Nightmare Move

Wow.  Talk about being behind on my blog!  WOW.  I'm still blogging about September & it's January.  Yikes.  Plus I'm trying to move into our rental in VA knowing that we'll only be here for one or two months before we move into the house we are actually BUYING out here.

Anywho . . . 

This move from CA was seriously a nightmare. . . oh I'm sorry, an ADVENTURE.  ha ha ha

We were supposed to be getting a U-Haul trailer to pull behind the van since we were technically moving to UT (to my parent's home) for 3 months before we actually got to VA.  I had to pack whatever we needed to survive off of for those 3 months like clothes, some toys, & some necessities for Halloween & Christmas.  I also threw in my sewing & embroidery machine with my sewing supplies so I could work on Christmas presents & Halloween costumes while I was there.  Oh, & I HAD to have my fabulous memory foam bed topper because I just can't live without it.  (Okay so that was frivolous, but I'm pregnant & my back & legs go out. . . I needed to be comfortable right?  Excuses excuses.)

Well, U-Haul messed up & couldn't get us a trailer even after we reserved one weeks in advance.  Not only that, but they didn't hook up the electrical properly so even if they DID have a trailer for us it wouldn't have worked because they wired it all wrong.

Well, we had plenty of space when we were supposed to be getting that U-Haul.  But since we found out we couldn't have it THREE DAYS before we were scheduled to leave, we panicked.  We had to fit EVERYTHING into our van with 5 kids, 2 adults, & whatever spaces we could find between people, legs, seats, & ceiling.  I ended up having to go through my "three months of stuff" & cut it by more than a half.  It was depressing.  I could only take 1 weeks worth of clothes for each person, a couple toys to keep the kids occupied in the car, my sewing machine (but no supplies. . . I was sad leaving my embroidery machine behind), & my mattress topper.  (Yes, I'm spoiled.)

Trek did wonders with our mattress topper.  It's a king size topper that is 3 inches thick.  He folded it & then rolled it & wrapped it tight with a rope.  I was amazed at how small it got.  When we got to UT it unfolded & re-made itself into my heavenly wonderful mattress.

So, the movers came & packed us out for 2 days & left with all our stuff. . . sending it on it's merry way to VA where it would wait for 3 months until we got there.  These movers were our worst yet.  They refused to take anything out of drawers or cupboards so they literally made Trek & I take EVERYTHING OUT & put it on the floor.  THEN & ONLY THEN would they pack it.  We had to take everything off the walls & they made Trek take apart all the furniture.  (For those who are not military, when you move with the military, the movers are supposed to do EVERYTHING.  We've never had movers refuse to do any of it.  They're even supposed to put everything back together when they unload it for you.  It was the strangest situation ever.)  I was tired, sick (pregnant), & trying to balance the 5 kids who were obviously scared & worried when people were taking away all their stuff. It was hectic.  But they got done & left & we started packing up the van to move for good.  Everywhere we turned we were finding stuff the movers left. . . in closets, behind doors, it was a nightmare.  They left small furniture pieces that we had to give away in a rush because we couldn't fit it in the van. . . goodness!  They even forgot to pack Trek's guitar.  Somehow we had to fit that in the van too because it was too important to us to just give away.  It was super frustrating.  

But by some miracle, we got everything in the van.  (Talk about low riding tires)  It was time to move on.  Good-bye Monterey, CA.

Our first stop was Trek's parent's house in Santa Clarita, CA.