I can’t believe I was going to move from the funeral to the return to NJ – I completely would have left out our initial arrival in South Carolina! (By the way – I’m back in NoVA. Again.).
On Tuesday morning we woke up super early – 5:30 a.m. in order to get on the road at a reasonably early time. We let the kids sleep until 6:15 am or so and then woke them up for breakfast. After a waffle and some juice we all hopped in the car only 15 minutes late (7:15 a.m.). The drive to SC was completely uneventful and wonderful. It was nice to hit a superlong stretch of road with a 70 mph speed limit – I set the cruise control on 77 and didn’t have to go near the brake pedal for at least 30 miles. We stopped twice for diaper changes on the kids and made it to the town hall in Rock Hill by 2 p.m. In about ten minutes I had the electric service put in our name and we headed to the apartment.
The kids were thrilled to be out of the car and promptly became whirling dervishes while we attempted to sign our leasing documents. We finally did it in shifts, with Denis going second. CootieGirl discovered the community pool (and more importantly, the kiddie pool) and was desperate to go in, so that’s where they primarily hung out with each of us. Well, when Denis came out after finishing with everything, we were still kind of hanging out when suddenly CootieGirl ran away from a bee – and straight into the deep end of the big pool. Denis freaked as she went under, and I quickly raced over just as CootieGirl popped up to the surface and reached out for Denis’ outstretched hands. Once pulled out she took several deep gulps of air and started crying, but I was able to get her to sit down and calm herself.
“Are you okay?” I asked gently.
“Yes,” she gulped, wiping the water from her face.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Were you scared?”
“Yes.”
“Well, God took care of you and got you to the surface of the water, and fortunately your daddy saved you and pulled you from the water right? He loves you very much and rescued you.”
“Yeah! Daddy SAVED me!” With that she smiled and was happy as a clam. Crisis and potential pool phobia averted. And now Denis is her hero.
Moving on. The apartment is a first floor apartment, which is VERY convenient. It’s also an end unit – also convenient. The rooms are small – not very convenient. So more stuff was sent to storage than previously expected. But since we plan on only being there for 3-4 months, it’ll be not that much different than how we’ve lived in the house the past few months since getting the house ready for the market. And the bonus is that CootieGirl got to pick out which room she wanted, since she will now have her own room. She was THRILLED with that. And fortunately, since the apartment was completely empty the first night she and CootieBoy were able to run around the whole apartment, with “CootieBoy – let’s go to MY ROOM!” peppering her speech.
Once the van was unloaded and all of it unpacked and put away we played with the kids for a while – our neighbor Lydia had made them each an activity bag (the contents of which they LOVED). We then ran over to Target to stock up on stuff. We realized that we didn’t have a microwave (a must-have item that I’m shocked the complex didn’t provide). Once there we promptly spent a few hundred bucks on necessities that we just weren’t able to bring in the van – stuff like pillows, toilet paper, paper towels, frozen food, some refrigerator stuff, some bath stuff, the microwave, and a small tv to help keep the kids occupied while we continued to wait for our stuff.
Back at the apartment we let the kids continue to run through the apartment until 8 p.m., then I blew up the air mattress and put it in CootieGirl’s room. I explained to the kids that they had to share the bed tonight and that I expected them to behave and go to sleep. Well, it took about an hour, but they eventually passed out on the bed. At one point I popped out one more time because the TV wasn’t working because it had no antenna. So I bought an antenna and filled up the gas tank in the van. You know how much gas costs in Rock Hill, SC? About $2.69 a gallon for regular. Let that sink in. Isn’t that AMAZING? I paid $3.09 on Saturday in NoNJ!
Once home we were able to get two channels with the antenna – non-cable tv sucks. But it was enough, and Denis and I laid on the floor, heads on our pillow, praying for sleep to come quickly as the tv flickered at us in the dimmed light. Especially since I wanted to be out by 7:00 a.m. to make my flight from Charlotte to Washington DC.