New beginnings are exciting, stressful, chaotic, challenging, and so much more. We plan for them to make them less stressful. If you are like me and have a little OCD, you plan for every conceivable thing that can go wrong so that you can come up with a million different backup plans. We did all of this as we planned our move from New Jersey to Shawnee, KS, but some things are just too crazy and horrible to be conceivable.
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One of my treasured friends from New Jersey our last night in town. So many came to say goodbye to us that last week. We still miss them all!
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We thoroughly enjoyed our time in New Jersey. We loved almost everything about it except for the cost of living and the distance from our family in Kansas. Jared's job had taken us up there. He took a sales job that gave us the chance to move close to family. It took us 10 months to sell our house and another 2 to close. For a year, Jared had been traveling in his new territory. I was in New Jersey with a kindergartner and a toddler. The days were super long and stressful, but I had the best support system of anywhere we have ever lived. I love you all so much!!!
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| Our little house in Jersey. It wasn't much, but we loved it!!! |
The day came for us to move. The packers and movers had loaded the truck and went on their way. Normally, we would have followed along behind them, but at our going away party, Jake had fallen and split his lip which had required stitches. We had to wait another day to have them removed. We stayed in a hotel in town that last night. They didn't allow dogs so one of the best friends I have ever had took Kelsey, our 11 lb sheltie, in for the night. We had asked her not to feed the dog as Kelsey was a very nervous traveler. She faithfully did not feed our pup, but Kelsey somehow got into my friend's large dog food and feasted. Yep, this blog isn't going to be pretty friends!
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| The lip! We had regular stitches on the outside and dissolvable on the inside. My poor baby! |
We got up early the next morning and had the stitches removed. We went directly to my friend's house and loaded sweet Kelsey into the back of our Ford Freestyle in her kennel. In the bottom of her kennel were layers of folded towels to give her comfort. I can't tell you how happy I am that I layered all of "her" towels in there for the move. She got settled and we set off for Columbus, OH, which was about a 10 hour drive. We were so excited because the hotel we were staying at had the best hot wings that we had ever had. Seriously, they were worth a 10 hour trip!
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| Sweet Kelsey and baby Macy. This is the only time Kelsey was nice to Macy. She wanted to be my baby! |
We made it through the eastern side of Pennsylvania. Things were going well. The kids were watching videos with their headphones. Jared and I were jamming to some great 80s tunes. Then, it hit us like a freight train...the smell of dog poo. Not just dog poo, but dog poo from an animal in digestive distress. It was horrific! Jake smelled it first. To this day, it is the worst thing that I have ever smelled in my entire life! Have you ever driven across Pennsylvania? After the first third, there is no place to stop. Interstate exits are 30-60 minutes apart. How do we know? We stopped at all of them! At each stop, a diarrhea soaked towel was left behind in the dumpster. We spent so much time dealing with poo Jared decided we didn't have time for lunch. I am a three meal a day kind of gal. We were traveling with a 2 and 6 year old. We were all stressed from the poo (it was pretty much there the entire day)
, and now, three of us were hangry.
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| How we anticipated the trip going! |
We cross the border into Ohio. As we are driving through Canton, OH (in a time that was long before GPS and handsfree cellphone technology), Jared got a phone call from his then boss and good friend. I was trying to read the map to him with kids screaming in the background because - you guessed it - the dog pooed again. Jared missed the turn. By the time I could tell him, it was too late. We added 50 minutes to our travel time. We stopped at a gas station and cleaned up the dog. Jared really wanted to leave her in the dumpster too as he pulled out the last towel (not really, but this was like the 10th poo stop of the day).
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| The worst smelling car in America in May 2007! |
We arrived at the hotel finally at 9:00 p.m. that night. Tensions were a little high to say the least, but we had made it! Life couldn't be better! Relaxation finally...and hot wings...and a beer! Yes! No, not quite. First, we had to clean up the dog poo in the lobby. Well actually, Jared did that so I could get the kids and the poo-covered dog up to our room with the luggage. I start getting everyone settled as Jared arrives and puts the dog in the bathtub. I tell Jared that the room felt hot, like third circle of hell hot. I called down to the front desk. They sent up a maintenance guy who barely spoke English. He stood on his toes and raised his hand to the vent telling us that it was blowing air. Yes, in fact it was, but the air was hot not cold. He couldn't fix it so they told us we needed to change rooms. It was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I started crying...really, nasty ugly crying. The kind that your kids should never see. I was done; my goose was cooked.
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| Kelsey the night before she died. I did the really ugly crying thing that day as well. She was my partner in crime. We did everything together. I have never been better protected from the vacuum cleaner. |
At this precise moment, my mom called to check-in with us. She was so excited to have us moving only a few miles away. She had no idea what she was calling into. I was trying to explain the situation to her through my blubbering. I was half crying and half yelling at her. After I got through the events of the day, I yelled at her (my shame will never let me forget the words), "This move had better be worth it. I was happy! I had friends damn it!" My mom brilliantly said, "How about you call me in the morning when you get on the way," and promptly hung up.
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| It was a needed, right??? |
We changed rooms. We got our hot wings and beer at 11:00 that night. I got up the next morning and put on my "Life is Good" shirt to improve my attitude. I told Jared that the kids and I would be getting three square meals a day from here on out (he only ate breakfast and dinner when he traveled his sales territory). He agreed. The dog had stopped pooing. We made it to Shawnee the following day. Jake ran to the car from our hotel (we still beat the moving truck) to go see my parents and fell flat on his face popping one of his dissolvable stitches that hadn't dissolved quite yet, and there was more blood so grandma and grandpa took us to meet the doctor!
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| Hot wings are just important sometimes! |
You can plan all you want for everything that can possibly go wrong, but God has a sense of humor. This new begining was the closest Jared and I have ever come to getting divorced. It was almost our end. We laugh about it now, and it is one of our favorite stories. Now, I embrace a little chaos. I don't over plan. This changed me and shaped me to be a better mom, a more patient wife, and a more spontaneous person.
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| 3 days after we moved in, we went to see Thomas the Tank Engine. All was right in the world again! |
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