I spent the longest time typing up a post yesterday while we were driving, only to lose the whole thing. So I’ll try again. We’ve been having issues with the laptop, so I hope I’m not wasting my time again!
Let’s see, the last time I blogged was Monday night. I think. Tuesday was a long and grueling day. James rented the U-Haul so we could empty the house and get everything over to the storage units on the edge of town. Everything started out well enough. I have discovered that I really like packing the truck. It’s like a giant puzzle and there’s a strangely fun and rewarding feeling when you can get all those boxed to fit just right. Furniture is a different matter entirely. It ended up being the kind of day where you are working and working and working, but when you look around there is still SO MUCH to be done and you just don’t feel like you’re accomplishing anything, you know?! I can’t remember what time we gave up and called it quits for the night. Tammy was there helping again, of course, and Aunt Sue took the kids home and fed them and gave them much needed baths and all the things their mother has been failing to do lately!
Hhmmm… There are sooooo many things I’m forgetting! My brain gave out a day or two ago and I can’t seem to remember anything or read a map or tell my left from my right or nuthin’! Ha! Anyway, Wednesday was another long, hard day of hauling stuff over to storage, but it went much better than the day before. Or maybe my spirits were just better! I kind of crashed on Tuesday and was just so DONE with all of this madness!!! But God helped me to recover quickly and we had a good day Wednesday. Aunt Sue and Tammy juggled the kids so James and I could work without distraction which was nice. Sam & Tammy left for their Christmas trip to Washington at about 3:00 that afternoon, I think. The kids helped us load some things up and Sam had a wonderful time riding his Big Wheels bike down the ramp of the U-Haul! Ha! I meant to get the video camera out and tape him for a minute or two, but never got around to it. It looked like such a blast though! If my knees weren’t so sore I would have wanted to try it. ;-)
I spent a large part of the day cleaning. I got the refrigerator all cleaned out, threw lots of stuff away and bagged up lots of other stuff for Tammy and Aunt Sue. Then I took all of the shelves and drawers out to give everything a thorough scrubbing. It will feel so nice to have a nice sparkly clean fridge whenever we get a new house! Same thing with the microwave. I had gotten mad at the toaster oven the day before and given it to Tammy. We were running low on boxes and it was an inch sort of fitting in every box that I tried. “Do you want this thing?!” “I don’t know what I’d do with it…” “It’s a toaster oven! You can make… TOAST! Or… bake… little things!” (Long pause…) “Okay.” “GREAT—I’ll put it with your stuff!” ;-) It felt good to be rid of it.
Moving is not conducive to marriage. I just thought I’d throw that out there in case anybody didn’t already know it. I’ll spare you all the gory details, I’ll just share what I told James. “If you ever die, I’m going to go find a nice, tidy, well organized garage… and I’m going to marry the man who owns it!!!” You can put the pieces together. ;-)
We finally got the very last load into the storage shed and James dropped me off back at the house at 12:15am. Then he went out to join the sleeping children at Aunt Sue’s house while I stayed and did all of the cleaning that only I can do. I’m sooooo glad we’ve been cleaning all along the way—or else I’d STILL be there working on it! Every time we would get a room totally packed up, we’d move everything out of it and I’d clean the ceiling fan and work my way down, walls, closet, windows, baseboards, then vacuum and shut the door. :-) All of the bedrooms were already done, and several other rooms were real close, so that helps. I had finished up in the toy room, my office, the den and both bathrooms earlier in the day, so all I really had left to do was clean the bottom half of the kitchen (cabinets inside and out), the kitchen floor, and the living room. I spent about 45 minutes scrubbing the kitchen floor, then collected all of the trash and set it by the back door, then got the living room all cleaned up and ~voila~ I was done!!! …At 2:15 in the morning. I was sooooo tired, but it felt sooooo good! The house looks fantastic. I wish other people would clean their houses when they move out like I clean mine when I do. I remember how gross that house was when we bought it. Nobody should have to move into a house like that! It feels so good to have it shining for the new owners. Makes me feel like a good steward or something!
