One House Down, Two More To Go
One House Down, Two More To Go
Complaining Won’t Get The Move Done
So, my wonderful man closed on his old house this past Wednesday. We spent all of last weekend, plus Monday and Tuesday, packing up the little things in his house and moving those to my 2-BR rental house. All the big furniture was pretty much gone by Friday when we got our kids back.
THE LAST WEEKEND – FRIDAY EVENING
I picked up my two from camp at 3pm and drove out to his house. After stopping for the 4pm goûter at Panera, he greeted us at the door and told the kids that they should go upstairs and wait for him on the couch, citing that “we had something to talk about”.
Confused, they started upstairs and, upon seeing the very spacious and now completely empty living room, they came back to the stairs and said, “Where did you move the couch to? It’s not up there!” I told them we’d look into it, if they could just go ahead and put their wet towels/bathing suits from camp into the washing machine. Lo and behold, 10 seconds later the outcry came: “The washing machine and dryer are gone, too!”
Time to fess up to my half of our children… “Well, we sold the house. We are moving.” Naturally, my kids wanted to know where we were moving to, but we told them they’d have to be patient for another 10 minutes or so and we would tell all the kids together. They played along well and when James’ kids arrived, my kids yelled to them that we were going to “have a family meeting on the couch, so come upstairs”. The little one followed immediately, excited to be back. The 11-year-old grumpily told the others, “I don’t really care right now; I need to bring my mom some things.” You see, James had messaged his ex earlier in the day, asking her to please come to the door with the kids instead of dropping them off in the street, as had become her habit in the past two years since they had separated for good. Being the nice guy that he is, he wanted to give her all of her own childhood memories he found while cleaning out the house, in addition to the kids’ stuff that belongs at her house. As is her M.O., the mother of James’ children stayed in the car out of the driveway and sent the kids in by themselves (she likes to make announcements/have arguments/set schedules/etc. through the kids, possibly because she is afraid of any adult interaction with us?) and so I can only assume by the boy’s reaction that she specifically sent him to collect the items James had announced he had for her and bring them out to the car.
Either way, James went outside to her car, carrying the items himself, while I tried to keep his son inside the house, to no avail. Unfortunately, he stood outside next to the car, witnessing his mother’s reactions to his father, who seemingly has the patience of a saint. As James hands his ex her childhood stuff, he is greeted with, “What’s all this? I don’t want any of this now.” To which he replies, “It’s your stuff; I thought you might like it. We are moving; the house is sold.” She loses it. “You can’t do that, James! You will hear from my attorney!” (I didn’t go outside but I know what was said because she screamed loudly enough that I could hear her clearly inside the house…) A few more expletives and she speeds off, even forgetting to drop off the dog LOL. Which, btw, got returned to us later, this time through my son who happened to be playing in the street when she circled back around. Btw, before anyone thinks that she has a legal leg to stand on – we did everything according to the state’s statute abcde, paragraph 12345 (I forget what it was exactly) to ensure that she got her at least 60 days notice, written certified mail/return receipt requested letter at least 30 days prior to the move, etc.pp. Which is most likely why we are still (10 days later) waiting for that promised phone call from her attorney, ha!
THE LAST WEEKEND – SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
So, obviously, Friday evening didn’t start the best way. We made the best out of the weekend anyway. We took the kids out to dinner and they had a sleepover with their sleeping bags on the living room floor. On Saturday morning, the boys went and got a trailer for the last couple of big items and the girls made a food plan for the week (which we only partially stuck to) and ensured that the last window in the house for which we were responsible, got replaced. On Saturday evening, we got take out pizza, ate it on the floor in the dining room, and then went out for ice cream. We had arranged to meet some friends there, so the kids had a blast. On Sunday morning, I took all four of them to Church and later they got to swim in the hot tub one last time before we trekked to my rental house about 30km away.
YMCA CAMP WEEK
This past week, the kids all went to the YMCA for camp. They loved it, as usual. What’s not to love? You get to swim three out of five days, you got to go on a field trip and go bowling… sounds a lot better than working or going to school to me 😉
Evenings were filled, by and large, with family dinners and good conversations. The kids got to stop by the new house again and plan how to decorate their new rooms. Did you know how hard it is to find a house spacious enough for a six-people family? And you might think to yourself, “Well, at least they have two boys and two girls; they can just bunk up.” But that’s much harder than you might imagine because we are a blended family and all the kids have their own room each at their other parents’ houses. We are not trying to compete with their other parents, by any means! Otherwise, at least his half of our kids would have their own TVs, ipads, play stations, computers, couches, swings, etc. in their bedrooms. We will not be doing that because someone has to teach kids the value of the dollar (or Euro); we just need them to be able to have their own space to hide from the others, and thus avoid the one or other unnecessary sibling fight. Our girls are happy to share some common space and their bedrooms will be adjacent to one another so they can share a reading nook and the closet, but our boys are not so much happy to share.
Then the girls had piano lessons one evening and our younger son tried out for gymnastics. He’ll be doing gymnastics on Tuesdays, our older daughter will be in gymnastics Wednesdays and Saturdays, our older boy will be in soccer on Wednesdays and Sundays, and our younger daughter will be doing gymnastics on Thursdays. Mondays, they are all with their other parents and we are free to be a couple; Fridays we will still be available as a family or a couple, depending on the weekend in the calendar. Can’t wait to be in the new house and have school get started before all these practices and the hectic pick up again in September!
I should really spend this next week just relaxing and sipping margaritas, before we get the kids back on Friday and close on the new house, too.
CHEERS!
Ashley@Shakenstirredandblended
Hi, I'm Ashley and I am a freelance writer and editor for one local and one national publication. In my spare time, I teach foreign languages and manage two households. Oh, and raise four children. It's a crazy life that I chose and I love every second of it :o)
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