Out of the closet

What's one person's guest room closet, I see as a perfect sewing "nook." It's deep enough that I can put my chair in there and close the door when we have company. On the other side is my craft boxes and fabric stash. I'm on the lookout for a cool inspiration board and lamp to put in there. This makes me so super happy, in a secret garden sort of way :)

Moving update

Thank you guys for your sweet words/calls/posts and for tolerating my super-whiny post. The move is going much, MUCH better now. We've got heat and hot water, internet, and I've located some of our essentials. We all have toothbrushes and toilet paper now. C and my dad arranged the furniture while I was at work today so coming home it was like a real house and not a storage unit. The kids' bunkbeds are up and totally adorable.

Eli is kicking butt at his new school. I can't tell you how happy it made me to have him run into a hug today and then yell, "Mama! I had an AWESOME day at school!" I was so worried about this whole traditional classroom thing, but this kid has rocked it. Seriously, now the biggest thing I'm worried about is what to send for snack.

I had my first day of work today. As usual, the jury's still out on what I think. I'm working in a "temporary" unit (though it's been operating for years) and the office space is less than steller. As in, "If you get here early you can get a computer, we all sit in the dining room" less than steller. But the job itself seems awesome, and I'm looking forward to meeting the inmates.

I have a ton of pictures to upload so expect and photographic journal of our move. It's pretty adorable stuff.

Whiny moving vent

I hate moving. Nothing's working like it was planned, we're way behind, I feel like I'm bleeding money, and there's no heat or hot water at our new house. I'm stressed out and tired and ready for a little normalcy. Eli starts school tomorrow and he has to wear dirty jeans because I couldn't find the box with his clothes.

Friday the 13th

I woke up this morning, two sleepy and clingy babies in my arms, to find a HUGE pile of dog shit in my living room. And not the easy "bag and scoop" kind. I'll spare you the details but just know 1) I'm awesome and 2) dustpans were a genius invention.

Leaving that, and the lovely aroma that accompanies it (mind you still wiping sleep from my eyes) I sniff and realize that my kitched smells like barbeque sauce. Like, REALLY smells like barbeque. And we haven't had anything close to that in weeks. A thorough (meaning I sniff-sniffed all over my kitchen) examination unearthed an entire bottle of liquid smoke draining in my fridge.

And then it was 7:00.

The rest of the day was really dedicated to saying goodbye to our amazing daycare and all the wonderful women that work there. First I dropped the kids off. Then C and I went back at lunch to bring treats and take pictures. Then we went back after naps/recess to pick everyone up. Syd's teacher, who's had her since she started daycare, was a mess. And then I was a mess. And then we dumped all the leftover cupcakes face down in the lobby. And then more tears. They have been so amazing, and came into our lives at just the right moment. I'm going to miss them all so very very much.

Today was hard. But today was also pretty awesome because now the hardest part is over. We've said our ugly-cry good-byes. Now we're looking forward, and emotionally we're able to start being excited and to plan and dream and fantasize about what this next chapter is going to mean. I know that we're going to love Prison city. I know it's a much better fit, and there are just so many things about this place that I don't like (racism, toxic air, safety issues). But we have met AMAZING people here.

Progress

The give/donate/sell pile

Taking quite literally "If it's not in a box, it's not going"

So many boxes...

Because hearing about other people's crap never gets old

Today I started to tackle the garage, which is where we put all the boxes we were too lazy to unpack from the last move. I'm about halfway through, but so far I've accumulated
1 box of books that will come with us (including my Little House series from the early 80s)
3 boxes of barware. Sorry if I ever made you drink your cocktail out of a sippy cup. Turns out I do have grown-up glasses.
1 box of Mr. Potato Head pieces (no potato) and Little People farmers. WTF?
3 boxes of text books and my dissertation transcripts. Had a minor panic attack and then scrapped the lot of it. That was pretty awesome. (Still kept my "informational copies" of assessments though. Budget crisis and all...)
Eleventy bazillion boxes of baby clothes. OMG, turns out you get a lot less sentimental after you have the second one. I was literally forcing myself to find things to save.

Looking at this huge pile of give/donate/sell I'm tempted to try to run a quick garage sale either before we leave or in the week or two after. I'm thinking a "Name Your Own Price" sale. I'm trying to decide if it's worth it, or if I'm better off taking the tax write-off. (Thinking about taxes makes me feel super old, btw.) I'd love to hear any opinions. What would you do?

Moving lesson of the night

You know all those super adorable, OMG! How Precious!, my baby is such a genius pieces of art that you bring home from daycare, then throw in a box to eventually "organize and preserve"? Yeah, you should totally write the date on the back of those construction paper masterpieces. Otherwise you'll be faced with some hard decisions later down the road. Like making up dates.

Also, I've decided that preschool teachers WAY overuse the glue-and-tissue-paper medium.

Adventures in moving

One of the lesser-thought-of bonuses of moving is that there's some inate feeling that you must eat all the food that's been collecting in the deepest recesses of your freezer and pantry. I've refused to buy food until we go. Unfortunately, I think we are getting much better at eating what we buy, because as I looked in the cabinets tonight (a week before we move) our options were pretty limited. And after tonight it's not getting any better. Tonight we're having a chicken casserole made of seven leftover chicken tenderloins, the very bottom of two bags of frozen veggies, and two boxes of stuffing left over from Thanksgiving. Plus sour cream and a cream of...soup. Tomorrow it's either bastardized fish sticks (using frozen fish and shake-n-bake) or some bean thing. Thoughts or ideas?