Aack! Long update on the moves

Life is crazy. So we spent countless hours trying to find a place to rent to be sure we had a good fit at Marshall and because the market is too bad to sell our house. It was hard to find a place in a small city that would take 2 dogs. We had to get a colleague to check out a house and never made a trip up here since we only had 1 or 2 leads at a time, we did not want to take Sam on an 8 hour drive and it is hard to leave her since I still feed her at night. We finally settled on one kind of out of desperation. We loaded up on Saturday and had a much too small truck, so we had to make runs in my parent's neighbor's truck to store a bunch of our stuff at my parents. Which was stressful and made for a long day. Then we had to wait up to check in our renters (Nick went I stayed at my parents, but I did wait up). Then on Sunday we drove the 500 miles with Nick in the truck towing the Vue, me in the Eclipse with the dogs, and my parents and Sam in my mom's Buick. We finally arrived and the place was not a good fit for a toddler. It had a strange layout, which we knew a little about, but not things like the front yard had a huge wall above the street. It had a busted door that a tenant had kicked in when she forgot her keys, peeling paint, nails sticking up in the floor. So we called the realtor and she came on Monday. She was super nice and had forgotten we had a toddler and totally understood, so she said she could fix everything up or we could find something else and be let out of our lease. We had tried to find something all morning, but nothing was better so we were afraid we would have to live with work for a month+, and nap time is sacred. And then on top of everything else, when my parents finally got Sam to sleep when I was on the phone with a potential house, the dogs barked and my mom got up to get me and stepped on a dog crate which slipped and she fell and broke her toe. It was scary and we are lucky she did not get hurt worse. After trying to take care of her, we went back to a last ditch effort, so Nick called one more in the paper but we could not see it until 7:30 that night. We got an extension until the morning from the realtor and went to see the new place. This is long, so I will try to get to the point. We took the new place, but it has issues as well and to get it on Tuesday we had to take it as is and clean it ourselves in exchange for no security deposit. It is a mess! These girls left trash and did not know how to use a broom or mop. But it is a better neighborhood, with a park nearby and a small fenced yard (we would have had to do a run in the back of the other one) and sidewalks. But because the last tenants moved out without paying their water bill, we have been unable to get the water on, one hassle after another. So we ended up dumping our stuff on the first floor of the house so we could return the truck and moving to a hotel. The dogs are staying at the house. Water should be on tomorrow. And we can start moving things to rooms and unpacking. It has been so hard not having everything we need. And poor Sam has been sleep deprived and thrown off her schedule which we worked so hard to get her on. But she has mostly been an angel, such a sport it is amazing. And my parents have been so great. Camping out in the first house, working so hard, and my mom has been in pain and still going. They are such a blessing, especially doing this for us to move away from them. We will miss them so much. And can never repay them. But even with all the stress, we have been laughing at this crazy ride called life. If you don't laugh, you'll cry, right. Anyway, please say a prayer for us that we get water. And that we do not have a major mold issue with the stagnant air for a month. I am hoping for no more moving for a long time (or about a year at least) and after I decide I really don't need most of this stuff we hauled from Atlanta. Simplify!