I’m tired of moving. Since 2004, I have moved 5 times. This summer makes it 6 times. We’ll only be in our next location for 10 months before moving again, this time across the globe to New Zealand, which brings the number to 7 moves in 6 years. Ugh.

I’ve been thinking things through in my head, trying to figure out how I want to organize this move. I was really excited about our last move (to our current location) because Chris’ school gave us a moving stipend. We hired “professional” movers, and it was a nightmare. I know that I can be very type-A, but these guys were terrible – lazy, sloppy, our belongings got lost, and some of our things were damaged. I actually caught the movers throwing some of our boxes and furniture down the stairs, which set me off. They were never on time and kept “forgetting” about things they needed to add into the price quote. They actually called me the night before our move, telling us that unless we paid an extra $1,000 for the cost of moving our piano, they weren’t going to show up in the morning. I told them that I wasn’t going to pay it, and that if they didn’t show up, I would call the BBB and report their extortion-like practices. They showed up, but over 4 hours late.

Notre Dame is also offering us a moving stipend, but I think I’m going to take it and just get a U-Haul and load and pack things ourselves. Actually, I’m pretty certain that’s what I’ll do. Now I just need to figure out how to get a little help! Unless I’m offered a job that requires me being in Indiana early, we’re planning to move in July. The only thing is that our lease is up July 15th, which is the same week that my family (and I mean all of my family) will be on vacation. Funny, they mysteriously were on vacation the last time we moved, too… hmmm…

Anyway, if I want my younger brothers’ help, we’ll have to move the weekend before that, which is July 4th weekend. We’ve offered to fly out my younger brothers (who are in high school) if they’re willing to help us move. Chris has also said that he could probably find some guys around here to help load things up. So I’m wondering whether we should fly my brothers out, have them help us load the U-Haul and drive to Indiana and unload, or whether we should use Chris’ guys to help us load, drive the U-Haul ourselves (along with the SUV toting the Malibu behind it), and have my younger brothers just drive up north once we get to Indiana (they live about 3 hours south of where we’ll be).

The second option is by far the more economical one because it doesn’t involve us paying for my brothers’ airfare. But I really don’t like the idea of Chris and I both driving separately for 16 hours, one of us in a giant U-Haul and one of us in the SUV with our other car on a trailer behind. I’ve driven that far before, but let me say this – it is not fun to try to drive one of those big trucks, and it’s even less fun to drive a car with another car attached to it. Decisions, decisions.