Greetings From The "Twilight Zone."

Hi Everyone,

I know it has been a while since I last posted.  In that time, we got moved and are now "temporarily" settled.  Why the Twilight Zone?  Because last time I wrote I lived in a big house in Virginia and my husband was an Army soldier.  Now we live in a one-bedroom apartment in a town where we always visited, but never lived in, and my husband goes to work wearing regular clothes!  It's all good--it is just different and is taking a bit to get used to.

When I last left you, the packers were about to arrive.  It was a Monday morning, three weeks ago.  The packing and moving went great.  When they first arrived, there were two guys.  I thought to myself that two guys could not possibly get everything packed in the allotted three days.  Their names were Scott and Eugene, and I'm happy to report that they not only got it all packed, but they got it packed in only 2 days!  Consequently, Wednesday was mover-free!  It was such a nice, unexpected break.

On Thursday, they arrived to do the loading.  The only problem was that it was pouring.  They had brought a smallish truck and then a flatbed with 3-4 crates.  The issue is that the crates will leak in the rain, so they set about organizing everything, and then when the weather cleared, they loaded.  Luckily they had about 5-6 guys with them, so it was going pretty quickly.  Scott, from the days of packing, was along, but not Eugene.  Another of the guys, Andrew, actually was at our house when we moved it!  He recognized it by all the flags!

The weather cleared and held until just about 3 when they had finished loading the small truck.  We had some stuff left in the garage and in the house, but the big majority was loaded.  The skies opened again and it just poured.  There was nothing to do but come back on Friday--a day we hadn't planned on having movers.

So yes, we literally had a second truck, but it wasn't JUST for my stash!!!

On Friday, they had promised that it would only take a few hours, but when they arrived, it was with only 2 guys:  Scott again and Andrew.  (Yes, I'm mentioning names for a reason.)  It ended up taking them until 3 in the afternoon to get it all loaded.  Meanwhile, earlier in the morning, I had seen that one of the houses for sale that we really liked in Fort Wayne was having an Open House on Sunday.  I mentioned to my husband, jokingly, that we could load his truck with some stuff and drive there on Saturday, look at the house on Sunday, and then drive home on Monday.  That would leave Tuesday and most of Wednesday to load the U haul with our few pieces of furniture, kitchen stuff, clothes, sewing stuff (!!) and the other "necessities" we would need for our small apartment; and then clean the house.  We were meeting the landlord on Wednesday night to turn in the keys.

I was stressing a bit that we had too much stuff to fit in the truck, U Haul trailer, and my van.  My sister lives in Fort Wayne and said we could put things in her garage, so the "joking" idea became reality!  Yes, we drove 712 miles on Saturday, saw the house and really liked it:  I fell in love, to be truthful, but you can't fall in love with the first house!, and then drove home another 712 miles on Monday.

The bonus was that I finally got to meet this little guy! He is my nephew, Matthew and he just turned 6 months old!

  We loaded and cleaned on Tuesday and Wednesday.  I will add here that when we ordered the U Haul online, there was an option to hire some help.  It was 2 guys for 2 hours and the cost was a little over a hundred dollars.  We decided to hire them as I knew I couldn't help my husband get the sofa out the front door.  It turned out to be the smartest idea we had!  They did a great job--even arriving with shrink wrap to wrap the blankets (in our case, my pile of quilts that I was taking anyway) around the furniture.  They loaded everything up as well.  It turned out that we had plenty of extra room, so we probably would have been okay without the spontaneous weekend trip, but I don't regret it at all.

That Wednesday night, we staying in the hotel on Fort Eustis, and Thursday we drove the final 712 mile journey to Fort Wayne.  This time, I was driving my van, following my husband and the U Haul trailer.  Our first pre-arranged stop was the Rest Area off I-64 between Richmond and Charlottesville.   I was waiting for my husband to come back out and when he did, he was talking to someone.  It was Scott, the mover who had been with us all the previous week!  He and Andrew, the mover that helped and had moved us in when we arrived, were both in a moving truck going somewhere else.  Isn't that weird that we should meet them at a brief stop along the highway?

This was my view of the U Haul all day.  I took this picture as it crossed out of Virginia and into West Virginia--it was sad.  Our time in Virginia was really good.  I met so many close quilting friends that I am going to miss!

 I had been a bit worried about that journey, too, but again, it was just fine.  We arrived in Fort Wayne just in time for a late supper.  The next morning, Friday, we didn't have to set an alarm and hurry up and do something!  It was the first morning in over a week, so we slept in.  All the way to 7:30!  That afternoon, we signed for the apartment and carried everything in.  My Brother-in-law came over after work and he and my husband got the sofa and mattresses in, so we were all set.  We settled in on Saturday, and on Sunday we went to more Open Houses.  Monday, my husband started his new job.  So far, so good!  We met our realtor and looked at 8 houses with her last week. We got internet and cable on Tuesday.  I have my sewing area set up, but haven't used it yet.  I kept forgetting that my ironing board was in my sister's garage.  Also, I've been spending most of my time obsessively looking at houses on the internet.

I should be back tomorrow with more updates.  Today, my niece, Alex--the ice skater--is back home here in Fort Wayne from spending time with my parents.  My sister has to travel this week for her work and so Mom and I are going to get Alex organized for school--which starts on Wednesday.  We are going to help her clean her room and go through all of her clothes to see what still fits and what doesn't.  I'm looking forward to it after being a bit lonely last week.

Have a great day!
JoAnne