Moving | I Should Be Folding Laundry

Archive for Moving – Page 2

The award for most miscellaneous post goes to…Me.

July 17th, 2008

You came here and I’m just going to send you away.

Remember when my sister-in-law guest posted here last week? And it was a heart wrenching, beautiful post about her husband’s (my brother) departure to Iraq. His third time going to Iraq. Remember that post? I wonder if you cried as hard as I did when you read it. I was a hot mess. A HOT MESS, I tell you!

Well, GUESS WHAT???? She started a blog! I know! And I would love it if you visited her and left her comments and showed her your looooove because she would love it and I would love it and her husband would love it and it would be a big, huge love fest. So, go there, read, look at her fab new design (if I do say so myself) and leave her some love in the comments. This blog is going to be an amazing distraction and a wonderful outlet for her, blogging is so fabulous and you are all fabulous, it’s one big fabulous party.

Oh and I blogged over here. Check that out, too, k? And don’t just go and read and leave, write a comment for the love of pete.

I know, I’m so needy.

By the way, I ordered Wii Fit and today it gave me my Wii Fit Age, if anyone can correctly guess my age, I will send you two boxes of Bug Bites. I’m serious. One guess per person. and I’ll tell you my age tomorrow. Things to keep in mind, my real age is 31 and if anyone guesses 104, I’ll be mad, but you won’t be too far off. or will you be?

Pictures.

July 15th, 2008

As promised, I am here to post some pictures.

Except I am not posting a ton of pictures of our house tonight, nope, instead, I am posting pictures a ton of pictures I took outside. I LOVE taking pictures of nature, it makes me feel good, it’s good for my soul, I love having the shots show up on my screensaver. Between you and me? When taking pictures, I think of James and Jake with every shot, I’m not sure why, I just do.

Like I said, it’s good for my soul. (by the way, Carrie was wondering what kind of camera I have, Carrie, I have the Nikon D40X. It’s fantastic.)

It’s been awhile since I have taken any fun outdoor pictures, but today the kids and I went for a walk in a park about six minutes from my new house. My dream is to have some of my favorite photos printed (high quality, not at Walgreens) and professionally framed and then place them on my walls. That would make me happy. (anyone know of any photo printing service that’s inexpensive? Anyone? Anyone? Beuller?)

So, here are a few of the pictures I took. And at the end I added a picture of my kitchen that I took tonight, all unpacked and moved in. You can also see that Servpro is still at our house, YES, you read that right, they are still treating the flood that occurred last Wednesday. Now all that’s left is a smaller fan and a big de-humidifier, which is nothing compared to the two massive industrial fans that were there up until yesterday. Hopefully what’s left in there now will be gone by tomorrow. (with any luck, which I seem to have none.)

On to the outdoor shots. It was roughly 187 degrees outside with 100% humidity, which does not bother me, but the kids, well, they did not appreciate the heat, so time was limited, but the subjects were not.

And this one reminds of James and Jake. I saw this tree and it was very symbolic and beautiful to me.

Here’s a shot I took last week of a storm system that was heading in our direction. I took this on my porch. This storm barely even produced rain.

And here’s my kitchen tonight, can you spot the machinery in the kitchen?

And here is what is supposed to be a dining room that we changed into an office. I am loving the way this room is turning out. It’s part of Ruby & Roja Headquarters! Now if I could just stop storing everything on the desk, maybe I could get some work done. This was taken at sunset.

Are you bored to tears, yet? or do you want more house pictures?

talk to me, man.

July 10th, 2008

I need your help. Going this long without internet, a husband, a Mom who is in Virginia and having 2 industrial sized fans and an industrial dehumidifier in my kitchen is getting the best of me. And we don’t even have a yard that I can toss the kids into and run back inside and sit myself in my pantry with cheetos while they play. The kids and I even to see Wall E. today and went out for lunch and dinner, but I’m feeling kinda down.

Here’s the thing. I can read your comments on my blackberry and I am LOVING IT. I am so grateful to have that little gem sitting next to me, I just wait and wait for the next electronic communication to travel to virtual doorstep.

And if you are wondering how I am posting this, I am sitting in the parking lot at Panera. NO LIE. The kids are in the back seat, turning the lights on and off and telling on each other and it’s raining outside. I’m about to stick some suckers in their mouths to buy me a few more minutes, just call me Mother of the Year.

