Remembering

February 9, 1924 -- August 22, 1996
Nelson E. Dean, Gramps to many of us.

Can't believe it's been this many years since you said goodbye for now. And, now it's been over a year since Mom joined you. Good thing you all have Bernie Mac out there with you, given how much you both love to laugh and tell and enjoy a good joke.



I appreciate how you come to me in my dreams sometimes, and even then you never say anything, you just smile and laugh! Always a smile and laughing! You are welcome to visit at anytime!

I thank you for giving me a hug the last time I saw you alive. It had been years since we hugged, and you got out of your chair in the living room to come into the kitchen to give me a hug goodbye. I knew then it would be our last time together in this physical world.

Thank you for your "signs" you sent after you passed, especially the sparkles, those were the best! And, thank you for keeping Grandma company all these past 12 years, making it easier for her.

We love you, we miss you.
Always.

We made it! Yay!

Wow, what a month! What a trip! We made it safe and sound from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Hampton, Virginia. It took us 11 days to drive the 2,302 miles, and we averaged 22.2 miles per gallon along the way, which was better than we had guestimated.

Our itinerary:
Day 1: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Day 1: Amarillo, Texas
Day 2: Muskogee, Oklahoma
Day 3: Little Rock, Arkansas
Days 4 thru 7: Pocahontas, Arkansas
Day 8: Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Day 9: Hudson, North Carolina
Day 10: Durham, North Carolina
Day 11: Hampton, Virginia

Left our home on Sunday, August 3rd, stay the night at a friend's house in Albuquerque. Of COURSE, it all took longer than anticipated. I had hoped to be done the week before. Ha! Finished up around 6 PM Sunday night, a few hours late to meet at a friends house where we were going to stay for the night. Oh, had to call poison control when I found that Chris had drank some of the Simple Green cleaner that I had put in a red cup to use for the final wiping down. He thought it was one of my drinks and took a swig. By the time I figured out what he was trying to tell me, that he had drank some, we were literally loading the last of the stuff into the van. Simple green is non-toxic, but he started to complain about his stomach hurting. So, I pulled over and called 911. "What's your address?" "We don't have one, we are MOVING. Do I need to go the emergency room, I am in transit." Arghhh... they checked, he might be a little nauseous, but since he didn't swallow much from what we could tell, AND it was non-toxic, thank God, he'd be okay, we could continue on. After he had dinner later, he stopped complaining. We were able to enjoy our friends for a little while before heading out.

We did get to meet with some other friends at various times over the weekend, and some before that, and unfortunately we missed some.

Instead of leaving by noon, as planned, I woke up with a sore throat and too tired, and TOO MUCH stuff in the van. Had to unload everything to the driveway, and it took me all day to repack and load up 5 more boxes to mail, and then to re-load. Finally left Albuquerque at 5:15 PM, just as a storm rolled in. Check out the rainbow that, literally, appeared in the neighborhood as we pulled out. What timing! What a nice way to leave a city that we have really loved to be in for all these years. It's time to move, but a part of us will always be in NM....

I won't go into all the details of the trip, but here are some pics of along the way.

Oh thank goodness for air conditioning! All the way from Amarillo to Muskogee, it was between 102 and 105 degrees. It never "felt" that hot, maybe because we made our pit stops quickly, but my van thermometer is right on the money.

Chris is a fantastic travel partner! He read his books, watched a movie sometimes, played his leapster games, and after Arkansas, he played his Indiana Jones lego game on his new nintendo DS (thanks again, Steve & Denise!!), which he LOVES to play. For the trip, he stayed awake the whole way, except for the last 20 miles on the first day/night. It was around 11 PM, and I tried to get him to rest his eyes (and hope he'd go to sleep for awhile), but he insisted on watching out for our campground. We chose a KOA campground where we reserved a cabin for the night. We got there too late to use the pool, oh, well!

