The Move

So. It's been a bit for sure! During the time I've “off-blog,” my husband and I packed up our New Orleans apartment and moved our toddler and three cats (along with the help of my father-in-law, the trucking legend to help drive the U-Haul and our dear friend to drive the car with B.G., the cats, and me). Destination: Northern Maine.

Cue in my husband getting a tummy bug the week before moving day and car trouble en route, it was an adventure to be sure. Stressful, full of unexpected expenses, and full of support from people we asked to help out (like former coworkers helping to load the truck) and from unexpected places (like the Marine who stopped on a highway in Massachusetts to change our tire when it blew a flat). 

The toddler did remarkably well, both in the car and being at random houses with random people along the way. (Well, not random. They were all friends, all planned stays.) There will be more blog articles about toddlers on car trips! Fear not lol.

As for the cats, did you know there’s a kind of “cat anxiety med” that can put them to sleep? There is. Ask your vet about it! But be warned—for one of my cats, it was magic. He took the medicine and he was calm and slept. The second, the medicine worked for the first two days, but not the other two days. The third? I could not get her to take it. Not in a pill pocket, not in wet food. It’s like she knew. However, she ended up being an awesome road trip cat, Houdiniing her way out of her cat carrier and then settling on my lap for the whole trip. 

Anyway, we made it, the U-Haul made it, but the car didn’t make it. (It officially died a few minutes down the highway from the site of the tire-changing spot and was towed to a Meineke store in Lowell, Massachusetts.) We ended up going north with my dear friends who were planning to come up to Maine anyways to help us unpack and get set up.

So, now we’re in a house, tucked away in the Northern Maine woods (seriously, my neighbors are trees). We’re enjoying all the country-living stuff—berry-picking, lake-swimming, toddler running around on the porch without fear of cars. Family is close, there’s no 100 degrees plus heat index, and it’s quiet. The house is a fixer-upper (we’re renting but have agreed to do some fixing up as part of our low rent price). Life is good.

Thanks for reading!

💜

Laura