Hello all; a well overdue life update is in order! What feels like a lifetime ago (only 3.5 weeks now), I moved out of home for the first time and only now, I feel like I can squeeze in time to collect my thoughts. Or have a proper place to sit.....!

While helping my parents move from their house, I also moved out and into my partner's apartment, nearby. No one really tells how hard moving one household is until you actually do it--but twice?! at the same time????! And while going to work?! That's hard! I was aware but not fully prepared for how much money that I needed for this--my partner lived alone and often did without whereas I suppose I've been raised differently.

Sitting among clutter, I'm beyond stressed. Stressed doesn't even come close to it. Between work, unpacking, de-cluttering and plain existing, each day, I've had an hour or two to relax. Sometimes, it's been less and I've stress cried myself to sleep several nights. One night, I got 20 mins to myself, after cleaning and organising before it was time to sleep.
Additionally, at the same time, my car was being repaired for two accidents that happened recently (neither were my fault) and I had a rental car, covered by insurance. This was....interesting but at the end, while insurance covered most of the cost of repairs, I still had to pay out $770. Bye-bye, savings.

One major plus side through all of this....is that I've lost weight: I've dropped almost two pant sizes and a full underwear size. I changed departments at work, moving to an even more physical job than before...mostly out of desperation, so minus emotional and mental exhaustion, I'm now only physically exhausted. While I moved around a lot previously at work, I'd bend, stoop and stand for much of my shifts. Now, I spend all but lunch and breaks (if I get them lol) at a hurried pace, placing me at at least 18k+ steps and almost 10km, just at work. Pair that with a couple thousand steps throughout the apartment, and I'm a shell of a person. Not much time to blog or be creative---sob.

Let's recap:

• new position @ job
• moved out
• helped parents move
• car repair
• financial strain 
• physical strain - I hurt my foot!

Coupled with good ol' season depression, icy cold weather and a declining health, that's bit much within the span of a month!
 
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Here's a fun collection of photos: my vanity while packing up my skincare and makeup (top left), my closet (top right), the vanity area, emptied (bottom left) and an empty bedroom (bottom right).






An empty closet:


she empty.



Did I mention we did most of the moving in two days?!

Both of these days were my scheduled days off from work. On the first day, after a(n inconvenient) dentist appointment, dropping off my car to the repair shop and picking up the rental car, my partner came with me and helped throughout the entire day to move my big furniture and pack up smaller stuff into the car.



All of my stuff fit into the van, with room to spare. Then we unloaded at the apartment and went straight back to the old house to do two loads worth for my parents.

A load (one of two total) of my parents' stuff:



 After began the countless car trips of smaller items, including bedding, breakables, files from the filing cabinet, and various bits of trash.




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Later on the first moving day, my parents treated us to dinner at the local Red Robin as thanks for all the hard work.  It was a nice time to just talk and forget about all the physical exertion from earlier in the day--for real, it was Too Much.

Let's be real: I am a hoe for Red Robin's onion rings!


The following day, I was back at it again. The cutie and I had slept on the couch the first night; I put together the bed while they got ready for work. It went from the mess (right) to not so messy (right). I stacked those boxes along the wall, adjacent to the foot of the bed.


I dropped off the cutie at work and immediately met my parents at the old house to continue helping them move. We did two loads worth of their big furniture, and definitely made the most of their two-days worth of the rental van! I stuck it out with my parents.....until 10pm at night. They were so exhausted (I was too), but teamwork sure helped.

The next day, I had to be at work before 8AM. I was beyond exhausted. #adulting


 The mess against the wall:


 I will update the best I can as I settle in with my partner, and unpack. I'm just so tired.