I shared about our faith move from Arkansas to Arizona in 2010, and I've posted pictures over the years as we've drug our kids to new homes all across the country.
As I thought about Lauren's idea for sharing moving stories, I realized that there were a few that I haven't written down yet.
In addition to being an Air Force wife, I'm also an Air Force brat. I've been moving for my whole life. When I was finishing sixth grade, we were moving from Illinois back to Dover, Delaware. While the movers were loading the truck, my mom or dad suggested that I go around the block with my little sister while she rode her bike one last time. I put on my skates and set off with her. Somewhere along the way, I tripped over a crack in the road and busted open my chin. I'm sure my mom wasn't thrilled about staying home to supervise the movers, but she was even less thrilled about the idea of taking me to the Emergency Room for stitches. (She also claimed that she had dealt with enough of my injuries and blood while my dad had been gone on trips.) Dad took me to the ER where I got about four or five stitches in my chin. Unfortunately, the ER also thought I might need a Tetanus shot. Since medical records weren't yet computerized, the only proof we had that I was up to date on my shots was somewhere in the mess of moving paperwork back at home. My Dad is perhaps as practical about things as I am and told them just to give me another one. I spent most of the drive from Illinois to Delaware complaining about a sore arm from the tetanus shot and about the unfairness of having to keep my stitches dry (i.e. no swimming at the hotels).
Another funny moving story dates back to our days living in Germany. German movers are the best we've seen if we're talking about how compactly they could pack our household goods. It wasn't organized at all, but it was compact. In the kitchen, they turned our dining chairs upside down, built a box around the four legs, and then packed dishes inside. It freaked me out a bit when I saw my china and crystal packed like that, but it all made it back to the states without a single crack or chip. The bookcases were fun to watch being packed too. A mover was nearly finished in one room and noticed the empty bookcase. He then wandered through all the rest of our apartment to pick up bedding and linens so that the shelves would be packed full when he wrapped the whole thing in padded paper. Their quest for compact packing failed when it came to Addison's Little Tikes toys, though. Those things weren't meant to be disassembled, and many had to be replaced when we got to the other end.
The last funny story that comes to mind is the day we moved into our house in Northern Virginia. Our previous house had a garage and a yard big enough that we had accumulated quite a few lawn tools. The townhouse we rented in Virginia had a tiny front yard, a slightly larger backyard, and no garage. Luckily the walk-out basement had a large bedroom that we weren't planning to use. When the movers unloaded something I didn't know where to put, I'd just tell them to put it in that downstairs room. About mid-afternoon, one of them gently told me that they were running out of room down there. Oops. In the end, everything fit into the house that day. Perhaps more impressive, we cleared out that room a few months later when we found out that we needed to use that bedroom for Addison and let the new baby have a room upstairs.
We've reached the halfway point! This week is the thirteenth week in our Blogging Through the Alphabet challenge -- letter M. Click the button below for this week's linky.
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ReplyDeleteOops. It should be working now. My letter of the week post sometimes goes up a little before the landing page for the linky.
DeleteI moved a lot but usually just in the same state. But when the big move from Ohio to California it was something. I am not much of a lover of moving but, I follow my husband were he needs to be if it includes a new job in a new state. So far I love it here. Hope you have a wonderful week.
ReplyDeleteLove it! Moving stories keep our family laughing through the move many times!!
ReplyDeleteFunny stories. I haven't moved much and it's all mostly been in the same city, except the yearly move in / out at college. Your German packing story sounds like the way my German dad used to pack. He could get more stuff in the trunk of a car than imaginable.
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