The Estlers: Where To Begin...

So it's been a little over a month here on Arrowhead Lane, about two weeks for me, and Man Alive! have we been busy. Fran's been keeping up with her hectic work schedule and tireless commute, all in the hopes of getting into that nearby Newton store when it opens, and I have been unloading, unpacking and unravelling.

It all started on the 15th. I came home for Fran's birthday. Surprise!!! I kinda scared her, just stood at the front door at 11pm and said "Let me in!". We didn't intend on unloading anything that day, just relaxing, but the POD was just sitting out there in the driveway calling our names. And being a good husband I thought "Let's just unload the mattress & box spring so you don't have to sleep on the air mattress anymore." (alterior motive: I wanted to take the air mattress with me when I went back on tour) So we headed out to the POD to get just those two items, but they were in the middle of the POD behind this mess.

We unloaded what we had to to get to our buried treasure, but that was the easy part. Neither the mattress or the box spring came close to fitting up the stairways. The mattress we had to fold like a taco and jam it thru the bedroom stairwell, and the box spring... well... after trying both sets of stairs, getting it stuck in the upstairs hall, having to push it back down, we decided the only way to make it happen was for me to push it over the front porch balcony while Fran grabs it and balances it on the ledge while I run upstairs. Then we slid it in the front upstairs door (which only opens 45 degrees) and dragged it across the hall thru the back bedroom, around the corners of the bathroom and into the master. Unfortunately there are no photos to show this to you. We needed all our hands.

We figured since it couldn't possibly get worse than that why not unload the couch so we at least have someplace to sit. Well we must've been on drugs. That couch must've gained 250 pounds since we last moved it. It's a pullout so it's got that extra baggage. So we tried bringing it to the back door so we wouldn't have to drag it thru the house. No go.

So back around to the front door. No dice. We finally decided to stand it on end, grab the bottom, and just go. That kinda worked. I mean the couch is in the house so....

THEN! Then we decided "Enough of this! We didn't wanna unload today!" so we took showers and got ready to leave. I grabbed the keys and locked the door from the inside and shut it, as Fran says "Those aren't the right keys". Click. Damn! My first time locking up and I lock us out! So now what? I thought maybe I left the upstairs balcony window unlocked. I built a makeshift ladder out of Christmas totes and pull myself up onto the second story balcony. Door: locked. Window: open! Ok. It's a small window with a flower box in front containing some fake flowers left over from the previous owner so I grab them and rip them out. Unbeknownst to me a precious little mother bird has made this particular flower box her nesting place where she has been trying to raise six little birdlings and those puppies went flying everywhere, mostly down on Fran's head who was below me waiting patiently. Five out of the six kinda flew/glided down and seemed to disappear into the yard, but one baby, let's call her Simone, fell straight down to the deck below. I reached thru, unlocked the door (wish I had thought of that before I went flinging birds across the yard) ran downstairs to the front porch where Fran was still in hysterics and scooped up Simone and carried her back to the nest that I rebuilt. For a first time nest builder it wasn't too bad. But I was bummed. I grabbed the correct keys, locked the door from the outside, and we were off.

Other than those few things, Fran's birthday was a success. We celebrated her birthday the only way we know how. With an ice cream cake and a box of chianti. That's rights folks, I said a box.

The next morning I had to head back to Cadets for a couple days. I checked on Simone before I left. She seemed to be ok so I left with high hopes.

Tour was tour. We were at one school for like 4 or 5 days so no busrides. And I got to take a few fancy shots.

So after a few quick days I got to come back home and sleep in my own bed FINALLY! Fran had to work the first few days so I got to work unloading the POD and gutting the shed so we can fill it with our junk. The house filled up with boxes real fast but it was exciting to finally get everything out and in.

We made more than our fair share of trips to the Home Depot. Bought things like a lawn mower (the grass still isn't fully cut), patio furniture, a grill, and lots of tools and home improvement type things that people go to Home Depot for. In the first week we replaced toilet seats, spackled a wall, built new shelves, repainted one room, stripped old doors, mounted a TV, and unloaded most of the boxes. So now stuff was just everywhere. We were drowning in our lust for knick knacks and eccentric furniture.

Then we had to get down to my parents and empty out their house of all our stuff. Stuff like some paintings, lamps, a leather recliner, 50 boxes of albums, that kinda stuff. So we rented a truck and after an exhausting day of her working and me teaching we loaded that mother up.

Took us till like 1am. And we had to go to work the next morning. Fran was done a little early so she came back down and got the cats. A crazy 48 hours. But the house was really starting to feel like home, especially when we let the cats out. Dents got right on Fran's lap, Abner got reacquainted with all the old stuff, and Yayoi hid under the couch til we put food out.