Moving with two babies...

So my husband and I have been living in our condo/townhouse for a year now, and our lease has expired. In the DC metro area a 2-bedroom place is pretty pricy, and we lucked out with a $1250 rent per month expense. [Compared to back home in Indiana, this is exceptionally HIGH.] We had the option to renew our lease for another year, do month-to-month, or move out. Well, for reasons I'm about to explain to you, we decided to move...

1) Renew for another year - We couldn't choose this option because a) Casey hadn't gotten word whether or not he'd be deploying in June, meaning we MIGHT have to break the lease for that and b) if not deploying, when Casey re-enlists in October 2011 he can get stationed in Kentucky [it's a sure thing for him, he's got hook-ups] because the end of next year, meaning we could break it for that, too. Breaking a lease would definitely NOT be beneficial to our growing family...

2) Month-to-month - To do month-to-month we would have to increase our rent by $50, making it $1300. There are places out here with the same [or close to it] amount of space for less, and I wasn't comfortable having to pay much more for a place to live, not to mention the fridge drives me crazy because it leaks and the ice maker doesn't make ice [the landlord won't fix it because it was that way when we moved in], one of the burners on the stove is out [and a big one at that!] and Casey can't fix it, the sink is in the corner of the kitchen and has weird proportions, etc. Yeah, definitely not doing that.

3) Move out - Where we moved to is... well... pretty much free. So we're banking all of that BAH, plus the money for cable and electricity, and saving it for things our little family needs. The sink is bigger and not stuck in the corner. The fridge is HUGE, does NOT leak, and DOES make ice. All of the burners work. It's pretty much the best idea ever.

Anyway, so we decided to move, as you've probably figured out by now. The problem is that with two babies on our hands it's hard to pack stuff up, let alone move it. I did pretty much ALL of the packing, and I did it while my oldest was in bed at night, and my youngest was getting attended to by his father. This means after 9PM until about 1AM I worked on packing stuff up. After I got a lot of stuff up I moved it to our new place, if that's where it was going, in small quantities at a time. But I always had to work at night. We couldn't get anything done during the day. For things that required two people my husband had to call in a few work buddies to help. In all reality the two of us probably could have knocked it out ourselves... if only someone could watch the boys. But that didn't happen...

On Wednesday Casey had two guys from work come home with him; we bought pizza and beer, and later Taco Bell; they moved most of the big stuff to our new place. Today [speaking as if it were still Saturday, and not 3:40AM on Sunday] my husband called one of those guys back up to move some bigger things to storage with him in exchange for BK lunch and KFC dinner, plus beer.

It's just hard having so many things to do while moving and knowing that you can't do it alone. All weekend we've been travelling back and forth getting little things we forgot to pack and bring already. I couldn't help moving any of the big items, or tell them how to stack it in storage properly, because I was tending to the boys.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about having babies. I'm just complaining about moving with the babies. A year from now, when we move to Kentucky, I'm hoping my oldest will be nice enough to help me out, and my youngest will just be following his brother around everywhere. Also, because this trip is 8+ hours away, we'll need to pack it all in and unload it all out at once. No multiple trips next year!

Tomorrow I intend on stranding my husband with both boys while he watches some quality football [Colts aren't on until 8:20, so he can't get mad until them!] so that I can go back to our old place and pack up the remaining few things we have all over the house, and vacuum the place up. Next weekend, before and after my son's first birthday party, will be some heavy cleaning and patching up of the old place. I'm determined to get that $1250 security deposit back if it kills me!

A word of advice for you fellow moms and families with babies, especially multiples!... Have someone watch your kids while you pack up and move things. It will definitely stress you out less! Haha.