# 538 - Moving the Grown Baby!

Just after Christmas, we helped Stefie move out of her apartment. Stefie is our youngest daughter, a 24 year old who just finished all academic requirements for her Master's Degree. She is amazing.

It was nice to help move her out of her apartment that takes about four hours to reach by Texas Highway. She was happy to move back to Greater Houston, especially since she was born in Houston. Now, she is again close to many family members and old friends.

We had quite a great time getting her moved out, maybe a bit too much fun.



While packing, we gals are members of the Pony-Tail Club!

Our guys, Sgt. Dave and Officer Brice soon showed up to do the heavy lifting.

There won't be any complaints from us gals about cleaning and dealing the details of packing as the guys poured sweat while carrying heavy furnishings down a long flight of stairs.

Stefie had a lot to do. She had final, straggler items to pack at the last moment, but we parents had to head out for our long drive home, so the young kiddos wrapped up their final moments in San Marcos on their own.

We parents did as much as we could, as much as the kids were ready for us to do, until we headed back home while pulling a flatbed trailer carrying the bulk of the apartment items...the living room furniture, dining furniture, bedroom furniture and lots of boxes. Sgt. David and I drove for hours with no tail lights working on the flatbed trailer, in spite of every effort to make them work, so I drove lose behind him, protecting him and other drivers from pulling behind him. At least we had mostly highway the entire way home as the tail-lights could not decide whether to stay on or off. That is another project for Sgt. Dave to tackle...looks like the wiring has passed its life cycle and needs to be revamped.

Brice stayed with Stefie to help finish packing and to load the remaining boxes and items into their U-Haul style truck that they would also bring to unload in our immense storage building the following day.

Brice putting back a light fixture the apartment
complex installed in the WORST spot...in front of
the cable connections. He had removed it so they
could see the television. Here, he is using what he
can to reach the 9 foot ceiling fixture for a reinstall
of the light, but standing on a chair and then a bucket
while dealing with live wire was interesting.

Throughout Stefie's college days, we provided her with a Nissan Frontier as her vehicle...it's an old, but reliable gal. Lately, the truck had been chugging. Turns out, there were clogs in the fuel pump/filter or whatever. Since Brice is an rookie Officer and my husband is a Sgt., poor Brice ended up on the ground doing all of the icky mechanical work and he was covered in heavy grease and grime, but Brice said, "I couldn't let the Sgt. do it." One thing is for sure...Brice is a smart young man.

Thank goodness storages come in all sizes, but we had plenty of
room in ours to allow their furnishings and boxes to be included,
saving money that would been wasted on another storage room.

Our family is so unique. Brice will indeed soon be our son-in-law and we are thrilled, we love Brice, but the poor guy in law enforcement lives at work and at home with ranking respect that is in his blood to honor. He is such a good kid. We are blessed to have Brice in our lives.

Since Stefie was having problems with the Nissan, her daddy let her drive his Dodge while we took the Nissan...it chugged along the way, but it pulled the trailer loaded with furnishings and made it. I admit, there was a bit of breath-holding along the way. Stefie's daddy will be doing work on the Nissan over the next few weeks to get it in tip-top shape. It's been a GREAT truck that helped provide transportation for both of our daughters as they went through college.

At one point, Sgt. Dave and I gave each other a kiss and said, "Thank God we had our children young!" Neither of us could imagine doing this at 60 instead of in our 40's. Having kids young worked out for us.

We were also glad to get home to our furry babies...they were so good, even though they were left at home all day long.

So, both of my daughters are finished with college, at least the portion that we helped support them through.

A celebration for us PARENTS would be awesome, but we are too exhausted!