I made it out to Aunt Sue’s and took a nice hot shower and slipped into bed just a few minutes before 3:00am. Boy, did I need that shower! I was sooooo achy! I counted bruises just for the fun of it. 25 on one leg. Then I was curious to see how many were on the other leg. 25! Weird. 50, just on my legs. I stopped there. James and I spent all the next day moaning and groaning and hobbling around. My back was killing me, my knees hurt, one ankle was giving me fits, the toe I kept stubbing at the storage unit felt swollen, my arms were sooooo tired and achy and my hands are banged up and dried out and ready to crack and bleed. James has his own list of ailments and I’m sure Tammy’s is probably just about as long! Ha! Pitiful. I’m glad it’s over!!! At least the first half is over.
We got up at about 8:30, I think, yesterday. Aunt Sue took James to return the U-Haul while I got the kids ready for the day. Then we went to Aunt Sue’s store to pick up a housewarming gift for our buyers. I found a little plaque/sign with a flower that says “This is Where I Belong” and a tiny little thing that has two sheep and a little house sitting on top of little letter blocks that say “Home Sweet Home.” We wrote out a card welcoming them to Andrews and told them that we hope they’re happy there and that the house will soon feel like home to them and provide lots of good memories for their family as it has for ours. We took it over to the house and left it on the kitchen counter, then went out back and gathered up the last of the trash and vacuumed out James’ office. Then we went back inside and walked through the house one last time. We laughed one last time in the house. We cried one last time in the house. We kissed one last time in the house. Why not?! We had fought one last time in the house the day before! Ha! It’s such a bittersweet thing. It’s exciting to go some place new and think of what all God may have in store for you there, but it’s always so sad to close a chapter of your life. I’m going to miss Andrews and I’m especially going to miss Sam & Tammy and the family I’m leaving behind. That part is sooooo sad!!! But when you follow God you’ll be happy, no matter where that takes you. And if you refuse to follow, you won’t be happy anyway—even if you stay right where you think you’ll be happy!
We ate lunch at Cassidy’s, my favorite sandwich shop in town, then ran by the bank and out to the storage place to dump off the vacuum cleaners. Then we hit the road! Headed west!!! That’s right, we’re going to Pennsylvania for Christmas… by way of Albuquerque! Ha! A slight detour. ;-) It just seemed like the wise thing to do to go look one more time for a house before heading east. After all, we are officially homeless now. :-) So we got in last night, used our Chili’s gift card and had a great dinner (thank you, Andrews church!!!), then went to the motel and crashed. We checked the online listings some more, but I really think we’ve pretty much exhausted all of the house possibilities around here! We have worked that poor realtor of ours to death!!! Jason has taken us all over Albuquerque and back several times and taken us in probably 20 houses or more (James thinks closer to 30) and spent untold hours doing research for us as well. Realtors get a fantastic commission when they sell a house, but this is the first guy I’ve ever seen who actually WORKS for it! Ha! He’s the best.
