchen.

On moving day I was packed and ready to get going. I was like, "Let's go! Let's do this!" David was like, "Yawn, lemme get on the Internet and make sure Aaron Rodgers hasn't broken his throwing arm in a freak Wisconsin cheese-making accident." As he did this I hopped from foot to foot badgering him about breakfast. Was he going to eat? Because the frying pan was still out and we had eggs and if he wasn't going to eat I wanted to know if I could pack the rest of the kitchen. He wanted to know why I was asking him to make snap decisions and I snapped at him "BECAUSE IT'S SNAP DECISION MAKING TIME. JUST IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED WE'RE MOVING TODAY". I was quickly descending into Kate Gosselin Territory and he hadn't even gotten the truck yet.

David got the truck and he took one look at the big pile of heavy boxes sitting in the living room and wondered why help hadn't shown up yet. Normally, when David is faced with a big pile of boxes he is at work and the boys do all the lifting. Due to communication errors help never came and David and I loaded and unloaded the truck ourselves. Toward the end of the first loading we were just throwing items willy-nilly into the truck and David was just throwing his unorganized stuff into boxes in the same fashion. We almost had the right amount of stuff to fit in one trip but due to the haphazard loading of the truck we made two trips. The truck wasn't very full the second time around so I stayed behind and started to clean the perpetually grimy apartment. I turned on all the lights with the intention of turning off the light when the room was completely cleaned.

The apartment was in bad condition when David moved in and I wasted time and energy trying to scrub crayon, dirt, silly string and spit balls, damage we didn't do, off the walls. I called my Mom for advice because my arm was hurting and I hadn't even cleaned the kitchen and bathroom yet. David and I were exhausted but we soldiered on and my goal of cleaning the apartment in one day didn't come true. We still needed to get to the new rental and set up the bed, sleep, and go back the next day and finish cleaning. I told David to prepare to not get the deposit back even though the apartment is cleaner than when he moved in. So far we haven't heard from the apartment manager and we dropped the keys off a week ago and David has called a few times. All I keep hearing in my head is, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith"(2 Timothy 4:7).