Six Months

We have been in this house for a little over six months now.  We are really enjoying it, I especially love my new tub, but there are some disappointments (keep reading, Nana). 

First, even though we threw away what felt like would have filled up a PODS when we moved, we still have alot of junk.  If you don't believe me, just come look at our garage.  How many times have we cleaned out that garage, threw stuff away, just to have it fill up again?  What is happening here???

Second, my kids aren't keeping their "new" rooms as clean as they promised.  At first, like the first day, they kept their rooms tidy, but now we are right back into the struggle.  "Respect your stuff or I'm throwing everything in here away!"  Please tell me I'm not the only mother to ever utter those passionate yet untrue words....

Third, this house eats things just like our old one did.   In the other house, we had this ongoing joke about our couch being the "portal."  Once things got sucked into the cushions, it went into this portal of unknown, and we would never see the thing again.  I was hoping the portal of disappearance had been left behind, but no such luck.  For example, just this week I wanted to find a certain book to take to preschool with me.  It was a book Poptart had bought at Borders, and one of the reasons I encouraged her to buy it was for the fact that I knew it would go well with our Health & Nutrition unit at preschool.  We read that book several times here at home.  However, Tuesday morning when I went to retrieve the book out of Poptart's room, it was nowhere to be found.  Not in Poptart's room, not in Gogurt's room, not in my room.  I looked everywhere.  I know that book exists, and I know it was in this house just a few days ago, but I am afraid it has fallen victim to the portal-and we will never see it again.  (and no, Ellie didn't eat it).    This isn't the only time I can remember not being able to find a book when I needed it.  Once in the old house, Gogurt came home from school excited to tell me that he had told his teacher he had a book about George Washington he could bring to share with the class during their study of  the U.S.A.   No problem, I just saw that book on your bookshelf, so I'll go get it and stick it in your backpack.  The book wasn't on the bookshelf.  We tore the house apart, we never found the G.W. book. 

Instances like this are so very frustrating to me, then add the little things that seem to happen here on a daily basis, and it's almost cause for insanity. 

Little things like always having to search for Scotch tape.  It's never where its supposed to be. 

Neither are fingernail clippers. 

And scissors.  Oh, goodness, the scissors.   I bought several pair of scissors to put in every room of this house to have handy, and now I go from room-to-room opening all the drawers and still find no scissors.  (I want to be like Nana, she always knew where her scissors were in this house.)  I, on the other hand, never know where any of my 3 pair of scissors are!  I remember my mother having this certain pair of scissors.  I'm sure she still has them, and I'm sure if I walked into her house right now, I would know the exact drawer to find them.  With that said, I can also remember as a child being threatened with my life if I borrowed "Momma's good scissors" and didn't return them to the drawer immediately. 

And what about sharpened pencils?  When homework time comes around, why do we always have to search for a sharpened pencil?  I say sharpened because we have DOZENS of unsharpened pencils, but very, very few sharpened pencils.  If we finally decide to give up on finding a sharpened pencil, then the hunt is on for a pencil sharpener.  And yes, I have sharpened pencils with a knife before over my kitchen sink.  Haven't you? 

I was really hopeful that all these annoying habits would stay at our old house, but no, they have followed us.  That can only mean one thing.....it's the people in the house, not the house itself. 

The house itself is wonderful - have I mentioned my tub? 

Every now and then the kids will say they miss their old house, I think we all do a little bit, but we are definitely enjoying making new memories at this house. 

I just wish one of those new memories would be always knowing where my scissors are. 

Closing a Chapter

Our renters move in this weekend.  I'm almost giddy about this - - all of our hard work (cleaning, painting, etc) is finally going to pay off!  I hope they make as many good memories in that house as we did. 

Meanwhile, now that that house isn't taking up every waking moment, I can sit back and enjoy this one, and that is exactly what I plan to do today.  I realized the other day that in the 2 weeks we've been in here, I haven't had an entire day by myself in this house yet.  Between sick children staying home from school and Brad taking off days from work for various reasons, it just hasn't happened.  Yes, I've had a couple of hours, after getting home from preschool and before the bus ran, to myself, but not an official whole day.   So what do I plan on doing today?  As little as possible! 

