10 posts tagged “moving”

With any luck, this time tomorrow we will be ending our first day of driving for a trip across Canada to Newfoundland.  We were planning to leave this morning but that did not work out once we found out our apartment manager could not stop in for a final walk through until today.

I am seriously ready to get this show on the road, not only because of how long the drive will be but also because I am so excited about getting in Newfoundland.  I know we are going to be so much happier there.

Well, in about another day we will be well on our way to Newfoundland.  I am really, really excited but at the same time a little nervous (about the drive).  I will be glad when it's all said and done though.  I am so exhausted from cleaning, packing and running around.  I can't think of a single part of my body that isn't hurting at this point!

I have a terrible headache tonight.  I think it's from sitting at Wal-mart for over 3 hours tonight, while waiting on an oil change.  Yeah, they were THAT backed up.  This was our fourth try at getting it done and there was no way I was leaving Wal-mart without it tonight.  I am so happy that's all done though.  The only thing to worry about is returning our digital cable box, modem and remotes.  Then we will load up the truck.

Today is going to be such a long day.  We are having some trouble with our online banking, so we will be stopping by our bank later on (or calling).  Plus we have so many things to get accomplished today.  We will be cleaning this place from top to bottom, finishing that last bit of packing, searching for some kind of roof storage/moving equipment to double our available space and be able to move everything we want without having to ship stuff ahead of time.  I also need to pick up a few things from Wal-mart; shampoo, conditioner, soap, snacks for our trip, bottled water and gatorade for our trip.. and the like.

Like I said.  It is going to be a long day.  I want to treat Jo to a movie tonight - Good luck Chuck - but I have no idea if there will even be time for that.

Well, in a few more days we will be heading out for Newfoundland.  By late next week I will be writing here from there.  I cannot wait, though I am a little nervous about the trip and the ferry ride.  Hopefully things go as planned.

We will be staying with some of my husband's relatives on our second night.  I have never met any of them before, so it should be fun, interesting and nerve wracking, huh?  I am pretty excited about it, so I am trying not to think about my nervousness too much.

Though we do not have that much, we still have so much packing to do.  Most of our things consist of clothes, shoes and of course, my handbags but we also have to figure out the furniture thing.  We are not sure at this point if we are going to bother with a Uhaul or not but if we decide against it, we have to figure out what to do with our larger furniture.  The desks and chairs will be fine.  All we will have to do is take them apart and put them back in their boxes.  No worries about those at all.  There is just so much to think about and only about 3 weeks to figure it all out.  Yikes!

Jo will have his last session of physiotherapy on October 9th, so we are looking at a "move" date of about the 11th or 12th.  I cannot even begin to tell you about how excited I am about living near his family, especially his mom and grandparents.  I was so worried that Christmas was going to be a big depressing mess.  Not now though.  It is going to be great, I just know it!

Last night, we decided to do a “game night” since the Calgary Flames were on! We ordered pizza and wings (thankfully not hot wings) and watched the game. Good times! The Flames won 4 - 2 and “my” man Iginla had a hattrick!! I can’t wait to see the game in person, Jo’s promised to take me! :]

In other news, Jo had his interview yesterday and decided to turn down the job because the pay was way too low and nowhere near what was quoted when he first spoke to them! By that, I mean nearly $10 off! I don’t blame him for not taking it at all! He’s in a position right now, where he can pick and choose because he’s already got a full time job. This was just a second job with full time hours and benefits!

We spoke to our landlord this morning and we’ll be able to move in tomorrow! They’ve painted it already (it’s a khaki kind of color.. or no, sort of like the color of an iced cappuccino) and today, they’re doing all of the cleaning! I’ll just be happy to get moved and settled in, kick back and relax for a bit! We’ve seriously been “on the go” for the last couple of weeks! The drive up was exhausting, my arms are still aching! Where we’re staying, it’s about a 20 minute commute into downtown, so if we have to make our way to get something that isn’t right here, we spend about an hour going and coming. That’s if traffic is moving steady and not slowing down during rush hours! It’s gorgeous here though! Brian and Jill’s condo is lovely!

Tonight we’re going to grill out (or in, not really sure about that haha) and they’re wanting to go to the neighborhood pub! That should be interesting, considering I’ll be the only one not drinking! I’ve been crowned the designated driver for the night, which is all good because then everyone can just let loose and have a good time and not worry about the drive back! Brian laid out of work today, which I think is mostly due to wanting to hang out with Jo and possibly since Jill is also off today through Sunday! I’m sure we’re all going to have a great time tonight!

