August 19, 2025 Tuesday--5:45am

Good morning!  I have been up with Allie since 4am so I decided to at least show pictures from the move...which is all I have.  I spent the week last week packing and pre-cooking foods.  Too busy to make it over to the lab for that bloodwork--and not sure about this week, either.  But my appointment isn't until September 17th for OBGYN, so there's no rush.  I told them I needed to wait a few weeks because I was moving. 

I kept plugging away...packing.  Leaving out essentials that would be going with us on Sunday 17th.

If Allie wasn't following me around she was sleeping...also, been barfing in odd places from stress.

Keeping a close eye on me whenever she was awake.

If I looked like I was going to get up again...she was ready to follow me.

Even ordered these inexpensive, thin "velvet" metal hangers from Amazon.  Switching over all my clothes was a struggle that was done over two days...

...before I ran out of hangers (plastic ones on bottom rack) and ordered some more.

They were fantastic!  Clingy so that nothing fell off the hangers when they moved them a big clump at a time.  And they are so nice and thin they take up much less room!  Allie even sat in the closet while I switched clothes over.

Lots of big plastic hangers.  They are good for coats, though.  Leah said she's going to grab some of the thickest white ones because they match their hangers, but I'll donate the rest.

I am so glad I saw this lady on YouTube who does reorganizing at people's homes talk about these hangers!

My space is limited in the two wardrobes...and due to this switch...everything fit!  TaDa!

Leah put more boxes together for me...

...and I filled them up...but I was reaching a point where I needed help.  Leah came over and helped with the sealing, labeling, and stacking.  Well, I labeled--she did the rest--lol!

Kind of ran out of room in the bedroom for boxes.

Allie found the packing exhausting and stressful.

I cleared away the folding tables in the living room to make room for stacking more boxes.

This was as far as I got and, basically, my body was gave out on me.  Two and a half boxes to be labeled and stacked.

I couldn't do any more for a day and a half...and barely managed to gather up essentials for the move on Sunday.  But gather, I did.

This part was really freaking out Allie even more.  She knew something was really up.

Gather,,gather..gathering.

Used my cart and moved those three boxes out of the way, but just couldn't seal and label and such.

Dagan and Leah will have to finish up the packing...

...of the pantry...

...and I only got a little of the kitchen packed.  Essentials coming with.  Enough to make coffee and toast--lol!  But have plenty of precooked foods I can heat up in the microwave.

The physical wall came on Friday.  I did the gathering of essentials on Sunday morning.  That afternoon (after rain showers had mostly passed through) McFamily came to move Allie and I.  They made three trips.  The boys would wheel the cart to the cars.  Then Dagan came back to get Allie and I.  He had cleaned the litter box for me and there was new litter waiting at the house.

So--we are moved!!!  This is what it looked like basically on Sunday.

I mistakenly thought Allie was adjusting well--much better than I expected, in fact.

Her food and water...

...carrier (and I also mistakenly thought would be her preferred hidey-hole)...

...and her litter box.  Leah made this kind of enclosure out of carpeting to try and prevent the litter from getting down into the sump pump.  We worried she might not jump over the carpet.  Leah thought she'd have to cut a door for her on the side...but that wasn't the problem.

Allie is a hider when she's scared.  New place, people around, strange sounds, strange furniture...well, everything is strange.  She chose to hide in the bottom of a bookcase in the studio.  (No everything is not finished.)

After a while she wasn't there anymore.  Looked everywhere.  Turned out in the farthest skinny bookcase to the left...

...behind these pictures and things...she squeezed in there to hide.  Didn't come out till nearly midnight.

On Monday afternoon the boys came down and helped to unload boxes and bins and clothes baskets.  We got through 9 out of 12.  I still had to sort through and put away everything that was just piled about on every surface.  That took a while, but by evening...

...(note the pipes that meet at a drain in the middle of the floor--important later)...things were looking better...

...and Allie had used the cat box and eaten some food!  No trouble jumping over the carpet wall there.

I worked on my lazy susans...but can't fill one until my brown chair comes over.

Can make coffee and have the basics.  Leah even put some of her dishes and things down here for me to use till my stuff gets here on Saturday.  

Yes, Saturday--not Thursday.  Turns out the boys' first day of school is this Thursday and Dagan had switched it and forgotten to tell me.  But that's fine with me.  Gives Allie and I a couple more days to settle in.  (And we need them--especially Miss Allie.)

Once I get my lazy susans set up and my laptop table...I am good to go.

Future coffee-etc shelves.

I stuck empty bins on top of the dressers so they are out of the way of the movers on Saturday.  Four empty boxes went up with Dagan last night to use back at the old apartment for packing the rest of my stuff.

