Complete.  The long transition that Keturah, Mason, Jude, and I began in Northern California this past April and took us through a summer in Connecticut, finally came to a conclusion in Sudbury, Massachusetts on September 1 when we closed and moved into our new house.

Moving a family of four from one coast of the U.S. to another was no simple task.  I’m hard pressed to think of many things I’ve found more challenging.  I’m struggling to completely encapsulate all my thoughts about this journey, but mostly I’m happy it’s over.  I’m happy that the moving company like Big T showed up on September 3 with all the stuff we’ve been missing since April.  I’m happy that the cable company showed up on September 9, plugged me back into the Internet, and hooked me up so I can watch Red Sox games on NESN every night. ((Despite the fact that the Sox are totally stinking right now. The Bad News Bears would shut them out right now, especially if Amanda was starting.))  I don’t even care that I’ll probably have cardboard boxes in corners of some rooms for months to come.

So instead of a structured post reflecting on the finality of the big move, I give you this random list of thoughts…

• You can go home again. But don’t stick around too long.  Yes, it was nice to be back in Glastonbury for a few months, but it never felt like a place I could permanently be. My time there was over.  It was over when I was 18 to be honest.
• Speaking of Glastonbury, it’s completely frightening how much Sudbury, MA reminds me of Glastonbury. Really scary.  I may not want to live in Glastonbury, but some part of me wanted to raise my kids in a safe place just like it.  Which means, Mason and Jude will probably grow up to be completely bored with Sudbury, count the days until they can get out, and kill time via meaningless acts of youthful rebellion.
• There’s just no way you can totally outsource a cross country move with two little kids.  I’d say that I outsourced a lot of the heavy lifting and pain points, but I didn’t even come close to making things totally easy on myself.  I’m not sure it can be done.
• I highly recommend Moovers Inc for any big interstate moves.  They were recommended to me by Delancey Street –  and anyone who has ever hired movers in SF knows that Delancey Street is the way to go.  Moovers Inc was totally professional, friendly, and fair priced.  They were definitely not the most expensive movers I spoke with. Far from it actually.
• Things I missed the most while Moovers Inc was storing most (almost all) of our stuff: my roadbike, the king size bed Keturah and I have, and our espresso machine
• Mostly what I was missing was having our own space.  It’s nice having our own closets, our own beds, etc.
• Redfin was a great service for finding a house.  We started out with a list of about 12 towns in metro Boston that we were considering living in.  Redfin was instrumental in helping us quickly whittle that list down to towns that we focused in on (Sudbury and Wayland) and was also very helpful in helping us find preferred neighborhoods and schools. The people that work for Redfin Boston are great. Highly recommend them.
• Many thanks to Ryan and Sheri Neuman for helping us with our financing.  Our personal finances are ridiculously complex and without their help, we never would have been able to acquire the great home that we have.