Relocation

We have moved six times in the last five years.  I have been pregnant during all but one of those moves.  If you are looking at my family and thinking that those numbers don't quite add up, it's because we crammed three of those moves into one pregnancy.  We are efficient like that.  Prior to getting married I was also quite transient.  In the last thirteen years I have had seventeen different addresses.  (And I only count my mission as one address even though I lived in several different places.)  I have learned a few things about relocating.  

1.  No matter how well I try to plan and organize, I will not be able to find my shower curtain upon arrival at the new address.  Whatever suitcase or box that I carefully packed and clearly labeled will somehow get lost in the shuffle.  It will stubbornly refuse to resurface until several days after the move.  I have decided that it is much more efficient to just plan on buying a new one.  In our most recent move, all of my shower curtains were easily located within the first few hours of unpacking.  This stroke of good luck was unfortunately wasted because the shower in our new house has a glass door.   

2.  Mail forwarding is kind of amazing.  The post office says that they will forward mail to the new address for a year.  I have forwarded my mail multiple times in a year, and somehow everything eventually finds it's way to my current mailbox.  I find that impressive.  

3.  Packing will always take more time, more boxes, and more tape than I anticipated.  I know this.  I try to make plans accordingly.  Somehow, despite the fact that I have moved all of the exact same stuff only a few months previous, I have absolutely no ability to accurately estimate my packaging needs.  

4.  Hot water is luxury of the industrialized world that I simply cannot survive without.  I don't much care if my lights turn on when I first move into a new place, but if my curtainless shower is not warm I am likely to be very cranky.