That pretty much sums everything up! I miss the catlets! We’ll be able to bring them home sometime Sunday! We just wanted to get moved in without hauling them all over the place. Jill’s also allergic to cats, so between that and us not wanting to burden them with the cats, we decided to place them in a kennel for a few days!

I’m going to get though, I need to fold some laundry and make the bed! I like to keep things tidy! :]

We’ve got the truck loaded, to capacity minus us, the cats and the food! And when I say loaded, I mean really loaded! It looks so weighed down! haha! It’s a good thing we aren’t able to take anything more, huh?

We’re about to head to the vet to pick the cats back up! We had to update their shots for the apartments in Calgary! It’s part of most of the lease agreements! After that, we’re heading to my mom’s and will be there until late tonight! It’s going to be so, so hard when we have to leave tonight! I think it’s finally hitting me that I won’t be close to my family and hitting my mom, that I won’t be near and able to spend time with her as much as I did before. I can already feel the tears swelling up in my eyes. :/

I probably won’t update any of my blogs, including this one, until we get to Calgary! I should be able to use Jo’s friends computer occasionally.. so once we’re there and rested, I will let you all know!

So, I had this brilliant idea that I should go ahead and dye my hair before leaving for Calgary! My first choice was to go red! I’ve been red before and my natural color has specks of red throughout, so why not?! It didn’t turn out! I used 2 boxes for the first attempt and second attempt, so 4 boxes total! It only took to my highlights both times! So then I decided to just recover it in the dark brown/natural black that I had before! That was better but still, didn’t turn out as planned! I’m just going to let it grow out a little before I do anything else!

So, I think everything is settled on the export of my truck! I shouldn’t have to do anything for 30 days because I’ll just be a “visitor” until then! I sure hope the people I talked to are right!

I should probably get going though! We’re heading to my mom’s for the evening! I want to spend as much time with her as possible!

As mentioned from my other blog, in case you’re a reader there.. we are still in Georgia! It’s a long story, so instead of re-writing it, I’m just going to copy and past it over from the other blog!

Well, we hit a little snag. We were all set to leave on Saturday, that was on Thursday! My, my how things can change! I sent off for my passport, which I won’t have before leaving. That’s perfectly ok because I’m going to be entering Canada in a private vehicle, so proof of citizenship to the US is all I’d need. Well, anyone who’s applied for a passport knows that when you apply for a passport, you have to submit your birth certificate. It didn’t dawn on me at the time of doing my passport application, that I’d be sending the only copy of my birth certificate that I have/had. Durhhhhhhhhhh, right?! So, I started to panic Thursday, realizing that I’d done this. I was born in a different county, near Atlanta, GA. It’s about 2 and a half hours from here. I had to get up early Friday morning and travel to the Health Department there and get a new copy because the passport process is delayed so much since January. Well, along with this, we didn’t realize how much we had to do concerning “exports” of items. I phoned the border patrol where we’d be crossing and they told me to go to their website, read the information under “exports”, fill out the form and submit all items by fax to them 72 hours prior to our “crossing”. Sounded easy enough at the time… hmmfff! Not at all!! Since our vehicle isn’t paid off in full yet, we have to obtain permission from the lien holder! So we’re now waiting on the “ok” from them to export my truck into Canada. We cannot leave before doing this, otherwise we’ll face a $500 penalty at the border. Yikes!!!

So, just wanted to give a quick update. They said it will likely be Monday before we get this “ok”, so hopefully by Tuesday or Wednesday we’ll finally be on our way!!

I need to get going now though, I have to head over to my aunts and help her move some things out to her shed! :]

I wasn’t sure about a subject! This entry will likely be all over the place. hahaha!!

I’ve decided to do something different with my hair! I’m thinking of going a bit shorter. Perhaps somewhere between chin-length and shoulder-length. I’m having my stylist do chunky layers too, since I wear my hair wavy so often these days. The layers will give more wave action. I’d do my hair curly but my hair is honestly a pest! It’s naturally curly, yet wavy in some spots and right along my face, it’s straight as a board. For the first couple of years of my life, I had pure ringlets it was so curly.. of course, it was also blonde back then. haha! From about the age of 5 or so until I was 26ish, I wore it straight. Sometimes I’d roll it or curl it but never styled it as “naturally” curly or wavy. Not until about a year and a half to two years ago. It’s a lot easier to do this way than it is to spend 45 minutes blow drying (my hair is also quite thick!) and another 20 minutes straightening out the stubborn areas with a straightener. I’ve also rarely ever used hair products in my hair, like gel/hair spray/mouse/putty. I guess you could say I’m a n00b, to a degree but I’m starting to master these things. I want something different than I’ve had before but I’ve honestly tried many, many styles. I’ve done the “shag”, I’ve done the “bob”, I’ve done the “blunt cut” and I’ve done the stacked-do that’s short in the back, longer in the front… and several styles in between. The last time I had my hair cut/styled, I went with what they called a “punk shag”. I still don’t understand this style, it just looked like choppy layers and not so much the shag style. Jo doesn’t want me to go too short, neither does my mom. It has nothing to do with not liking my hair in shorter lengths, they just end up being on the receiving end of my tears and “omg, my hair is so short”’s! lol!! I can’t blame them. A bad hair cut can be devastating, well, not necessarily bad but you know what I mean.