While driving thru Muskogee, Oklahoma, we saw the Booker T. Washington cemetery. I first noticed it because of an odd pile of "stuff" that seemed out of place. In all my years, I have never seen a graveyard within a graveyard. While I am purposefully focusing on only the positive in my life, this image just keeps coming back, it's disgraceful! It is hard to tell from here, but the pile is about 9 or 10 feet tall, and at least 15 feet wide, maybe more. I'm sending a copy of the pic to the folks responsible for this cemetery. They need to have a little more respect than this. And, it's right off one of the main roads through town, so there's absolutely no excuse why someone there hasn't organized a clean up day. Some of the headstones were marked as recent as earlier this year, the grass is cut, and the extra flowers are removed from the gravesites on a regular basis, it seems. They just never make it to the dump.

This headstone was interesting. "Isabell Hill. Age 103 years". No birthdate, probably because she would never tell anyone.
We spent a lot of hours looking out the windows on this trip. Sometimes the skies were just awesome. Here is one of the fun clouds we followed for awhile. Makes me want to have an afternoon picnic where you can lay on a blanket and just watch the clouds go by and try to see all the creations the imagination can conjure.

Okay, he wasn't allowed to stay like this for the trip, safety concerns and all, but Chris tried to be a little creative at times. Did I mention what a great traveller he is! The last time we moved, from CA to NM, he was not so cooperative. He was almost 15 months old, still on a bottle at night, and he was awake for about 2/3 of the 20-hr trip. Of that awake time, he pretty muched screamed and cried for at least 2/3 of that time. What a trip that was. But now, THIS trip was good!
Stopped overnight in Little Rock, Arkansas, stayed at La Quinta Inn just a mile from Danny's college dorms. We were very glad to get to see him and spend some time together. We all went to dinner at Chili's, after doing a few stops at stores to get things each of us needed. Juanita had met us at the hotel when we arrived, as she was in a class in town all week. We played in the hotel for awhile, waiting for Danny to get off work so we could pick him up. Apparently, the part of town we stayed in was a little "seedy", but no one approached us that night. People saw how big Maya is and they either backed off right away, or tried to be sly about stepping back while making conversation, "wow, she sure is big! what kind of dog is that?" Built in security system, for sure.





The next morning, we did run into a hassle at the gas station. After having lunch with Danny, again SO good to see him, we stopped at a gas station off one of the main highways there. I was hassled by two guys trying to scam gas off customers as they came thru. One of them made me very nervous, particularly as he had grabbed the gas nozzle and was pumping my gas, all the while trying to scam a way of getting money or gas in his vehicle on the other side of the pump. Fortunately, we were able to leave, no harm, no foul. You just never know, people are so unpredictable, especially in desperate situations.

The guinea pigs were not too happy about being confined in smaller living quarters, but they hung in there.
The piggies stayed in Cindy's room in Arkansas, along with Maya. She was comfortable and at peace in the bedroom, where we took her out often for short walks, and longer walks in the mornings. One morning we saw an amarillo crossing the road, saw lots of bunnies, and she even checked out the cows that were around in one of the fields the second morning.

Juanita and Dan have an outdoor kennel with a chain link fence that is about 10 ft by 10 ft. We "thought" Maya would be comfortable in here when we all went out for the day. She'd be outside, had shade, blah blah blah. WRONG! We left for a short time and tried her out. As you can see, she tried to eat her way out of the kennel. We actually saw her put her mouth through the diamonds as she squished them in her mouth. In her defense, she was a rescue dog and she never liked kennels when we first got her in early 2001. We don't know her history of her first 18 or 24 months, we just knew she didn't like to be crated, AT ALL back then. Apparently, not now, either.

We planned to do tie dye shirts on this trip, and it was a lot of fun! Juanita, Cindy, Betty, Chris and I all worked on the project outside. In all, we did 13 shirts, and it was a blast! It was my 2nd time, and their 1st, so we all learned a little more about how to do it better for the next time. You have to really make sure you get all the ink into the fabric where it's so thick, so that's good to know. All in all, the shirts came out great. I like Cindy's and Chris' the best. We tried the various ways of folding and pinching the fabric, using the rubberbands, and twisting, etc., It's amazing how different they all came out.

Betty, Cindy, and Juanita mixing colors and dying the shirts.

