The Thrills of Moving

Every time I move, I make mistakes that I vow I will not repeat the next time. From finding a place to live, to setting up cable, internet, and phone service, to going to the DMV to get our cars registered, I have yet to perform each of these tasks flawlessly. Every time, there seems to be a question I didn't ask, or something I should have done beforehand and didn't do.

This last move was no exception. While we made sure to have a friend go and look at the apartment, we made the assumption that the house would be wired for cable tv and internet. Not so. We also made the foolish assumption that there would be a dishwasher, which I didn't think to ask about, and my friend forgot to look while touring the house. I figured if it had a washer and dryer (which it does) then I wouldn't have to worry about any other so called 'standard' appliances. Oh well. I am back to hand washing dishes just like I did for our first year of marriage. It isn't so bad, but what should I do about the dish washing soap and jet dry that I transported all the way from Florida to Virginia? I just can't bear to throw them away as if I might wake up one morning and walk into the kitchen to find that a dishwasher magically appeared in the night, and I will be PREPARED with my soap and jet dry. Yeah right. A girl can dream.

Also, I forget that this happens ever time I move, but for about the first month after I move, I have bruised arms, legs, and toes. My body always has to go through the initiation of furniture and walls being in a new place, and it needs to learn where everything is accordingly. I think I stubbed my toes 5 times yesterday, and I have a line of bruises up my right leg, but just my right leg. Go figure.

Just to add to the excitement of moving in, our front door has a dead bolt as well as a lock on the door handle. But the real exciting part is that if you lock the door handle, you can still open the door from the inside, and then SURPRISE! when you shut the door, you are locked out on the outside. Do you see where this is going? Well, the tenant in the basement had already warned me about our special door locks when I asked him what happened to one of the windows in his basement. He had to break it to get back into the house after he locked himself out in his pajamas one morning. You think I would learn and take my keys every time I leave my house, even if I try to make sure the door isn't locked when I walk out. But no.
First, Tanner locked us all out last night when we went for a little trip to Home Depot. It's still a little chilly here, and we had also forgotten to grab the cell phone as well...so we had no keys, no phone, a 2 year old and a 7 week old literally 'chillin' outside our house. Tanner went from zero to hero when he was able to climb up onto our deck via a ladder and our back door to the deck was open. Phew! That was a close one, and that was last night. Did I learn my lesson then? No.
This morning was trash day, and I had some last minute stuff that I needed to run out to the curb before the trash man came. Andrew was sleeping soundly in the bassinet in our bedroom, and Clark was sitting in his chair eating cereal and yogurt, when I ran back up my front steps to a locked door. PANIC! I knew that Tanner had locked the back door on the deck since he said matter of factly last night "we need to make sure that door stays locked, because it is actually really easy to get up on the deck". Yeah great. MORE PANICKING! But, I decided to try it anyway, and I grabbed the ladder, hoisted myself up and over onto the deck, and when I did that, the ladder fell away from the deck. EVEN MORE PANICKING! So, not only were my two children stuck in the house all by themselves, I was now stuck on our deck without a hope of getting down without jumping and breaking both my legs. The door was locked, and I looked through the window and could see Clark finishing off his yogurt. I knocked on the door and motioned all fun and excitedly for Clark to come open the door for mommy. He at first looked at me like I was a crazy woman, which I am sure I was, but then he got all excited like I was playing a game. He hopped down from his chair and came to the door. I motioned for him to open the door, and he did it after two tries! My two year old saved the day, and I immediately showered him with Easter candy.
The ridiculous part is that I got locked out because I didn't have to unlock the door from the inside to get out of the house, and yet because of that feature, Clark was easily able to open the door to let me back in without having to turn any locks. I hope I learned my lesson...finally. We'll see.