In case you are having moving-posts fatigue, I'm here to go on record that this will be the very last post about this for a very long time, 'cuz

It's time to move on.......

Moving Was The Easy Part

Since we moved, I feel like my life has been a whirlwind, and honestly, I'm ready for it to stop.  I want to stop and enjoy our new place!

However, the house we moved out of has to be prepared and ready for the renters to move in at the beginning of March.  So we can't stop just yet. 

This, the cleaning of the house we lived in for 9 years, it turns out, is harder than moving!

We have spent what seems like every spare moment of our lives scrubbing, wiping down, sweeping, painting, and all-around cleaning our old house.  It's a shame we are shining it up like this for other people when we would not even do it for ourselves!

That house is cleaner than it EVER was with us living in it.  I just hope our renters appreciate all this hard work!  But even if they don't, I will know we did it with the right motives.  I want them to be proud of their new house.   

I can't tell you how many times Brad has said to me, "Promise me we will not let our new place get into this shape."  My honest-to-goodness response is, "I'll try." 

And I will.  But I'm not the very best housekeeper in the world.  But I'll try. 

I think after just 1 or 2 good days of work at the old house, it'll be ready.  BTW, I have painted every doorframe in that house, except the ones with the kids' growth charts on them. 

Thanks for reading, and have a blessed day!

We Are In

Saturday was moving day, and the very first thing I want to do is thank everyone who helped us move.  Clay, Brooks, and Ronnie helped Brad move the furniture.  My mom, my sister, and my niece helped finish packing the kitchen and moving all the boxes and smaller stuff.  Jennifer P. helped by taking Poptart with them to the church for a little while and then helped me unpack in the new house.  I don't know what we would have done without every single one of you.  I think we would still be making trips - we certainly would not be as far along as we are right now. 

Moving is definitely hard work!  I know you all had other things you could have been doing on a Saturday morning/afternoon, but we are so glad you helped us.  We will return the favor anytime. 

The "old" house as we now call it needed alot of cleaning, and my mom and dad (yes, my dad.  He can sweep with the best of them) came down to clean.  That was a great help as well since I had to take Poptart to the doctor yesterday (strep throat).  I guess moving literally makes her sick.  She is missing school today too but will be back on the bus tomorrow morning, believe me. 

Thanks for the e-mails and phone calls during our move.  Now, I want every one of you to come visit us!  But maybe not all at the same time, it's still a pretty small house!

Have a blessed day.

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

This past weekend was quite a busy one, and it had absolutely nothing to do with the move. 

The kids were out of school Friday because of yet another non-producing ice storm we were to have.  I had agreed to take a good friend to the hospital for some oral surgery Friday morning, and although I was nervous about getting out on the roads at first, it ended up being fine, just like driving on a really, really rainy day.  Since the kids were out of school, Brad volunteered (gladly) to stay home from work and keep the kids entertained.  My friend's surgery went well, and she is recovering with a good bit of pain of course.  Hope you are feeling better today!

Gogurt spent the night with a friend Friday night, and Poptart was heartbroken she could not go as well.  She considers Gogurt's friends (especially this one) her friends as well, and she just can't quite understand why she cannot spend the night at the house of a 6th grade boy along  with her brother. 

To ease her hurt, I took her to see a local high school's performance of Annie.  I didn't tell her where we were going, only to get dressed and hop in the car! She was excited but since Poptart doesn't take to new situations all that easily, it immediately made her nervous.  She kept asking me where we were going.  I told her it was a secret.  She quickly blurted out emphatically, "I don't like secrets....'cuz I don't know how they end up!"  Hmmm, come to think of it, that's why I don't like secrets either, or any type of change for that matter. 

One we got there and she realized what was happening, she was perfectly fine.  The production was great, and we've been singing Annie songs all weekend long.  Poptart had only watched the movie Annie once, and it was just a few nights ago so we are new fans.  The song, "It's A Hard-Knocked Life" is perfect for her.  Poptart can tend to be dramatic about how "bad" her life is.  So now when she starts whining about something, I break into song.  It really annoys her.  But she stops the whining. 