I think I’m going to do it though. I’m just going to fly with it because it’s time for a change and what better time for something like this than now! I think I’m going to color it today too. Two toned. Right now it’s nearly black, which is nice with my fair skin and green eyes but I’m thinking of going closer to my natural hair color for a while, which is a medium/brassy/reddish brown. The second color, I think, will be like a honey highlight or something. Then again, I might just leave it as the single color if I like it enough.

Here’s a couple of samples of what I am thinking about;

What else..

I think this “move” has finally hit me. I’m still super excited and happy about it but it’s sinking in that I will not be a hop-in-the-car and just-down-the-road from my family. My biggest concerns with that are with my surviving grandparents, my mom and my nephews. Both my grandpa (dad’s side) and grandmother (mom’s side) are not doing so well. Of course I’d be right back here if something should go wrong but still. My mom and I are really close now, like best friends and it’s going to be hard not having her to hug or having our “slumber parties” anymore, well, not until either of us visit the other. I’m going to hate being apart from my nephews and basically watching them grow up from afar. I’m sure my sister, her fiance and the kids will eventually visit but it’ll be nothing like going 2 miles down the road to hang out. I’m going to be nearly 3000 miles away! Three thousand miles! I know they say that home is where the heart is but how could that be realistic? My heart is in many places! It’s right here, in Georgia! It’s in Newfoundland! It’s going to be in Calgary, as I fell in love with the city and will have my husband and cats with me. But seriously, it’s going to be hard. Especially the first few months.

I joke around with my mom sometimes, saying how this move is going to be the hardest thing.. yet it’s so easy for me to do. Sounds crazy, right? The hard part is letting go of family and friends that have kept me anchored in a place I no longer feel happy with. The easy part is moving on to something better, giving myself and family the things we both need / want. I can’t give that here because the cost of living is ridiculous when you take into account that the job market barely exists in small-town America anymore. I’m going to love being in Calgary, I know I will and I don’t have to be convinced of that at all. I’m going to be near the Rocky Mountains, in a beautiful city with so much I can do and so many photographic opportunities! That’s why I’m excited! I just can’t deny my sadness though.

Tonight, I’m spending hours on end with my adorable nephews Tyler, Landon and Trent. Nikki asked me and Jo to come over for dinner and a movie. Tomorrow, I’m having lunch with my grandpa and then I’ll be going to my mom’s and spending as much time as possible with my mom, Tammy and my grandmother. When I get home, I’ll spend time with my dad and Kim before trying to get some rest for my big, first day of travel on Saturday. We’re going to leave around 4 or 5am. Why so early? It’s going to be my longest travel day. I want to drive as far west as possible on my first day, plus those of you into “Nascar” (not for me, sorry to say!) know that the race is at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. I’m sure there’ll be lots and lots of nasty traffic and if you have never been graced with the traffic of Atlanta.. just know this, it STINKS! When I had to photograph my best friend’s wedding a couple of years ago, we had to travel through Atlanta to get to Roma, GA. We were nearly stopped from the Tangier Outlet (maybe 30 miles from downtown I guess) from 4:30pm - 7pm. Worst traffic delay I’ve ever been in to date.

Well, this entry has turned out to be pretty long and started out rather girly. lol! My apologies! haha! I need to get going though. I have so much to do today. I need to cash our income tax checks (we were good and decided if we cashed them, we’d want to spend them haha). Then I need to go get this hair of mine chopped off. After that, I’m going to check out some of the local stores for sales. I really need some pants. Speaking of, why is that places around here seem to stop selling pants the second it heats up? Seriously, people do wear pants year-round! All I could find yesterday was capri’s, which I love but I won’t be able to wear those for a couple of months yet! After that, I’ll be heading to my sisters for the evening / night!

I’m sure I’ll update this blog at least once more before I leave on Saturday but for now, I must sign off!