Return to live

Normal life is beginning again. We are completely into the house, one more trip to Sturgis to clean up and the closing is next Wednesday. It is so great to have the whole house to ourselves - even Mike says it is such a relief to not worry about the renter in the basement. The boys have themselves a great area to watch TV and a table to play games or draw. They are still sharing a bedroom, but I hope to have the 2nd room emptied enough to put Steve in it before next week. I have over half our stuff sorted through - put away, garage sale, good will, trash. I had 3 trash cans out at the curb this morning - one is a big curby from the trash company!! I still had more I could have put out, but did not want to overwhelm them! I have re-purposed the hutch. We are getting rid of the top portion and using the bottom in the kitchen. It adds extra counter space and inside the door area I installed 2 sliding trash can holders for plastic and aluminum recyclables. For such a big house, there is not much closet and storage space, so I am making due and coming up with some inventive solutions. I think Mike is impresed, although it will all be so much easier once we weed out the extra stuff. With not working, I am able to get to laundry and other tasks much more often and the extra things we had to compensate for my busy working, single mother lifestyle are no longer necessary. I am making myself let go. I imagine I will have 2 garage sales this year, the first to get rid of the major stuff and a second for the things I decide as we go that I can do without. I am really trying to simplify.

What a Week

I am exhausted!!! I have been either moving things here from Sturgis or sorting through the things I brought to make room for bringing more things every day. Friday my sister came down and my parents came over to help. We filled her van twice, my Trail Blazer twice, mom's car once, and dad's truck once (and then of course unloaded them all too). I tried really hard to go through things Friday night, and drafted the boys to take the food and cleaning supplies up to the pantry to put them away. Pete did a really good job putting as much as he could on the shelves neatly. After sorting that stuff out of the boxes, I was too pooped and too achy to do another thing. The problem was that we had help coming Saturday and I needed that room as clear as possible before they all arrived at 10 AM (thank goodness we decied to start late!). I fell into bed and was asleep before Mike knew where I had disappeared to. Up at 4:30 Saturday morning, but energized and ready to go again. I had the motivation needed to finish up what needed done. We had 3 guys and 2 trucks to add to my blazer, Mike's van and the trailer he borrowed. All the big stuff is now moved. I have just a couple of things to bring back when I go to clean everything up this week. The realator says we are on track to close the house sale on the 24th - a great birthday present for me - no more house payments!!!

Friends

The boys are beginning to make neighborhood friends. A boy from Steve's bus stopped by the house the last 2 days to "hang out". Now that the snow is melted, we need to get the bikes ready for the spring and summer - they wanted to go bike riding yesterday but the bikes got burried in the shed when they were brought over, and the tires need pumped up. He's been invited by this boy to go riding around town on bikes Saturday. Hopefully, Pete makes friends soon.

No News

Sorry for not posting much lately. The sale of my house is going through pretty smoothly it seems at this point, we are only waiting on a termite inspection. Closing date is still set for March 24. We have been spending our spare time packing up cars and moving things back here. We have a "staging" area set up in the second bedroom downstairs where the stuff goes when we unload the cars, then I spend a day unpacking the boxes and trying to find a home for everything, so I can re-use the boxes to get more stuff brought back here. At this point, the boys rooms are empty, both bathrooms are empty, my room only has the bed and one dresser to bring over, living room has 2 chairs and the entertainment center, office is down to just my desk. The kitchen is still half full, laundry room is not touched, dining room is still in tact, although the china hutch is almost empty, and a few odds and ends in the basement need to come over. We have made good progress, thanks in part to my parents bring 2 truck loads over one day last week. Oh, the garage sale we are going to have this year!!!

Best Wishes

After several delays, the last of which sent my even tempered, nice guy husband into a fit of rage, we are finally into the basement and have the whole house to ourselves. The boys slept in their own beds for the first time in a month last night. We had a couple of very productive days moving things from my house, unfortunately, all the items ended up in the living room and hall way until yesterday. I spent yesterday running up and down the stairs taking things down to the basement. On the bright side, I told Mike that when we are done with this, I will have the thighs of a teenager!! My very unreasonable family told me today that they need laundry done - how could they think they all need clean clothes to wear to work and school? Don't they know how often I am running to the basement already? Sighhhhhh. I've already done 3 loads this morning. I didn't even check e-mail yesterday and had 33 new messages this morning, only one of which was spam. Now that I am re-connected with the world, I am able to get on with my day. Here's wishing you all the thighs of a teenager too!!

Another Day in Paradise

I've always said that Pete has a hard time dealing with change in his life. When big changes happen, he acts out - being more naughty than my 10 year old normally is. I never realalized until now that he gets it from me! I tend to internalize until the dam breaks and I am an emotional wreck for a while. My life is all change right now: my grandfather will only be with us for a few more months, we are waiting on word from the insurance company on what will happen with our rental house, we have accepted an offer on my house and the buyer wants to close in 3 weeks, the week before the closing Mike is going to Puerto Rico on a mission trip with his church, the renter in our basement here is finally moving out today so we can get the boys into a bedroom downstairs and spread out a bit, we are waiting on the head of All American Group to get back with Mike on whether they want him to work in China, my nephew is having health problems and we are waiting on his next appointment to get some more information. It's no wonder that for the last 3 nights I have not been able to sleep. Last night I finally broke down and took a sleep aide - I hate the groggy feeling in the morning until it all wears off. Unfortunately we were up for half an hour today before the school called a 2 hour delay - I would have loved that extra 2 hours of sleep to let the meds wear off.

I did just spent a good day at the house we are selling packing things up and bringing a load back here. Pete's room is empty except for his dresser. Steve's is on the way. I need to call around to get prices on a U-haul for the weekend, hopefully moving most of the big stuff then. I am hopeful that the more progress I make toward this move, the emotional roller coaster will begin to slow down. Once the sale is done, it will be a great thing. Until then, bear with me.

Testing One, Two

I'm glad my kids are good test takers. Testing does not have the freaking out effect that it does on some kids, and we have always made the "big" yearly testing seem like just another day. In the fall they both took the MEAP test (Michigan's standardized testing). Now that we have moved and are in a new school system, it is time here for the I-Step (Indiana's standardized testing). Pete was a little nervous about this one, apparently the teachers have been telling the students how hard it was last year. I told him again - no big deal, they just want to see what you know, it's just like the MEAP's he already took, only here it's 2 parts. The written test is this week and next month is the multiple choice section. Off they went to school feeling pretty good about the day.