You Know You’re Moving When….

You know you're moving when…

1. Friends come over to help you load your possessions onto a truck. You realize just how much stuff you have when friends say things, such as, "Isn't there a law about how many guitars you can own?"
   
2. You cry, laugh, or stare into space at seemingly random intervals.
   
3. Your son comments during the drive, "It feels like we're just going on a vacation, a temporary time away for fun. It doesn't seem real."
   
4. With so much on your mind and in your arms, you misjudge the distance from trunk door to your face as you pull the trunk door down hard and it hits your nose with a force that sends you to your knees.
   
5. You rush to the hotel room, halfway to your moving destination, and proceed to ice your nose praying that you won't have two black eyes. Your husband joins you in this prayer.
   
6. Arriving exhausted to the new house, nothing feels right. You're exhausted and your eyes are a little red. The band-aid covering the gash on your nose completes the look.
   
7. When meeting neighbors you don't know whether to embarrass them by pointing out they are staring at your nose and then embarrass yourself by explaining what you did to your nose or to just ignore their staring.
   
8. You choose to pretend they don't notice your nose.
   
9. On the way back from Wal-mart to pick up much needed household paper items, you are pulled over by a friendly state-trooper who is alerting you to the fact that a headlight is out. He follows the statement by saying, "What happened to your nose?!"
   
10. The entire move is about your nose.
    
11. After walking your son to school, you begin to walk back home with your husband and the remaining two children (who don't get to start until the following day), when a sudden torrential rain downpour begins. Your husband graciously offers to ride the daughter's bike home fast and bring back the car to pick you up. You huddle with the girls under a park gazebo. Ten minutes later a SOAKED husband bicycles back to you (knees hitting his chest as he bikes) because he's completely lost in the maze of subdivision curves and street name changes. You realize with your husband's help that there is a shortcut that would help get you home. You decide to walk in the downpour and your husband rides off fast again. Five minutes later your husband calls your cellphone (as you are almost home) and he's lost again. You almost give yourself a hernia laughing so hard but he's so angry he doesn't appreciate the humor. Everyone arrives home and puts on dry clothes and drinks hot cocoa. You tell yourself someday he'll see the humor and try hard not to laugh but end up laughing until you cry.
    
12. Your son has a fabulous day at his new school and you cry.
    
13. Your youngest daughter has a horrible day at school and you cry.
    
14. Your eldest daughter has a fabulous day at her new school and you cry. Followed by a cry of relief when your youngest daughter also has a good second day, thus redeeming the first day.
    
15. The move is now all about your nose and crying.
    
16. You can't find the coffee beans you packed and you cry then praise God that Starbucks is five minutes away.
    
17. You come close to throwing numerous tantrums at the annoyances of transferring all business and personal records to a different state, and not being able to put all your possessions in their proper places.
    
18. You spend too much time at the kids' new schools and realize you will just be adjusting to the new schedule when daylight savings time hits. Friends and family call throughout the day and you return to your happy self.
    
19. In the midst of the chaos, you walk upstairs to find your youngest son flipping through all the days of his A Paper Airplane A Day Calendar Kit. When you ask what he's doing he says, "Looking for Men's Day." You say, "HUH?" He responds, "Women's Day is on March 8 so it's only fair that there's got to be a Men's Day somewhere!"
20. You realize that no matter where you are, your family gives you great joy and a house doesn't make a home. Home is truly where the heart is.