One of Cindy's A-shirts, all 3 of hers came out great!

Here are all the shirts wrapped in plastic, where we left them overnight. You wash the shirts, then soak in ash water, twist and rubberband and dye the colors on the shirts, roll them in plastic wrap, then let them sit overnight. Next day, wash out with a garden hose, then hang on the line to dry.
Finished product. Would have gotten more pics, but the batteries needed to be recharged!

Uncle Dan had his own Indiana Jones Lego game that he played on the TV, and also a Star Wars lego game he let Chris play with him. Most days everyone was outside and working or playing, but Sat. was a lazy day. On most days, Chris got to ride on the 4-wheeler, go for walks, visit the neighbors, and play outside. On Sunday, we went to Mammoth Springs near the Missouri border, which was a lot of fun, and we all wore our tie dye shirts on the outing. It is amazing how a spring in the ground can produce over 170,000 gallons of water every minute and never deplete itself. Amazing! We also went to Hardy, Arkansas, an town that stood still in time. Been looking for a night light for Chris and I found one made of wood that uses the wood, bark, rope for a handle and a pind-sized canning jar to form what looks like a hurricane lantern. I'd take a picture, but there are still pics from our trip on the camera from the last week that we need to download. So, later. It's all I can do to get done the chores that are necessary right now.

At Mammoth Springs, there were butterflies EVERYWHERE! Sometimes there were four at time that just fluttered and played all around Chris and then would fly off. This one landed and stayed long enough to get a quick pic. Our camera does not do great up close pics, but this one shows how pretty this little one is. There were huge ones and tiny butterflies all around, not to mention the many different types of dragonflies that were buzzing around also. Makes me happy!
How do you like Ed and Betty's tie dye shirts? Oh, Ed was wearing his under his dress shirt, and only because he promised Cindy he'd wear it that day. What a team player!
Chris, Cindy and Darrell. He actually tolerated all of us for the whole day and then came back for more abuse!
After Arkansas, we went to Uncle Arthur & Cyndi's house in Murfreesboro, TN. First, I met Arthur at the highway exit and he drove us to the boarding kennel for Maya for overnight. From the kennel, I let Chris ride with him. When we got to the house, he asked me, "Does he ever stop talking?" Of course, the answer is NO, he even talks in his sleep. :) They had the pool ready, and later fixed hawaiian chicken, rice and veggies, which were great. I worked on the baby quilt for Baby Nigel (two days down the road on the trip), who is about 8 months old now. We had a great visit, and it was fantastic to see them both.

Pics to come later (still on camera)

Then, we headed to Hudson, North Carolina, to Aunt Brenda and Everett's house. Cousin Kevin and his wife Judy came by later with their 7-yr old Jonathan, and 3-yr old Matt. Chris was VERY excited to get some of his cousins to play with, and play they did! A lot! They ran and rode on the golf cart with Everett, rode bikes and tricycles, picked blueberries, played imagination games, and pretty much played until they were all forced to go home to get baths.

The next morning, Matt arrived early, and was so excited to get Chris all to himself for a couple hours. They played and watched cartoons and played more. Then, when Jonathan arrived and Chris tried to put on his sandals so they could play outside, as he put them on, Matt took them off and wouldn't give them back. He said, "No, you need to stay inside and play with me!" We found him amusing, but he just didn't want to share the attention. Eventually, they all three went ouside to play.

We had southern cooking at Aunt Brenda's house, and it was also fantastic! Fried chicken, homemade biscuits to die for, gravy, fruit, homemade coleslaw and potato salad, mmmm, mmmm. It was a real treat to get to visit here. Aunt Brenda is my godmother, but we haven't had any time to visit over the years, except at Grandma's house when they would come out to visit. As we all know, visits "down county" mean you have to SHARE everyone. One on one was truly a treat for me. We sat and talked while I worked on the baby quilt, trying to get it finished to give to Baby Nigel the next day. It was almost done, just two more squares to go for the hand quilting part.

