race in america, hello 2437, 5 years in seattle

it's been a whirlwind week! in addition to our move, covid-19 is still going strong (though the stay at home order finally ended in washington) and a huge movement to combat racism in america has been reignited. after the murder of an unarmed black man by police in minneapolis, thousands have taken to the streets to protest police brutality. social media is flooded with posts about how people can help and how to become not just "not racist" but "anti-racist". many people have been fighting for equality for years and others are just getting out of their little bubble and joining. it's all very powerful to watch and i hope some real change will come from it. while we haven't participated in any protests, we made a donation to the minneapolis northside funders group to help small businesses impacted by covid-19 and the protests. i encourage you to do one thing beyond what you've done in the past.

last friday night, i had a wine date at my friend kay's in her beautiful backyard. it was so nice to catch up with her. but right before i left, a raccoon came strolling through her backyard and i hate raccoons!  

our weekend was filled with packing and organizing. moving is always so much work and you sort of forget just how much work it is until you are in the middle of it again ;) 

 

on monday we got the keys to our new place. it was even more spacious than we remembered! we brought over 3 carloads of stuff (plants, and other breakable/hard to pack stuff). it's nice that we are just two blocks away from our old place :) we ordered thai for dinner at the old place. 

tuesday morning we were up super early making sure everything was prepped for the movers to come at 8:30. we used the same movers as last year and they were great again. super efficient and reasonably priced. it took them about 3 hours to move everything out of the old place and into the new place.

 

 

we made good progress on setting up and unpacking in the first day. 

 

 

wednesday i took the kids biking at the ballard community center field. a couple kids from ashford's class were there so that was fun. it's nice to have it so close (and to have a modern garage again!). 

 

we also did more unpacking..

 

a funny quirk of our new place is that the washer and dryer are up on a platform. i have to stand on a stool to reach the wet clothes at the bottom ;) 

i love our new deck and i'm on the hunt for a patio set (love seat, 2 chairs, and coffee table). 

 

in other news, our car is back from the collision center and it looks as good as new! 

and finally, i can't let june 5th go by without mentioning it's our 5 year anniversary of living in seattle! i can't believe it. we miss our family and friends back in minnesota so much, but we also love our life here and will stay put until the time is right. the biggest thing i've learned in the last 5 years is to let go of the need to be in control.