We Have Arrived!

After a long and exhausting week, we have arrived in Pittsburgh! We have our keys, and are waiting for Pizza to arrive for us at the hotel. This optimism, however, is premature; it has been one heck of a week.

Thursday was my birthday and, as such, I was not planning to do any work that day. This was fine, as our move was set for Saturday (lie number 1). Mum, Jordan, Rachel, Tyler and I were going to go to the botanical gardens, and later I would have dinner with everyone (except for Pam) on my side of the family. At 12:30, however, I received a call to inform me that my movers would arrive on Friday between 10 and 12. I hung up happy because we could sleep in a little... then I freaked out ("did he say TOMORROW? I was told they would be here on Saturday!!!") I called Nationwide (our relocation company) who did nothing to help rectify the situation. *NOTE* NEVER MOVE WITH NATIONWIDE* Instead of spending the afternoon at the Henry Moore exhibit, mum came and helped up frantically pack the rest of our stuff. Once packed, we went to Gwinnett Place Honda to pick up our new car. However, dad decided to add some extra features, so we left the car overnight to get additional work. That evening, Jordan and I had dinner at Grace with mum, dad, Craig (sans Pam, who was studying for exams), Rachel and Tyler. It was so good (as always)! Before dinner, we opened gifts at my parent's house; I feel so blessed to have such a loving family, they really made this birthday special, even if I did have to pack!!!

Friday, our movers arrived at 10 am and did not finish packing our possessions until about 10 pm. It was crazy how long they took; I must say, however, that they were meticulous in packing our furniture into the truck -- this I am thankful for. They are two Bosnian men who do not work for Nationwide; Nationwide contracted their company to move our things -- I am sure that Nationwide is screwing them as much as they are screwing us. One of the men said to me (in broken English) "your job order said this was supposed to be about 6500 lbs, this seems heavier than that." Great. I provided Nationwide with a list of my furniture and they estimated a weight. I was told this weight was based upon your furniture being Ashley or Havertys, and that there was no way my Target and Ikea furniture weighed that much... lie number 2. I get charged about four times the price for anything over the quoted weigh; something that was misconstrued to me when I was send the "not to exceed, binding quote" (lie number 3). Rachel and Tyler were awesome -- they spent the day sitting by the truck to make sure that nothing got stolen out of the back!!! All that aside, we were planning to have dinner with Vicky, Henry, Jonathan, Lisa, Meghan, and Tom, but we got to the Melting Pot so late that we only had about 30 minutes with the siblings and an hour with Vicky and Henry! We hate that we did not have longer with them. All this on top of no sleep for Jordan and two hours of sleep for me!

Saturday, Jordan and I slept in until around noon, after which we went downtown with mum to clean out our apartment and check out for good. We could not have finished on tie without mum's help!!! We checked out about 5pm, just in time to go back to Norcross to have dinner at J. Alexanders with mum, dad, Craig, Pam, Rachel and Tyler. After dinner, Jordan packed everything into our new Honda CRV (LOVE IT!!!). I must post some pictures of it soon!!!

Today, we got up early and left my parents house at 8:40 am. I took the first driving shift while Jordan slept. To follow our journey, look at my Twitter account (@sarahjcpatton):
9:55 AM: South Carolina
11:20 AM: North Carolina
2:00 PM: Virginia
3:40 PM: West Virginia
7:55 PM: Pennsylvania

Once in Pittsburgh, we picked up our keys and emptied our car. We then proceeded to our Hotel (Friendship Suites -- I HIGHLY recommend this place!!!) and ordered a Pizza -- which has just arrived!

Tomorrow, we receive our furniture, lets pray that unloading does not take as long as loading!!!