{"id":2198,"date":"2022-08-25T14:40:28","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T14:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/?p=2198"},"modified":"2022-08-25T14:40:28","modified_gmt":"2022-08-25T14:40:28","slug":"uspo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/?p=2198","title":{"rendered":"USPO"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I just counted it up\u202640 days and 40 nights. Exactly. That\u2019s how long it was between the time we moved out of our house at the beach and when we moved in here to our new house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowing, of course, that the number 40 has great significance to Christians, I thought that I would research it a little further. \u201cThe number forty, when used in terms of time, represents a period of probation, trial, and chastisement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While, no doubt, there were a couple of days of \u201cprobation, trial and, chastisement\u201d during our epic journey into a new house in the weirdest housing market ever, I can\u2019t complain. Actually, with the exception of the two days that we found out that two of our contracts on homes had gone south (I\u2019ll admit to having had a little meltdown both times, telling poor Mack that, \u201cI feel like my light has gone out\u201d), we had a lot of fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Ok, I might have been a little overly-dramatic with the \u201clittle light\u201d thing.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were fortunate to have two sets of folks who genuinely (I think\u2026or else they are really good actors) invited us to stay at their homes. I\u2019ve always subscribed to the \u201cfish and house guests\u201d theory, that both begin to stink after 3 days. So we rotated back and forth between my son Jack\u2019s house and my sister Tammy\u2019s house. I tried to be neat and helpful, but even so, just having someone in your home is a pain. For sure. But, you never would have suspected that either group wanted us gone. (Again, perhaps they are Oscar-worthy actors, but they had me fooled!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we left the beach, Mack and I thought that we would have 10 days to two weeks before we would move into a new house. Unfortunately, in this crazy housing market, our offers on two different houses were over-bid. We are old-school, and it never occurred to either one of us to put in an over-asking offer. What\u2019s up with that? But, as previously stated, it ended up being 40 days and 40 nights between homes. Now, that number really strains the old fish and house guest maxim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We decided that the best way to handle our \u201cguest\u201d status would be to rotate. We stayed with Jack when we would best be able to help with the kids (school pick ups on Mondays and Tuesdays, Spring Break, when Stephanie was out of town at conference, etc.) and stayed at Tammy\u2019s house in between. Both were a major hoot. In totally different ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was fun to have a full-on experience with several days and nights with the kids. While it was, seriously, a joy to spend many hours in a row with them, I was reminded of how brilliantly things were arranged in the universe – with young folks having babies. While I was not responsible for anything, really, by the time we would head back over to Tammy\u2019s, I was exhausted! Those tykes have a lot of energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Tammy\u2019s house, we chilled and watched movies and laughed. We did a little bit of cooking and a little bit of eating out and again, a whole lot of laughing. Don\u2019t tell her that I said this, but we are practically identical twins:) Not in looks, necessarily, but in the things we like: books, crafts, dishes, books, movies, books. You get the idea. So, we had a lot of fun talking about stuff, shopping for\u2026.well, books and planning our new home decor (she bought a house on the same day that we did).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mack and I both enjoyed Tammy\u2019s old dog Cody, too. Cody is about 16-17 years old and had recently been given a governor\u2019s stay of execution, when a last-ditch effort with CBD eased his pain a bit. Cody was a rescue, literally, from the top of a tin-roofed carport across the street from a house that Tammy lived in over a decade ago. He\u2019s a good ol\u2019 dog – part Chow; black tongue and all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mack and I were so happy to get to spend this past month+ watching him stroll in and out of the back door, and to help him up a few times each day, when he just couldn\u2019t get up on his own (I know the feeling after moving out, then in\u2026.ugh). Tammy said, that on the days that we stayed with Jack, Cody roamed around the house, looking for Mack. He\u2019s almost blind and deaf, but he could feel a friend in the room, for sure. We will miss him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between locations, we didn\u2019t want to tote 50+ pound suitcases up and down the stairs (both of our guest suites were on the second floor). So, we did what any cultured, educated, and upscale folks would do – we used US Post Office totes to haul our goodies. Perhaps this is illegal? I\u2019m not sure. I hope not. But, it does say \u201cstealing federal stuff is punishable by imprisonment.\u201d But, I didn\u2019t steal anything. I just used my own federally funded equipment in a time of need. Then, I returned them to my post office. I don\u2019t think that \u201cborrowing\u201d is a crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyhow, we stuffed our toiletries and unds and a change of clothing or two into the USPO tote, then loaded up computers, monitors, blankets and coffee pot into the back seat of the truck every 3-4 days and headed across Fort Worth to \u201cspread the joy.\u201d I thought it was a hoot. If our hosts think any differently, they\u2019ll just have to write their own story:)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyhow, I have a jillion boxes to unpack, but the USPO totes are emptied and returned. Thanks, Tammy, Jack, Stephanie, and America!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just counted it up\u202640 days and 40 nights. Exactly. That\u2019s how long it was between the time we moved out of our house at the beach and when we moved in here to our new house. Knowing, of course, that the number 40 has great significance to Christians, I<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2198"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2198"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2201,"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2198\/revisions\/2201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}