The past few days have been a maelstrom of events regarding the move and have left me totally frazzled.
This is a play by play of yesterday's events:
The first issue is not one that I have had to suffer the brunt of. Poor Odie has had to get up and leave way before he is scheduled to be at work because he has had to go in and deal with HMO and TMO. The guy that we saw at HMO on Friday after our meeting with Hunt to schedule our move to the new house, assured us that he would have the "very short bit" of paperwork that needed to be done ready for Odie to pick up first thing Monday morning. Fat Chance! Odie sat in the office on Monday from the time they opened at 9 until they left for lunch at 11 with no paperwork to show for it. It seems that the guy that we saw on Friday is now on leave (translate -vacation) and did not get the paperwork done before he left. There was also a problem with the funds that they have set aside for people who choose to move themselves. Apparently the account is EMPTY! So, Odie was instructed to return yesterday when they open with the hopes that the problem would be resolved and our paperwork would be ready for him to take to TMO for further processing. Paperwork was not ready and they hoped to have it ready for him to pick up this morning at 9am. Poor guy!!
Meanwhile, at home, I was on the phone with the Post Office trying to get our mail forwarded to the new address effective the Monday after we move. Apparently, the new address is not in their system yet, so we cannot have mail delivered there until the problem is resolved. No biggie, to the back burner that to do item goes.
Next, I called our banks to have our address changed in their records to the new address. Simple task, right? Of course not! With the first bank, I got a chickie babe on the phone who wanted to know why I was updating our address if we do all of our transactions with them online. <insert head slap here.> After convincing her that it WAS important that they have our new address in the records, I hung up. The second bank was a little easier to convince but had almost the exact same question.
My next task was to contact our paper delivery service and have our newspaper subscription switched to the new house effective the Wednesday after we move. (We only get Sunday and Wednesdays for the coupons/ads). Simple process. Yay!
Just after I hung up with the newspaper people, my cell phone rings and it is the moving company that Hunt has contracted for the move. (Remember we are doing a do-it-yourself move). Apparently, when we did our paperwork with the people at the office, the lady had marked that we requested a contract move by mistake. After trying several times to convince this guy nicely that a mistake had been made, I finally had to threaten trespassing charges if he showed up at my front door to "assess our estimated household load size." I assured him that I would have the problem resolved and we would NOT be needing his services.
I called Odie and let him know to make sure that HMO and TMO were aware of the mistake and to please correct it. Problem solved.
Next came the phone call from the Cox (cable, internet, telephone) guy. Apparently, they double booked the technician AFTER I had scheduled my appointment for our move in day at 1pm and they needed me to reschedule......... Um, why not reschedule the people that were booked after me?! He wanted to know if I could reschedule for the same day but at 9am. After nearly 10 minutes of trying to convince him that this was not possible because we are not even getting the keys to the new house until 11am, he finally got the hint and came up with the 'brilliant' idea to see if the other people could be rescheduled to another time.
By this time I was vibrating so I decided to "take a break" from the whole move related chaos and feed the kids lunch and have my second cup of coffee of the day.
After lunch, I called the County Treasurer to find out how we update the dogs' city licenses so that they were 'legal' after the move. Of course it entailed a lengthy conversation about the zoning of the new housing and whether it is in York County or the city of Hampton and whether the address even exists. No progress, to the back burner this task goes.
Next came the call to the DMV to find out about updating our Driver's Licenses. You guessed it, address does not exist in their records yet so we cannot update our Licenses, vehicle registrations, or voter registration cards. Ugh! That back burner is getting mighty full!
Of course the whole Soap Opera of events between ourselves and the wonderful people at NJ department of taxation continues over last year's state tax return and the Homestead Act but that is not move related.
The final bit of chaos before I gave up the ghost for the day came in the form of a call from the secretary at Aubrey's school. I had called earlier in the week to inform them of our new address and to assure them that we were still within the same school zone so Aubrey will still be attending that school. The secretary wanted to know if I could please bring in a utility bill or other piece of mail with the new address on it as well as a copy of our lease showing the new address. After explaining that we are not even moving into the new house Until the first day of school and that our mail cannot be forwarded until then, she said that just a copy of our lease would be fine for now. No problem but I hope she understands that I am not dropping everything right this minute and driving the 45+ minutes to the school to deliver said copy of the lease. I will bring it into the Open house.
Once I got off of the phone with her it was almost 3 o'clock and time to get the kids ready to go to their Kids' club activity at the community club house. I was very thankful for the reprieve from the trials and tribulations of moving. I enjoyed watching the kids (Booter and Speed Racer) make foam picture frames to display their favorite summer pictures. Then I let them enjoy some much needed play time at the jungle gym while I enjoyed the peaceful solitude of the nice weather. When we got home, we took the dogs for their evening walk to the new house and back (trying to acclimate them to the sights and smells of the new house and yard). We ended the night with America's Got Talent and some popcorn. I went to bed feeling defeated and like I had not accomplished much.
This morning I woke up with the ambition to get everything that I knew I could get done without obstacles accomplished. I started the coffee maker and washing machine at the same time. While I enjoyed my first cup of cofffe, the phone rang. It was Odie. They got the paperwork done and he went to TMO. TMO did their little paperwork dance and everything was set. He also let me know that we may actually be able to collect the money for the move early according to the people at TMO which would come in VERY handy!
After getting off of the phone with him, I switched the wash over to the dryer and headed into the dining room to sort my scrapbooking and crafting stuff to start boxing it up. My phone rang again, and it was the DMV. Apparently, the address was submitted to record TODAY and I can go in anytime this week or next and get my license, vehicle registrations, and voter registration switched over. Great!
I was feeling pretty good about things at this point and over the course of today am proud to say that I got 11 loads of laundry washed, dried, folded and ready to be put away or packed. (Mind you, there was not that much dirty laundry. I wanted to get EVERYTHING in the house washed before it gets packed for the new house.)
The kids got Booter's room cleaned and played nicely with one another all day. Wow what a difference 1 day can make!!
I am off to finish refolding the laundry that my wonderful mooshey pup has unfolded to make a nest of and watch my Royal Pains before I call it a night. Goodnight!
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