Saturday was a day spent at a ladies conference at a local church.  And I'm kinda ashamed to admit it but when I got home, I basically sat and watched MSU play (and beat) LSU, barely.  Then Ole Miss came on and I watched them too.  What I'm trying to say is that I got nothing accomplished Saturday afternoon/evening/night.  I think we even ate cereal for supper that night.  Oh well. 

Sunday was a great day at church.  Unexpectedly, we brought 2 extra kids home with us from church.  It was great.  Each one of my kids had a playmate for the afternoon.  It wasn't a totally drama-free afternoon as my daughter had a breakdown after getting in some slight trouble for riding off without telling me where she was going.  She was crying and telling me she was never going anywhere for the rest of her life, not even to church.  I convinced her she was in fact going to church and we were leaving at that very moment.  Then, in the car, she kept saying, "I don't like myself, 'cuz I make bad choices."  Geez, where does she get this stuff? (And yes, I assured her we all make bad choices and she was still very much loved). 

I haven't forgotten that we are moving, but this past weekend was not devoted to that goal, not in the least.  Now I'm sitting here with a list of things I'm supposed to be doing.  Things that are devoted to the goal of being ready to load up on Saturday. 

I did finally tell one of our neighbors we were moving.  I believe he was sincere when he said he was sad to see us go, but I tried to lift his feelings by reminding him how much quieter it would be across the street now without the never-ending yard full of kids playing army/football/etc.  He said quieter wasn't always a good thing.  Awwwww, sweet. 

I am going to really, really try to post more this week than I normally do.  So check back often, k?  It's a big weekend for our family, and for more than just one reason!

Y'all have a great day!

Anybody Got a Crystal Ball I Could Borrow?

Have you ever come to a point in your life where you have so much to do that you sit down and do nothing? 

I feel I have found that place! 

My mind is busy, busy, busy with thoughts of everything still needing to be done between now and next Friday when we move.  

Yet, for some reason, I am doing very little.  I'm quite the amateur when it comes to moving, and I'm not sure what should be done now, several days before the move, or the day before the move.  I need one of those calendar things, you know, the kind that spells out what to do 6-months out, 3-months out, 1-month out and so on.  I had one of those when I was planning my wedding, and I remember pouring over it every single day for months. 

Yes, a calendar would be helpful.  You know what also would be helpful?  A crystal ball.  To tell us if we are making a good decision.  Moving, renting, changing. 

I want guarantees.  Guarantees that my children are gonna like our new house/yard.  Guarantees that the couple renting our house are going to be the best tenants in the world.  Guarantees that when it is all said and done, Brad and I will have that moment where we look at each other and sigh with relief that's its all over and its all good. 

(Here is where I remind you that we are not leaving this neighborhood, just moving into a different house in the same neighborhood.  Here is where I also remind you that this fact will not in any way reduce the level of drama seen/read in me the next 2 weeks.  I'm trying to not over-dramatize this, I promise, I'm trying.) 

I did have a slight *moment* last night when I was tucking Pop-Tart into bed and glanced over and saw the pen marks on her doorframe.  The ones that have marked her growth over the last 5 years.  Gogurt has the same markings on his closet doorframe as well.  We started marking his at 11 months old - the age he was when we moved into this house.  He is 10 years old now, and we almost have to stand on something to mark his height nowadays!

New house, new memories, new marks on a new doorframe.   

In 2 weeks. 

Regeneration

You know how certain creatures regenerate parts of their body?  If something gets cut off, they just grow another one?  Well, I think the stuff in my house is regenerating.

So far, to prepare for the move, we have cleaned out closets, drawers, the attic, the garage, and the storage room in the garage with the hope of *purging* ourselves of all the excess we have accumulated here in the last 9 years.  We have thrown SO MUCH stuff away, it's embarrassing . We have taken two loads to the dumpsters where Brad works 'cuz we didn't want to overload our poor Waste Management guys.  If we had put all that trash at the road, they probably would have laughed, said "Yeah, right," and kept on going! 

