So, how's the MOVE coming along?

People ask me. They mean well, those many and various people. The truth is, it's almost here. It's a good move, without a doubt, for many, many reasons. But, SOMETIMES, when things are stupid or someone says something stupid, or lacks in common sense, or you get the drift, I have found that my patience and tolerance levels are substantially reduced at the present moment. No allowance for that which makes no dang sense. But, it works out, kind of like when you ask for absolution at catholic confessions, because in the very near future, we are figuratively dumping all negativity that has ever creeped up on our family or home as we leave NM. We will ONLY take our good memories, good friends, and good feelings with us. It's ALL good, that which we keep and love.

And, being such an emotional one, I'm on the verge of emotion at varoius times of the day or week, depending on whether the person speaking to me is clever enough to find a trigger question or word. Not that I'm asking them to, sometimes it just creeps up. Like, for example, the moving guys actually labelled a couple of boxes as "nic nacks" (they couldn't spell, apparently)...don't they know them's fightin' words. If I repeat, then that must be a trigger.

So, we have decided to have a moving in sale, that will work for me.

But, perhaps most importantly of all, I want to thank our dear, dear friends and angels out here. They have saved the day with their support and generosity in helping us get everything ready. And thank you also to our extended location support system. Between all of you, we are moving right along at mach speed, and somehow maintaining our sanity and senses of humor along the way! Thank you!

As for the MOVE, we are almost ready to head out of town. Of course, I didn't get enough time to visit with all my friends that I wanted to see, so hopefully those that are in town will come by one of two places where we'll be on Saturday. After that, we're pretty much done and will be chillin' the last night in preparation of starting the driving journey, or as Winnnie the Pooh called it in the Heffalump movie, "The Expedition!" We begin on Aug 4th, to arrive in VA on the 14th. 2,220 estimated miles, with a few stopovers along the way, that will be a lot of fun!

We'd include pictures here for fun, but that ain't happening until after the weekend of the 16th or so. Probably. I'm just too dang tired!

We accomplished a lot to prep our house, but it reminds me that we should have done some of this earlier in the year or years, so we could have enjoyed it more. We did get a lot done for ourselves in the past, to make our beautiful haven out here a warm place to be, but there's always more. Like the rounded rocks on the to layer of the back yard so they felt good on the feet, vs, the assorted flagstone and sharper edged rocks, and misc. plants trying to come up. Now, it looks great! Windows are clean, walls are ready to be painted, most of the "stuff" we still had has been farmed out, with 3 more pickups or deliveries planned to complete the mission. Handyman friend of our friends is working steady to fix a couple doors, put in baseboards, and some minor repairs, all before Friday afternoon.

House goes on the market on Saturday, Aug. 2nd. Wow.

It'll be a lot easier to leave our home here, which we all love so much. It's just been such a place of love and comfort, not without challenges, but a place that we have just really enjoyed to be in since 1998 (minus the stint in CA, which we had to do in order to go find our little guy). Anyway, it'll be easier, now that there's no comfortable furniture left behind, no tvs, telephone to be turned off in a couple days, and separation from Mike for a month now. We look forward to getting our family unit back in one place, and that will be soon, thankfully.

Of course, we did gather with our NM family yesterday to purchase and prepare green chiles to bring some back with us. It is literally the beginning of the green chile roasting season, and we got some of the first batches from Hatch, NM, which is the place you want to get your chiles if you can. Despite calling in advance about who had them for what price, all of our preparations fell thru when we went to make the purchase. We ended up buying them from a very small market store on 4th Street in the North Valley, from a guy who advertises on his store for "Rabbit meat $4.99 lb" and "Goat meat $3.99 lb" and "Fresh Goat Meat, inquire inside", and also "blunt papers 2 for $1.50"

We bought 5 burlap sacks of green chile, had them roasted, then took them all back to our friend Lee Annette's house. We started the day at 8 AM for our search for chiles, and finally had them ready back at the house by around 11 AM. Her two sisters, daughter, and Mom showed up, so between all of us, we finished peeling, de-seeding, and bagging them by around 5 PM. Chiles are now in a freezer, ready for loading into a cooler with dry ice and shipping via Mike on Sunday when he returns to VA by plane. If you've never had green chile, then you are welcome to come by our house and we'll gladly let you taste test. They are addictive, and a staple in our household.

Okay, now, I think I can sleep. Long day, but many accomplishments today and all week. The "light" is now in sight, just need to maintain focus and keep moving forward.

A week from tonight we'll be sleeping in a KOA campground on the first night of our journey. Woo Hoo!