So this morning we got up and enjoyed our continental breakfast and headed out to meet Jason and look at the last of the possible houses for us. We looked inside 4 houses in Rio Rancho (a suburb to the northwest of Albuquerque), one of which is a definite possibility. Then we drove out to Edgewood to look in four more. One of them… well, it would take way too long to describe it in detail, but it is a log cabin in need of some serious TLC. Perfect!!! We’re having Jason check into some things and we’ll see if it’s a possibility. It’s the kind of place that would look scary to most folks. But it’s the kind of place that would be sooooo fun to fix up! It’s just so… ME! A very rustic log cabin up in the mountains… It was even snowing. ;-) Anyway, we’re still praying. Whatever God wants is most important. The houses we had originally considered to be possibilities in town seem to be falling through, so that means God must have something else in mind. I’m trying to keep myself from getting my heart set on the log cabin—but it’s tough, I’ll admit! Ha! Strangely enough, neither of us are feeling any pressure or anxiousness about the house situation. Even though we’re homeless. :-) It would be terrible to rush into a big decision like buying a home! So it’s an extra blessing that God is keeping our spirits calm and patient and… trusting. There are some nice extended stay motels in Albuquerque, so we may be calling one of them home for a little while until we can get moved into whatever God has for us out there. :-)
Okay, I started this blog hours ago, on the road. We’re now in our motel room in Amarillo. We had hoped to make it a little farther than this, but it’s been a very long couple of weeks with no break at all and we are wiped out! We’re staying at a motel that is strangely reminiscent of the Free Breakfast Inn from our BTI days. Only Erika and Mandie will understand that statement, since they were the ones to share that memorable experience with us! “Number 4 is ready, Ruth!” Okay, so we’re at the La Kiva Hotel and it’s just a little scary. Not as bad as the Free Breakfast Inn… but real close! Actually, I think it might have been an Embassy Suites in it’s former glory… but that was a long, long, long time ago! Ha! We usually stay at Motel 6 or La Quinta’s when we travel with the dog because they actually accept pets—with no extra charge. The La Quinta in town was full and the Motel 6 looked rough. We found a coupon in our travel guide for this place for $31 and it said pets were welcome. What were we to do?! I told James that it’s GOOD to have experiences like this every now and again. Life gets so mundane if you don’t experience a little adventure (and danger?!) on occasion. ;-) We’re locked securely in our room (that's one thing this has up on the Free Breakfast Inn--we had to shove a chair under the doorknob to "lock" the door there!) on the third floor (after lugging two suitcases, pillows, blankets, my purse, camera bag, laptop and miscellaneous other items up two flights of very rickety and rattily carpeted stairs) and expect to close our eyes to all around us and sleep well tonight. I think I’ll forego my shower in the morning and wait until the next motel. ;-)
Don’t know how far we’ll make it tomorrow. Map Point says we've got 1518.6 miles to go to get to James’ folks house. That equals about 22 more hours. We’ve come 670 miles from Andrews to Albuquerque to Amarillo. Good thing our kids are good travelers! I’ll check in again when I can. Until then…
~Becki~
Let’s see, the last time I blogged was Monday night. I think. Tuesday was a long and grueling day. James rented the U-Haul so we could empty the house and get everything over to the storage units on the edge of town. Everything started out well enough. I have discovered that I really like packing the truck. It’s like a giant puzzle and there’s a strangely fun and rewarding feeling when you can get all those boxed to fit just right. Furniture is a different matter entirely. It ended up being the kind of day where you are working and working and working, but when you look around there is still SO MUCH to be done and you just don’t feel like you’re accomplishing anything, you know?! I can’t remember what time we gave up and called it quits for the night. Tammy was there helping again, of course, and Aunt Sue took the kids home and fed them and gave them much needed baths and all the things their mother has been failing to do lately!
Hhmmm… There are sooooo many things I’m forgetting! My brain gave out a day or two ago and I can’t seem to remember anything or read a map or tell my left from my right or nuthin’! Ha! Anyway, Wednesday was another long, hard day of hauling stuff over to storage, but it went much better than the day before. Or maybe my spirits were just better! I kind of crashed on Tuesday and was just so DONE with all of this madness!!! But God helped me to recover quickly and we had a good day Wednesday. Aunt Sue and Tammy juggled the kids so James and I could work without distraction which was nice. Sam & Tammy left for their Christmas trip to Washington at about 3:00 that afternoon, I think. The kids helped us load some things up and Sam had a wonderful time riding his Big Wheels bike down the ramp of the U-Haul! Ha! I meant to get the video camera out and tape him for a minute or two, but never got around to it. It looked like such a blast though! If my knees weren’t so sore I would have wanted to try it. ;-)
I spent a large part of the day cleaning. I got the refrigerator all cleaned out, threw lots of stuff away and bagged up lots of other stuff for Tammy and Aunt Sue. Then I took all of the shelves and drawers out to give everything a thorough scrubbing. It will feel so nice to have a nice sparkly clean fridge whenever we get a new house! Same thing with the microwave. I had gotten mad at the toaster oven the day before and given it to Tammy. We were running low on boxes and it was an inch sort of fitting in every box that I tried. “Do you want this thing?!” “I don’t know what I’d do with it…” “It’s a toaster oven! You can make… TOAST! Or… bake… little things!” (Long pause…) “Okay.” “GREAT—I’ll put it with your stuff!” ;-) It felt good to be rid of it.
