Friday, June 12th. Josh and my brother John got up at 7am and drove to the Penske truck rental store to pick up our monstrously huge moving van. We had people coming over at 9am to help us load it. Almost everything we owned was downstairs in our living room and dining room. There were only mattresses and the computer left upstairs. When Josh and John were gone I walked over to QFC and picked up tons of donuts/pastries and coffee from Starbucks for our movers.
My plan, while I will admit now as to being way out of touch with reality, was to take two hours to load up the van. Josh was to leave Seattle no later than noon. The kids and I would follow around 3pm, after cleaning the apartment and taking my mom and brother to the airport. Josh was meeting our landlord at the house at 5 and then at 6 we were having men from our new church meet us to help unload. Sounds great right? If only it went that smoothly.
The loading was going really good, until we got it about 3/4 of the way full and all the guys there had serious doubts whether we would have enough room. This was around 10:30. I made a few calls to U-Haul and Penske. Could we rent another truck? Could we get a tow hitch put on our van today? (They really laughed at that question) and can I put a u-haul trailer onto a Penske truck? The answer to all three? NO.
That is when Josh went to work. With the garbage can that is. We tossed out a bunch of things, gave some away, and had some creative cramming in the moving van, the front of the moving van and our van. It was finally all in there and Josh left at 3pm. Our landlord was fine with us being late, apparently they were steam cleaning our carpets so... But I had to cancel the Friday night unload with our new church members. They were now going to come Saturday at 9am.
Meanwhile back in Seattle, my mom and I are frantically cleaning the apartment. Living in Seattle for so long I know that one needs to avoid driving on Friday afternoons. Basically, if you are not driving by 2pm, you are going to get stuck in traffic. Especially if it is going to be a nice weekend! Also, since we totally loaded down our van with crap, I did not have enough seat belts for everybody. So Levi got to stay at Blakley and play while I took my mom and brother to the airport. I got back to the apartment by 4pm. I quickly did the last of the work (leave keys, parking pass, toss the rest of the trash, p/u Levi). I left our apartment at 4:20.
It took me one hour to go less then ten miles. Seriously. We were in that bloody car for over an hour before we got to Bellevue. It was frustrating. Finally, as the traffic cleared and we were heading up the pass, I noticed that our rpm's are getting really high. Like 5000 high. I pulled over and called Josh. We both decided (with experts advice too) that I had blown out the highest gear in our transmission. He did not want me to go over 3500 rpms, which at that point in time was 50-55 mph. Now, for those of you that don't know, there are parts of that highway were the speed limit is 70. And there are two lanes. I, for obvious reasons, was not a popular motorist.
After several roadside stops to pee, barely making it to a gas station, and lots of crying (from all three of us) Levi, Claire, and I finally made it to Spokane. We did the four hour trip in just over six. Luckily, Will and Luke were waiting for them at our new house and Pat had meet Josh earlier and had unloaded mattress so we would have a place to sleep. The four had a blast running around a totally empty house!
Saturday we got up and went out to breakfast. At nine a bunch of people from our new church helped us unload and Lesley took the kids off our hands for most of the day. We had dinner at their house that night, complete with margaritas!
Sunday was church and then Costco. We splurged and went to the movies. It was Claire's first time. We saw 'Up'. It is so super cute, I recommend. But lo and behold, we could not have two great days in Spokane. Sunday night my throat started to hurt. Bad sign if you are Naomi.
On Monday I had a fever of 104 and super sore throat. I slept all day. I am not kidding. Let's see, I took Josh to work, then came home and went back to bed till 11. I know all the moms out there are wondering what I did with my two babes. What any sick mom does: ignore them. Well, not totally. I let Levi play his Star Wars computer game and Claire watched. When I woke up I think I gave them a z-bar for lunch or something totally un-nourishing like that, and then made everyone take a nap. We did, from 1-4. Then, when the kids woke up, more Lego Star Wars.
Tuesday was basically the same, except I went to the urgent care clinic at 8am. They did a strep culture (negative) felt my lymph nodes (not too big) and said I just had a virus. Josh just about flipped out when he heard that. According to him, my lymph nodes were HUGE. So more sleeping all day on Tuesday. More 104 fevers. More popping ibuprofen. And day #2 without food.
Wednesday was the worst. Now I could not talk (no nasty comments now!) and the pain had travelled to my ears. Sleeping was uncomfortable, but all I wanted. I still had a super high fever, it still hurt like hell to swallow so I gave up. Swallowing that it. I had a spit glass. Oh yes, details I know you all want to know.
Finally at 4 on Wednesday the clinic called me back to tell me that they grew my culture (super gross) and that I definitely had strep. So I went and got my antibiotics and started them at the pharmacy.
Today I feel better, but still not much energy. I am weak from not eating and my throat still hurts. Swallowing is better, but not easy.
So that is our first week in Spokane! Yeah!
1 comment:
Every time I tried to leave a comment it hasn't worked (fingers crossed). So sorry about your moving hassles and strep! If it makes you feel any better, we returned Josh's cap and gown successfully. :) We have started the tedious task of packing and collecting boxes. I guess it's our turn next...
Post a Comment