This month is nearly gone! And it went fast! We close on our new house on Tuesday and we've done nothing but pack boxes and donate stuff for two weeks now. This is how we livin' right now. Oh. My. God. I will be so happy to have some space again! I tell Larry as I walk through the living room that this is A-MAZE-ING! A maze, indeed. We move Wednesday! Gonna get a big U-Haul-It (as my Uncle Frank calls it!) truck and move it on up out of heah! Anybody wanna come help, come on!
Tabbie Hoffman was having a little difficulty taking it all in, despite my constant reassurance that all this will make so much sense next week, I promise! He was being really clingy and hiding under the bed again but he seems to be adjusting now. He's really good about that. Just rolls with the flow. Eventually. It took a week or so to adjust to Larry, a couple of weeks with Banjo and now this. Bless his heart. His whole wittle world is upside down.
He's found a new spot to nap in all this chaos, though.
Last Saturday, we went and helped our older granddaughter, Elizabeth, celebrate her seventh birthday. The girls love the movie Frozen so Lizzy had a Frozen-themed costume party. Everything was soooo cute and we just had the best time! I snapped this one just as she was blowing out her candles. I love all the smoke! Ha!
Larry and I decided to go yard saleing and to an estate sale yesterday because we figure we'll be too busy unpacking, organizing and settling in next weekend and possibly the next one, too. I have always wanted an amber Indiana Glass hen candy dish, ever since I was a little girl and my grandma had one. I've been looking for one all summer and I finally found one at a yard sale yesterday! Larry found a Pyrex bowl in the Primary Blue design at a yard sale Friday and it turned out to be a really old one, from the 1950's, with the old trademark and everything. He got it and a lid for a dollar.
At the estate sale yesterday, I saw and immediately fell in love with this vintage German cuckoo clock. It didn't come with the winding key but I didn't care if I ever got it wound up. I couldn't leave it! They wanted $6, I offered $4 and got it! Larry concocted a key for it, with his bad Macgyver self, and wound it up for me. You have to constantly wind it, though, like every hour or so, and I probably ain't gonna do that. (Read: ain't nobody got time for that!) so I'll just set it for 2:24 and leave it there. That's Larry's birthday, Maw's birthday, Uncle Gene's birthday and also the street number for our new house. 224 is a pretty special number for us. That's what attracted us to the house in the first place. It just seemed meant to be and since every single detail has worked out, even those little snags the devil tried to throw at us, we know that God is behind us all the way, cheering for us and clearing our path.
Three more nights at Schneider Condostead. A little bittersweet, but SO exciting! We have had quite a year and we can't wait to see what's next!
Our house looks a lot like this these days. The appraisal was absolutely perfect and we're just waiting on a closing date, hopefully within the next seven days! We are so excited and so ready to go! We're already talking about putting in a pool next summer! Our renters signed their lease and they are paying us six months in advance! We could not have had a more blessed experience. It was a little hairy worrying over and waiting on the appraisal but we prayed that God's will, not ours, be done and guess what? His will was exactly what we wanted!
Since I have no leave at work (a lonnnnng hospital stay and an unrelated surgery will do that to ya!) and we're moving in the middle of the week, Larry is going to be stuck doing the majority of it by himself during the day while I'm at work. Any amount of help is greatly appreciated! We are planning to rent a U-Haul truck for at least the first day, maybe the second, too. We have a little 1,000 square foot condo but there's a 16x16 workshop and attic to clear out, too. Whew! I'm tired just thinking about it!
So I won't. :) Saturday, Ami had a booth at the Wesleyan Market and sold some of her beautiful artwork. Mixed media art canvases and they are gorgeous! It's obvious that she got ALL the talent in our family. It skipped me, it skipped Ricky and just piled all on top of her.
Here she is showing off her pretties while Brian gets a bear hug from Larry.
Wesleyan Market has lots of cool stuff! Fresh produce and live music, too! We had a great time, got to spend time with our entire family since Mama and Daddy went, too, and Ami sold some of her art! And then the four of them went with me and Larry to see our new house!
Since our country still recognizes today as Columbus Day and since I work for Uncle Sam, I had this day off. I don't believe it should be a holiday, I mean, the man was NEVER HERE. But nobody ever asks me anything. All I know is that if we do have and homeschool a child, he or she will hear a whole 'nother tale about how this country was "discovered". That said, I didn't take the day off. Banjo and I worked with Larry on a rental house he's been working on and we replaced a ceiling fan. And it was fun! And we learned a lot! And we fussed at the fan! And we laughed! And we had Dairy Queen burgers for lunch! It was a wonderful day.
A wonderful weekend, actually. As usual.
So I'm a few days late. I've been busy!! We are waiting to hear back from the appraisal on our new house and that should be the last thing to do before we close on it. We wanted to close around the 15th and be in by Halloween. That is still the plan! Cross your fingers, say a few prayers and send us some good thoughts. We are convinced that God is 100% behind us as He has worked out every single detail up to this point. We met our renters this weekend and they are the sweetest people! They're moving down from Indiana because they just cannot bear another Indiana winter. I don't blame them one bit! It was nice to get snowed in for a few days last winter but when you think about having to deal with it for months on end?? That's just not for me. And apparently not for them! They are a really nice couple and we believe that they are another of the details God is working out. They're helping us and we're helping them.
We had a yard sale this weekend to get rid of some stuff and we sure did! Larry sold most of it Friday all by himself. Saturday was a little slow but we honestly didn't have much left. We made over $200 and I thought that was awesome since we were really just trying to find new homes for things we just didn't use anymore.
Our neighbor, Gladys, passed away about a year and half ago, during an afternoon nap, and her children finally had an estate sale this weekend, too. I went over and got a few things beforehand, some things that I remembered Gladys having, Christmas things mostly, but she had a medium Corning Cornflower casserole dish that I didn't know about. I have the large and small already so hers completed my set. My very favorite thing that I got from her house was a vintage tea cart that was still in the box. She had never even used it. I absolutely adore it and I'm thinking about storing some of my Pyrex on it in my new kitchen. I think that would be just lovely!!
Gladys' estate sale was a pretty big hit. There were people in and out all day long and that helped us sell the rest of our stuff. Our renters bought a few things from us, too, and I joked that they were just going to take that stuff right back into our house! Ha! They also did something that made me cry. Gladys replaced her stove a few years ago. And she got a nice one, too. My stove is the original that came with the house and it's 27 years old. I've joked that she has hot flashes right along with me because the oven tends to run a little hot. We've done some repairs to it over the years and the stove does great, cooks every single day and y'all know that oven has baked about a bazillion Sunday Cakes this year. I have taken good care of it and it's in excellent condition for its age. Anyway, our new renters went and bought Gladys' new stove and it's going in my kitchen. Well, their kitchen now, I guess. I think she would be so proud for us to have it. I got a little emotional at the thought of her beloved stove going in my kitchen. I remember when she got it. She was so proud of it. We're giving our stove to another neighbor who also has an original but it's not in very good shape. So everybody wins! They also bought her dresser, chest of drawers and bathroom towel rack. I'm just tickled that her stuff will be used and will stay right here at home.
I'm starting a new part of my job tomorrow. I'll be working in the VPP Group Office until February. We are in the process of making all of our safe sites Gold by January so I'll be right in the middle of that. The reps in the group office are the Gold Assessment team so I'll get lots of experience there. I'm really excited about it!
And I need to go to bed now so that I will be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to get to work in the morning! :)
