We got to the airport a little early, and had to wait for 20 minutes or so for Brenda and Bug to arrive. When they finally walked around the corner and we saw each other, Bug smiled hugely and ran towards us as Annalie danced a little with the effort of keeping herself from running past the security sign. They hugged each other happily, then held hands and chattered nonstop as we walked to the baggage claim. The past month is probably the longest they’ve gone without seeing each other in the past two years!

That night after the kids were in bed, Brenda and I worked on unpacking the kitchen. When we came across the box that had our ridiculously-large-for-people-who-don’t-really-drink-much wine collection in it, I found a bottle of cabernet sauvignon and decided it was just what we needed. Apparently I was right because around midnight we finished the kitchen.

Yesterday we celebrated my birthday by having lunch with friends and painting pottery, which was a lovely way to spend my birthday. I was also treated to many emails, texts, Facebook and Twitter greetings, and phone calls wishing me the best. My birthday was rather anticlimactic this year what with being in the middle of moving and everything, but all the kind, funny notes made me smile and feel loved. Thanks for all of those!

Today we unpacked a bit, then went on a monster trip to IKEA where we bought Annalie a dresser and picked out a couch and living room rug to buy later and Annalie and Bug discovered that they completely love Småland (the kids’ play area). We were all wiped out by the time we got home. Also, it’s been raining all day (yay!) and the hole in our ceiling we were assured “is just cosmetic, the roof is fixed, we just need to repair the ceiling” has been leaking on and off (boo!). I used my recently-unpacked kitchen to make some really delicious homemade chili which was perfect for the rainy day. While I made the chili Brenda cleared the empty, flattened boxes out of the living room and did some more unpacking. I’m starting to think we’ll have this house DONE in no time.

There are more photos on my Flickr in Brenda & Bug’s D.C. Unpacking Adventure, if you wanna see ‘em.

This is when the whole moving-across-the-country thing gets easier, once the movers are here and have packed up most of our belongings. We’ve already organized and sorted and done laundry and figured out what we need to take with us on our road trip and set that all aside. Once the movers take everything else with them, it’s not our responsibility any more. Now we just have to drive, find pet-friendly hotels with pools to stay at, visit some family and friends along the way, and find a place to live once we get there, preferably before Troy has to start his new job. Piece of cake. (Ha.)

The house is full of boxes, stacks and stacks of them. The movers left our beds up so we could stay here tonight. Tomorrow we’ll do a last load of laundry to wash the sheets and towels we’re using, and then those will all get packed and loaded onto the truck with everything else.

Our dear friends the Jays are moving to Japan next week. What with one thing and another, we hadn’t seen them in months. We barely managed to see them at all before we all left California. From the time Troy got home till now, we were pretty much busy every day they were free and vice-versa. But they managed to carve out a couple of hours between meetings and appointments and entertaining out-of-town visitors to come have lunch with us today, and we’re so very glad they did. Seeing them is always wonderful, even when months or years have gone by in between times, which makes perfect sense because they’re framily.

Framily is D’s fabulous word for friends who are such great friends that they’re like family. Except framily is better, because there’s no baggage, no drama or getting mad if you can’t make it to Thanksgiving dinner. There’s just, “Too bad, hope you can make it next time!” Everyone should have framily like the Jays.

We had a great crew of guys packing us out today. They were all efficient, professional, friendly, and courteous. We always bribe our movers to handle our stuff with care show our appreciation to our movers by supplying them with drinks and food throughout the day. Usually we have coffee, bottled water, and soda on hand as well as offering to buy them pizza or some other takeout for lunch. This morning I was going to make a Starbucks run, and went around the house asking each of the guys if I could bring them back a coffee. One guy asked for black coffee, another said decaf with cream would be great. And the biggest, burliest, tattooed-est guy asked if I could get him a grande iced caramel macchiato. That totally made my day.

Tomorrow they’ll load up the truck. Our car will get picked up so it can get shipped across the country. We’ll clean and take care of some odds and ends, maybe go see a movie if we have time, eat dinner at one of our favorite local restaurants. Saturday the carpet will be cleaned, we’ll meet with our landlords, and then we’ll head east. Good thing we’re planning to visit family in Texas for a couple of days along the way; that’ll give the snow more time to melt before we get to D.C.

Yep, Lauren’s been here for a couple of days now, and we’re having fun. We’ve fed her Mexican food and Italian food and Chick-Fil-A and homemade french toast. We’ve introduced her to Fresca and she’s introduced us to Tim Tams, which are delightful.

We’ve painted pottery and made Shrinky-Dinks. We’ve taken her to Michaels twice, where she’s bought lots of yarn that she can’t buy at home; and to my local specialty yarn shop once, where she bought more yarn and I allowed myself to be (1) convinced that I could learn to knit (gulp!) socks, and (2) talked into buying some really gorgeous sock yarn (not pictured).

We made plans to go to the Air & Space Museum, but ended up postponing them because the morning got away from us. We tried to go to Old Town but when we got there we saw all the red shirts and jackets and realized that it was overrun with tourists from Nebraska who are in town for the Holiday Bowl. Normally we’d be quite pleased to see Nebraskans, but in this case they’d taken all the parking spaces and left none for us. We ended up postponing our Old Town trip too, but I did take Lauren to our local post office where she watched me mail packages to A. Erin and Sarah. I’m sure that was very exciting.

Then, after a trip to Ralphs for some groceries, the minivan broke down. When I called my insurance company’s roadside assistance number, I was informed by a recording that due to “severe weather” in my area the wait for service was averaging four hours. You know you’re in Southern California when misty rain is “severe weather.” My mom and Annalie waited for us at the store while Lauren and I walked the half-mile back to my house to get the car so we could go back and get them and the groceries.

Later on in the evening, Lauren realized her credit card had been hacked and someone had bought $700 worth of online gaming with it. She had to cancel it, and tomorrow while I’m seeing about getting the minivan towed and fixed, she’ll be waiting around my house for someone to bring her an emergency replacement Visa because it’s kind of nice to have such a thing for, y’know, emergencies when one is traveling overseas.

The good news is, we’ve been catching Lauren up on Season 2 of Chuck, since Season 3 will be starting in just over a week. That’s why I have not blogged much: we’ve been spending our evenings crocheting & knitting, talking, eating too much junk food, and watching episodes of Chuck. Despite theft and breakdowns and interrupted plans, life is good.