So, this is how you can help me. Leave me a comment. Tell me something about you, like, how your summer is going, or what you order from Taco Bell when you go there. OR, you can tell me if you think I should cut my bangs tomorrow? I have a hair appointment at 11:30. Currently, I think I look like a doobie brother with my long bangs, some people agree, others disagree, so should I cut my bangs?

Also, have you tried Bug Bites, yet? I’ve introduced them to two people this week and both of them e-mailed me separately saying they loved them…and me. Cause I introduced them to the beauty of the Bug Bite.

OH! And did you see Christy and I changed our company name?!?! We did, we love it. Check it out. ALSO – have you seen the new look and the big news over at 5 Minutes for Mom? I think the new look is FABULOUS, if I do say so myself.

PLEASE HELP ME! TALK TO ME, MAN!!!!

I didn’t like having a nice kitchen anyway.

July 9th, 2008

Today started out like a typical morning, I walked down the stairs and headed towards my coffee maker as quickly as my tired legs could go. I heard water running and grew concerned and realized rather quickly that I was walking in water, at least an inch of water. In my brand new kitchen, with the beautiful hardwood floors.

I saw the water was coming from the back of the refrigerator, I called Brian who is on a business trip in North Carolina and I pulled the refrigerator out. The water line that connects to the ice maker was no longer attached to the fridge. In fact, when I pulled the fridge away from the wall, the hose was whipping around like a wild snake, I felt like I was reenacting the scene from Mr. Mom when he fights the hose from the washing machine, the water was spraying all over my kitchen and on my face and my glasses, I was soaking wet, my floors, the cabinets, the walls, everything, was wet.

I didn’t even know where or how to begin the clean up, I eventually got out the shop vac and almost filled it up two times from the water in the kitchen alone. While on the phone with Brian he said "you may want to check out the basement." No, actually I do not want to check out the basement at all, I wanted to reply, I’ll just pretend we don’t have a basement, m’kay?

But eventually I went downstairs to find water EVERYWHERE. The couches and carpet we had downstairs are ruined, crib mattresses and car seats and boxes of clothes are soaking wet. In the basement, however, our items weren’t just wet, they were muddy and disgusting.

I got the kitchen pretty dry and put out three fans and washed about 80 towels but I could look down at the wood and see it starting to warp, the dark edges of each piece made me want to weep.

We decided two things. Number one, we need to hire a company to come and dry us out completely. Number two, call the insurance company.

After awhile, a restoration company came by and worked on the clean up, they took pictures and prepared the paperwork to be sent to our insurance company, the kids and I left the house for the evening because their massive fans and de-humidifiers were just deafening. I’m pretty annoyed that this happened because it FINANCIALLY sucks. This move has been so incredibly expensive and we really wanted to get a new, much larger dining room table, along with about 40,000 other things.

But instead, we are paying for people to dry our house out. Talked about an unplanned expense.

The funny thing is, though, I don’t really care that this happened., I mean, it sucks, for sure, but it’s tolerable. We may not be buying a new table anytime soon, but we do have a table, and a roof over our heads and a family to share dinners with. And although it sucks that we are having to spend thousands of dollars, that we really do not have, on this ridiculous thing that happened, we still have a beautiful home and we are so grateful.

I talked to my friend Christy this afternoon and she said "you know, (with her beautiful Texas accent) I hate to be cliche, but when it rains it pours." and she’s right, I am aware. I would be lying to you if I said I never once thought "WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO US? CAN’T WE CATCH A BREAK?" Because I did think those thoughts but followed by those thoughts, in all honesty, were thoughts of gratitude and being fully aware of the good that is in my life.

My husband is out of town for two weeks, but he’s not in Iraq. (my brother left today for Iraq and won’t be back until March – please keep him and his family in your prayers)
My house flooded, but it’s okay, the floors have to be resurfaced and soon this will all be a memory.
My boys, my sons, died inside my belly, but somehow they are so deeply engraved in my heart that I feel them with me. It’s almost like I can feel their hands on my shoulders during these stressful times, hands of support and grace and love, speaking to me telling me everything is going to be okay.

Although silver linings typically drive me crazy, I was pretty proud of myself for allowing myself to listen to those words of encouragement deep inside my heart and my brain.

This experience today, is something that will be added to our catalog of memories that happened in our new house. Last night, after the kids went to bed, my girlfriends came over and we sat in the living room and laughed and ate nachos and chocolate mousse cake, and yesterday morning I sat and watched my children sleep.

I realize that tomorrow morning I may wake up with a really bad attitude about what happened today, or maybe we’ll find out that the floor will have to be totally replaced, but for right now, I’m pretty grateful that all we experienced today was a flood in our kitchen and basement. Not that big of a deal at all, really.

