1. Always know where you packed the checkbook.
2. Even if you place an order for the internet, it doesn't mean it actually went through. So, don't wait a week thinking it will be turned on on Friday...because it won't be. And when you place the second order call back to verify, because the operator you place that second order with might not put your last name or apartment number on the order.
3. Living in Barack Obama's neighborhood (he lives a block from the chapel...which is 5 blocks from our house) isn't as flashy as you think.
4. Janitors have it rough. We now have cafeteria tiles throughout our entire house. CAFETERIA TILES. With patches done in whatever color they happened to have handy. It's perennially dusty, no amount of sweeping will clean it, and when a kid falls on it they will get hurt. I think I'm going to get some of that powder substance janitors put on throw up for the winter flu season. Just get me a push broom and a retractable key ring and I'm set!
5. If you drop a remotely fragile item on cafeteria tiles, it's broken.
6. City streets are LOUD and my boys are amazing sleepers. We hear buses, trucks, sirens, horn honks, car alarms, people yelling and loud music all day and all night and they just sleep through it all.
7. Living in married student housing is like living in the dorms (or at the UN). I never lived in the dorms (or the UN) and so it's kind of fun to have people popping in more (and speaking other languages). Plus, it's more incentive to keep my house clean. (Expect this aspect to potentially be annoying in a few months.)
8. Hand washing your dishes isn't all that bad. (Expect this aspect to definitely be annoying in a few months.)
9. If you have to take your clothes to a basement laundry facility remember: it's an intense job. You can use 5 washers and get it all done in 2 hours, which is very nice, but it's a busy two hours fraught with taking your laundry up and down 8 floors. Again and again. And, it will feel like it costs a fortune.
10. I love Atlanta Georgia.
11. I remember not loving Atlanta Georgia, so I have great hopes to love Chicago Illinois.
12. I don't really handle change as gracefully as I would like.
13. Kids love elevators. And when they hear those doors open they go a running and giggling in.
14. My kids really aren't that good or that bad in church. In Atlanta I thought they were the worst kids in the history of sacrament meeting. But the Hyde Park ward is incredibly rowdy. There are lots of tantrums, loud talkers and screams. As much as I truly miss the Peachtree Corners ward...Sundays just got so much easier!
But most importantly this move has taught me that wherever Matt and the boys are will feel like home. As we were saying our goodbyes in Atlanta our last Sunday the boys had already left to spend the weekend with Grandma Jan and Papa before the long drive to Chicago. I felt like my heart was already leaving Atlanta because the boys were gone. Matt and I both felt a real weakening of our home ties to Atlanta because we knew that the boys wouldn't be living there in the near future. I felt so anxious to get out and get to them. As we've unpacked and organized (and as I've had about twenty meltdowns due to the cafeteria floors and laundry expeditions) I still feel like this is home because of my three boys. Add the beautiful, instant social network of our new ward and I feel at home.
Life continues.
(And when our internet is fixed on Tuesday I'll be able to get more pictures posted.)
9 comments:
i love that post robyn. it brought tears when you talked about home being where your boys are. you are such a good mama and now im crying harder cause i miss you. i will make that trek sometime to chicago cause i think big cities are cool but also cause i think y'all are cooler! we love you.
What a fantastic post! I almost shed a tear...really.
I think (hope I'm right) that you are going to love Chicago and it could be a more difficult move than ATL was. ??
I'm excited to chat with you...when you feel up to that ;)
Taking a walk anytime soon? haha
I guess it would be a city walk and you would probably have to be a little more on gaurd though eh?
Love ya!
You'll end up loving Chicago Ill. And some day you will even feel all nostalgic about carrying laundry and doing dishes by hand. You will feel that way in 20 years, probably. Good luck!
I was so glad to read your reconnections to us bloggers after the hectic move. We'll see what we can do about the janitorial equipment, but have you considered some Costco rugs to cover the ugly tile?
Little guy Nico looks so grown up. I love his haircut.
Hand washing the dishes. Oh no. Be sure to wear gloves, so your hands don't look like mine when you're my age.
I LOVED hearing from you. Talk to you soon.
Gee, just reading barnes family post makes me cry too. I will have to swing by and pick her and Jackson up and come for a visit. What a fun thought! What amazing menfolk you have! I am so glad they have a good woman to keep them all in the right paths! As apprehensive as we were to see you go, I think it will be an absolutely wonderful, challenging, enlightening, exciting, double well worth it 20 months!!!!You have much support over the miles...
Love.
PS, cafeteria tiles are "mid- century modern" and VERY in fashion right now.
Yes Robyn, didn't you know that you are the height of fashion? I like LuAnn's idea's about the rugs...but then I have not done them myself because I can see that they will be another thing for me to clean...hmmmm what a dilemma.
Seriously, what a post! Your words come to life, and I loved hearing about all of your ups and downs with moving...I am confident that the good will definitly outweigh the not-so-good (notice I didn't say bad there) and you will cry when you have to say goodbye to Chicago.
20 months sounds like a short time to me...Grandma Jan has a great way to look at it!
Hey Robin, Aunt Courtney finally checking in. What a great post. I read it earlier and just read it to Uncle Danny. We both had tears in our eyes! BUT I am so happy that ya'll are finally there and together and getting unpacked! I am so excited about your move. I hope that you will learn to love Chicago, I do, but have never lived there so I guess I will just have to live through you the next 20 months!
I so wish that Grandmother Dollar was still with us...she would have made her way to Chicago and helped you with your laundry! She loved her some dirty clothes! If I get up there I promise I will do your laundry in honor and memory of her.
Take care and let us know if we can do anything to help.
Love, Courtney
Robyn!
You are so awesome. I could never do this. I am such a big baby. You are such a good wife to Matt. Reading your post made me realize how much you are going to learn- things I have yet to learn. I'm sure you will just be that much stronger. I really am a big baby.
Anyway I have bought really plush shaggy carpet rugs at Walmart for like 30 bucks. It was awhile ago so that might have changed. I would get rugs. You might end up only having like 1 box to move when you leave that apartment if you don't.
Have a great day. It was good to hear from you.
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