Baseball Books and More: The Final Move

I do not recommend making a move last 2 months!! Of course, it wasn't quite my intention but I still don't recommend it, even if it'd gone according to my plan.

My plan was to have a place by mid-July, take my time getting unpacked, and be settled by the time school started (really before AC100). GODS plan was different! But it's okay, His was WAY better!!

I started looking at houses before I even left Texas to kinda get an idea of what I would find. Normal houses! Surrounded by dirt. I did move to the desert after all. I kept telling myself I had to embrace the dirt :)

My first trip to Hesperia, I drove past A LOT of houses for rent. Only a couple seemed okay for me and Slugger. I was mainly looking at the surrounding area for the purposes of our daily walks and my running. I promptly put in requests to see a couple houses. Okay, in hindsight (I'm totally writing this weeks later), there might have been 2 trips before I contacted anyone? Anyway, I heard NOTHING!

I kept looking. I finally decided to look at a house that I didn't think was right, but you never know and it'd at least feel like I was DOING something!! I was VERY frustrated!! On the afternoon of the showing, I also asked the realty person to show me a second one that had been posted the day before - she agreed. I liked the second one a lot. It was way bigger than I needed but the price and location were okay. I put in an application.

I was denied! Why? Well, because I was unemployed!! They couldn't (wouldn't!) verify my employment until I'd actually STARTED!! They didn't care that I'd signed a binding contract!! I got over it BUT they managed about 80% of houses for rent in the area!!!

Finally, another decent house in a decent location came up. I called the rental folks and started out by telling them my financial situation. Their response? No problem! YAY!! Dad and I got in the car and went to see the outside. It is at the end of a culdesac in a little housing development north of school about 5 miles. It was pretty quiet that evening. We even talked to a neighbor who said it was a great place to live. I went home and applied.

Unfortunately, the house was occupied! There were no pictures of the inside. The person was moving out at the very end of the month which gave me a little tiny window to move in before school started. In fact, it was supposed to happen the weekend before school started. I begged and prodded and luckily, the former tenant left the house in great shape.

Let me step away from the story for a moment. This whole process was SOOO frustrating for me. I was grumpy and worried and tired and doubted my decision to make this big move. Dad was awesome and put up with me! I prayed and prayed. I KNEW that God wanted me in the high desert. I had started looking at less desirable locations. I contemplated staying in Big Bear and commuting. So, I 100% completely trusted God that THIS house was the right house because it was the ONLY house. I basically agreed to move in, etc without ever seeing the INSIDE of the house! By the time I saw it, there was no turning back. I told God that I'd take anything and just deal with it. I was SOOOO excited that the house was AWESOME!! GOD IS AMAZING!!!! Ya just gotta have FAITH :)

To make a long moving day story short, the Giant Monkey Mover moved me in, my freezer was delivered and the cable guy came, all at the same time, and I was a Hesperia resident! I'd left Slugger in Big Bear for the day. He had NO idea what was happening!! I went home to him that afternoon not having unpacked a single box!

The next day, we headed from BB to Sunland for the AC100 weekend (see post from 8/6). Slugger stayed there with Dad and all for the week. I returned to the house and settled in as much as I could while also spending time settling my classroom and starting work (Wednesday the 9th). Friday afternoon I raced to Sunland to get my puppy!! We spent the weekend exploring the house and yard and neighborhood. Dad and Tuck came down on Sunday and spent a few days here to help Slugger get used to the house without me in it since I had to go back to work. Thank goodness!! He was a huge help while he was here! We're now settled, but still unpacking if that makes any sense. Slugger seems to understand that this is home now. He even buried a bone in the backyard today (read his bday post).

Here are pics of it empty. It's a MESS at the moment. I'll do an unpacked post someday (Christmas?!).