Pictures later....

You make my heart sing

Of course, our "rituals" have been disrupted....because we are MOVING! it's a good thing, the move. But, we are sleeping in the living room on a double-decker air mattress. btw, they get "comfortable" after about 4 days when the body is just too dang tired to know otherwise. but, we are sleeping in the living room. we have the lava lamp running every night as our nitelight, up on the kitchen counter that separates the living room from the kitchen. I love lava lamps, reminds me of childhood days, lava lamp at Grandma's house.

Tonight, we are both ready to get in bed by 9:30. Busy day, busy week, everyone's tired. I want to watch a movie, since our TV went to it's great new home just a couple hours ago. So, we get in the bed, and the little guy's picked out a book to read, apparently his favorite one at the moment: Runaway Bunny. Read the book while he tries to tell me about the different pictures in the book, so it takes a lot longer than usual as we digress a lot. Wonder where he gets that from. Then, we do the ritual, and he lays on his belly and tries to close his eyes. But, he's too interested in what movie I might be watching. He says he is trying not to watch, but he can't get to sleep, so I turn the screen down. Then he tells me that he thinks I'm beautiful, and how much he loves me.

So, I have to smile, this really is music to a mom's ears. I tell him that "it makes my heart sing when you are so loving and nice like that". So, he laughs! And asks, "What does it sound like?" You try explaining that one to "literal man" sometime. So, I told him that when you are happy and your feel really good, then when you see or hear something you love, that feeling is what it means to have your heart sing. So, then he asked me to put my hand on his heart and he asked, "Can you see if my heart is singing?" He laughed again, which makes my heart sing even more.

He really is as beautiful on the inside as he is on the outside.

Then, as he lays in bed still trying to get to sleep, he asks me, "Mommy, can you help me get to sleep?" So I ask him what he wants, and he says he doesn't know. "Well, do you want a lullaby?" Which he always wants. A lullaby and some back rubbing, and he's out. So tired he's not even fidgeting, which makes my heart sing even more.

It's all about the angels

Every night we have a ritual bedtime prayer, which includes "angels watch over you"... And my baby, he loves his rituals.

Saturday night we went to Red Robin for dinner, and Christopher got a green RR balloon to take home. He adamantly refused to let me hold it, because he remembered that in the past I have let them go and fly away (my balloons, of course, never his!). When I have let my balloons go on purpose (and while he had his own in hand), well, the first time he cried a lot, as he did the first time he accidentally let his own go. So, then we told him that the balloons just flew up high so the angels could play with them. Of course, he was 3 at that time and now he's 5 and he does a great job holding onto his balloons. Well, on the way home Saturday, he kept bringing up about angels, like where are they, how can we see them, who can see them, why can only babies see them and no one else, if other people can see they why can't I, where are they living, what are they doing, are they looking at us now, can they see what we are doing, are they following me around, can they see me if I am sleeping, are they sleeping too, what do they eat, do they eat when we eat, are they just watching out for me, do they like what I do, and MORE! 'tis the age for asking questions. Bad Mommy, the other day I actually asked him, "did you know the human brain weighs 8 lbs." He never missed a beat in his own line of questioning, but I enjoyed the humor.

The next morning, he returned to his angel questioning, so I told him about the times when he was a little baby and he would lay on the bed next to us waving at something in the air, laughing, as though he was having a conversation or enjoying the antics of someone or something. He was intrigued, and it was a happy baby memory for me. He was such a great baby, never crying unless he was over tired or hungry, and that is the truth. People were secretly jealous (well, not so secretly, as we were reminded on a daily basis of "He doesn't cry?! He sleeps thru the night?!, and so on) at the time, but they now need to know that while he often sleeps thru the night now, he spends his entire day asking questions and analyzing things and reviewing his stored knowledge. I'm a little worried about when he starts getting into the grades where they actually learn history and geography and science, all the things that catholic grade school kinda skimmed or ignored when we were kids, and so I'm pretty stupid in those areas. I'll actually have to do his homework for myself as he does it just so I'll be able to answer his questions.

The other day we took Maya into the vet for her shots and nail trimming, and he was VERY interested in how the vet tech used a stethescope to check her heartbeat. He's been interested in them for awhile, as we all were as kids, but he always asks the doctor if he can hear his own heartbeat each time we go in for him. So, he asked the vet tech if he could hear Maya's heartbeat, and he was nice to oblige. He listened intently, and then asked, "what's that train noise?" We thought about getting him a stethescope of his own, for what harm could that be, and they are inexpensive to find, less than $20 these days for a basic one. Now, we know he'll use it to listen to everything, including his pets, if he thinks he can get away with it. Hmmmmm.

