College move in day!

We were up early on Friday. Peter said his last goodbyes to Sarah and my mom and we were on the road to N.C. State by 8:00 AM. (Sarah did not go because they were asking that only 2 people come with each student. I did see other siblings there so we could have brought her along and no one would have said anything but I'm glad we didn't because she would have been bored to tears!)

Our check-in time was 10:00 AM. We got to campus around 10:15 and were directed to a parking deck. The parking deck had three lanes each marked with the name of one of the Tri Tower dorms. We got in the lane for Peter's dorm and an Easy-Go with a trailer attached pulled up along with 8 volunteers and they immediately unloaded all of our stuff into the trailer.

(I would like to add here that during my extensive research on packing a kid for college, I came across multiple people stating that the best way to get everything easily and efficiently packed was to utilize Ikea Frakta bags.

I ordered a four pack from Amazon and after they arrived order another four pack.  The second four pack was a different brand and honestly they were a little nicer than the Ikea bags.  But regardless - these things were absolutely perfect for packing!

We only used 6 for all of Peter's things.  The best part was we were able to take his clothes straight from the closet and into these bags with the hangers on them.  When we were unpacking them, we literally lifted the clothes which were on the hangers out of the bag and then hung them.  That's my kind of packing!  

His clothes fit into two bags.  I loaded the other 4 bags with everything else - bathroom stuff, sheets, towels, comforter, school supplies, kitchen supplies, etc.  The only thing we had that wasn't in these 6 bags was the laundry basket holding two pillows and a large box that held his mattress topper!

We packed these 6 bags neatly into the back of the Pilot along with the laundry basket and that was it! We overheard one of the people helping us move say, "Wow! We need to take a picture of this one!" because everything was so neat and easy to move thanks to these bags.

The trailer with Peter's stuff headed to his dorm and he started walking that way as well while Dan and I parked the car in the parking deck.  We arrived at the dorm and Peter was standing beside his stuff.  When we got there, he headed into the dorm to get his key, someone brought two large rolling carts to us.  We easily loaded all of Peter's stuff into one cart, and headed to his room to begin getting things set up.

Look how compact it all is!  That's it!  That's ALL of his stuff.

We got his bed lofted with minimal arguments (there were a few tense moments but they didn't last too long) and then got it made up.  With all of the bedding, mattress pads, pillows, etc in their proper place we started unpacking and setting everything else up.  It all went pretty quickly. We ran into a snag hanging his flag but decided the best thing for that would be push pins (there was a piece of wood near the ceiling) but we would need to go to Target for those. I brought a large assortment of hooks and clips with command strips but none of them were working with the flag unfortunately. With everything but the flag in place, we headed to the student union to pick up his student ID.

There was a very long line hanging out the door to the ID office and I was dismayed at the thoughts of having to stand in that but thankfully, Peter had sent them a photo several weeks ago so his ID was ready. There was a different line to pick up your ID if you had done this and it had no one standing in it! Whew! So glad we did this ahead of time.

After we got his ID (which will get him into his dorm and into the cafeteria) we headed off campus to grab some lunch and to pick up a few items from Target. After that we went back to his dorm to hang the flag. We took the obligatory in the dorm room shots and I started to tear up. Peter said, "Mom, you aren't even leaving yet!" I pulled myself together and then we headed to the bookstore so Dan and I could get some N.C.State tee shirts.

Then Peter walked us to our car where we said our goodbyes and we all teared up.  Dan and I were definitely sad as we drove away.  But we are excited for Peter and he is excited about this next chapter so that made it easier.

He has been in touch with us all weekend through texts and calls. His roommate (who he has never met) moved in on Saturday. Peter was originally nervous about this guy because they didn't really communicate much over the summer.  Peter said he is very smart and works out a lot.  Peter gave him the ultimate compliment and I was relieved when I got this text: My roommate is pretty chill.  Y'all! Not sure if you know this or not but that is HIGH PRAISE from Peter! So, that's a big relief! 

Peter's first class is at 8:30 AM today and it is killing me not to text him right now as I'm writing this (7:20 AM) to make sure he is up. 

Thanks for all your prayers.  Move-in was everything I wanted it to be: smooth and not too sad.  It's going to be a great year!

  

That's his dorm in the distance (but that isn't him in the picture.)