Moving to St. Cloud in September turned out to be like Christmas

When my wife and I moved to St. Cloud in Mid-September from North Carolina, it was our 7th move in the 26 years we’ve been married. Not only was it a move halfway across the country, but for us it was an opportunity to see some of our belongings for the first time in at least 2 years.

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We spent the last year caring for our mothers living in small spaces in their houses which meant most of our belongings were in a rented storage building in my mom's backyard. Prior to caring for our mothers, we lived in a house in Boone NC that was the last house in our price range, and it was way too small. My stepson lived with us full time and our granddaughter was there weekly as well. So, most of our stuff was in storage there too. For the first time in 2 years, I have a closet to hang my clothes in, instead of the garment rack I had been using.

The moving truck arrived on Friday and when I got home from work, there were boxes and furniture EVERYWHERE. Friday night, and Saturday along with part of the day on Sunday was dedicated to opening boxes, and placing what was inside somewhere in our apartment. After over a quarter century of living together, to say we’ve gathered A LOT of stuff is an understatement.

As the weekend rolled along, this was a common statement from one of us, “oh look, I’ve not seen this in forever”, which led my wife to say, “every box we open sort of feels like Christmas”. In the case of this little beauty that my wife swears she showed me when she bought it, I don’t ever remember seeing this.

As you might imagine, there were several pieces of clothing that fell into the category of being rediscovered, including this one. (I’ve never seen this before). You see I used to travel quite a bit covering college sports, now I know what my wife did while I was away.

We came across these glasses that she initially didn’t remember owning. Turns out, it was a good thing that when she put them on, she could see pretty well.

This hat that is really a bowl that nearly caused an argument. You can’t tell easily, but that’s the Atlanta Braves logo on the hat. I swore I bought this before she and I met to use it for my cereal. Kim reminded me that we bought this at a minor league baseball game because the Nachos we ordered came in it. She won the argument when she produced a Tampa Bay Devil Rays hat/bowl just like it. Some will get that Tampa’s Baseball team is now just called the Rays, but they were the Devil Rays when we bought the bowl which speaks to how long we’ve had it.

I can tell you with the utmost confidence, if you love to shop at Thrift Stores (as do we), you’ll have the opportunity to get some of our well-loved items, because there’s NO WAY all this stuff will fit in our apartment, and you too can experience our early Christmas feeling