MITP!

 (That stands for "Moving Is The Pits!")

What an adventure this has been!!! Holy moly..... I feel like the last couple weeks have been such a whirlwind, I can't even keep track of the days anymore! All I know is the last Monday in September the movers arrived in Arizona... When they showed up 2 hours late, I knew things were only going downhill. When the truck arrived, Stefan texted me and said "um, I don't know if this truck is big enough for all of our stuff." The movers assured him everything would surely fit and they started wrapping all of the big stuff, bringing the boxes outside and getting everything inventoried for the truck. Around 7pm the main guy told Stefan that our original quote was "off" and based on the amount of stuff we had, our estimate was going to be DOUBLE than we were originally told. The guy said he could offer us a flat rate which would be on the "low end" OR we could follow them to a weigh station when they were done and just pay the price per pound that we were quoted, which would most likely be more than the flat rate. Three hours later at 10pm, they realized not all of our stuff would fit on the truck. "I told you so" was an understatement. So now they had most of our stuff on their truck (the rest in our garage that they would pick up in the morning), and they wanted more money. We felt stuck! We took the flat rate because honestly, I didn't want to follow them to a weigh station 40 minutes away after such a long day. I think that's their tactic: show up late, purposely bring too small of a truck to make you think you have more stuff than they originally quoted you, then stay extra late so you're too tired to follow them to the weigh station for an accurate quote. SO frustrating. Either way, they had our stuff, had our money, and they were on their way to Washington.

We left a few days later.... our sleeping arrangements in the meantime consisted of this:

Thursday morning, we got up super early and drove to Vegas with all of the animals! Drugged up the kitties, and we were off!

(The drugs are totally humane.... just make them a little sleepy, and made Oliver a little cross-eyed is all).

We dropped all the animals off at PetSmart for boarding in Las Vegas while we spent the weekend relaxing with family! My parents, brother Bob, sister-in-law Allison, brother Mark, sister-in-law Sandra, sister Debbie and brother-in-law Chett all were there and we had a blast (as usual)! Stefan and I also attended my friend Heather's wedding that weekend and it was SO beautiful! Heather and I were in the same sorority in college and she's been such a great friend over the years! Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera that night but I know other people got some pictures. She was a gorgeous bride and I'm so excited her and her husband are in the process of moving to WA too!!!

After our Vegas weekend, we continued our roadtrip, stopping in Utah to stay with my brother and his family for the night. My nieces Katie and Heather made dinner when we got there (DELICIOUS enchiladas!!!) and we got all the animals ready for their next adventure in the car! We left bright and early (well it wasn't bright, it was still dark out) the next morning, and drove for 15 hours before we finally arrived in Washington! If we did it all over again (which we're not), we would probably split that up into two days... Stefan had to stop at one point because he was too tired and we both slept in the car for a couple hours! We were so excited when we finally got to our new house!

When we arrived, my parents were there and my dad was painting. He went the day before and got a couple rooms done and was just finishing the downstairs when we got there. This was our first time actually seeing the house, and we absolutely love it!! It's in such a perfect neighborhood and the house is super cute. It's a little smaller than our Arizona house, so not all of our stuff fits, but it's got cute old charm and there's plenty of storage in the basement for all of our stuff that won't fit!

The next few days we (well, mostly my dad) spent finishing up the painting before the movers arrived.



Brooklyn even tried to help....

I don't know if I'm ready to vent quite just yet about the movers. I'll just say they were the shadiest moving company I think I have ever dealt with. Never returning calls, promising us a discount, then retracting the discount because I mentioned the words "Better Business Bureau" during a conversation, changing the names of their supervisors, making up random employees names that they say I spoke to (and when I call back they say they've never heard of someone by that name), delaying our delivery time, movers not showing up until 5PM when they were supposed to arrive at 9AM...... and then our broken stuff..... oh, do we have a list of broken stuff. I know they're material things and it shouldn't matter.... and honestly, I am just glad our stuff is here, broken or not, because I was starting to doubt our stuff would ever show up after the conversations we were having with the company. Cuts in our couch, broken glass, broken mirror, several broken bowls, glasses..... the list goes on and on. It's more irritating than anything. Thank goodness I bought extra moving insurance from an outside company.

Aside from the movers, we're in our house, it's all painted, and it's starting to feel like a home. We LOVE walking up the street to Metropolitan Market with the dogs, and being back in North Tacoma and so close to our families. We've still got some unpacking and organizing to do, but since Stefan and I are both very OCD about making sure our house is neat and clean, give us a week or two and we'll be ready for visitors!!