Gems & Nuggets

July 8th, 2008

Still no internet. Brian has spent over two and half hours on the phone with our internet provider and well, in the end? Someone disconnected their call. First the install was to be on the 10th, then it was moved to two weeks after the tenth and then it was moved to the 14th and then they said they lost our order and now it’s supposed to be sometime in 2008. And as much as I’d love to leave this highly disorganized and unprofessional internet provider for their lack of service and urgency and return to my old true love, we can’t, we are under contract. (long story.)

So, fortunately, I have friendly friends who will help a sister out, my friend Sarah from Milk & Honey is guest posting today. Sarah is a friend of mine in real life, if I had to describe her in one word, I would use the word hilarious. She’s a comic with great timing, she says things like "I like my fair share of gangster rap" and I laugh and laugh and laugh and then I see that she’s serious, which makes her even funnier. And? She so cute and looks like Sarah McLachlan. Here’s her guest post for today. Show her the love and make her feel welcome, k?

Last
week, my husband and I closed on the sale our house. After three months on the
market, we accepted a good offer so that we could move on to the next chapter
of our lives. Minor detail: we did this without knowing what that next chapter
is. We’re staying with his parents until we figure that out. We’re in good
company, because also staying with the in-laws is my husband’s brother and his lovely
wife and family, while they wait to see where their next chapter leads.

It’s
been fun living in close quarters with these eight other people of varying
ages; four of them are under six, and two of them are in their sixties. I’ve
never had this much constant interaction with small children before, and it’s
made me realize a couple things: peanut butter is a food group in and of
itself, and also, kids listen, really listen to what you say. They take
it in, dissect it to make sense of it, and share their interpretation with
others. They live by your words, no matter how ridiculous they may be.

Naturally
this scares the shit out of me, since I’m ten-ish weeks away from having my own
small, impressionable person. I’ve been thinking about the words my mom used
when I was a kid, and their effectiveness. Hoo boy, were they effective. And,
little did I know then, hilarious. I’m looking forward to busting out some of
these gems as soon as I get an opportunity. Until then, I share them with you,
eager reader, to use as you see fit.

"You’d
better leave him alone, one day he’s going to be bigger than you!" This should be said
when a younger, yet taller, sibling habitually makes an older child’s life
hell. Usually a dual-purpose statement to both warn the young’n and give hope
to the older child, who, for the record, probably won’t ever be bigger, but
will become freakishly strong as he hits young adulthood. Seriously. Did I ever
show you my broken finger.

"Don’t
make me shout like a fishwife!" A front-porch favorite for calling the
kids in for dinner. "Josh! Sarah! Dinner! Come on home, don’t make me
shout like a fishwife!" What makes this most effective is the unexpected
element of embarrassment. Oh, they’ll come running alright, just so the
shouting will stop. Straight from the source of all things mom, this one is
most often attributed to grandmas.

"Your
room looks like a whore’s nightmare." Another grandma-ism. Something about
the word whore coming from a sweet grandmother’s snarled lips makes the chore
of bedroom cleaning more satisfying. And dirty. And maybe a little horrifying.

"Pretty
is, as pretty does." Just as effectual as saying pretty girls don’t burp or
fart. Or pustie. Because that’s the only time moms use this one, really. It’s a
thinly-veiled threat disguised as a lesson.

"What
goes over the dog’s back comes under his belly." This is most often
used when a daughter’s (or son’s) best friend steals her boyfriend (or
girlfriend). Moms love this one because it’s a non-violent expression of
impending, unavoidable revenge… "Oh sure, she got away with it this time,
but that hussy’ll get hers, just you wait."

"Don’t
ever put anything in writing that you don’t want to come back to you." One of the best
lessons a mom can share. Especially when a daughter (or son) might be
considering writing a nasty letter to above mentioned former best friend. Face
to face confrontation, or confession, is always ideal, except in cases where
legal documentation may be necessary. Ahem.

Knowing
what to say, and when to say it, carries so much more pressure than I ever
considered. I’m not just talking about the easy stuff, like knowing that
‘yibidies’ means boobs, ‘putsie’ means fart, ‘tinkle’ means pee and a
‘ding-dong’ is a… uh… ding-dong. How do you console with the right words?
Encourage? Threaten and scare the snot out of? (Only when necessary, of
course.) Maybe embarrass on occasion? What’s your favorite nugget of mom-ism
(or dad-ism) gold?

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