The move itself went really smoothly; it was days leading up
to the move that was rough. Jackson
needs full attention, you can’t just plop him in front of TV or his favorite
toys, the iPad may give you 5 minutes.
You can’t expect you are going to get anything accomplished when he is
in the vicinity. I tried once and he
dumped the box I filled in 2.5 seconds flat. As I tried to clean up the dumped
items, he was clearing the table of the packing tape and sharpie. Oohhh a sharpie…sweet find for him as he was
taking the lid off to draw on the wall I patched and painted a few months ago…
Luckily I was able to grab him before that happened or before he had sharpie
mustache or tattoo arm sleeve. We did
have help watching him leading up to the day the movers showed up. Weekends and weeknights people would come
over and watch him which was very helpful. I know we couldn't have packed at all if we wouldn't have had that help.
The night before the movers came, I left the new home after
painting to help Sara with the last of what we could get packed in a box, you
know those hodge podge boxes of stuff that are not organized.. It was one of those kinds of packing nights. I remember getting home, taking a shower, and
then laying on the hardwood floor feeling like death warmed over. Sara and Jackson were on their way after
having dinner over at her parents, Andie was on her way to watch him, and I
could not move from the floor. Every
fiber of my being was sore. I have had
tough workouts throughout my career in sports and nothing even compared to how
my body felt at that moment. Even though
it was a brief moment of rest, I was able to muster up energy to help pack more
boxes.
I don’t remember going to bed that night, or how was I able
to get up the next morning. I left early
to meet the Charter guy at the new house.
Even then I couldn't just sit and wait because I wanted to make sure
what we had already brought over was out of the way of movers. Charter came and
had trouble getting tone on the line, so they had to run a new cable outside to
the house. I brought a laptop and a mac
as I know you need to test the connection once it is live. The Charter guy also had some tests he had to
perform, but I made him connect via a cable into my modem/router vs. giving him
my router configurations. The internet
was up, but there was one test of his that kept killing the connection. The Charter guy told me that most likely it
was modem and tried basically sell me a Charter modem. I explained to him that it was not the modem,
but the test itself, most likely this happens on all personal routers, he said
yes…for some reason they have trouble with this test. I believe this a ploy they use to get
customers to buy their crap. I explained
that it is cheaper for me to buy and configure my own equipment than it is to
rent Charter’s, there was no argument there.
I also explained that I have had this modem at two previous homes that
both worked fine with Charter services, there was no argument there. He told me that I would need to most likely
upgrade my modem to handle the high speeds that Charter has to offer. I
explained, in my house we don’t need anything higher than what we have, but
thanks anyway. Each time his test
failed, you had to reboot the modem to regain connection, although I bet if we
waited a little awhile that would have worked too. I told him it wasn't necessary to continue to
push this test as it is apparent it doesn't work. I told the guy I did IT for a living, but he didn't know what that was. So I
explained that I have been supporting computers and servers for over 15 years,
but he gave me a look of not impressed.
Either way, the internet was up and working which will make everyone in
our house happy. Did I mention this guy
looked like George W. Busch Jr.?
Seriously, could have been his brother…
Sara called shortly after the Charter guy left, the movers
were almost done and they were getting ready to swing by the storage locker to
get the rest of our belongings. It was
only 11:00 AM, so they booked it. I
figured they would stop for lunch on the way, at least that is what the last
movers we had did, but they came straight over.
There were 3 of them, so that helped a lot. Sara stood in the hallway of the entry way
guiding them with each load. They had
trouble getting the box springs up the stairway to the 2nd level, so
they passed it through the Veranda. They
ended up passing the bed frame through there as well. With all the stuff they moved there was only
had one causality, one bottle of my pumpkin ale homebrew. I am not even sure if was a causality though
because the less than half case is over 2 years old. I figured this brew might get better with
age, but after drinking one the other night…I am not so sure. The movers were done by 2:00 PM.
Jackson was over at Sara’s parents and they were going to
bring him over after the movers were done.
