On Baby A's birthday, the c-section surgery went as planned. I walked into the OR around 9:30am and was pushed out around 2 hours later. W was instructed to wait outside while the team was getting me prepared for anesthesia. He then got invited to come in and sat next to me while the team worked on getting Baby A out of me 😂. W was a good DJ and Baby A was born while Taylor Swift's Shake It Off was being played. So...did I feel any pain during this life-changing surgery? No, I didn't. I had a spinal block. I never felt any type of pain during the surgery. Getting the anesthesia injected - however - was the most uncomfortable part of the surgery. There was a lot of pressure. I felt my back being pulled or pushed, or something. It just felt very uncomfortable, not painful, but very uncomfortable. It was also hard to try leaning toward the source of that uncomfortableness. Learning to relax while being uncomfortable was a very hard thing to do. But it was necessary. Once it...
I can't believe it's already been 2 months since we moved! I finally got *most* pictures organized on my computer, at least the ones that are moving-related...😅
We've moved so many times before we got to Colorado so this move to Oregon wasn't that scary to us. Plus! W's job relo package is super generous as the new company includes all airfare, packing & shipping, and a stipend for anything that we could encounter with.
The professional packers (yes, the pro packers!) came over to pack everything for us on March 11th. Two nice ladies came with loads of boxes, bubble wraps and everything that's needed for packing. They were super fast at sorting things and marked each box accordingly. And most importantly, they packed our 3 bed-2.5bath-two stories-3 car garage-plus a basement house worth of crap in under 4 hours!! I'm talking about from plates/bowls from the kitchen cabinets to cleaning supplies under the bathroom sink to canned food/dried food from the pantry.
They were very courteous and careful with packaging. The only things we were asked to pack by ourselves were the beddings, pillows, and our desktop computers. They were willing to pack them but we wanted to use them until the day before the scheduled moving day. So they left us boxes and we packed these ourselves.
On March 12th, three guys came over and loaded everything to this giant truck!
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| Packers & movers brought these blue runners with them to protect the floors. Really appreciate that! |
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| We definitely did not expect the movers to bubble wrap the cat trees...our cats appreciated that 😃😃😃 |
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| It was weird to see our house being so...empty xD |
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| That cyclone bomb...😭 |
That notice came after our furniture/computers/stuff got shipped 😡. And of course, United Airlines' customer service lines were all busy. We actually waited on a call for 3 hours TWICE (after numerous dropped calls) to get our next flight booked for Thursday March 14th. What made this more difficult was the fact that we had to make multiple calls...had to call the UA customer service line (to get the next available seats), ticketing office (for our in-cabin cats), cargo shipping office (for doggy), and there just wasn't an "one call for everything." Lots of back and forth and seats/pet travel tickets were being filled up as we were put "on hold" with one of the three lines (customer service, ticketing, and cargo). Also, had to make changes with the car rental company. Then notified the relocation package company.
While waiting "on the call" with UA, our cars got picked up by a truck driver near 11 that night. The car shipping company was going to pick up our cars between 3-5pm that day but kept getting pushed due to the freeway closures due to the bad weather.
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| Lulu made a "bed" out of our jackets on March 12th 😃 |
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| On March 13th, the storm came just moments after our "original departure time" |
Carless, no public transportation, no Uber/Lyft/Uber Eats, and no pizza delivery. Two starving humans and two always-hungry cats and one I-can-always-eat-more doggy. We had to do something. So we decided to take a walk in the storm to the nearest gas station and raid, I mean, buy some food.
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| The local news called this storm a "bomb cyclone" and the media have called it "the strongest ever recorded in Colorado" |
The gas station wasn't that far from our house. But the storm made it very hard to walk on and that wind! We bought some canned pet food for kitties/doggy and some sandwiches, soda, and some microwave dinners.
It took around 40 minutes to walk back to our house from the gas station even though it normally only took around 10 minutes from that intersection. Also, we spent some time helping someone to push her car out of the snow in the middle of the street. On our way home, some strangers made the gesture of stopping nearby and asked if we needed a ride in the storm. We thanked them and just walked home with our "groceries."
And...just after we got back to the house from our "grocery run," another email from UA came...and said our flight for the next day, March 14th, got canceled. The fact that DIA closed down all day that day due to weather made it an even longer process to try speak with someone on the phone. At one point, we waited near 5 hours before someone answered our call (yes, hubby glued his phone to a charger and just put the call on speaker for hours while we watched YouTube/Netflix on my phone).
We were hoping to get our "3rd" flight on Friday, March 15th, but couldn't. We insisted on flying together on the same flight (2 humans, 2 cats, and 1 doggy) and the soonest UA could give us was Saturday, so we took that!
