The joys of moving

Or rather, not.

The last two months of my life have been taken up with moving- finding a new place, packing up everything, physically moving, cleaning the old place, and now, finally, unpacking. As if doing all of that was not enough on its own, Ella has been teething like crazy and has entered the stage of separation anxiety. Fun times.

Thankfully we have some awesome friends who came and helped us out, and amazingly everything was out of the old place and moved into the new by 11:15am. We still can't locate most things and the place is a wreck, but it's a relief not to have the worry hanging over my head.

While I'm glad that we now have a fenced-in yard for the dogs, more space for the three of us, and are paying less rent to boot, it was bittersweet leaving our old place. That was the place where we learned we were becoming a family of three, where we took Ella home to from the hospital, where she grew from a tiny helpless newborn to a big girl who cruises around furniture, waves hi, and tries to talk.

And if I'm being completely honest, part of the reason why I'm having such a hard time with moving is because I had hopes that when we moved out of the townhouse, it would be because Jim had found a permanent position and we were moving to our forever home. I know he is just as frustrated with the job market and still being a postdoc as I am, and it certainly is not for lack of trying (right now it is 9:30pm and he is still sitting there working on job applications).

Thinking on the positive side, we are fortunate that he has a job, and that it is one that allows me to stay at home with Ella. He still has over a year left on his contract, and his research supervisor has never had a postdoc finish up their contract without finding a permanent position. As for the house situation, as one of my friends told me, even though it's not perfect, I will find ways to make it my own, and eventually it will feel like home.