Moving Countdown

All I can say - we have had two nights of power packing and I'm already completely, utterly sick of it. Last night I packed up most of the kitchen, but have a few random pieces still to pack up. Ben tackled the storage unit in our basement - that was a big job. This morning, Eli helped me work on packing the things in his closets, but every time I put something in a box, he would help by pulling it back out. :) I've had a few friends offer to watch him so I can get more packing done during the day, but I think he would go nuts right now if I dropped him off at someone's house and left. He really is not sure what to make of all of this mess and the changes to his little home.

I vowed to Ben last night - next time we are getting full-fledged movers. I don't care how much it costs - I don't ever want to pack all of this junk again. Either that, or we're never moving again. Both options are fine with me!

Many of our friends have moved multiple times and I honestly don't know how they have done it - this is just our second move in almost 8 years of marriage! We had a condo in Utah for 18 months and then lived here for 6 years. However, I'm afraid though that living here for so long (before Eli was born) helped us accumulate WAYYYYY too much stuff.

Two more nights of power packing left before we need to be done! Yikes. The biggest thing I'm thankful for this week though - the weather! It's been in the mid-70s and just perfect. No a/c needed and so unusual for August in Chicago. It's made such a difference in what I'm able to get done - I feel a million times better when it's not 90 degrees in our place.

More Pictures of the Mess

I realize the pictures from yesterday don't really show what our place really looks like right now. So here are some better examples...

Eli exploring around the boxes

I packed most of those boxes that are put together yesterday; I think it was 11 total. Last night we couldn't get to the table very easily, so we had a Piero's Pizza picnic in the entryway. Eli had so much fun eating while free to wander, not cooped up in his booster. He would take bites of pizza and then spin in circles, then laugh and often came close to landing on the pizza box.

My current goal is to pack some more today, then take a break until the end of next week. After two days of packing, I've actually make decent progress. It definitely helps that we already packed up a lot of our junk and put it in storage before we put our condo on the market. Now I just have to come up with some activities for myself and Eli that will keep us cool in the heat.

Well, the mailman's here - I know this because the dog is barking barking barking upstairs. 12 days until we load the moving truck and say GOOD RIDDANCE to the dog! 13 'til I'm sleeping in full air conditioning. Who knows how long before I'll feel like my life is back to normal?? :)

And the Packing Begins

We are in the midst of packing. I really dislike packing.

So I take lots of breaks and take pictures of my child instead.

For the most part Eli seems oblivious to the mess, besides having more obstacles to get around.

He's happiest of course when I am giving him my full attention, rather than packing.

One funny thing with packing is that you find all kinds of weird things you forgot you had. Eli found Ben's safety glasses from the good ol' chemical engineering days and had fun trying them on. Or at least trying to try them on.

And here is my self-portrait of the belly at 14 1/2 weeks. Not the most flattering shot, but I don't care. Can you tell my button is unbuttoned? These shorts are getting a little tight. It's funny - the UPS guy buzzed our ringer at noon and it dawned on me that I was still not dressed for the day (I did shower this morning, but it is SO hot in our condo once again). So I hurried up and threw this on before he made it up the stairs.

Back to packing...

Oh - one more thing. Have I mentioned Ben leaves tomorrow for a backpacking trip in Yosemite with some of his brothers, dad, and sister-in-law? He will be gone until the following Sunday. (they have had this planned forever, before we knew about all of the crazy changes coming up) We will move our stuff onto the moving truck four days after he gets back. I'm hoping to get most of the packing done while he's gone. As I'm pregnant and chasing a toddler. Let's hope I'm not a frazzled, crazy person by the end of next week...