Y'all packing day has finally come and gone and I'm so glad it's over.
Moving (especially in the military) is stressful and exhausting but also exciting. Which leaves you mentally worn out. There's never enough time in the day to get everything ready to be packed. And it's not like I wait last second to do everything, because come on people, we know I'm a planner.
Thanks to this stupid house and our dryer we need to run the dryer at least twice before anything is actually dry. This triples the time it takes me to do a normal load of laundry.
I t D r i v e s M e C r a z y...
I was up every hour on the hour the night before the packers came to make sure I cleaned ALL the laundry so it could be packed. Not only that, but washing all the dishes and anything that needed cleaning before it got packed. All while separating things out that we needed to take with us.
AND because I'm such an awesome wife, I woke up at 4:30am to fix my husband his breakfast and lunch and write him a good luck note (he had his last test for school).
I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off all morning before they arrived. The packers pulled into the drive way at 9:15am and hit the ground running.
Here is a tip! Don't just throw all your stuff in a room and put a sign on the door that says "Do NOT Pack!" I know it's tempting to do that (and I used to) but it makes life so much harder later. Take the extra 10 minutes to organize that room so you can see the floor. Especially with babies and dogs. In our "Do Not Pack" room we have the blow up mattress (with one fitted sheet and a blanket), the pac n play for the babies, the dog crate and everything else we are taking with us NEATLY in its place. This way I can let the babies and dogs roam in the room without worrying that they'll get into something or hurt themselves on the pile of stuff.
Another tip? Caffeine. This mama DOES NOT drink coffee or caffeine ever...like ever. But packing day all rules fly out the window. It takes roughly six hours for a two man team to pack our house...that's a long time to be running around making sure they pack everything correctly. Not to mention it's boring as all hell. Trying to entertain two almost toddlers, two dogs and watch two grown adults handle your house hold goods is not for the faint of heart. Make it easy on yourself. Set up a sanctuary for the dogs (because they'll be nervous) and likewise set up a place for babies to roam.
Another tip: Make sure they can't escape...
We have one of those metal baby gates that even adults seem to struggle with. So please tell me how my twins managed to break out. They were smart about it too. They pushed just the bottom out so that the top was still in place and wouldn't make a noise. Meanwhile I'm in the kitchen making them some mac n cheese. While my back is turned to the door they managed to ninja sneak out...
O u t T h e F r o n t D o o r!
I had a panic attack when I turned and noticed the gate was open. I ran around looking in the bedrooms and no babies in sight. My heart sank and I ran out the front door to find them all the way at the end of the patio about to step off into the leaves. Long story short. Make sure they can't get out haha. Although that adrenaline had be going for the next hour.
By the time 2:00pm rolled around, I was running on fumes. Enter caffeine.
The packers finally finished around 3:00pm and hubby came home to a house full of boxes at 4:30pm. Because we were both exhausted and didn't have any kitchenware we ended up driving through Jim n Nicks for dinner (which was amazing).
We had a ton of left over food that we decided to box up and donate to the church down the street which always makes me feel good to give back.
Babies were of course not having it that night and refused to sleep. 1. They aren't used to being confined when they sleep and 2. everything is different and it's thrown their routine out the window.
Thankfully by 8:30pm they were both down for the count and so was mama. Today the loaders come to pack the truck, pray for me y'all!
Oh and happy Friday!
