Spewing out an entire month's events

We FINALLY have the internet! Hooray for Verizon FiOS!!

I can't think of any better way to do it, than this. I wrote these blogs a little at a time and saved them on my handy dandy flash drive. A LOT has happened in a little less than a month. Seems crazy to try to fit it all in, or describe it all, but here we go. (Because I am such a teacher, I have to preface this with 2 things: 1. I will probably mix verb tenses a lot. Deal. and 2. I had to break this up into chapters, whos titles will be bolded. Again, deal.)

Getting the Love Nest Ready

I had told myself that we could start moving in the weekend John’s parents’ and Justin and Kelly were here. Then I comforted myself by believing that we could finish when I my parents were back from Nashville over Memorial Day weekend. I was politely told by several people that when you have a crew of workers, you don’t discourage them from finishing. (Aunt Judy) And then again told about how awesome the Bryson Moving company is (Uncle Ron, John) and that we should be done, out, sleeping in the house by the Saturday night the fam would be here. I was nervous about all that would need to be done, but again politely was told to stop worrying. (EVERYONE).

This meant that I would spend all day Saturday painting, as well as taking Monday off to finish. I was so thankful to have my mom, Aunt Emma and Aunt Judy’s help. On Saturday we painted everything white, meaning the living room, and the hall ways. I also met with Norb from Empire Carpets, which of course I called because I love the commercials. They really do live up to their claims, and we got carpet for 2 rooms for $100 less than Home Depot, and the best part was that it was ordered Saturday at 10 am, and put in Monday morning. Everywhere else we went would have taken up to 3 weeks! I would honestly recommend them, especially now that we get a referral bonus if you mention our name… John was in and out of the house doing things that needed to be done, mostly taking care of the yard so the dogs would be safe back there.

Saturday was hard but fun. Monday, not so much. John was back to work, and our goal for the day was painting our bed room. It ended up beautiful, but it was not as easy to paint white over cream, and to have to be careful to not get brown paint on the ceiling or the floor. The garage door got put in, though, and this makes the whole back of the house look different and better! Another bonus was my mom and I went to pick out our fridge from Cagel’s, which is a small, family style place that reminds me of Patterson’s Appliances from “That Thing You Do!” I am glad that we went there to support a smaller place, and not Costco, because as Guy Patterson so aptly stated “Those cats don’t know squat about service.” This day was also improved by the illustrious Wendy from Claim Jumper. (That’s how I think of her because there is a Wendy from school, and because I don’t know this Wendy’s last name…) I was exhausted by the end of the day, but mostly in a good way.

It already feels soooo different, and it has only been a week since we first started planning what we would be doing. Can we really move in next weekend?!?!?

Movin on in

I was nervous because we had done so much at the house that we hadn’t really had time to do much cleaning and packing. John reassured me that his family were pros at packing and organizing, and that they were used to the whole process. I was nervous about anyone seeing my (lack of) organizational skills and sometime general cleanliness, but as time wore on and I got more overwhelmed, I got pretty good at letting that fear go.
Friday is Tammy’s (from here on out known as Mom T) late day, so they weren’t able to leave the Fresno area until almost 8. This was actually good, since John and I had plenty of time to at least get something done. I worked in our bedroom, packing clothes in suitcases. John worked in the kitchen and made sure there were beds ready for everyone. I left Seinfeld playing, so I was able to get both of our closets emptied out, and also to go through some toiletries. I had to go to bed, though, and was not coherent enough to get up and greet our “crew” until the next morning.

The Crew:

Everyone was amazing. Kelly was a pro at packing the kitchen. Even though I have moved several times, it was nothing like this scale and also done without my parents! I got better as the day went on from watching Kelly just jump in and pack.

John, Justin and Dad JD were also pros at loading the trailer and the truck. We made all of the big stuff to the house in 3 trips. We were basically able to get everything in the rooms they belong in, including setting up our bed. It was AWESOME to be able to put our NEW mattress from Mom T & Dad JD on our beautiful bed frame.

(It was even better to sleep peacefully on it later that night!) We had Costco pizza for lunch and ended up being too tired to go out to eat that night.

The only thing that was a bummer about the day was all of the stuff that we weren’t able to get out of the apartment. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, I was just mad at myself for having gathered so much stuff that was unimportant to me, and for putting my new family through moving around stuff that I don’t care about. I’ve come to realize that this is a common experience (based on the fact that everyone I have told this to has said “Yeah, that happened to us too! Did you ask yourself how you got all this stuff?!?”) and that

hopefully I have learned something from it.
The fam stayed til Sunday after morning church. We took them to our new favorite Mexican place, Taco Hut, which is the closest we So Cal people can get to the Fresno classic that is Sal’s. I was so thankful for their help, and look forward to when they can come again and see the house a little more put together!

Getting Settled In

It is already hard to believe that we ever lived in an apartment. I love everything about living in a house, and can't wait to go home at the end of the day. It has been a lot of work, here and there. For me it is mostly unpacking boxes and putting stuff away. I have also enjoyed the luxury of doing laundry whenever I feel like it. Poor John has had more work to do: he has to move the heavy stuff, worked on the hot water heater with my dad (a two day job that involved actual pipes breaking off into their hands), made several trips to home depot for the right piping to hook up our new garbage disposal, continued working on the yard and just about anything else I have asked him to do, poor guy.

The best thing is that our "children" are SO happy. I honestly feel terrible now, about making them live in the apartment. Mosrite never barks now, but would bark constantly in the apartment. I realize now that he was saying "I CAN'T live like THIS!!" He did bark a little the first night, but now they have a routine. They sleep in their boxes in the garage, then play in the dog run during the day. When we get home we let them out to play in the yard, then they go to bed. They actually use up their energy during the day, so that they want to go to bed. I also like knowing that coming home doesn't mean immediate trips up and down the stairs for potty breaks, plus monitoring their behavior every second. I will admit, though, that I like knowing where they are all the time, and will periodically interrupt their playing just to check on them. Ick. I hope I will not be that kind of mom. :)

Just a note: below, Ibanez is not dead, but conked out from a hard day of playing. It is amazing to me to walk outside and see them both keeled over, napping. Needless to say, this has never happened before, and is a wonderful thing.