Cray was going to come over after work to watch him for a little while
we unpacked some boxes. In-between the
exchange I put together our canopy by request from Sara. I was just about finished when everyone
showed up. Then I worked moving some
furniture in the living room and safely securing the TV to the wall. Sara worked on unpacking the kitchen. We had some boxes that ended up in wrong
places, but overall it was well worth having the movers do it. Sara’s parents
said we could bring Jackson over later that night and he could stay with them
giving us a few more hours at night to get more stuff completed. We dropped Jackson off and picked up the dogs
from the old house. We set up Jackson’s
big boy bed to which I am happy to report that he has successfully slept
several nights in since the move. We
bought a video monitor to make it easier on us in fear of him having a seizure
in his sleep. We unpacked more boxes
until late at night before calling it a day.
The dogs were nervous all night and it has been hard getting
used to not being able to let the dogs out the back since there is no
fence. Jackson loves walking the
dogs. He doesn't hold a leash, but he
will hold your hand. He will laugh at
them when they get tangled up and then holler at them when they go the wrong
way. It is so cute, but very hard to
clean up doggies messes when you have the two of them and Jackson in tote. So far
all the neighbors have been very welcoming.
The neighbors behind us moved in the same day. Sara has met most of the neighbors when
walking with Jackson. Box by box are
getting there. Sunday evening we had my
nephew’s birthday. Afterwards Sara wasn't feeling very well and then ended up with the stomach flu causing her to
miss a day at work. Both our dad came
over on Monday to help with some minor repairs, like hooking up the drain line
to the dishwasher, fixing the drain pipe for the clothing wash machine, and the
outlet to the microwave was loose. We
did not get to unpack very many boxes throughout the work week.
Friday I left town, Danville, IL., for work and Jackson
started a new patch with a higher dose of Clonidine to help him with the
aggressive impulsive behaviors. Since
work went well Friday night, I drove back home on Saturday to help get things
done. As for Jackson’s medicine, the new
patch caused Jackson to sleep for 3 solid days. The last time Jackson had sleep patterns on a
medicine like this, he had a seizure so he slept in bed with Sara while I was
gone. Sunday we went to the old house to
grab window coverings and the storage space to remove the rest of the items and
turn in the keys. Jackson was like a
zombie the entire time. I felt very
winded and tired, figured it was from the driving. We ate some lunch and I took Jackson up for a
nap. Sara’s dad was going to come over
to help hang window rods later that afternoon.
I abruptly woke up in the middle of the nap with the stomach virus Sara
had the weekend before. Terrible timing
as I was supposed to leave and head back to Danville. Luckily one of my work teammates was able to
cover for me and my management was empathetic to my needs. I got some rest and had to return the rental
car Monday afternoon. The drive into the
city did not go very well as I was not completely better. When I got back home I rested some more. I still don’t feel 100%, but I am eating
again. We removed Jackson’s patch Sunday
afternoon because we were in fear of a seizure and school in the morning. Jackson is back to his bubbly higher self
now. If only we can find a middle ground
with this medicine. Dr. EBK suggested we
try a patch and a half that has worked with other kids who were on the smaller
dose and had the same sleepy reaction to the larger dose. She just said she can’t guarantee the amount
of medicine distributed in the half patch, but we can give it I try.
Last night we ran up to Lowes and bought some hardware to hang up Jackson’s IKEA hug swing. On our way home there was a beautiful full
Rainbow that looked like it was located directly over our house to welcome us
home. By the time we got home it had
faded a lot, but you could see it perfectly from our driveway. I was able to get Jackson’s swing hung up and
even watched Parenthood which was an awesome episode. “Vote for Max the (braver) MAN”. This is show is so awesome how it deals with
day to day struggles. I could easily
write a review/blog on every episode. It
is a must see TV show in my opinion.
Jackson was asleep before I could have him test his new swing. We put Jackson back in his big boy bed, but
had a very rough night staying sleep between 1 – 4 AM. Now I am back to feeling like a zombie… LOL! Oh and did I mention the big orange cable
that Charter ran over a week ago is still not buried?
