Monday Musing......

2 years ago.....

I was freaking out! Our house was on the market and we were down to 1/2 of the time allotted to our packing-getting out of town wrap-up. Robert had accepted the job here in SD, and he needed to wrap up his stuff with his old job. We needed to get our house ready to sell (like a full-time job), and we needed to pack the stuff we NEEDED to pack. (If you missed it before, you can read more about this in "Fresno Factoids.")

Our adventure would be 2-part: "homeless shelter" (aka: corporate housing) followed by the "real" move. Although we'd be in a fully-furnished apartment, there were some things I needed to pack myself. I devised a system for packing that allowed the movers to know what was what. Of course, we wrote on the outside of the boxes, but we also used colored tape. Yellow tape was something that had to go in the car with us; orange tape meant it was fragile; blue tape meant that it was going to the "homeless shelter" with us; and absence of yellow or blue meant that it would go into storage for 3 months. It was quite an adventure!

Needless to say, when one is moving 10 years of life in under 30 days, it's a bit chaotic! I NEVER would have made it through that freaking out time in my life without the kind help of many people. But 3 folks who need a special mention are: Kristi--she came over with a piece of paper and gave me perspective. She also told me to pile up stuff on the front porch and SHE ran things all over the place when I was giving things away. She saved me HOURS of time and probably saved my mind at the same time. I love her. Junell--she likes to yard sale. Junell sold ANYTHING I sent to her for me and then gave me the money. I did NO work for this! She also came to collect things that I was leaving behind on more than one occasion. She also loaned me money "just in case" I had a month of double rent/mortgage--a BIG secret fear that I had. I didn't even ask for it! I love her too. Wendy--is a surrogate mother to my children, but at this point, she lived an hour away. She took the kids for an entire weekend toward the end of our Fresno adventure, so that Robert and I could WORK non-stop, without having to worry about who was underfoot. SHE is AMAZING!!! I can not say enough about Wendy, and I love her like a sister from another mother. Now she lives too far away to visit often, and I really miss her. Thanks ladies for enriching my life and making my last days of Fresno adventure lots less stressful!

I have a habit of stressing out in advance of things. Moving was a stress of another level. I'd never lived ANYWHERE else. ALL of my family (except my sister, Laura) live in Fresno, and I'd never lived away from them, so that stressed me out too. My biggest "after we move" stresses were that I'd never be able to find my way around. I'm directionally impaired, and I don't read maps very easily. I envisioned myself in a BIG new place, totally unable to find my way back home. This terrified me. Google maps literally SAVED my sanity! For weeks, I'd plot out all of the places I needed to go with Google maps, and that's how I found my way around. I was fortunate enough to never run into major construction during the times I was totally dependant on the maps. And I discovered that HERE I can do N, S, E, and W a LOT easier than in Fresno. Who knew? Left and Right are still a mystery most of the time, but that's a brain problem.....

I was also stressing about being away from family and friends. I knew I'd make new friends, but to not have a support base already was scary. I have the Church, and that is a kind of "instant family." That hit me really hard the first time we went to Church in SD. I was a blubbering idiot, because it HIT that I wasn't ALONE and that there were people here who could really help me.

My other stress was having to find new doctors. I had the best of the best in Fresno, and we USE doctors frequently, so someone sub-par was NOT something I was interested in. I found a good doctor for myself, on the recommendation of friends. Robert found a much better doctor (than in Fresno) for himself. And after 3 tries, we have a pediatrician for the kids who I like a lot. He's not Dr. Jones because Dr. Jones is one of a kind, but I think he's close. And we've had health issues since moving, but nothing as frequent as in Fresno. Thank goodness for clean air!

My last stress was of a more selfish origin. I knew I'd have to find a new hair lady! Yes, hair grows back. But I wanted to find someone who could understand ME and cut my hair accordingly. And I wanted someone who would understand that I'm hair-retarded and need an easy to pull off style--and someone who would be HONEST with me when I brought a picture in of a hair style I liked. I found Renee the first time I went for a hair cut, and she's been like an angel from heaven. She totally "gets" me and she's not afraid to say things like, "but that person doesn't have even HALF your hair" or "that's going to require a LOT of maintenance each day." My entire family goes to Renee now, so when we walk in, this already popular stylist gets REAL busy!

So 2 years ago, I was in SUPER-FREAKOUT mode. My life as I knew it was changing dramatically, and I don't do change easily. Now I look at the calendar and wonder, "has it REALLY been 2 years?" It seems like we got here last week, and it also seems like we've been here forever--weird. HERE seems like HOME now, and Fresno feels like a place we visit, and when I reach the place in my trip where I see the ocean for the first time, I know that HOME is just around the corner. Was it hard? YES! Were we blessed? YES! Beyond anything we could have dreamed. Was it worth it? YES! (other helpers mentioned in "comments.")