Moving is not conducive to marriage. I just thought I’d throw that out there in case anybody didn’t already know it. I’ll spare you all the gory details, I’ll just share what I told James. “If you ever die, I’m going to go find a nice, tidy, well organized garage… and I’m going to marry the man who owns it!!!” You can put the pieces together. ;-)
We finally got the very last load into the storage shed and James dropped me off back at the house at 12:15am. Then he went out to join the sleeping children at Aunt Sue’s house while I stayed and did all of the cleaning that only I can do. I’m sooooo glad we’ve been cleaning all along the way—or else I’d STILL be there working on it! Every time we would get a room totally packed up, we’d move everything out of it and I’d clean the ceiling fan and work my way down, walls, closet, windows, baseboards, then vacuum and shut the door. :-) All of the bedrooms were already done, and several other rooms were real close, so that helps. I had finished up in the toy room, my office, the den and both bathrooms earlier in the day, so all I really had left to do was clean the bottom half of the kitchen (cabinets inside and out), the kitchen floor, and the living room. I spent about 45 minutes scrubbing the kitchen floor, then collected all of the trash and set it by the back door, then got the living room all cleaned up and ~voila~ I was done!!! …At 2:15 in the morning. I was sooooo tired, but it felt sooooo good! The house looks fantastic. I wish other people would clean their houses when they move out like I clean mine when I do. I remember how gross that house was when we bought it. Nobody should have to move into a house like that! It feels so good to have it shining for the new owners. Makes me feel like a good steward or something!
I made it out to Aunt Sue’s and took a nice hot shower and slipped into bed just a few minutes before 3:00am. Boy, did I need that shower! I was sooooo achy! I counted bruises just for the fun of it. 25 on one leg. Then I was curious to see how many were on the other leg. 25! Weird. 50, just on my legs. I stopped there. James and I spent all the next day moaning and groaning and hobbling around. My back was killing me, my knees hurt, one ankle was giving me fits, the toe I kept stubbing at the storage unit felt swollen, my arms were sooooo tired and achy and my hands are banged up and dried out and ready to crack and bleed. James has his own list of ailments and I’m sure Tammy’s is probably just about as long! Ha! Pitiful. I’m glad it’s over!!! At least the first half is over.
We got up at about 8:30, I think, yesterday. Aunt Sue took James to return the U-Haul while I got the kids ready for the day. Then we went to Aunt Sue’s store to pick up a housewarming gift for our buyers. I found a little plaque/sign with a flower that says “This is Where I Belong” and a tiny little thing that has two sheep and a little house sitting on top of little letter blocks that say “Home Sweet Home.” We wrote out a card welcoming them to Andrews and told them that we hope they’re happy there and that the house will soon feel like home to them and provide lots of good memories for their family as it has for ours. We took it over to the house and left it on the kitchen counter, then went out back and gathered up the last of the trash and vacuumed out James’ office. Then we went back inside and walked through the house one last time. We laughed one last time in the house. We cried one last time in the house. We kissed one last time in the house. Why not?! We had fought one last time in the house the day before! Ha! It’s such a bittersweet thing. It’s exciting to go some place new and think of what all God may have in store for you there, but it’s always so sad to close a chapter of your life. I’m going to miss Andrews and I’m especially going to miss Sam & Tammy and the family I’m leaving behind. That part is sooooo sad!!! But when you follow God you’ll be happy, no matter where that takes you. And if you refuse to follow, you won’t be happy anyway—even if you stay right where you think you’ll be happy!
