Ridin' Dirty

The last time I wrote I was sitting in a folding chair in the middle of my empty living room, trying to motivate myself to clean the refrigerator. I now write from my new kitchen that is miraculously clean due to the fact that I’ve had no cable or internet access for over a week. J Don’t worry, we have not lacked entertainment in the least bit. We’ve had enough excitement to compete with any award winning reality show. I can honestly say that the last time I blogged from my Mississippi home I was a little concerned that life might become boring in our new Florida home. Why do I even think such things???

After I wrote my last blog I did go clean out the fridge. And mop the floors. Then I had to wait up for them to dry to get back to my mattress on the floor. I’m so brilliant. Well, by the time I got to bed it was about 3:00 and all of the hot water had been used on the 945 loads of laundry that had been going all day, so I didn’t even bathe. There, I said it. Not only did I not bathe, but I also slept in my filthy clothes I’d been working in all day. There I said that too. I slept for a few hours and then it was up and at ‘em. I was very disappointed with myself and how much was still left to do, but somewhere in the last few days of packing my brain had gone into total denial of all that was left. It also started pouring as we began to load up the last of our stuff which meant we were tracking mud back into the house and the recently cleaned floors. Yay. Two of our church members came by to see us off and we were soon loaded up and ready to go. Well, as ready as we were gonna be.

Sarah and Eli joined Josh in the moving truck and Kate and I squeezed into the only two corners of the Jeep not occupied with clothes. Before I got in Josh pointed out that we had someone else who had come by to see us off….Rebel. L Daisy’s boyfriend was hanging out in the backyard. I hope his heart heals quickly and he finds someone else who can make him happy.

After a stop for lunch at Burger King we were on our way. We had made it about 20 minutes outside of Laurel and I was going to town on my Whopper when something felt funny. I had the luggage carrier on top of the Jeep and it felt like something wasn’t right with it. I was just about to call Josh and ask him if he could see anything wrong when he pulled over in front of me. The carrier had come open and I had lost a garment bag! That must have been some kind of Whopper I was enjoying to not have noticed luggage flying through the air, dontcha think? Josh ended up taking the whole thing down and moving it and the luggage in it to the back of the moving truck. We had told the church secretary we would be there by a certain time, so Josh went on and I turned around to go hunt for my clothes. I drove almost back to Laurel and there was no sign of them anywhere. The only thing I can figure is that they landed in a deep ditch with stuff all grown up in it. So, if any of my Mississippi folks are driving on Hwy 15 South between Laurel and Richton and you happen to find a garment bag will you send it my way?
After that things were pretty uneventful. I eventually ended up passing Josh once we got into Florida because he had to stop for gas and it turned out it took a little bit of time to fill up a moving truck. I was about 30 minutes ahead of him when I made it to our exit at Defuniak Springs. I had never been so thankful to see that exit in all of my life. Did I mention I hadn’t been getting much sleep? Well, I had literally been on the exit for 2 seconds when I saw lights in my rearview mirror. Oh brother. I knew I wasn’t speeding because the cop had been following a truck with it’s flashers on and I had slowed down to go around them. Seems my slowing down allowed the officer to notice that my tag was expired. I was not aware of that by the way. He came up to the passenger window and took one look in the Jeep and asked, “You movin’?” I wanted to tell him I just couldn’t decide what to wear that morning, but I decided being a smart alec was probably not best in this situation. I told him I was and where we were moving from and to. It occurred to me that when he saw me and my dirty child in the backseat and all of our clothes piled up that we probably looked like a domestic violence case. I was thinking that when he asked to see my registration and as I reached into the glove box he asked what had happened to my hands. I have really dry skin and from all of the packing and cleaning my knuckles were totally cracked and bleeding. He said it looked like I had been in a fight. I laughed about it, but secretly feared I would soon be arrested for assault. At this point I still had no idea why he had pulled me over. I gave him my license and he started radioing information. I started to say something when I heard him report the weight that was on my license. I really wanted to point out that I am 20 pounds smaller than when I had that license made, but again, it didn’t seem the right time. He asked me if my husband was in the military. I dropped my head in shame and replied, “No. He’s a preacher.” And here was the preacher’s wife about to get arrested for assault, looking like a homeless person and worrying about her weight being broadcast on the police scanner.

For one of the above reasons, he showed mercy and didn’t give me a ticket, just told me to make sure and take care of it once we got to our new home. I was very appreciative. A ticket would have taken money out of the furniture shopping budget and that would have been tragic, truly tragic.

42 hours later (slight exaggeration) we made it to our new home. Several of the church people were waiting on our doorstep to help unload and they had sandwiches and brownies fixed. What a welcome sight! They had also stocked our pantry. How sweet! The truck got unloaded and Josh’s parent’s had gone by to pick up the sofa and loveseat we had found. We had furniture! I would tell you about the rest of that night but I truly have no memory of it. It seems like we did some unpacking, but it was not long before I BATHED and went to sleep.

