It's Official

I'm officially a Hoosier now. We went to the Secretary of State office yesterday ( here called the motor vehicle bureau or something like that ) and I recieved my Indiana drivers licence and new plates and registration. I could not believe how many people were in line when I got there, but the line was moving very quickly and we were in and out in about 55 minutes. I had to take a written drivers test (there are a few differences in Indiana law, a couple things I did not know so had to guess) but it went fine. We waited until the very last minute, my Michigan registration expired yesterday, on my birthday, so we had to have this done yesterday. I also got my wish for simplifying, and we converted to just one insurance plan since everything is now in Indiana except for my house we are selling. In Indiana, plates expire by last name, so now I have to remember July. Michiagan's birthday system was easier to remember.

We got all that done and I thought we were heading back home to pick up the boys for dinner, but Mike dirverted to the mall and we went to Kay Jewelry and he had me pick out a bracelet for my birthday gift from him and the boys. That done, we made it back home, the boys jumped in the car (they were waiting outside for us) and off we went to my favorite restaurant - The Essenhaus. YUMMMM!!

All in all it was a good day. Maybe getting older won't be so bad after all .......

From Fair to UNFAIR

Things feel like they are settleing down here now. Mike has returned from his mission trip to Puerto Rico, we finally had a contractor from the insurance company look at the rental house and will be getting our estimate on that the first part of next week, most of the stuff is sorted and put away from the move, the sale still is progressing well. So on to the next challenge. Steve goes in for a minor surgery on April 1 to make a revision to his Mitroffonoff (sp?) - or the passage the doctor made through is belly button to his bladder to cath through. This should be a very easy, peasy surgery. Mom and Dad will go with me to the hospital, and Mike and Pete will stay here since Pete still has school. How UNFAIR!! Steve gets to start spring break 2 DAYS before Pete!! Steve is worried that I will forget to write the note to get him out of school early for break - silly boy, doesn't he know that mom always takes care of everything?

Wrapping up the Loose Ends

The boys finally have their own rooms. Monday afternoon I surprised them when they came home from school with moving Pete's things into the second bedroom. Yesterday while I was making dinner, Steven came charging upstairs to me (the boy usually "lumbers", so the charging is a nice change of pace - or so I thought) to say Pete had locked himself inside Steve's room over some disagreement they were having. I know, you can't believe that siblings have disagreements. So, downstairs I went. After knocking on the door I calmly told Pete that if he wanted to be in Steve's room so badly, I could very easily move his furnature back and they could share it again. I never saw the boy move so fast to get back into his own room!!

I should have known not to be so confident about the sale of the house. The sale is still on but the closing has been delayed. We were to close today, but I got the call yesterday saying the buyer's bank was not ready to close yet. So now I am waiting for the new closing date. In the mean time, I know they closed the sale on their old house over the weekend and were counting on moving in this week. He is a minister for the Missionary chruch in Sturgis. I bought my first home (on Prospect St) from the Missionary church 18 years ago, so I feel like we are completing a circle that was meant to be. Thinking back, I really wanted to be in that house before Christmas, but my bank was making things miserable trying to buy that house (I was only 20, and ended up having to ask my Mom to go into the bank with me to try to get things moving in the right direction - trust me when I say you do not want to envoke the wrath of Deb Fair when you are messing with her offspring!! "Nough said.) The church let me move in 2 weeks before we closed so that could happen. So, now my turn to complete the circle. I called my realator to tell the buyer can go ahead and move in as planned on Thursday. The buyer called me last night very thankful that I would make the offer. Now I have that warm, fuzzy feeling. It was the right thing to do.

Busy, Busy Times

Everything is running full speed ahead on the sale of the house in Sturgis. We are scheduled to close on Wednesday and at this point I see no barriers to that day coming through. When I spoke with our buyers the day of the home inspection, they were closing the sale on their house on Mar 20 and would be homeless for 4 days until the closing on mine. They certainly have high stakes in closing on the scheduled day. What a relief for us. Being able to get rid of that house payment and all the other bills that go along with owning a house even though we aren't living there. This also means that the need for me to return to work soon is not as great. Although if you talk to me a couple weeks into summer break, I may be feeling quite differently about that!! I've always said there was a reason I am not a stay at home mom - I'd have to kill the children. And with them coming into the teen years with a vengance, that feeling may be doubled. The good side though is with them coming into the teen years, they will have me home to moniter after school activities and hopefully keep them out of trouble. Not sure how much trouble they could get into in the middle of Amish country, but I am sure there is enough.

The weather has taken a turn for the better and the mud has dried up. My vow to get out each morning and walk will begin soon. I have most of the items brought from Sturgis sorted through and the boys are almost ready to have their own rooms again. (My thighs of a teenager never happened - all I ended up with was a sore knee from all the stairs. Life is SO unfair!!) Although the snotty boys that were around my house over the weekend got that privledge delayed by a few days. I am going to have the "staging" room ready by the time the boys get home from school today and if they are ready for it, they will help me move Pete's bed and all will be good.

Greeting From San Juan

As we finish our first day in Puerto Rico, I can already feel some of the stress of the past few weeks falling away. We arrived yesterday about 3pm and were quickly shuttled to Juan's house for a welcome dinner. It is in the 80's during the day here. We survive without air conditioning in the house and the 15 passenger van that we have down here. That means more frequent showering in order not to offend. We put together 22 food packages (about $800 in food) together for community families that we will pass out tomorrow. We also had to have the brakes on the van fixed. I noticed on the way back from going to get food for our house that the brake warning light was on. We discovered that there was no brake fluid left in the master cylinder and that there was brake fluid squirting out a rusted out hole in the main line going back to the rear brakes. We were only minutes away from brake failure. We were thankful the Lord was watching over us. Until later

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.