A Long Time Away

I cannot believe it's been almost three months since a post, but it's true none the less. Life has been crazy busy in the Pumpkin Patch with many changes, upheavals and related fun.

The Pumpkin Patch has relocated due to a new job for DH. Mind you, we'd only lived in our last home about 18 months, but an unexpected job offer came along that was simply too good to pass up. We now live further east, closer to a big city and in a generally less friendly part of the state. I'm also further from all family on both sides. DH has a more stringent work schedule that takes him in to work earlier and brings him home later.

The move was not a pleasant one for a host of reasons. To begin with, we tried using a moving service through U-Haul after a family member has done the same with great results. We were less fortunate in that our movers were a father and step-son team that clearly were not up to the size move we had, not to mention that the business was a home-based venture that kept the father on the phone 90% of the time. It ended up with me packing almost our entire house and then unpacking the same boxes at the new rental. An added joy was the fact that the step-son was an immigrant from Mongolia, in America two years, and would come to me asking if a particular box was for the "chicken," meaning "kitchen."

Additionally, the move that we thought would take one weekend, ended up taking three consecutive weekends and one and a half months later, I'm just now getting curtain rods put up! DH's work schedule doesn't allow for much "home" work and I'm not a patient woman in times of transition. Pumpkin hasn't like it much either to the point that she didn't sleep well the first few weeks, was very cranky and still cries when I drop her off at her new daycare center.

When we were last at the old house I spent the first hour sobbing at losing the house I "rocked my baby to sleep" in and where she had her first Christmas and Easter, etc. DH just looked at me like I was a peri-menopausal freak (which is somewhat true) and kept on painting.

So, here I sit in the basement of a new "luxury" townhouse that we're renting for at least a year while we try and sell our old house and look for another one while the fate of our country crumbles around us. We're great on timing, eh? Selling a house when the mortgage market is in ruins? Moving to a part of the state that is largely Democratic and liberal when we're conservatives? Being a Steeler fan in Eagles territory? Oh, I could go on and on, but what's the sense. We're here for the duration, so DH tells me.

Our new rental, a townhouse, has been a whole other nightmare with four water leaks in the first six weeks! We call our maintenance man "Schnieder" or "Sanford and Son" when he come with his son/helper. It's wild what you learn from living in so many homes in different areas. You really do get an appreciation for what real quality and craftsmanship is. Our current rental is listed for the same price as our house, but the quality is simply not there. It's basically a cubic zirconia passing itself off as a diamond.

If I sound down, I'm not really. I don't like our new town as much as the old one and I really hated to leave our home and community. However, we are a family and we do things together. So, for the sake of the team as it were, I'm playing along. Hopefully, Pumpkin and I will get settled and we'll begin to enjoy our new neighborhood or find a new house to make our memories in.

Well, off to unpack, hang curtains or do whatever else can be done to get this circus moving forward.