Why moving sucks (possibly part one)

We moved!

I'm thrilled to be a homeowner and I love the house. But holy crap moving is a freaking nightmare.

There's a nursing home around the corner. That will be our next and final move.

One thing I really do not recommend is moving out a third floor apartment with an infant. And I can't even really complain because I mainly hung out with Dalton while Eric moved stuff. I did wear him and move most of our clothes down to the car and various other things.

There are two main problems with moving.

1. WHERE THE HELL IS ALL MY STUFF?

We carefully packed up and labeled all the boxes, thinking that would help. Tuesday morning, our first day in the new house, knowing that my hair gel (ESSENTIAL for a curly haired girl) was in a box neatly labeled "bathroom" somewhere in one of the giant towers of boxes in one of the rooms, probably Dalton's or the guest room, where people were sleeping, was absolutely no help. We'd also left the coffee in the apartment. I could, however, immediately locate important items like my cupcake carrier, and other things that I use about once a year. Those were right on top, naturally. We had about 40 people coming to observe our school that day, so an excellent time to show up at work looking terrible.

Maybe if it had just been the two of us, we could have planned better and this wouldn't have been such a problem. Everything essential for Dalton was no problem to find right away, so I guess we focused our efforts on that. Because GOD FORBID he sleep without white noise.

2. You still have to do daily life tasks.

The natural inclination, for me, was to immediately open and unpack every single box. It was insanely annoying to discover that I couldn't devote all my efforts to that. I still had to cook, clean, do laundry, do dishes, teach children, be a mom. and, most importantly, blog. Since I had barely been able to stay on top of all those things pre-move, it didn't allow for much time to unpack. We also moved during the week report cards are do, so I had that other huge task on top of my normal work responsibilities.

Eric really wasn't able to help much with unpacking because he was dealing with insurance after finding out his car was totaled, an immediate drainage problem that resulted in the need for a plumber, and just the general heavy lifting of moving and owning a house. Insurance paid for a rental for a generous three whole days after telling us the car was totaled, so that was helpful, especially with two of them being work days.

We're currently a one car family. We were going to rush out Saturday and buy a second car, but luckily the new house is super close to my job (like walking distance) and we really want to think about this big life decision for half a second. Not to mention we can't exactly test drive cars easily with our need for one of our family members to ride in a car seat.

For all my bitching and moaning, it's really not all bad. There's some serious happiness in my life, despite all the unpacked boxes.

First of all, WE NOW OWN THESE.

I knew I would be thrilled to have a washer/dryer after FIVE YEARS of using quarters and recently carrying laundry around while wearing a baby. And washing poop in the bathtub. But there was truly no way to predict just how much joy doing laundry anytime I feel like, no quarters required. It's just such a beautiful thing. I could stare at that picture all day.

2.

A lawn!!

We are in a weird cold snap, severe enough that I had to wear capris and long sleeves to run at 2pm yesterday. So we haven't enjoyed it as much as we want to yet, but we have a lifetime to do so. Around here, it's a huge deal to find a house in our price range with a real lawn. What doing laundry meant to me, mowing the lawn meant to Eric. Yes, we know we are invited over to your house to do those things since we love it so much. We've heard that joke from everyone and their mom, including the Walmart employee who sold Eric the mower.

3. Our knight in shining armor

He took his life in his hands for us.

My stepfather came down for over a week to "help" us paint, but really paint for us, so beautifully that no one would know we didn't hire a professional, unless they read the blog.

Behind the fridge

 He also was here for comcast, the plumber, comcast again when it didn't work, etc, so we didn't have to take off from work. His help also included just general "man" stuff that he was able to help Eric with, which had the added bonus of me not even needing to hear about it, much less help.

4. Two bathrooms

I think we can all agree that sharing one bathroom isn't helping anyone's marriage. As adorable as the ducky tub is, it was a real pain in the ass to move it all around, all wet, when we wanted to take a shower. Now the duck has it's own tub.

6. This face

That's not really move specific. I did complain about moving with a baby, and logistically, there's no doubt it's more challenging. But anytime I would get stressed about something stupid, like not being able to do dishes or find my hair gel, that smile instantly made everything better. If I didn't have him to cheer me up, I probably would have been miserable. The other night, the three of us were sitting on the floor in Dalton's room. He was rolling around between us and being all cute and cracking us up, and we were doing silly things to try to get him to laugh, and I was just like...this is it. Life does not get better than this. 

Let's share! Choose one or both.

• Moving horror stories
• Organizational ideas, especially for limited kitchen cabinet space and people who love cooking gadgets