So along with the whole Getting Married thing, I was also packing up our house in preparation for a move. And doing all the end of the school-year stuff with the kids- there were so many nights, up late with insomnia and packing boxes, I wanted to write. So here’s your Random Crap Catch It All Up post!

Pro-Tip: If you hit Walmart around midnight, they are restocking, and they will give you all the boxes you can take. If you’re nice, they will even load them in your car for you! For free!

Moving sucks. It seriously sucks. Even in my tiny two-bedroom townhouse, you wouldn’t believe the amount of stuff we’d managed to amass in less than two years. I donated piles of stuff, went through all the kids’ stuff and culled and sorted, and I still had more than I’d imaged. Gone are the days of packing it all in a Volkswagen and taking off… Mercifully, many boxes were never unpacked from the last move. Who needs great-grandma’s china and silver in a house so tiny we don’t have room for the regular dishes?

Behold, the chaos. I think I took this at about 2 am one night. So stinkin’ tired.

In a concerted effort to get my cleaning deposit back on my place, we spent two solid days cleaning, including shampooing the carpets. That’s above and beyond, right? The place was spotless when we left- and I’d always had good interactions with my landlords. They’re nice people. But now it appears they might like to keep my deposit. I’m waiting, and trying to be patient… but seriously? Look at the place!

The deposit is a lot of money to me, and I even washed all the curtains. The fridge looks new! I cannot fathom what else I could have done. Do landlords just look at the cleaning deposit as extra cash? Because I could really use it, and I kind of feel like it’s mine, and I fulfilled my part of the deal. I’m really hoping they refund it.

Along with all of this, Jeffrey had his end of the year Band Concert- he’s getting really good at the Baritone Tuba, and has taken to playing the Emperors Theme at random times, like maybe when Bean is in trouble, or we’re running late. It adds to the general ambiance of the home. When I’m not trying to be mad, it’s really funny.

In the middle of packing, Abby was conducting science experiments (but so help me, none of them left marks on the townhouse!) I would be throwing things in a box, and find something that looked like this:

To which, the following conversation would occur:

Me: Abby? What… is this?
Abby: It’s nothing mom, I’m trying to extract the iron from the cereal- I’ll be using magnet once it’s saturated.
Me: Um… oh.

Because that’s what everyone thinks of doing while in the midst of moving, right?

The day of the wedding (we made our bouquets ourselves) I found this beautiful Magnolia flower in my new neighbor’s yard. I left it on the tree, but it was too beautiful not to capture. The Virginia humidity may totally suck in the summer, but there are some upsides.