Now I could easily get on my soapbox about the excess stuff we all live with here in America, but I won't.  I can tell you that many, many times during this process we both said that nobody should have this much stuff.  Most of our "stuff" is clothes, and it's kind of  a curious thing because I'm not even a shopper!  It's also shameful to see how many clothes I have and then realize I wear the same things over and over again!

The attic was probably the most fun.  I'm serious!  The kids, especially Poptart, absolutely love to get in the attic.  Weird, I know.  It's not so much getting in the attic as climbing the stairs.  My kids think their lives would be complete if we lived in a house with stairs.  Well, that and a trip to Disneyworld.  Well, that and a trip to Disneyworld, and a dog.  Oh well. 

A couple of Saturdays ago we started emptying the attic.  We would bring a load down into the living room, go through it, decide what to keep, what to give away, and what to throw away.  Once done, we would bring down another load.  This process would have gone a little faster, but when you open a box and you haven't seen the stuff in literally years, it's too easy to stop and take a walk down memory lane.  My weakness was baby clothes.  What is it about a 3T Star Wars shirt and a 3-6 month little dress that makes me cry? 

But then I had a thought....I can't see myself, say in 10 more years, cuddling up to Gogurt's size 12 jeans!  I think clothes are kinda like feet, the smaller they are, the sweeter they are...

Once we had emptied the entire attic, (that was a good feeling!), we took the stuff we were keeping to the new house and the stuff we were throwing away to the dumpster.  Then, on every Saturday since, we have tackled closets, drawers, rooms, etc., and repeated that process. 

With all that said, you would think if you walked into my house right now, it would be almost empty.  WRONG!  Something mysterious is happening here - someone help me understand it!

Why, how, can we have gotten rid of so much yet when I walk into a room or closet, it looks just as messy as it did 3 weeks ago?!?!  Arrrggghhhh!

I think we've decided to  start over and purge more seriously.  Like, keep only 7 of everything.  One for every day of the week.  Except jeans, 'cuz you can wear jeans waaaay more than 1 day a week before washing them.  Really, the only thing we would need 7 of is underwear and now that I think about it, we could probably get by with even less than that since my kids don't bathe every single night of the week. 

And toys, oh yes, toys.  We need to get more serious about toys.  Choose, I don't know, maybe half-a-dozen to make the move with you?  Does that sound fair?  Oh wait, I think I hear my kids hyperventilating right now....

It's Not Alaska, Honey, But I Gotta Start Somewhere

We've talked about moving for a long time, but every time it came down to making a decision, it never felt right.  When Brad started seminary, the decision was whether to stay here and take courses at the extension or move to New Orleans so he could be on campus, take more classes, and be done in a more timely manner.  We decided to stay here. 

After Brad's first mission trip to Alaska, he felt sure, well almost sure, we would end up there one day.  That scared the bejeezers outta me.  So, once again, we decided to stay here. 

I have come to learn something about me.  Fear has a powerful hold on my life.  And that stinks, because fear and faith cannot coincide. 

I struggle with getting out of my comfort zone, leaving the things most comfortable to me, and I imagine myself to be worse than most anybody. 

This move is not to Alaska, not to New Orleans, heck, it's not even out of this city, or even this neighborhood (ha!).   But we are moving.  Different house, same neighborhood. 

Huh?

If you remember, about a year ago my in-laws came to live here.  They moved from north Alabama and bought a house in this neighborhood.  Well, they've decided to go home.  And they offered us their house. 

For almost nothing, (in house terms anyway). 

So there we were again, talking and praying, praying and talking about moving, but this time it was two streets over.  Don't laugh when I tell you I still struggled with the decision!  The real estate market stinks, what were we going to do if our house didn't sell?  We can't afford two house notes!  And besides this house needs sooo much work before even being put on the market.  There were so many unknowns, and I was scared. 

After much prayer, talking to friends and family, consulting 3 accountants and 1 lawyer (yes, we go overboard), we decided we could not pass this opportunity up. 

I know it's not Alaska, but as I said in a previous post, maybe God is stretching my faith in baby steps, gradually moving us to where we are supposed to be.

I'm excited to share this journey with you.