Copyright © Human Rights and Equal Opportunity CommissionThis past week has led me to ponder the value of friends. Life has been nuts, and yet, so many pain-in-the-necks have turned out just fine thanks to the loving assistance of those people I call friends.
We've been moving this week. Not far, just down the street into a larger apartment in preparation for the arrival for our next little rugrat.
Unfortunately, moving while 8 months pregnant, with a "practicing the terrible twos" toddler, a super busy hubby (getting the hard hospital rotations out of the way before younger rugrat arrives), and a lease that ended two days before the next lease begins (leaving us AND all belongings homeless) has made this simple move into a juggling act that beats any move I've had yet (including the ones trekking across the country).
Fortunately, the "low-fee, no-load" investment of having wonderful friends has paid off a hundred-fold. Though too many to count, here are a few things our loving friends have done for us recently:
- Picking up furniture into their car and delivering it to our "temporary warehouse" in their garage when I can't help but buy good furniture at garage sales.
- Allowing us to take over a whole room in their apartment to store some of our large goods for a week (including free delivery--helping to carry the big stuff there the whole way on foot).
- Offering their garage to us to store our things in during our "homeless adventure" (4 separate people offering).
- Coming by multiple times to pick up "pre-packed" junk of ours to start storing it out of our way.
- Allowing Ethan and I to "move-in" for a few different days, while, our management wisely (insert sarcasm here) decides to re-concrete our complex, meaning we can't be there while concrete is ripped up, poured, dries, etc.
- Letting Ethan come over to play so I can actually pack instead of undoing whatever damage he's just done (breaking my glasses, pouring container of ultra-concentrated laundry detergent on the carpet, etc, you get the picture)
- Watching Ethan while I clean our apartment (prevention of more "help" by the rascal).
- Handing over keys to their whole apartment for us to live in for a few days while we need somewhere to stay--clean, cute, childproof, and oh so comfy.
- Coming over to help pack and clean, then offering and coming back the next day to help finish up everything, essentially doing most the cleaning for our check-out.
- Moving our large and heavy furniture and countless loads of "junk" ("why do we need so much stuff?" is my most frequent thought this week) into a moving van, then into our "storage unit" and being willing to come back two days later to do it all again in the reverse order, despite the busy lives they all lead, including some who just moved themselves this week!
- Watching Ethan while we move back in.
- And my true BFF (literally) to come home after long 12-18 hour workdays to hear me complain about my aching prego body and the stresses of moving, or to move all the boxes I've packed yet can't pick up, into our second storage unit.
These things don't cover the half of what services others have rendered us lately, and we appreciate them ALL. I can truly say we couldn't have done it without all the help. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone who has helped us recently.
For everyone out there wondering how to wisely invest for their future, here's my advice. Take it all (no diversification necessary) and put it towards friendship.
