Saturday, May 1

Erika and Zach Move Again

Erika was getting tired of living in an apartment.  She was disgusted at the neighbors, the ones beside her were smokers and didn't care about the rules, the ones above dumped crap off their balcony and it got on their balcony and the ones below her had raging loud parties and didn't care how noisy they were.  She wanted more room, a yard for Emmett and away from there.  She was done.

Over the past few weeks she had been looking to see what was available around the northeast Thurston county area.  She found quite a few but some wanted specific things or they were already rented out and didn't change the status on their website or there were ones they didn't even want to bother with.  She finally found one north of I-5 over by Marvin and Hawks Prairie Roads.  She and Zach went to look at it and they said it had character.  They liked the yard and the rooms but not fond of the kitchen area.  They didn't have much of a choice so they applied and by the end of the week they were approved and going on their walk through.

Erika let us know that she and Zach were going to move into the house but couldn't until May 1st.  We all planned accordingly for that Saturday.  We were going to use everyone's vehicles, the two trucks and Dad's trailer.  I found some totes at my house and Doug's house she could pack stuff in.  Dad dropped off some cardboard boxes for her to pack up as well.

I told Erika that I would be working a half day on the Friday before if she needed any help packing stuff.  She said that would be nice if I could.  I told her I didn't know what time exactly since I was getting my eye appointment done but would be over as soon as I was done.  I headed over there and we spent most of the late afternoon packing up the kitchen stuff, the bathroom stuff and the linens.  We tried to fill up as many bins as we could so the next day wasn't so daunting.  It was approaching dinner time and Erika asked what I had planned for dinner and I told her that I didn't.  Ben would be home soon since it was almost 5.  She said Zach would be home soon as well so we came up with a plan.  What was around the area that we could sit and eat in?  Erika told me to call Ben to see what he wanted and he said teriyaki.  Erika called Happy Teriyaki to ask if they allowed guests to sit in.  They said yes.  We let Ben know to meet us over at Happy T at 6:00.

Of course Ben was late and didn't get there until about 6:15 or so.  Lame.  We all ordered our food and sat and at it by the window.  We talked about the moving plan for the next day some more.  She said that she wanted everyone there around 9 a.m.  Ben went back home and I went to their apartment to help do a couple more things before I went home for the evening.

We stayed up way too late but set our alarms for 8:30 anyway.  I knew I didn't need a whole bunch of time to get ready.

The alarms went off at 8:30 and I got out of bed and started getting ready to go.  It was going to be a mild day so I dressed accordingly.  Ben finally go out of bed and got ready to go.  He also had to do a pack test and a shift at the South Sound Speedway later so he could only help out until about 11-11:30 or so.  We got there around 9 a.m. and wondered where everyone else was.  Apparently, Doug got a late start which made Dad late and Mom was late anyways.  They were all going to get here hopefully around 10.  We found out Zach had already taken a load of stuff over in his car before Ben and I got there.

Erika, Ben, Zach and I loaded up all of our vehicles and took stuff over to the house so we were doing something while we waited for everyone to get there.  Erika stayed behind at the apartment with Emmett while we all unloaded the stuff we hauled over there into the house.  We asked Zach which rooms were what so we could drop off the stuff into the appropriate rooms.  We were probably there for no more than 20 minutes.  We went back to the apartment and within minutes Doug and Dad showed up with the two trucks and the yellow trailer.  Mom showed up a few minutes after that.

This load was mostly the furniture, large items and awkwardly long items that wouldn't fit into the other vehicles.  The other random odds and ends went into the back of the cars.  Just before we were ready to head over with the first truck loads, Ben had to leave to do his stuff.  Erika and Zach thanked him for coming over and helping.  We took the first "official" load with the six vehicles over to the house and unloaded them into the rooms they wanted them in.  

Dad had a heck of a time backing up the trailer because the driveway was so weird.  We managed to get it where he wanted it.  Erika gave everyone who hasn't been there a quick tour of the house.

By the time we were heading back over to the apartment it was after noon.  Erika had ordered pizza from Pizza Hut and was going to go pick it up.  I called to ask her if she needed anything and she said to stop at the store and pick up some Cokies and paper plates.  Mom and I stopped at the Fred Meyer for less than an hour.  Mom picked up a house warming flower for Erika to have at her new place.

We took a break, ate pizza and then finished packing up the rest of the stuff in the apartment except for the cleaning stuff, the mop and the vacuum.  Erika said she would finish cleaning out the apartment later this week.  

We all caravanned back over to the house, unloaded that stuff, talked to one of her neighbors named Nancy and hung out until we figured out what we were going to do when we were done at the house.  Erika, Mom, Jenn and I went to Costco while Doug, Dad and Zach went to go get the washer and dryer from Grammie and Grandpa's house.

Costco was insane, we should have gotten another cart but we made it work, I bought the least amount of stuff, while Mom bought stuff for the office, Jenn and Erika both bought dog food and Erika decided she wanted to buy this outdoor grill/fire pit for Zach.  I felt bad for the check out clerks but they were good sports and we figured it out.  We took it out to the vehicles and managed to fit everything into Mom's Expedition and my Escape.  Doug called us and told us to head to the Home Depot to purchase some new hoses for the washer and an exhaust snake for the dryer.  Erika also found some Baby Shark decals for their bathroom.  We all went back to the house and they got both the washer and dryer working pretty well.  Mom took Jenn into Rainier to grab the car, Dad took Doug home and I stayed and helped Erika unpack and put away blankets and linen.

I got tired so I went home, got a shower, ate some Caesar salad and Ben came home after the races around 9:30 or so.  I watched some television and worked on my blog before getting ready for bed.  I knew I was going to be a little bit sore the next day.

**The next day I took two loads of stuff over to her house that has been being stored at my house (the closet and the garage) and as far as I know everything is over at her house now.**

Next Adventure:  A Mother's Day Hike:  Staircase Rapids Loop - Olympic National Park

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