Bust a move

The Huskissons have moved.  That marks five times in less than three years, if you count the five weeks we lived with our friends last year (which I do, because it still meant putting everything in one place, then moving it all to another place, even though it was mostly still in boxes the second time around.  Okay, maybe we'll call it a .5?). 

My parents say that all newlyweds do this and it is absolutely to  be expected, though they did no such thing.  As far as I can tell, my parents have moved four times in almost 33 years of marriage.  Or I should say that they have moved themselves four times, since my parents have helped friends and children move dozens of times.  They are moving experts, and without them, Travis and I would not have made this move with our sanity in tact.  Travis is actually really good at packing, lifting, finding places for things, etc., but in my list of skills moving rates somewhere down between "levitating" (totally impossible without a miracle) and "petting rats" (so terrifying tears pour out of my eyes).  Also, there was the issue of timing.  We decided one Friday that we would be moving.  We had to do the actual move the following weekend, then be completely out of our old house and turn it over clean the weekend after that.  During that two week period:

• I was home for less than four days.  In the time I was home, I needed to spend at least eight hours in the office getting ready for my trips. 
• The Rangers were in the World Series.  This is no big deal, unless you are born and raised in Texas, live and breathe sports, consider the Rangers your favorite team of all time, and have supported them through over 25 years of generally not being very good.  I really really wanted Travis to be able to watch all of the games.
• Travis had three huge tests, one in biology, one in chemistry, and one in physics, in a two-day period. 

I saw all of these obstacles, as I am apt to do (apparently my first reaction to hearing any plan or idea is to immediately share at least 5 reasons why it won't work.  Not the best quality in a spouse), and felt like it was impossible.  But God is bigger than our problems, and brought some big-time helpers in my parents and our friend Brad.  There were some minor snafus:

• torrential downpour just as we were moving all of the nicest furniture across town in the bed of my dad's pickup
• our lovely puppy bounding about the parking lot with such enthusiasm that she injured the arm of my father in the middle of all the lifting
• the guy coming to set up our television and telling us that we can't actually use our old service in our new apartment so we would have no television for a few weeks, which was a particular problem since it was the MIDDLE OF THE WORLD SERIES

and some solutions:

• apparently a hair dryer is all it takes to keep a very wet suede couch from getting ruined (and boy are we lucky we paid extra for the special "stain coat" when we bought that couch)
• my dad is capable of using what he calls "physics" to lift things with one arm
• there is a clubhouse with a tv at the apartment complex, and Travis was able to watch at least part of 6 games there

Mostly it just went really well, and the clean-up the next weekend, sans parents, was a dream.  We left that house in beautiful condition after about 7 hours of cleaning and celebrated by curling up in front of the fireplace in our apartment (which works without sending billows of smoke across the living room, a la the fireplace at our old house!) and watching a movie (because we do not currently have television).  The whole experience made me marvel at the way God carries us through the little things that we think are big things (like moving to an apartment 15 minutes away to save money), the medium-sized things (like having terrible headaches all the time or not being able to pay the bills) and the actual big things.  He is always with us.