As for angels, I do believe in them. I've had some really awesome ones who have protected me along the way and have guided me, and I appreciate that. And now when Christopher asks about when he was born, which seems to be often these days, we tell him "His Story" about how Ginger had him in his belly and when she went to the hospital when he was ready to come out, then Brenda was waiting for him to take him home with her for a little while, until Mommy and Papa could get there. Then, the angels told Mommy and Papa where to find him and then we went to Brenda's to go get him and take him home. In my heart, that is how it happened, so that is what he knows. He smiles when he gets to hear his story, or when he now tells us either the shortened or much longer version, or when he just wants to hear a snippet whenever it comes up.

We love our baby, and we are so glad the angels helped us find him when they did...

Moving right along....

Movers arrive tomorrow....oh, that's right, that's in about 9 hours!! ODG! We're really moving right along, but the question is, Are We Ready? Hell No! Close, but not done.

More done than in other moves, so perhaps there's some credit issued for that much.

I think this all sounds so stupid, perhaps it's from sleep deprivation. And then more anticipated sleep deprivation.

So, there's no time for blogging, no time for playing. I don't even know what's been happening on the news for at least a week, local or otherwise. All I know is there are some "dismal swamp fires" in southern Virginia/upper North Carolina, which are partially underground fires. How can here be a fire underground, don't you need to have AIR to have a fire?! Here's more info on it Dismal Swamp Fire.

So, the MOVE: First of all, oh thank goodness for such a wonderful support network. I love you guys, and I REALLY appreciate the ear and you not laughing too hard in my face about the predictaments or dilemmas that happen when people MOVE and have to pack and clean.

Second of all, oh thank goodness for Freecycle.org. Betwen them and our friends out here, and a few things on ebay or craigslist.org, we have offloaded at least a ton of stuff in the past year and especially in the past 6 months and the past month. Everything that cannot be used is going, or has gone. Everything we want to upgrade has gone. No taking it for now and then we'll do it later. Nope, the TVs, canning jars, toddler Red Race Car bed (sold that one, yay!) interlocking mats, cat door, luggage racks, wooden chair set, stereo, much much more, all gone.

So, the little guy is sleeping soudly. He had a great day. Got up early with me and went shopping, as we have not much food left in the house, and we had no milk or bread for his sandwiches. Then, breakfast burritos, and back home. Friends came over to help us take a load of our junk and trash to the dump, filled over half her pickup bed, and actually forgot to load two more boxes of junk. Then, they took Chris with them to go have pizza lunch, and then hang out at their house in Corrales. Their beautiful sanctuary, where they get to have their three horses: JoJo, Chiron, and Kord (I think they are spelled right). Chris loves to feed snacks and hay to the horses and pony, and also visit with their other critters, cats and dogs. Then, hours later, he returned all happy to have had a great day.

Once home, he watched a little tv (oh thank goodness for the TV right now, or the movie player), then we connected on the web cam so Mike could tune into, as Christopher calls it, "The Christopher Show". We just got it working this week, so yes, we are behind the times, but it's working out great for him to get to see his Papa! And, good for us, also! Of course, when we hang up, he cries for awhile, sad because he doesn't understand why he can't see him, why he's not here. We have the days on the calendar marked off for when we start our Road Trip, and we talk about it a little every day. The things we need to do, such as we need to pack your clothes in your suitcase, which we did a few days ago. Or, we need to pack some of your toys and books to take with us. Or, the places we'll stop or the people we'll stop to see on the way.

He took a long long bath tonight. I let him stay longer because he was having a lot of fun with his toys, and was in no hurry to get out of the tub. So, I just sorted the closet and finished off sorting the bedroom which I started days ago but hadn't gotten back to. Sorting. Jewelry, which the movers won't take. Throwing away all the bottles of stuff under the sinks that we just haven't used for YEARS or throwing out clothes that are just too tired to even think about another move.

He was so tired from the day and relaxed from his tub he didn't even want a story read to him, which is almost a never gonna happen kind of thing. He always wants a story, even if he requests "I want one you say from your mouth not from a book, this time, Mommy".

Asleep in a matter of a couple of minutes and hasn't changed positions in hours.

So, here I go back into the kitchen to find most of the lights have been turned off. Laptop cover closed and webcam somehow plucked off and sitting on the table. His Papa told him he was the man of the house while he's gone, and that he needs to make sure all the lights are off and the doors locked before he goes to bed. He takes his job seriously, because I didn't even see him leave the room to do this chore.

