10, 698, from 2, 1 to 3, 2, 1, 9 and 3

Life by the numbers since my last post: ten days later.... and I'm finally back online! With only 698 new emails in my inbox.

But life is good -- very good. We have moved all of the essentials from our 2 bedroom 1 bath bungalow into the 3 bedroom 2 bath apartment.

In one day, I might add. Started the move Saturday morning and were sleeping here Saturday night!

I'm still astonished by that. I was there, and I can't quite see how it adds up. S had recruited a group of nine previous students of his who had volunteered to help with the heavy lifting, which was the only reason it all worked out so well. That and the fact that Auntie L so kindly offered to take the kids to the museum for the morning so that they would have something fun to do and not be in the way. There was no way that S and I would have managed the whole thing by ourselves in a day, especially with the kids underfoot. Would have taken us weeks -- or we would have had to hire help!

It turned out that one of the students worked part time for his uncle's moving company, and he basically took charge of the operation. S had the good sense to recognize experience when he saw it, so he stepped back and allowed the younger folks to take charge, more or less. I'd initially planned to use the morning hours while the kids were with L to finish a bunch of stuff -- the kids' room hadn't even been started with packing! -- but it ended up that I was part of the team ferrying carloads over to the new apartment while the big truck was being loaded. (Somebody had to open up the apartment, after all.) Then I had to meet L at the apartment to get the kids settled for naptime. (Which went remarkably well, considering. I'd brought over sleeping bags and made the kids each a nest to settle into. Brilliant, though I say it myself). Then I stayed at the apartment while the kids did their rest time.

By 2:30 or so, as the kids got up from nap/rest, I was starting to get stressed out, imagining the amount of work left to do at the house. I headed over and walked in to see that almost everything had been packed! The students had buckled down and boxed up just about everything that wasn't nailed down. Astonishing. I was tickled pink! Talk about efficiency!

Turns out these students are mostly part of the group that S will be playing D & D with in the near future. (Which perhaps explains their enthusiasm for doing such a good job -- doesn't hurt to do Big Favors for their future D M, right?) As S put it, while I was raving about the incredible job they did helping us, "Just wait until you see them working together in a dungeon!" The whole thing just makes me smile.

On Sunday, we started the daunting task of unpacking everything that had been whisked into boxes during the previous two weeks. Of course we took enough time out of our schedule to celebrate BB's turning 3 years old. I still can't believe she's three!

Disbelief and a general sense of How The Heck Did I Get This Lucky have been the pervasive emotions of the past 10 days. When I'm not feeling overwhelmed by the entire moving process. (Or the prospect of dealing with 698 emails. I was stealing computer time through the wireless on S's laptop every few days and watching the number grow but not dealing with it. Just too much to handle on a computer not my own, without my email filters!) Truly, it all seems a little hard to believe. We're living on a beautiful college campus? Rent-free? In a lovely little apartment -- that is bigger than our home? How the heck did we get so lucky, indeed. (Not to mention the fact that our moving day gave us a break in the rain during some of the wettest weather I've seen here!)

That little voice in my head keeps saying, "It's so crazy it just might work! But what's the catch? Something has to be subtracted, somewhere. Too many plusses!"

And so far, it is working very well! Even if it doesn't all quite add up. I'll take the emotional satisfaction over figuring out the math, any day of the week.