The D.L. with Derek Lopez

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  • The D.L. with Derek Lopez
    The D.L. with Derek Lopez
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The last month or so has been a wild one to say the least in our family. As most of you who read my column know, Marisa and I recently bought a new house in Littlefield.

The statement, “You don’t know how much you have until you have to move,” is an understatement. I didn’t think the packing and moving was ever going to end.

We finally finished up this week with the last few items, and everything is officially at our new house. I have to give a quick shout out to my mom, my in-laws and our nephew Gabriel who were all part of the moving crew over the last few weekends. I also have to give a shout out to Frito Jackson, who without, our bedroom furniture would probably still be sitting in the old house.

I would also like to say thank you to my sister and mom for coming and hanging stuff up on the walls while we are gone on several occasions because, otherwise, we would still have more of a mess of boxes everywhere then we already do.

Moving was a chore, but we got it done, however getting settled in doesn’t seem like it is ever going to end either. Everywhere we turn there is more stuff scattered.

Before we even got to move in, one Friday night when I was fixing to head to Wellman-Union for an Amherst Football game, Marisa called me in tears. So luckily, I had some time before I actually had to leave, so I raced home to find our living room, hallway and three bedrooms with water damage. A toilet had been running for three days. Now, we were planning to replace the living room and hallway carpet, but this forced our hand and made us do the three bedrooms also. Luckily we were able to pull it off, but it definitely was more than we were wanting to do at the moment.

We have come a long way in the last two weeks, it really is starting to feel like home and I think all of our issues with the house are behind us.

Prior to moving in, we planned to get some flooring done and replace some outdated fixtures, but we got more than we bargained for. My dad and Uncle James came down to change out all of the outlets for us and replace ceiling fans and switches, but what was supposed to be a two day job, turned into an all weekend thing.

My other uncle and aunt came in from New Mexico and put in some vanities for us and a new water heater.

One night while my dad was staying at the house, he said the breaker box kept clicking off, so we had our contractor, who was doing our floors and some other minor cosmetic stuff, bring his electrician out and he said man “this is no bueno.”

When we were looking for a house, we told ourselves we didn’t want to have to do the same stuff we did with our last house, but long story short, we ended up have to drop a few thousand on electricity also.

However, all of that is done, the flooring looks great, all of our switches and outlets are the same color and updated, the ceiling fans are running on full blast and the house is really coming together, I can’t wait to get everything put up so we can start decorating for Christmas.

We would also like to thank EZ Remodeling for the great job they did on our house.

It has been a chore, but it is finally starting to feel like home and we are blessed to be in the situation that we are in.

Switching gears, my Atlanta Braves fell two runs short of making it to the 2020 World Series, and though I am sad, because they were on such an incredible run, I am super excited about the future of this team. I hope the front office takes care of business in the off-season, because if they do, then this team really has a chance to be one of the teams to beat next year.

As the high school regular seasons wind down, I want to wish everybody good health and safe travels as play-offs get underway and hope everyone can avoid and dodge COVID-19 the rest of the season.

I hope to be following our teams deep into the play-offs in November and December.