Our ship has come in!

Human Highlighter Suit Tally: 7!

… and with it, all 21 of our boxes.  They were not supposed to arrive until tomorrow and, given how much longer it has taken until now, I was not holding my breath. The kids were so excited, knowing the boxes were on their way, that we had made a countdown chart for them to mark off the days.  But I had made it clear that the 13^th was the day our boxes were supposed to arrive—not the day they would arrive.

Today was a national holiday, so we were off at the Miro museum (great Pipilotti Rist show there that the kids went crazy for) when Alec’s phone rang.  It was the truck driver, asking if it would be okay if they brought the boxes today instead of tomorrow.  Was he kidding?  Of course we said yes.  We arranged for a delivery at 6:30 pm, and we emerged from the train right about that time.  There, parked right in front of the train station, was an enormous truck—an eighteen wheeler really. 

Now, we had told the folks at the shipping place that there was no way a huge truck would be able to navigate the streets up to our house.  But the two guys who showed up with the truck were not the least bit fazed.  There are two flights of outdoor stairs up from the train station to our street, and these guys just carried all 21 boxes up those stairs and into our building.  And it was their fifth delivery of the day.

The moving guys were sweating up a storm by the time they were finished.  I offered them a drink and the guy who seemed to be in charge, who was a bit on the heavy side, said (in a very thick British accent):  “No thanks, mate.  I’ve just had me four donuts and a red bull.”  I guess that’s what it takes.

The kids were overjoyed to get their toy box—Milo is sleeping with his monkey family, and C.C. is tucked under the quilt I made her with her dinosaurs.  And although I was worried about the mountain the boxes would create in our place, it’s not so bad.  Not nearly as overwhelming as I expected.  Not that we’ve begun to unpack anything…