We ate lunch at Cassidy’s, my favorite sandwich shop in town, then ran by the bank and out to the storage place to dump off the vacuum cleaners. Then we hit the road! Headed west!!! That’s right, we’re going to Pennsylvania for Christmas… by way of Albuquerque! Ha! A slight detour. ;-) It just seemed like the wise thing to do to go look one more time for a house before heading east. After all, we are officially homeless now. :-) So we got in last night, used our Chili’s gift card and had a great dinner (thank you, Andrews church!!!), then went to the motel and crashed. We checked the online listings some more, but I really think we’ve pretty much exhausted all of the house possibilities around here! We have worked that poor realtor of ours to death!!! Jason has taken us all over Albuquerque and back several times and taken us in probably 20 houses or more (James thinks closer to 30) and spent untold hours doing research for us as well. Realtors get a fantastic commission when they sell a house, but this is the first guy I’ve ever seen who actually WORKS for it! Ha! He’s the best.
So this morning we got up and enjoyed our continental breakfast and headed out to meet Jason and look at the last of the possible houses for us. We looked inside 4 houses in Rio Rancho (a suburb to the northwest of Albuquerque), one of which is a definite possibility. Then we drove out to Edgewood to look in four more. One of them… well, it would take way too long to describe it in detail, but it is a log cabin in need of some serious TLC. Perfect!!! We’re having Jason check into some things and we’ll see if it’s a possibility. It’s the kind of place that would look scary to most folks. But it’s the kind of place that would be sooooo fun to fix up! It’s just so… ME! A very rustic log cabin up in the mountains… It was even snowing. ;-) Anyway, we’re still praying. Whatever God wants is most important. The houses we had originally considered to be possibilities in town seem to be falling through, so that means God must have something else in mind. I’m trying to keep myself from getting my heart set on the log cabin—but it’s tough, I’ll admit! Ha! Strangely enough, neither of us are feeling any pressure or anxiousness about the house situation. Even though we’re homeless. :-) It would be terrible to rush into a big decision like buying a home! So it’s an extra blessing that God is keeping our spirits calm and patient and… trusting. There are some nice extended stay motels in Albuquerque, so we may be calling one of them home for a little while until we can get moved into whatever God has for us out there. :-)
Okay, I started this blog hours ago, on the road. We’re now in our motel room in Amarillo. We had hoped to make it a little farther than this, but it’s been a very long couple of weeks with no break at all and we are wiped out! We’re staying at a motel that is strangely reminiscent of the Free Breakfast Inn from our BTI days. Only Erika and Mandie will understand that statement, since they were the ones to share that memorable experience with us! “Number 4 is ready, Ruth!” Okay, so we’re at the La Kiva Hotel and it’s just a little scary. Not as bad as the Free Breakfast Inn… but real close! Actually, I think it might have been an Embassy Suites in it’s former glory… but that was a long, long, long time ago! Ha! We usually stay at Motel 6 or La Quinta’s when we travel with the dog because they actually accept pets—with no extra charge. The La Quinta in town was full and the Motel 6 looked rough. We found a coupon in our travel guide for this place for $31 and it said pets were welcome. What were we to do?! I told James that it’s GOOD to have experiences like this every now and again. Life gets so mundane if you don’t experience a little adventure (and danger?!) on occasion. ;-) We’re locked securely in our room (that's one thing this has up on the Free Breakfast Inn--we had to shove a chair under the doorknob to "lock" the door there!) on the third floor (after lugging two suitcases, pillows, blankets, my purse, camera bag, laptop and miscellaneous other items up two flights of very rickety and rattily carpeted stairs) and expect to close our eyes to all around us and sleep well tonight. I think I’ll forego my shower in the morning and wait until the next motel. ;-)
Don’t know how far we’ll make it tomorrow. Map Point says we've got 1518.6 miles to go to get to James’ folks house. That equals about 22 more hours. We’ve come 670 miles from Andrews to Albuquerque to Amarillo. Good thing our kids are good travelers! I’ll check in again when I can. Until then…
~Becki~
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