DITY Moves and Out of Control Small Children

When we moved from Illinois to Monterey, we did a DITY (do-it-yourself) move. Usually when we move, the military hires contractors to do all the work of packing, loading, and unloading. Mario even makes them unpack almost every box. We decided to do a DITY to California because we had a lot of our household goods already boxed up and in storage because we sold our house a few months too early and we had to move into a temporary house. So with a lot of the packing done, it only made sense for us to do it ourselves. The military reimbursed us 95% of what it costs them to pay the contractor. We made about $10,000 on that move to California and that was after we paid for the ABF truck, all the materials, and professional loaders. $10,000 wasn't too bad. But it was hard work and I don't really want to do it again unless my boys take charge of the entire move and they collect the money and put it towards their missions. They can box everything and hire loaders and unloaders if they want.

Mario told a guy at work about our DITY and apparently made it sound like it was great. The guy got a short notice PCS to Puerto Rico. So in two weeks, he and his wife packed up the entire house. Unfortunately they didn't hire loaders like Mario suggested. They begged for help from guys at work. Most of the guys refused to help because the guy was making money on the move and they felt he should hire people. But Mario felt like he should help because it was a great missionary opportunity since Kenny has been asking a lot of questions about the church. I went with Mario today along with a young guy from church. We worked for about 4 1/2 hours loading. The couple has 2 small girls ages 2 and 3. I found that I was of more service taking the girls off the mother's hands while she got work done. We played at the park for about an hour in the 50 degree weather and high winds. I froze to death. Then I asked if they would like me to take them to McDonalds for lunch. Unfortunately the closet McD's was all the way across town. Then it was like pulling teeth to get the girls to eat their chicken nuggets. Then as we were leaving and I had my arms full of food to bring back to their mom, the girls refused to leave. They ran opposite directions and would not come back. I am sure everyone thought they were my own children and I couldn't handle them. The whole point of this blog is to say that I am sure glad my youngest are almost 7 (in two days) because if they ever acted like this in public, they would get grounded for life. But they both acted this way at 2 and 3 years old. It was a nightmare taking my twins anywhere until they were old enough to understand stranger danger. My other point is I should never let Mario talk anyone into a DITY again. It is a lot of hard work and should never be attempted if you have small children.