This Tennessee girl is migrating north instead of South!
I'm ready for this adventure, for whatever Mother Nature sends my way. It's family time again, a new house and a new zip code.
My husband told me to only pack the essentials for our drive up. The movers would take all the rest. But for me, it is extremely hard to decide what is essential and what is not. I need all the quilts that were hand made for us and the really big bulky basket they are in. I need all the glass I inherited from my Grandmother. Pretty much everything in my kitchen is a necessity. All bath soaps, kitchen soaps and cleaners. Books for me and the kids. All the stuffed animals that normally reside on the kids beds, don't forget every blanket and pillow on every bed in in the house. It was chaos.
I should never be put in charge of packing, I am damn good at it though!
This is what I started with in the kitchen.
We ended up with nine house plants between our tiny car and our minivan. I refused to leave them behind. One of the plants had previously moved with us from El Paso. I promised my husband that these plants would offer us a spot of green in the heart of winter, fresh oxygen emitted into the air nightly. He humored me. I am thankful.
Because the movers were coming, we had to get the stuff we wanted to take out of the way. I ended up closing off our second bathroom due to all the blankets, towels, and coats that I wanted to take.
Pretty much all of this made the cut and was stuffed or jammed into any open space my husband could find in the car and the van. We put one kid in each vehicle, which gave me more space to take things I thought I needed. I should add this included a few yard decorations, shower curtain rods and curtain rods. I was beyond prepared!
By the time the movers arrived, I had everything in the two bathrooms, some stuff in the van and the car, and this desk overflowing with stuff. The movers were gracious enough to ignore my mess even when they needed to use our only open bathroom that you could barely get to the toilet in.
This is the front passenger side of the car, it ended up also including a pillow, an angry bird toy, and my purse. there was barely a spot for our tiny Chihuahua. The plants in the front seat ended up in the back seat. My son even had a snake plant sitting next to him in the backseat.
This is the trunk of the car just before we rolled out. I was able to cram a little more into it and then added a comforter on the top layer. This car has the spare tire and the battery in the trunk, so we were blessed to have no issues as we traveled north.
For humor's sake I let the Angry Bird look out the window during the entire two day drive. It was rather amusing looking at the faces of people who glanced into our car.
This is the back passenger seat of the car, it ended up being a lot more full than this.
My husband packed and repacked this van several times. This is close to how it looked the day we rolled at. Just add about fifty more blankets, a stray plate, two skillets and a cooking pot. Oh and don't forget my computer bag and a coat and two shirts on hangers.
This was just before we added the last of the stuff. This view is the passenger left side of the van. The seat was folded down into the cargo space. I had the booster seat buried in the way back of the trunk in the car.
My husband went through different stages of disbelief, frustration, and humor during this trip. I was so excited for him to see parts of the country he never saw. We went through areas that were cold and areas that were warm. We drove through crazy traffic and construction zones. Down a huge toll road and glimpsed Lake Erie off in the distance. We ate a lot of fast food. Slept in an old hotel that was pet friendly in Ohio. It was two stories and no elevator! Along the way we kept up our spirits by joking and listening to our radios. Hugging the kids, running in the grassy areas at the rest stops. I drove our little car the entire way. I was afraid of the fully loaded van. The car is my go to in unfamiliar territory. I might also add we rode with windows cracked the entire way. We arrived in the dead of night, nah, really it was like 9:30pm. But it was so dark! We are in a beautiful area and it is rural.
I am blessed!
God brought us through to this.
October 19, 2016
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