The Rocket in Tampa and moving lessons

Me at 34 weeks pregnant... 6 weeks to go!!
Ty and I at a baseball game
Roger Clemens in Tampa
The Rocket in perfect form

Ty and I have been attending lots of baseball games lately. Roger Clemens was in town playing for the minor league Tampa Yankees (the Yankees A ball club). We got awesome tickets for $5 a piece pretty much right by home plate! Ty spent most of Roger's 4 innings heckling him for selling out and moving to the Yankees from the Astros. I gotta say... for $15 million over 6 months, I'd probably do the same thing! How come social workers don't get an opportunity to make that kind of money??? Anyway, despite the fact that we are saddened the Rocket is no longer playing for our beloved Astros, it was great to see this baseball legend in what could be his last year.

In other news... our stuff from Austin FINALLY arrived and we are getting settled into our new house in Tampa! Yea!! Moving has been such a hassle and the moving company did not help make it any easier. We have learned many lessons from this experience. The company packed up our belongings in Austin, unpacked them in a warehouse in Dallas, then spent 2 weeks stringing us along - promising us unfulfilled delivery dates before reloading our stuff on a semi! When our things finally did show up, the movers were pressuring us to sign paperwork stating our belongings were all in good condition, when we hadn't had time to inspect everything yet. For the most part our stuff was in good condition... nothing those furniture markers can't touch up. A few of our glass pieces were broken... but nothing sentimental.

Here are a few of our moving lessons learned:

1) Hire a company who will come to your house and give you an estimate after looking at your furniture. Don't hire a company who has an online checklist of furniture. (We did the online version... but when they got to our house to pack they started saying our furniture was too big so counted as two or three pieces of furniture, instead of the one piece option listed on the website). Then our quoted price went up significantly.

2) In the contract with the moving company, state a delivery date. For every day they are late, make sure there is a penalty they will pay.

3) Make sure the movers mark any unpacked objects on the inventory list. We had a really nice ladder that wouldn't fit in a box. They conveniently didn't write it on the inventory list and somehow it didn't make it to Tampa! The same with our dolly.

4) Make sure you have plenty of help on delivery day. Have one person take the inventory sheet and check off the objects as they come off of the truck. Have someone else inspect all furniture, and open up any boxes with glass in them to see if anything broke. Maybe a third person to direct the movers to the proper rooms with your furniture and boxes.