Prepared to leave the farm in Hudson, had all the animals and stuff loaded up in the van, including my resilient Christmas cactus, comfy in her laundry basket. That left Chris and I to get in and we were off. Apparently not. While we were all saying our goodbyes, Chris walked back over to the golf cart under the carport. He got in the seat, like they had been when Everett took them for a ride just an hour or so earlier. Well, little Matt also climbed aboard. Next thing we know, the golf cart was in motion, heading straight for us and the house! Fortunately, no one was in the direct line of fire, only a bike, bench, and then the house. I don't think the house was hurt too bad, the bike had minor damage. Matt bit his lip and had a little bleeding. Well, that got the blood pressure pumping for everyone, so we checked out everyone for any other damage, then said our goodbyes and left intact. That was a good thing!

Safely left Hudson to make the 3 1/2 or 4-hr trip from Hudson to Durham, NC, and dropped Maya at her 3rd boarding kennel for the trip. She has been such a trouper for this trip. Not liking all the changes, but hanging in there.

Arrived at Peg & Mel's house and got to meet the new baby! What a beautiful boy, much more charasmatic and handsome in person, even if his pics were also beautiful! He's at the stage of being Momma's Boy right now, so he didn't want a lot of passing around, but that's okay. He did like when Chris sang to him, and now that he's starting to crawl, he liked playing around all of us on the floor.

So great to see Peg and Mel also! What great friends we have, we are SOOO lucky in this regard, we seem to find the best friends along the way! Peg was our neighbor back in Albuquerque, and we've kept our friendship between all of her and our moves.

Got the quilt finished, just in time! Hope Nigel likes to use it! Will put up pics later, it's a fun one!

Headed out on Thursday morning by 11ish to pick up Maya and head to Hampton, Virginia, to reunite our family! Yay!

Thank goodness for Dean, my savior along the way. Kept me entertained and also on track geograhically. Leaving Durham, I was a little distracted, and following the GPS instructions, ended up on I-85 north instead of I-95. No problem. Dean redirected us to VA highway 58, which runs east from I-85 to Norfolk, just north of the NC border. It was like being back home: soy bean fields, corn fields, roadside farmer stands, a little angst when there were a few Tobacco fields! but we kept on trucking! We found a farmer with fresh watermelons and cantelopes, so we stopped and got some. Red and sweet watermelon! This is about as close to organic as is reasonable for the average person. I tell you, NOTHING replaces fresh tomatoes from the farm. There is nothing to resemble a fresh tomato, nothing in a grocery store, nothing in an organic store.

Got to Hampton, only to find that the GPS instructions didn't quite get us to the doorstep. Problems with this being a brand new apartment complex and not quite on GPS and also not on Google maps. Have to use a road close by in order to find. Well, tired and anxious to get our family back together, Mike met us at a local restaurant we found when we got a little lost. Made it almost 2,300 miles at this point, only to get lost the last 5! Oh, well. :)

Family back together, all is good. Lots of work to still do, but we took a short break. Went to Virginia Beach on Saturday, like a breath of fresh air to be back at the ocean and salt water again. Besides friends and relatives, I missed the beach and the water the most.

Acquired a horrid bacterial ear infection in my left ear starting about that last Tues. of traveling, and it progressively got worse. By this Monday, I couldn't take it anymore! Less than two weeks shy of health insurance again, the timing was not optimal, but what can you do? On a scale of 1 to 10, it was at least an 8.5, and I have a high tolerance for pain. Found a reasonable doctor's office, and just had to groan when I got the Rx price. On sale, the little tiny bottle of ear drop antiobiotics was $121, priced down from $159. I still have jaw numbness, ringing in the ear, and temporary (I hope!!) partial loss of hearing, but at least I can sleep on it again for the first time in a week. I don't have the urge to punch anyone who accidentally touches my head, so that's a good thing.

Anyway. Been "gone" for a month, but back now. Our home is listed for sale, people are looking, no offers yet, but one soon. Registered the little guy for Kindergarten! Oh, our baby is growing up! Going to ride the bus..... Mommy's gonna cry.

Okay, time to get more things done. Not to mention homework, due on Monday!

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!