Moving, Moving, Moving, and... STOP, Break it Down!

I have a piece of advice for everyone out there regarding moving:

Do not wait until the day before your move is scheduled to start packing.  Even if you think you don't have that much stuff... unless you are a gypsy, you DO have that much stuff. I promise you, you do.

Okay, now that that is out of the way, I'll admit that maybe my logic was flawed in planning this move.  I really believed that we didn't have that much stuff here.  I thought the worst was behind me, that after the six month packing ordeal that preceded our move to England, there was no way we needed more than a couple days of packing and that we could do it all in a few van trips with a hired guy (of the older and infirm-er variety, not the professional mover-variety).

I am here to inform you that my husband is 38 and I am on the eve of my 38th birthday and WE ARE TOO DAMN OLD for this line of reasoning.

So, yes, my logic was tragically flawed.  But we all survived, the move is over and now the fun part of unpacking everything is halfway done, too.  Unpacking is way more fun because you get to keep all the things you haven't used in the boxes and then stash it all away until the next move.  Oh, people, I am having way too much fun in life, aren't I?  ;-)

Actually, though, I AM having way too much fun.  We decided at the last minute that we wanted to throw a party for our friends in the village, so the last few weeks were really bordering on frantic as we planned the party, planned the move, and prepped for a house guest (one of my best friend's daughters came over for a week, sadly for her it was during the move).

And did I mention that for two of those weeks my husband was finishing finals and then gone to the USA?  Yeah, so I was supposed to be doing all this packing and planning while also taking care of the kids essentially solo.

You see how we ended up with this moving debacle now, right?

 This photo was taken on Sunday. Two days before the move started.

 That was every single box that had been packed so far.  

Between all the stressing, though, it has been an amazing time.  June is beyond gorgeous here in the UK because every rose bush in the country seems to be in glorious bloom. Yes, every single one.  I'm not making that up. (I'll have to post this picture later, I thought I uploaded it, but it is amiss!)

I can neither confirm nor deny how much I may or may not have had to drink 

by the time this photo was taken. All I know is that I had way too much fun karaoke-ing at our party. :)

Perhaps not quite as much fun as this woman, though:

W0000000000000T!!!!