Moving...

Had the first of the moving companies walk through the house for an estimate. 

Very odd feeling to open all the closets and cabinets and show a stranger all of my things. 

How long will it take you, Mr. Stranger, to pack up all of this stuff and move it away? Do I have the normal amount of stuff? Do I have regular stuff? What is the weirdest stuff you've ever seen in a move? Hah! Trick question! If you answer I know you will talk about my stuff with other people! Good DAY!

It was interesting. I have another one coming on Tuesday to do it all again. And one company that just did it over the phone. Asked how big the house was and if we owned anything unusual. Well, how do you answer that? I don't know. I don't know what everyone else owns so how would I know if it was unusual? 

But it's a very odd feeling to walk a stranger around the house to look at everything. I felt at times like I should explain, I have this because...We aren't moving these things because...DON'T JUDGE ME! 

Though one moment was his weirdness and I was really glad it was me doing the walk through and not Brent.

We have Brent's father's flag from his funeral. It's in a case and the display has his ribbons and medals as well. It's a lovely presentation. Ann had it and when she died Brent didn't really feel comfortable having it put on the auction block with everything else so he brought it home. So anyway, we get to the basement walk through and the guy asks if that is a flag (the wooden box where it's stored). I tell him yes and he says that's cool. Then tells me about his mother having his grandfather's flag but it's just folded and in a corner with his picture and a few other things, nothing like the box. I show him the inside with the medals and the ribbons and he's like, "That's really great!"

Which, I mean, I totally got what he was saying. It's a lovely thing to have in remembrance. But really cool and really great don't really apply to things you can only get if someone dies. 

Unless you didn't know the person who died and they left you a lot of money. That's cool and great. 

I'm kidding. When Brent's grandmother died and left half of her belongings to our child (and half to George W. Bush) it was surreal. I mean she never met her great grandchild. Had zero relationship there. Pointedly skipped her daughter and her grandson to bestow everything to relative she'd never even met. It was surreal. The whole process was surreal.

But the having a nest egg part is cool and great, I guess. Not as cool as a flag in a box, of course, but okay in its own way.

It's moments like that though that make me really weirded out having people come in to pack and move us. It's not quite like being robbed, I mean we're paying them to take our stuff. But it's still uncomfortable to have someone paw through all of your things. Though sometimes it's like being robbed as well. In the Navy you could either have them move you or take the move allowance and do it yourself. We let them move us. So packing team comes in packs everything up then they show up at your new duty station and unload and unpack it all as well. So Florida to Idaho Falls they pack up our very small apartment, we didn't even own a dining room table at that point. The bed was on a metal frame, no bedroom set. Just a living room couch, mattress, box springs and our clothes and such. So quick small job. 

We get to Idaho Falls and you check off all of the boxes as they bring them in. Everything is numbered. Great. Then we do the unpacking and...

One of the wardrobe boxes has some of my clothes. Not all of my clothes. There is a whole section that should have been in there that isn't. All of the boxes made it to Idaho, just not all of the things. But since we signed off on the boxes in Florida and then again in Idaho the moving company is like...Welp, sorry, but have you checked your suitcases? Crazy. Just lost half of my clothes, no big deal. Then when we moved up here the first time we got settled in and unpacked. Everything is great. YEARS later pulling out the binoculars for a school thing for C and...what the hell? The case is there, empty. Check the other pair and same thing. They lifted the binoculars out of the cases, packed the cases and figured most people don't use their binoculars often enough to notice for a very long time. 

So sometimes it's like being robbed by people you paid to do it.

Hopefully this time that won't happen. I mean everything is going from the house to the truck to the new house so a lot less time for shenanigans. I am also local so there isn't the comfort level of knowing the person you ripped off is a thousand miles away. 

It still makes me a little tense though. 

But yeah, moving plans are moving right along. Now we just need to cross our fingers that the house will actually be ready in time.