I am so shot...Leah said I didn't have to come with them when they go back to finish up one night this week before the movers come.  Good!  I'm glad the boys helped me unload bins and boxes.

Oh, the post it notes you see on the furniture say "not attached" --as to not attached to the wall yet. There is still quite a bit to do.  Maybe I will feel settled in by Christmas?  Lol!

Anyways, I am definitely on R&R for now.  I have one basket and a small box I missed in the maintenance room yet to empty today...or tomorrow.  Then we are temporarily okay enough, can just chill, and Allie can get used to the noisy maintenance room.    

Yes--Miss Allie.

The first night she got me up at 5:30am crying and wandering about.  I couldn't get back to sleep because I was so cold!  Turned out 64 degrees chilled me to the bone!  I even happened to have my blanket loungers (I call them that because they are fleece and go to my ankles) hanging--so I could switch and put one on.  But even with the blanket lounger and a fleece throw--I was still so chilly!  Leah turned the heat on for about an hour in the morning before she went to work and it was fine at 68...all day.  

Now I know they keep the temp down all year round.  I have always dressed warmer and in layers when I would come over.  Dagan always has a sweatshirt he can put on.  But Leah and the boys never seem to be cold.  Of course it is several degrees warmer upstairs (like 68)...and then they sleep on the top floor where it is even warmer since heat rises.  None of us like it hot when we sleep.  But I don't like to be cold, either.  So this is something we will be working on.  I didn't even know they made electric thrown blankets.  Leah did!  One is coming tomorrow--lol!  And I ordered a thermal sweatshirt-type top...and will have to have Dagan and Leah grab some of my winter clothes when they go back this week.  I need more layers...and my sweaters and jackets and coats are packed away in various boxes to fill them up--lol!  An electric blanket and more layers to wear should work.  I hope.  Talk about a different world!  It was 85 degrees and humid today--just miserable.  But it's been a cool 68 down here.  Just feels chillier because it's a basement...always will.  Might have to buy a space heater.

Anyways...Miss Allie.

I've mentioned how she's afraid of loud noises and that includes even putting in a new trash bag.  Well, like I said, she woke me up at 5:30am yesterday...and then at 4am this morning.  (So you can thank her for me making this post this soon--too tired and chilly to get back to sleep--and having to deal with her issues--lol!)  She was pacing about and crying--only quite more insistently.  I talked to her.  Tried to get her to come up with me on this new chair (which she doesn't like).  Tried to cuddle with her--petting and encouraging her to sit on the little table next to my chair here.  She'd come up but leave in no time.  Finally--she went over to one of her cat beds and dug with her paws...and before I could even get over there when I suspected what she was doing...she had pooped in the cat bed!

The thing we didn't think about was all the noise that the maintenance room makes--especially during the night!  The loud noises of the pipes--that drain gurgling loudly (in the center of the room between Allie and her litter box)--the central air kicking in--and the water heater and water softener doing their thing.  Allie was afraid to go in there--to use the cat box or eat or drink!  There are much longer noisy spells during the night.  I think she had just peed in her litter box once the day before...and had been holding it ever since.  She'd been hiding all day and didn't come out till midnight the first night and then ten pm last night.  She is so scared and overwhelmed she doesn't know what to do or where to sit or why we are here.  She's basically hiding all day.  Poor Allie!

Then about ten minutes later she started crying and pacing again.  I literally picked her up and carried her in past the gurgling drain and all the noises to put her in the litter box.  And she had to pee so badly she went twice in a row.  

So, I am even more glad we have these days to adjust and settle in.  Allie desperately needs them.  I just need rest and recovery time.  Can sleep right through the maintenance room noise, no problem.  I just need to have Allie let me sleep--lol!  Poor thing!  She has been so confused and just plain overwhelmed by it all.  I did look around and didn't see anywhere she might have peed or pooped the day before.  She did have a lot of both to get rid of--lol! 

Our world has changed.  Considerably.  :) 

Anyways, we are moved with our essentials.  The boys start school on Thursday.  They have a back-to-school night tonight where they can see their classrooms and meet their teachers.  Then after their first day on Thursday they take the boys out to eat--a kind of celebration dinner after the first day of school.  And somewhere this week Dagan and Leah will go pack up the rest of my stuff.  Saturday the movers will move all those boxes and the few pieces of furniture.  Busy week all week upstairs.  Not down here till Saturday, though--lol!  I think I need a nap today.  It's 9am here in West Fargo.  Supposed to be low 80s today.  I will never notice--lol!  I'm not sure when I'll post again...another weekend of moving and unpacking ahead.  But I'll be back.  Best to you!!!  :)