Well. Moving is not fun.
We decided to hire movers this time around to load and unload our truck. We were thinking things might be a little tight and might necessitate getting rid of some things so we decided to get the movers to come on Saturday and planned to leave on Tuesday.
Saturday turned out to be brutally hot and humid. It would have been a tough day for any movers, however, it was especially rough for our movers because they were stoned. Majorly. Couldn't remember what we said right after we said it and smelled so strongly of weed that we thought we might get high from standing near them. Not awesome. They did an okay job but completely lost steam at the end. Long story short, the owner came out on Monday to repack the last bit of the truck and the trailer that we ended up getting to fit the remaining stuff. This put us a little behind.
Joe's brother Luke arrived on Monday. We departed from River Falls on Tuesday, June 28th a few hours later than we had hoped and went down to Sauk City, WI for one last visit with Joe's grandma, uncle, aunt, and cousin, Sarah. I was really glad for this visit and we will really miss them all.
The next morning we truly hit the road. Luke drove our car while I amused the kids and Joe drove the U-Haul which was also towing the trailer. It was a long three days with the little ones. We stayed at a La Quinta in Indianapolis, then at Luke's apartment in Erie, and finally arrived in Canton on Friday after dropping Luke off in Syracuse. Luke was my hero this trip. It was great to be able to focus on the kids and I can never thank him enough.
Our arrival in Canton was a little bumpy. We had been a little scared about renting a house we had never seen, and some of our fears were realized, but more about that later. First our pizza that we ordered for dinner took 45 minutes to get to us and then was completely wrong, which is a small thing but we were very tired and hungry. Then we realized that we had no hot water because the gas hadn't been turned on (my fault) and since it was a holiday weekend we ended up with no hot water until WEDNESDAY. Then the kids were just disasters. Neither would sleep, they cried and freaked out all night. Then our air mattress sprang a leak. We ended up each sleeping on the floor of a kid's room but didn't get much rest.
Our movers came at 9 the next day and did a great job. Thus began the ongoing monumental task of unpacking. We're very grateful my parents were here for this first week to play with the kids, help us clean and unpack, and let us take showers in their motel room. My mom got in touch with her pioneer side and boiled hot water on the stove to wash dishes and for the kid's baths for four days. My dad spent almost an entire day in the basement sorting through 6 years of tenant's crap and cleaning to get us some usable storage space.
So, the house. It's slanted. The landlord had told us it "wouldn't pass the marble test" but we didn't really grasp how slanted it would be. It hadn't been cleaned well after the last tenants moved out and they had left behind tons of their random stuff, mostly unusable. The basement was FULL of garbage and junk. The wall paper is peeling off. The doors upstairs don't latch easily. There's a list of repairs for the handyman to accomplish. All of these things were initially very discouraging for two exhausted people, arriving in a new place that we feel uncertain about, after weeks of stress.
On the bright side! The kids have their own rooms. The front porch is awesome! We're on a quiet, dead end street and the neighbors are delightful. Joe is a six minute walk from his office. I can walk to the library, post office, Rite Aid, Farmer's Market, a park, a playground. The rent is low so we can save to buy a house. Evening walks through the St. Lawrence campus are lovely.
Now we're just trying to settle in. I'm trying to see if I will be able to adjunct at any of the area colleges in the fall, get Z settled in whatever programs are available for him, etc. Joe met a really nice couple that invited us over on the 4th of July where we met some other very nice people. So far everyone we've met has been very kind and helpful. There is a community of Amish, which is new. I haven't gotten any of their wares yet, but I've enjoyed seeing the horse-drawn buggies around town. Joe and I are definitely feeling some homesickness pangs for Wisconsin and Z has had some tough moments, but overall we're doing well. I'm looking forward to a girl's night in with my friends in Syracuse!!
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