I'm sitting in our kitchen - our very own kitchen, with so many cupboards that nearly one third of them are empty, a far cry from all of those galley kitchens in my past - and marveling at how we have survived the past few days.
First there was the cold virus, which pulverized Armando's normal Iron Man self into a sniffling, sneezing, feverish mess and left me not too far behind. Our realtor felt so bad for us at closing that she showed up at our hotel room a few hours later, armed with homemade green chile chicken soup (the New Mexico hangover/cold cure, according to our loan officer) and corn bread muffins still hot from the oven. Too bad we couldn't really smell or taste it.
Then the homeowners (wait, that's now us! Woo-hoo!) er, previous owners were still vacuuming and loading up their vehicles at 6:30 p.m. when they were supposed to be gone by 5. Consequently, they left a few things behind: their grill, some houseplants that I'm praying can survive living with the likes of a black thumb like me, little bits of dog food on the floor.
Bless some new friends that actually volunteered to help us move in. They met us at the hotel where we promptly filled up the back of their SUV (how did we ever hide all of that stuff in one little room? Or even get it there in the first place?) and then stood with us in the driveway while the previous owners scrambled to vacate the premises. We had to get creative in entertaining their 2 1/2 year-old during this process, but luckily the front yard is all stones and she fell for the "bring me a round one! a red one! a blue one! a sparkly one!" trick. Meanwhile, Anika and their six month-old were parked in their car seats on the curb, the latter happily sucking on her pacifier, my little attention lover sniffling with a tiny cold of her own and complaining about the heat, the wait, the sunshine on her head, etc. Or so we think - hard to tell when they can't talk yet.
At any rate, we finally filed inside and my friend and I watched the girls while our husbands unloaded the U-Haul contents into the garage. It's a bit humbling and overwhelming at the same time to see all of your belongings, the trappings of your life, piled up inside of a garage. It helps if it's your garage, but let me tell you, 48 hours later and we're still carrying boxes into the house and trying to figure out where to put things. Actually, we're still at that stage of trying to figure out where things ARE. I finally found the towels this evening, but not before drying off with a bath mat that had been used as a cushion in between glass frames and probably had 3 1/2 months of dust and grime on it. Eh, at least I was able to shower.
Anika, the smart little perceptive thing that she is, senses that everything is in chaotic upheaval and that she's in her fourth home base in as many months. Somehow I missed it, but in the past week or so she's gotten really good at rolling from back to front and scooting around. When I set her down, she ends up several feet away, sometimes happily and sometimes realizing she's got her head against the wall and that hurts, dangit. Today I was hanging some clothes in the closet and suddenly realized her babbling sounded father away. Turns out she'd made it all the way from the middle of our mattress (which is still on the floor) onto a pillow on the floor. No bump, no complaining, nada. I've got to grow a pair of eyes in the back of my head. All moms have them. I'm wondering when mine are going to start to come in.
But oh, to be home. I've caught Armando wandering around the yard with a beer in his hand and a look of pure contentment on his face, and yesterday morning we witnessed a true Albuquerque classic: the colorful hot air balloons floating above our house just after sunrise. He also told me tonight at dinner that he can see the stars from his office upstairs, and that they go all the way to the ground.
Hey, it's late enough and miraculously I'm still up - think I'll head out now to see for myself.
No comments:
Post a Comment