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| Lulu & Beibei were fascinated by the "swoosh" sound made by the wind 😺 |
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| A friend stopped by in the evening to lend us his sleeping bag. "Hurray!!!" from Duke and Beibei! |
Without the beds, couch, chairs, our furry ones tried to make themselves as comfortable as they could...on the carpet haha. The sleeping bag was always occupied by someone (humans, doggy/cats).
Thanks to the storm and no other electronics (and no wifi at home, only internet on mobile network), we finally got to play on our Switch. For Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, we took turns to play Zelda and Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. So whenever one of us was on Switch, the other person was on the phone to watch something. Oh man, we were so lazy! Lazy & stuck at home!
Another friend stopped by our place on Thursday morning and took us out on another "grocery run!" We were really in need of...more pet food & snacks because the food / pet supplies we got were just enough through Thursday because we thought we were flying out on Thursday...thanks to friend's help, humans/cats/doggy all survived quite alright at home haha
On Friday night, the night before our flight out to Oregon, several friends stopped by and made a game night happen just on the floor of what used to be our dining room! Friends brought an extra sleeping bag, beer/spirits, games, and PIZZA & WINGS!!! Our lifesavors! We played a few rounds of 7 Wonders and made this last night in Colorado as memorable as it could get while we had nothing with us except our furry ones and friends.
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| Lulu was trying to engage with the party! |
Duke was a few inches "too long" to fit under the seat in the cabin, so we had to book him to fly in cargo. Beibei flew with me in first class and Lulu flew with hubby in coach 😅😅😅😅😅😅 Hubby used his relo package to pay for an upgrade to get one of us bumped to first class because this was the only way for all of us to be on the same flight that day. The airline policy was that only a certain number of in-cabin pets were allowed for coach class, and 2 in-cabin pets were allowed for first class. There was only 1 spot left for the coach class and 2 spots left for the first class on the flight we took. So I got bumped.
It was Duke, BeiBei, and Lulu's first time to fly!! We did give them something, prescribed by their vet, to help them stay calm during the flight. UA's live animal drop off area was actually outside of the airport. Not far, less than 10 minutes drive from Denver Int'l Airport. We gave Duke his "calm med" around half an hour before we dropped him off at United Cargo.
We got to the live animal "check-in" counter about 2 hours before our flight. "Check-in" for Duke took about 20 minutes. We filled out some forms and paid his "ticket" at the counter then kissed him goodbye
After we dropped off Duke, our friend drove us to the actual airport and did our final farewells! Then it was our time to do our check-ins. The wait took almost an hour even for the line for first class as the airport was packed with people who got their flights canceled days ago, just like us.
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| Beibei on left & Lulu on right. People stopped by to talk to them hahahaha and several complimented Beibei's carrier haha |
After Beibei and I sat down on the plane, I kept staring out the window to look for Duke as they told us he would be one of the last to get boarded as part of the airline's policy to help pets to"reduce stress & have minimal time on plane."
I didn't see Duke so I actually asked a flight attendant to check to see if Duke got boarded. At the time I asked, he called someone and they said they weren't sure. Then I saw the Captain down there talking to the workers on the ground and the flight attendant came back to me and pointed at a direction and said "he's there, they're boarding him now." And I saw our bags! But I actually didn't see Duke. Then the Captain came back and passed me a slip that was on Duke's carrier, which served as proof he got boarded. Admittedly I was worried during the flight and thought about the "what ifs" (e.g., what if he really didn't get boarded cuz I didn't see him!)
Aside from the worries for Duke, I was pre-occupied by Beibei as well, though she was calm about 99% throughout the flight. She only "gently meowed" for a few minutes about 20 minutes before landing, I' thought maybe she noticed the change in air pressure? Or that drop in altitude?
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| Beibei was mostly calm and just butt-faced me for half of the flight |
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| Somewhere in Colorado |
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| Hot pasty and fresh fruits |
After we landed in PDX, we quickly got our bags and picked up our rental car. We were given the option of just grabbing any car we wanted in this certain zone. Each car had their key in them, so it really was just "get in, start the engine, and go!" We didn't spend much time picking out which car to use for the next 2 weeks as we just wanted to hurry up and get to the cargo drop off area to pick up Duke.
We ended up with this black car. A Hyundai.
The cargo pick-up building, again, was located outside of the airport. About 10 minutes drive from PDX. Duke was already there, ready to be picked up, when we arrived. He was sooooo happy to see us! The back seats were barely wide enough for the three of them, but hey, we made it!!
And....we actually made Petsmart as our first stop in Oregon (not counting the cargo pick up building)....before we even got to our new home! Bought some pet food, cat litter, and a new litter box!
After all pet supplies were picked up, it was finally time to show our furry ones their new home! Duke was so excited haha! Beibei and Lulu too, they were happy to be out from their carriers after being stuck in them for over 6 hours.
Well, that's it for our moving day (and a few days before)! We're here, and we're happy at our new place :)!
💗 CM
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