The next day was one we had been SO excited about. We were going into Panama (yes, I’m from St. Joe now and I say Panama) to look for new furniture. It worked out so perfect that we got our tax refund just in time for the move. We had our moving truck for another day so Josh and the kids drove it around and Kate and I followed in the Jeep. We went to a bazillion stores and looked at furniture until I had memorized prices on all the latest furniture. Finally at 1:30 that afternoon Kate said, “Peez go eat.” We did go eat and then took the kids to my Mom’s once she was off work so we could go back to the bazillion stores and actually buy stuff. We went to Sam’s so Josh could get the TV he had found the best price on. As he rolled that thing out of the store I could tell it was the happiest day of his life. He assured me our wedding day and the births of our children were more exciting, but I knew that this day was right up there. J We had been to so many places looking for white bunk beds for the girls and could not find them anywhere. We of course found them at the last place we looked and they were on sale!

It was 10:00 by the time we got home that night (we’re on eastern time now) and we were again wore slap out. We once again had a moving truck to unload, but nobody was there to help. Just me. Now, I should probably not share this, but just in case you ever get the idea that Josh and I have a flawless relationship and make you sick with how smitten we are with each other, I just want you to know that on that night, we couldn’t have been any more on each other’s nerves. It should have been such a special time being able to get this new stuff for our new home, but seriously, we were sleep deprived and had to get a bedroom suite off of a moving truck. I haven’t shredded in over a month now (really y’all I quit bathing, did you really expect me to keep exercising?) so I was not at my strongest. As we stood on that truck and I attempted to lift my end of a dresser that was not lifting, I began to question everything in life. Did I go to the right college? Was this the wrong bedroom suite? Should I have gotten something different for lunch that day? Do you know what I mean? Do you ever reach the point of being that tired that just everything seems wrong? Okay, well that is where I was and Josh looked at me and said, “You can do this. You’re superwoman.” Any other day I might have found that sweet and empowering. That night I knew that translated, “Come on woman, I’m tired and I want to go to bed and you are no help at all.” Somehow, by the grace of God we got that furniture in our bedroom and it was in that moment I told Josh we can NEVER move again. We have real furniture now and it is HEAVY!!

The next morning we had to drive back to Panama (40 minutes, y’all didn’t see that coming did you?) to take the moving truck back. We ran by two more stores to pick up some things we needed and then headed back home. I was so excited to have the rest of the day to unpack and decorate. We had been home an hour (an hour people!!) when Kate slammed her finger in the screen door. She got it good. It was bleeding bad. Like Friday the 13th, gory movie bad. So, we loaded up and headed for the ER. We thought the hospital had a clinic in Mexico Beach, but it is closed now so we ended up back in P.C. at the hospital. Thankfully my Mom was able to keep Sarah and Eli. We stopped by a walk-in clinic but they sent us to the ER saying they would have a surgeon there and more people to hold her down. That did not comfort me AT ALL! I told Josh when she busted her head open they just glued it back together! They really did. Well, after waiting and waiting and waiting, we saw the dr. and she didn’t need stitches. They did an x-ray and it wasn’t broken. So, all of that and she got a band-aid. Oh yeah, and a teddy bear, sucker and two stickers. J It was neat for me though because I did my social work internship at that very hospital and used those teddy bears for a project I did. I would go in the rooms of kids who came to the ER and used a medical kit to let the kids take the bear’s temperature and blood pressure and stuff like that so they would know what to expect when the dr. came in. Several of the nurses did that while we were there and it was neat. Anyway, that took up most of that day. I told Josh I was pretty sure we were really going to like our house if we ever got to be at it. J
Our weekend was full as our friend’s Matt and Cortnee came from Montrose to bring Josh’s car. We had a lot of fun with them and they got to go to our first official church service with us on Sunday. From Sat.-Tues. we filled our days with seafood, church, bowling, drag racing, pool playing, downtown shopping and more eating. They left Wednesday morning and that afternoon my Mom and sister, Jenny came out to see us. Jenny is in town because I am giving her a baby shower this Saturday and I am SO excited! She was living in Alaska when she had my nephew, Luke, so I am thrilled to get to give her a shower this time. My Mamaw, Aunt Becky and cousin Hannah are also coming to town today. In fact, they may be getting to my Mom’s in the next hour. So, we will soon be heading back to Panama to pick up our nightstands we had to order (please pray with me that they are NOT as heavy as the dresser!), do some shower shopping and eat supper with them.

So, to wrap this up, we’ve met the police, been to the ER and oh yeah, Daisy found a way out of our fenced yard. Some things never change!!!