Well, breaktime is over. Sanity check: tired, yes. More work to do, yes.

Kitchen: 1-2 hours. wash a few containers, such as the sugar and flour bins, so they can all go. sort thru one more cabinet to take out a few things the movers won't take. clear the table of the paperwork I've been doing, and the potholders that are almost done, check contents under the kitchen sink.

Bathrooms: ours = DONE, 2nd bath = 10 minutes to clear under the sink of the towels

Our Bedroom: 1 more hour, just to move the boxes of stuff I sorted a few days ago and put in to a box a few things the movers need to take. Everything else in that part of the house is DONE, oh thank goodness.

Living room: 1 more hour. clear counter, select some books to take, be sure there are no papers or other things sitting out that we need for this move, since I've been working on homework and moving stuff and other misc. from here. Need to also move the piggies to the office, but I'm not going to do this until Tuesday, when the movers come to get the furniture out. This way, I can get more bedding and can put them in a smaller box (laundry basket) for a few hours, and then relocate their entire setup in a room that I can lock and the little guy can't accidentally open, thus giving Maya the dog access to some quick snacks.

Office: 30 minutes. move several boxes from closet, the final boxes from when we cleared the room out 3 weeks ago. Move my clothes to this closet, and relocate any other things we are keeping with us to this room. This is the OFF LIMITS room, where the movers will get sersiously knocked out if they even look in that direction.

Laundry room: 15 minutes, only to separate out the cleaners I need to keep with me

Small storage room: done

Christopher's Room: 30 minutes, to pull out some toys that we are taking with us and don't want packed into storage

Dining Room: Done!

Pantry: Done!

Entry hallway: 1 hour. All the boxes from the office were sorted and placed here. Just need to peek into each one and make sure they are okay to go, as there are a couple boxes that need to stay with me and get shredded or they need to go with me.

Back yard: 15 minutes, to move a couple things to the front that are going.

Front yard: 15 minutes, to gather some yard things that are going, like the garden gnomes, and the special rocks and geodes, the hot air balloon wind sock, etc.

THE GARAGE: ODG!!!!! Someone please come and knock me out. Thank goodness I had a couple days to sort thru stuff a few weeks ago, and thank goodness for our friend Steve who helped me sort the finished boxes to one side so I knew what I needed to go thru on the other. I have at least 5 or 6 bins that I MUST go thru before we move, before they pack us all up and take the rest of our stuff. Really, I wish I had more time to go thru the garage in fine detail, because I really don't want to take a single piece of paper that we don't want or need. But, alas, it's come down the wire. And here I am playing. Really, trying to get a grip on what's left to do, so this has been good for me, and wanting to sit down for a minute.

So, back to my list. Hopefully I'll get to the garage to separate out the boxes I need to sort thru so I have time to do that while the packers are doing their thing. On no sleep, but that's beside the point at this point. We love sleep deprivation. (that's a joke)

Oh, and on Mon. night: clean out the fridge, which at this point is almost empty. Thank goodness for small things.

The Move

It's underway, The Move. Mike leaves early am on July 2nd. Friend in town to relax and help out with the little guy, she departs on July 8th. Moving company takes the truck July 2nd. Movers pack entire house on July 14th, take everything on July 15th. Inspector arrives July 17th. I sort last of boxes of papers, bins of material, etc. to prep for the 14th, between the 10th and the 13th. Paint, wash windows, vents, vacuum, steam clean, load of rocks for top layer of back yard, arrange for changes of address, last of the kindergarten dr. appts. and dental exam, get the dog shots up dated, guinea pigs visit the vet to clip nails and check them out, clean out the pantry of all things that can't be moved by movers, put all jewelry and jewelry box items in baggies for me to take, go thru all medications in house to toss old ones, and take the good ones in the van (movers won't take, they won't take guns or ammo, either), separate out all aerosol and other "dangerous" fluids that movers won't take, hem a wedding dress for a friend, finish up potholders for another friend, and gather all important documents from local doctor or clinic offices for the little guy, finish farming out the stuff we're not taking, or arrange for pickups on Freecycle.org (what a GREAT way to pass on stuff that still has value).

And, go to the children's museum, dollar movies, free movies on Tuesdays, go the to community pool where Chris has learned to SWIM!!! (yay!!), play date on Wednesdays, call friends for a going away bbq the weekend in July when Mike returns for a few days.

And, celebrating Mom on July 9th.

It's all good! We like to call the next two months an Adventure!