So… The blog is getting a bit dusty. In my legitimate
defense, I have been a bit busy moving halfway across the country. But it’s
definitely time for some quick catch up. This is what you’ve missed in the past
almost two months.
Just to make life exciting before a big move, just after H’s
birthday we started to notice she was having trouble hearing. At first it
seemed like a three-year-old game, but after a couple of weeks we started to
notice that she really wasn’t hearing us. For example, my husband came in the
front door and she never heard him. Normally at the first sound of doorknob
turning she’d take off like a shot to greet him.
I hounded the audiologist’s receptionist into an appointment
one week before the packers were to arrive. On that Monday we found out that
her ear drums were not actually moving. At all. The ear infection that she’d
gotten at the beginning of May had never cleared out of her ears. Everything
sounded like Charlie Brown’s teacher to her, “Womp womp womp…”
I had been resisting tubes for basically her whole life. She
didn’t get many ear infections when she nursed full time but as she nursed less
and less, she got more and more infections. Her inability to hear, however,
made it an easy decision. This is where I plug the AI Dupont Children’s
Hospital in Wilmington, DE. God forbid you ever need to take your child to the hospital,
but if you do, you should go there. They are amazing, wonderful, competent
people.
We got an appointment to see the ENT the NEXT DAY. They confirmed
that tubes were needed and scheduled the surgery for the NEXT DAY to accommodate
the fact that we were about to move. The surgery took about 15 minutes and H
came through with flying colors. Everyone was incredibly kind and sweet. They
even squeezed in a follow up for the next week before we left town.
A few days later the packers showed up. Or packer, really.
We got one guy. He packed our entire house in two days. To put this in
perspective for those not familiar with military moves, you normally get three
or four packers and it takes them two days to pack all your stuff into boxes.
It was crazy. He was a machine. As it turned out he packed some things better
than others, but we’ll get to that.
Other than the horrendous gas mileage I got driving through
the mountains of West Virginia and Kentucky with a car top carrier and 600 extra
pounds of our stuff in the car, the drive cross country was quite uneventful.
It was especially uneventful through Indiana—where there was no place to stop.
I think there was one Wendy’s and a sketchy Subway in the whole state. If you’re
driving out to see us, you’ve been warned. Eat in Kentucky.
H snoozing on her air mattress in the hotel on our way cross country.
Josh accidentally set up the directions to take us in the
back gate of Scott. I have to say I was a little apprehensive when we got off
the highway and drove through a solid 15-20 minutes of corn before we got to
the base. There is a lot of corn here. And soy beans. H announces, “Corn! Look,
Mommy, corn!” every time we drive anywhere.
The TLF (temporary lodging facilities) were actually quite
nice. I think they are converted old base housing. They are three or four
bedroom town houses. The size was amazing. The air conditioning was not. It was
68 degrees downstairs and 75-78 degrees upstairs. We literally spent two weeks
wrapped in blankets and sweaters and socks any time we were downstairs just so
we wouldn’t swelter upstairs. We also had an invasion of ants, and our hall
bath leaked through the ceiling into the kitchen. My mantra was, “This is not
my house.”
You can imagine my relief to move in to our very own house.
Thanks to a mutual friend we met a great family that lives right behind us who
have girls the same age. H got to spend the afternoon in their kiddie pool
while the grownups (thank you Mimi and Aunt Kaitie!!!) checked off boxes,
directed traffic, and frantically unpacked. The movers agreed to take away any
boxes we emptied before they left and we were able to give at least half of
them back.
The good news was that no boxes went missing. We were
incredibly spoiled on our last move when we went door to door and had a
fantastic driver. Nothing was broken or even scratched. Perfect. This time our
stuff had to go to storage for about three weeks. The guy who boxed stuff up
did a pretty good job. The guys who loaded the truck completely sucked. I have
a hallway bench with both doors broken off despite the fact it came off the
truck wrapped in a blanket that was secured with tape. The center leg of my
couch was broken off. And they took apart my full length mirror and futon and
then didn’t pack the screws. Yup. They didn’t pack the screws. We still have a
lovely pile of futon parts stacked in our play room because there’s no way to
put them together. I managed to find hex bolts the right size for my mirror,
which are not as pretty as the decorative screws that used to go there, but we
still have to try adding some washers if I want to see myself and not the
ceiling. If anyone out there has any thoughts on where I can get pretty
replacement screws for a stand mirror, please leave a comment. It was a gift
from my grandparents when I turned 12, so I’m rather peeved that they lost the
screws. They also moved my double bookcase with the removable shelves inside.
When it came off the truck I thankfully had all the shelves, but I was nine
plastic shelf brackets short. Thank goodness for Lowes. I was able to find
replacements. The bookcase is Ikea and getting spare parts out of them is like
prying apart a nun’s knees.
As we opened boxes I became extremely glad that I insisted
on taking all the crystal and china with us in the car. My waffle iron was
shattered. And so was every single ceramic Halloween decoration I had gotten as
wedding shower gifts. They just weren’t wrapped well enough, which is what
happens when you have one guy pack your house in two days. Of course with
things like that it’s not so much the cost of the items as the fact that they’re
associated with a very specific person and memory that you really can’t
replace.
Since then we’ve just been unpacking and getting lost around
town. The area is actually great. There’s a lot to offer locally and a mind
boggling amount of stuff in St. Louis. We’ve already impulse purchased Redskins
tickets for September when they’re in town. I’ve never been to a pro-football
game before.
As I type this I am surrounded by piles of office/spare
bedroom paraphernalia that is still not put away. But the computer is up, the
Internet is working, and I’m back at the keyboard.
