New Orleanians Once Again

Well, we did it. We have officially moved out of the first house we owned. (The closing actually didn’t go off exactly like we thought it would, so we may technically still be the owners, but everything should be settled by Monday.) Getting out only took a total of four trips, six car-loads, one full pick-up truck, three trailer-loads, and a seventeen-foot U-Haul moving van.

We are very tired.

And I missed my boy lots! I’ve hardly gotten to see him in the past couple of weeks so I definitely have to make up for lost time. I mean, look what happens when I leave him: he gets new toys, he sleeps better, and he grows a tooth!

Maybe we should go away more often…..

   

Riley had a lot of fun with both sets of grandparents, who were all so generous with their offers to watch him while Kenny and I worked feverishly to pack up and move out. We could not have gotten everything done without your help. Thank you so, so much.

And, while I’m at it, special thanks to Steve and David who helped us load the U-Haul van at the house. Your presence (and your muscles) was greatly appreciated on that long and hot Saturday. Although Kenny is the master packer (he says it’s like putting a puzzle together, and he always seems to have just the right piece at the right time for any given nook or cranny), you two were fundamental in providing him with the things to pack. Gracias.

The house is empty. Nothing but a shell, a blank canvas for which the new owners to do with what they will. I got pretty teary on Monday night (our true last night sleeping there) and again on Tuesday afternoon (right before we left for good). I don’t regret our decision to move at all, but I will miss being in that house. It was a good home for us for almost three years, and I am exceedingly grateful for that.

However, we apparently couldn’t leave without having one more creature adventure….one of our staghorn ferns (pictured in the collage above hanging from the green chair on the back patio) unexpectedly became the birthplace of three little baby birds. We went to move it one of the first weekends we were up there packing and saw a nest with eggs inside. The babies hatched sometime on Saturday while we were loading up the U-Haul.

I had decided I didn’t want those green chairs, so we left the fern hanging from one of them so the momma bird and her brood could continue their occupation of it until the babies are ready to fly away. Hopefully the new owners of the house won’t mind!

So now I am saddled with the task of finding a place for everything we decided not to put in storage. No small feat. Most of our everyday things will stay at my parents’ house, all of Kenny’s outside/car/brew equipment will go to his grandparents’ house, and I have already stashed a few things at my grandparents’ house. And I just have to realize that although I won’t get every last thing put away in the first week, I will find a place for it all. We just don’t know how long we’re going to be living like this.

And that’s okay.

We will find another house to move to eventually. But we’re hoping to maybe take our time and find something we really want to live in for a long time. (Once we are in our new house, I will rebel against moving again for at least 10 years. It’s a lot of freakin’ work.) And who’s to say we won’t find something fantastic the first few days of looking? That’s kind of how it went with our first house.

In the meantime, though, we are so appreciative that we are able to stay at my parents’ house. That is making things much easier on us, and we thank you both for that.

So we are New Orleanians once again. I wonder if Riley will be considered one even though he wasn’t born here. Maybe if you get in before your first birthday they let you slide.

I’m going with that logic.

Laissez les bon temps rouler!