Issue 1 of Moving to Ohio - Fear made me do it!

So when my family decided that we would make the move to Ohio I believe the universe decided it would test me to see if I could utilize all my Health Coach training from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. I know multiple meditation techniques, all the super foods, what foods make me feel energized, how to deconstruct food cravings, and the importance of exercise. I have meditated with Deepak, done yoga with Seane Corn and attended lectures by Geneen Roth. I can handle anything and look calm and cool doing it...

Apparently not...

Moving is unbelievably stressful and I think my first mistake was not acknowledging that when the process began. I made additional mistakes but that was the biggest.

My plan is to write a few pieces on my experience of relocating from Connecticut to Ohio in the hopes that you will find some humor as well as a nugget or two of useful advice.

When my husband moved in February I had four full months to get ready for our big move. The plan was I would stay in Connecticut, pack everything up, secure a tenant for our CT house with a move in date of July 1st and we would all drive out to Ohio in two U'Hauls on June 15th when my daughter graduated from eighth grade. We planned on going to Ohio during my daughter's April school break to pick a high school (there were 3 choices) and find a house in the school district with the hopes of closing before June 1st.

The trouble began when I rented our house and agreed to a move in date of April 15th. When we signed the rental agreement we didn't know where we were going to live in Ohio or where my daughter and I were going to live between April 15th and June 15th when school let out. I did know that I had approximately four weeks to figure it out.

We were already planning to visit Ohio on April 6th to find a high school and house so why not just pack up the U'Haul's and put everything we own into storage until June? Perfect, done. I will ask my parents if my daughter and I can live with them until June when school lets out. They say yes, perfect, done. I dedicate the next four weeks to nothing but packing up our house.

I packed the house essentially by myself with a bit of assistance from a friend and no assistance from my daughter. Her strategy was to just ignore the boxes and hope that the entire move would somehow fall through. Her strategy was pretty effective until I packed up her room and moved her bed into my parents attic. At that point she had a meltdown which lasted almost two hours. To her credit it was the only meltdown she had during the entire process, at least in front of me, and we had a great talk when it was over.

By the time my husband arrived on Monday, April 2nd the entire house, with the exception of the garage, was boxed, disassembled, and ready to put in a truck. We went the following day to pick up the U'hauls. It was our plan to drive to Ohio on Good Friday, unload our belongings into the storage units on Saturday, take Easter Sunday off, decide on a High School by Tuesday and find a house on Wednesday. Believe it or not, that is exactly what we did and we had an accepted offer on a house by Thursday evening. My daughter and I drove the 8 1/2 hours back to my parents in Massachusetts on Saturday and we began living in my parents attic.

I forgot to mention, we also have a dog and two cats. Since my parents live in a very small home we decided that my husband would take the dog to Ohio and my daughter and I would take the two cats to my parents house. I have a couple of pieces of advice. The first is no matter how many times you tell a dog you are moving to Ohio in a U'haul truck it doesn't actually prepare them for the 9 hour drive. My advice is to swing by the Vet and get something for anxiety BEFORE you get in the truck and drive out of town. I wish we had. My second piece of advice is if you are going to live in an attic with two cats for two months... well, just don't live in an attic with two cats.

When I reflect back on this story I realize that fear is what caused me to rent the house so early. I was afraid that no one else would want the Connecticut house. I was told by our real estate agent that the rental market was slow and that we wanted too much. I already had one couple come through and they never called me back. Never mind that the house was only listed on Craig's List for a month, or that we had four months before it was a problem. I panicked and when I found someone that was interested and willing to pay almost what we were asking I jumped on it and made what was already a stressful situation a REALLY stressful situation. The day we were loading the U'Hauls in Connecticut I received two e-mails about the house from our Craig's List ad. Both were very interested and both were willing to pay the full rental amount. At the time I was kicking myself for succumbing to my paralyzing fear but now that I look back everything worked out, perfectly.

Our New Ohio Home

 Has fear ever caused you to make a decision before you may have been ready? How did it turn out?