The morning of the move Kevin buckled the boys in the moving truck and we headed south, down I-95, towards our new home in Sunrise. I was driving the Explorer, Savannah by my side, fuzzy ferrets at my elbow and Aunt JoAnn's beautiful, heirloom oriental furniture loaded in back.
It was a beautiful, sunny day and I had to call my dad to tell him about my new journey in life. Well, he was underwhelmed to say the least. I feel like I'm living my life and he's missing out on it. What bothers me the most is that I feel more pain in the fact than he does. (At least to my knowledge.) What I learn from him nowadays is how not to act, when sadly, I used to aspire to be like him. I steeled myself after the phone call and looked ahead to the living love I had right beside me and in the 27' moving truck in front of me.
We pulled into our circle drive and hour and twenty minutes later. We all piled out of the vehicles and took in our new surroundings. Austin and Casey were running around the driveway and front porch while Savannah and I waited to get inside and check out the house. We had not seen the house for about a month. It was to be cleaned and all the previous tennant's paraphenalia removed so we could feather our nest. All seemed to be on the up and up as we looked around. I fell in love with the view from my bedroom sliders all over again. I was lucky to have such a pretty back yard.
First "things" to be unpacked were the ferrets and ferrets supplies! We put the fuzzies in the Florida room and began the arduous process of
unloading the truck by ourselves this time. Just Kevin and I, and the kids. How was this going to turn out?! LOL! Where there's a will there's a way! We started unpacking the moving truck and the Explorer and things were running very smoothly. Everyone was pitching in and not too much complaining besides. Finally the charming little yellow kitchen was so full of boxes that Savannah had the idea that she would unpack the boxes and start organizing the cabinets. Great! I love that she is almost a fully functioning chica! Bonus! So she started arranging the dishes and containers, medicines and spices and finally the cleaning products when I hear,"Mom, where do you want the chemicals?"
"Under the kitchen sink," I reply.
"Ummmmm, Mom! Come here and look at this."
"What?"
"I think it's a dead rat!"
"What!?!" Savannah opens the cabinet for me to see and sure enough there is a huge, dead, stinking rat under the kitchen sink. If that wasn't enough, the rat's body was so infested with maggots that the body was still moving. "Ughhhhhh! Keeeeeevvviinnnnnn! Get in here! Now!"
If there is one thing I am inherently incapable of dealing with, it's maggots. I feel sick to my stomach just sitting here writing about it. Kevin, however, has pictures of the mess on his phone to this very day! (Puke!) Why? I'll never know. Kevin came in and confirmed that yes we had a dead ratand texted pictures to the landlord and our real estate agent. They were both hugely apologetic and the landlord had pest control out the very next day. Unfortunately for Kevin, the mess had to be cleaned immediately and he was the man for the job. (Sorry, dude.)
The presence of the rat made me wonder about wether or not the house had really been cleaned after all. So I started checking and, sure enough, the house was only surface cleaned. Having cleaned professionally for almost five years I was really looking forward to moving into a house that I didn't have to pre-clean. Sigh. Dream on, lady. Now my work is doubled. I have to unload the truck, clean the house, then unpack the boxes, then organize everything. And when you move from house to house not everything you had from the old house is right and useful for the new house so inevitably you have to plan a garage sale, which involves storing all the items until you do so.
Well, it is what it is so onward. When we first looked at the house we met the neighbors, Pam and Nelson. When we moved in the same neighbors were outside and they smiled and waved and made us feel very welcome. Shortly another couple came over and introduced themselves. They were Paul and Dolores. Next we had Sophie from the other side and finally Ron came and introduced himself. I have lived in Florida for four-and-a-half years and never once has any neighbor, anywhere, come and introduced themselves. Kevin and I are very friendly, sociable people so I got the feeling we had chosen the right block for our family. As a matter of fact, before we were finished unloading the truck, Paul came over and offered to lend a hand. Can you believe that?! A perfect stranger?! Offering to help unload the truck?! Maybe what we have here is the perfect neighbor! We declined the help because, miraculously, we were almost finished. We finished the trucks, got beds set up and crashed!
Home sweet home.
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