This move was very different from the other military moves we have been through. This time, I spent a few days separating our belongings into two groups.
1. The stuff we would be taking to our furnished apartment in Oklahoma for five months
2. The stuff we would let packers pack and store in California for five months
I was grossly overconfident that I could handle this task no problem. You see, when you are moving to a new state for the third time in fourteen months, you feel pretty confident about the process. Confidence in and of itself, is not a bad thing, but I apparently forgot that I am not a professional...yet. And real life doesn't always cooperate with your perfect plan.
My thoughts were this: Packing and fitting everything we need for five months into two cars won't be that hard! My siblings will visit and leave on Friday morning and I will sort, paint, clean and be ready by Monday!
Reality was: Deciding what to bring and what to pack is a lot harder than one would think. Even when you are really selective, two cars do not have as much space as you think they do. By the way, someone pulled an illegal move, causing your husband to get in a car accident and total the more reliable of your two cars three days before moving day. So yeah...you are going to have to get a rental car. Oh, and all that time you thought you had? Not so much.
I panicked a little. But guess what? We got everything in my little Grand Prix and the rental SUV without having to throw away the vacuum cleaner or a box of my beloved J.R. Watkins. Keagan is a miracle worker.
We left Monday night and arrived Tuesday afternoon in Oklahoma and followed our arrival tradition of getting all the boxes inside our new place and ordering pizza.
We crawled into bed that night pretty exhausted from all of the craziness of dealing with moving and the accident, only to find that Keagan was too long for the bed that came with our apartment, the fan in our room constantly clicked, Zulu was very upset with us for not letting her sleep in the bed (this move was hard on her), and a loud thunderstorm was raging outside. I did not sleep a wink.
My emotions were pretty spent at this point. Leaving Florida and the good experiences and friends we had was not very easy, especially knowing we would just be going to another temporary place. So much had happened in just five days and we were in such a time crunch that I had no time to process it. It was adjustment time. And guess what? This time, it didn't take long.
That's the funny thing. Each time, it gets a little easier to move. And each time something challenging happens, it is a little easier to handle. Abnormal has begun to feel so normal for us, and I really, really like that. I am grateful for the experiences that we now have under our belts, and the character we have started to build thanks to the challenges that are thrown our way.
The truth of life is that difficult things are going to happen, but most of the time, we can handle them just fine. Now that we are on the other side, it all seems so trivial.
Three weeks later, our new apartment feels like home. Keagan has started Artillery school and I am trying to work online as close to full time as I can. We are still dealing with insurance, but you know what...that's life, and I am very thankful for it.
