Wednesday, February 29, 2012

home, suite home...

Okay, okay, that was just pathetic. It's been a hellaciously hectic and stressful couple of weeks, so hopefully you can forgive my mushy brain.

So...what's been going on...

*We walked out of our house last evening for the last time. Closing is just a few hours from now. It's a happy, happy thing. But you know, it's also kind of weird and unsettling. Pretty sure I'll get used to it though. :D

*We moved into our hotel last night. It took hours to set up "house," but it was so worth it this morning to get up and not have suitcases and boxes of school books and bags and coolers of food sitting all over the place.

*We upgraded our digs. Gray called his friend the other day to tell him where he was going to be. Here's what he said:

Dad got us a room with twin beds and Mom got mad and now we're staying in a 5-star hotel.

I cracked up so hard when I overheard that. :P While not a precise account of what happened, there's definitely a strand of truth running through it. We are not staying in a 5-star hotel, but Rich did manage to find us a bigger place to stay for the next month. Yep, definitely more expensive but I think for sanity's sake alone it will be well worth it.



Yes, we brought our own bookcase to the hotel--figured it was well worth the funny looks we got carrying through the lobby to not have all these books, etc. scattered all over the floor.





















*Oh my, how we all miss our furry friends. :( We took Bacon and Lucky and Aldo to my parents on Saturday. And I can't even count how many times one of the kids has pulled up iPhoto on the computer just to look at pictures of them in the few days since then.

*I checked google reader this morning, all determined to finally catch up. Ummmm...what the hell was I thinking?!! Over a thousand unread posts. Yeah, not happening. Mark as read--start afresh--do better job from now on. Thus is my sincerest wish anyway. 'Cause dammit--I miss you all!!!! And now I have a favor to ask you since there's no hope of me ever catching up on the past month's blog posts...tell me posts I have to go read--what awesome things have happened and what horrible things have happened (I sooooooo hope no one has anything to say for that one!) and what books I need to add to my wish list and well, anything else I really ought to know.

*Hope everyone is having a truly fun and fabulous Leap Day!!!!

Monday, February 13, 2012

9 things that have me smiling...

(I didn't pick "9" because I couldn't think of ten things, but just because "9" is my favorite number.)

Life if absolutely freakin' crazy here these days. I have questioned my sanity often during these past couple of weeks. The term "overwhelmed" has seemed inadequate. My physical health has suffered as well---I pretty much knew my future would eventually involve high blood pressure meds but the past few weeks seem to have accelerated their arrival. Add to that a not so pleasant reminder that fibro is now a part of my life.

The "story" (in abbreviated form): Selling our house has thus far been smooth sailing. *knocks on wood* But buying a house has not. The deal we had going fell through because it was discovered that the seller was trying to pull a fast one when it came to the septic system on the house. As traumatic as this has all been to have this fall through with so little time left before the closing on our house, the alternative of not discovering it before the purchase went through would have been far worse. But the result of what has happened sees us technically homeless come the end of this month. As in we won't really have an address, but unlike so many, we will have a roof over our heads. In the form of a hotel room. Yep, all our "stuff" will be in storage units and the five human members of this family will be sharing a single hotel room for at least a month. Please keep your fingers crossed that we all survive. :P I hate to say anything for fear of jinxing it, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel--we're in the beginning stages of (hopefully!) buying a different house.

For now, there is still much packing and moving of our possessions to be done, still many odds 'n' ends (such as writing the superintendent a letter requesting that Max be allowed to stay in his school for now, renting a P.O box, etc.) to be taken care of, still homeschooling to be kept up with...so I likely won't be around much for the rest of this month. But hey, March should allow me plenty of time to finally catch up with everyone, right?

In the meantime, a reminder to myself that life really is good:

1. The aforementioned fact that we did find out about non-existent septic system *before* the purchase went through. It hasn't been fun, but the alternative would have been so. much. worse.

2. I've come up with a way to try to make our hotel stay less daunting. I've decided to create a scrapbook to document our time there entitled "Adventures in Togetherness." (Of course, I will only be taking the notes for it while there as there obviously isn't room to bring my scrapbook supplies with us.)

3. Winter has finally decided to put in another brief appearance. Oh, how I've missed you, dear winter!




















4. Due in large part to Ana's contagious enthusiasm, I decided to rewatch all three seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Yesterday, my awesome helper Max and I alternated packing boxes with watching episodes. We got through the first 10 episodes of season one, and hopefully we'll get to at least a couple more episodes today.


5. Our annual "Happy Birthday, Darwin!" cupcakes. (Not to mention that goofball I'm married to. :D )




















*****
Ooops...got sidetracked yesterday. But here's the rest of the list:

6. This mug. Seriously, it is just so freakin' pretty. It was a Christmas gift from my dear friend Chris, and it makes me smile every single morning when I pour my coffee. Every single morning.

7. And while I'm on the bird theme, there's this picture. Every time I open my computer, I see this little thumbnail on the desktop. There's really no reason it should be there, other than I've been too lazy to clean up the desktop of no-longer-needed images. But perhaps it will stay even when the other unnecessaries get cleaned up, because well, it just makes me smile! (They were a gift I made for one of my dearest friends, and I think I just may have to make myself a matching set.)

8. I know I've said this before, and I'll probably say it a thousand times more before I die, but I really do have the best friends in the world. The. Very. Best. I don't deserve them, but I am ever so grateful for each and every one.

9. Despite all the stress and the complete meltdowns our decision to move has caused, is currently causing, and likely will continue to cause over at least the next month or so, I still believe it was the right decision. I am so happy to be leaving this neighborhood.

And now, because I'd love even more reasons to smile, would you share with me what's making you smile today? Pretty please with sugar on top.

Monday, February 6, 2012

a little break...

Seems those little gods of mischief have me in their sights these days. As if it weren't bad enough that they seem to be desperately trying to leave us without a home to live in come the end of the month (trust me, you little fiends, that is more than enough stress---you really could have left it there and counted your mission a success!)...but they decided to throw in a little more fun and give me what I assume is the flu. I was sitting there finishing up an overdue email to my dear friend Chris Saturday afternoon, when BAM! I'm floored with an powerful headache and literally shaking with chills. Over the next hour my temp climbed to almost 102. Needless to say, productivity plummeted and I lost one of the last remaining weekends I had to work on packing up this house.

Anyway, I'm not telling you this to complain. After all, this is life is life is life, right? But I did want to let you know I'm taking a blogging break for a time. It's already been days since I've kept up with blog reading, and while I know it's silly to feel guilty about that, I do. I hope that life soon settles down and I can catch up with all the doings in your worlds again. Until then, take care and have the best February you could ever imagine!!!!!

(And btw, I do promise to respond to all the other overdue emails I have to send as soon as this sickness takes its leave. Like to thank Pat for a very lovely, very unexpected surprise. You're too sweet, dear lady!)