The Move Part I

Well, both girls are in B's lap for the night, so I figured I'd catch you up a little on how the move went. As predicted, Monday was nuts. I took the girls away before the truck arrived, and by the time I returned, packing was in full swing. We hung around the house for a short time, but after a while, it was monotonous and impossible to keep the girls out of the way. Lucky for us, we have the Colvins, so to Ira & Flossie's we went. Before we went though, the girls had a good time jumping on the mattresses in the den.

Over the next 3 days, it was more of the same. Lise' was very confused by the fact that her swing set was taken apart, but other than that, she was fine with the whole thing.

Of course, it was sad to say goodbye to our friends, but the pain was eased by the promise of a visit soon.


For all of you who haven't seen it, this is B's newest aquisition, aka the green lizard (named by me). We've had it several months now, and I know you have all heard about it. It made the move on up here, and is parked out front.


The moment to say goodbye finally came. Here's our last family pic at our AL home.


Then with one final stop at the Colvin's, we hit the road. As you can see, the events of the days past hit Lise' before we were 10 minutes out.

It's been a LONG not so hard trip

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are officially in New Jersey. The movers arrived this morning and didn't finish until around 4pm. All of us are exhaused, and the house is a mountain of boxes. As soon as I regain some sanity, I'll tell you all about the trip up here.

Goodnight for now.

And, most importantly HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIMI!!!! Lise' has been singing to you all day.

The calm before the storm

Well, here it is. Our last night before the start of the move. Tomorrow morning the doorbell will ring, and it will all start. It's scheduled for a 3 day pack and load, so we won't roll out of here until Wednesday, but it should be interesting how we're going to manage to keep the kids out of the way and happy while all this is going on.

As for the last few days, we've been kicking our heels up a little. On Friday, we of course, went to the park with Ira & Flossie. We also picked Grandma and Papa up at the train station. They came in to drive the truck back to Louisiana. Due to the fact that we have little land and 4 vehicles at the moment, Mr. Ed's been gracious enough to foster ole' Pete (yes, I named it in high school), and he will be residing in Hammond for either the remainder of his life or our term in New Jersey, whichever is shorter. B also flew in late that night, and the girls must have sensed his presence because by 2am, both were in our bed. Where's the king size when you need it????

On Saturday we couldn't help but hit a few garage sales. Ms. Jennifer, Ira & Flossie joined us for a more exciting adventure. We got a late start, but came home with a few items. The best was the last sale we hit. They advertised vintage, and it all was. We purchased 20 vintage ladies hats, and when we got home, everyone took turns trying them on. Unfortunately for you, my camera was in the car, so I'm sorry to say I don't have any pictures. Those hats are now on their way back to New Orleans where they will find their new home in an antique mall on Magazine Street.

Tonight, we headed over to Ira & Flossie's for dinner. What fun it is to see the kids enjoy each other. It's wild and exhausting for even the casual onlooker, but entertaining at the same time. The kids exchanged presents, and Ms. Jennifer was kind enough to give Lise' her own "band in a box." She suggested we bring it in the car on our way to NJ so that we could be reminded of the parade the children put on in her house.

What great memories we have from here! Don't worry Jennifer, it's not our last. I'm promising now that we will visit, and who knows, there's a plant in Bridgeport, AL. You never know where your next job could be with this company :-) You certainly give us reason to consider it should it ever present itself.

Well, I must get one more load of wash on before my washer and dryer are disconnected. I'll do my best to keep you all informed while we're on the road, but I'm not making any promises at this point.

It's 3:30pm and I'm still in my pjs

It's just one of those days. It's chilly, I had no where to go, so I'm still in my pjs. Lise' is too. What a day. I'd love to say that I lounged all day, but truly I haven't. With 2 kids I'm not sure that's possible. Where I'd really love to be right now is curled up with both of them in my bed for naps underneath the quilt, but it's not going to happen, so why even try. Instead, I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for the move one week from today. It's not going so well. I've started the wash, I've put away most of the clothes from our trip to Louisiana last week, but there are still piles of mail and other things cluttering my kitchen counter.

It's that stuff, like coupons, that isn't something I have to keep, but maybe I'll have an urge to buy something at Bed Bath & Beyond, and then I'll really wish I had that coupon.

Then, there are other random things that enter my mind a mile a minute. I'm worried about remembering to set things aside so they don't get packed by the movers such as keys to this house, garage door openers and the like. I'm worried about remembering what to pack for the road trip to NJ. I'm worried about emptying my refrigerator in the most efficient way and remembering to empty the sugar jar so the movers won't pack it full. I'm worried about finding things when the boxes do arrive in NJ, etc. I'm just becoming a total worry wart. On top of that, with every hour that passes, I'm a little sadder to say goodbye to Tuscaloosa. When I started this post, we were down to 7 days. As soon as I finish, I'll go to bed, and when I wake up, it will be 6. It was so easy to talk about the move when we didn't have a house. Then we found one, and it was still ok b/c we hadn't closed on the house. Now B is actually in the house and ripping carpet out, and it's all very real. We're now down to the point that when the doc says I need to bring Abri in for a follow up on her reoccurring ear infection, I have to say that I can't because 10 days from now we won't be here. I can't even order Christmas presents online because I can't ship it to AL b/c I won't be here, and I don't want to send it to NJ b/c I won't be there yet. MY LIFE IS IN LIMBO!!!!!!

I know I'll be back, and I know I'll always have the friendships that were started here. I also know that New Jersey will be great, and there are great friendships ahead of me. It doesn't make it any easier though. Just know that I'm putting on a strong show here. I'm doing my best not to get emotional for me, the kids and those I have to say goodbye to. Although our time here was short, I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Enough of the emotions. I'm a girl, I'm entitled!

On another note, I had an enjoyable experience tonight. With all the craziness that surrounds my life these days, it's easy to put the holidays on the back burner. Tonight though, my friend Jennifer (aka Momma Jennifer) invited me and the girls to FUMC this evening for the Hanging of the Greens Worship Service. I've been around the church for at least 6 months now, so it's not a new thing, but this service was unlike any other I have ever encountered. It wasn't stuffy, it wasn't long, it was just plain beautiful. Apparently it's an old English custom of decorating with evergreens and other items to celebrate Advent and Christmas. As each item was presented, the meaning behind that custom was read and the item was brought forward to decorate the sanctuary. By the end, the church had been transformed into a celebration of the season. I will never look at lights in a tree the same way again. Thanks Momma Jennifer!


PS, I promise I didn't wear my pj's to church :-)

And the Countdown Begins..8 days

:-(

The girls and I have officially made it back from our final visit to Louisiana before we make the trek north. What a great time we had. After Thanksgiving on Thursday, B and I took our seats in Death Valley for the final game of the season. What a game. We're still glad we went, but man, what a game!

On Saturday, we headed to Hammond for a little after Turkey Day party. The food was great, the company was even better, and we all really enjoyed ourselves. It made it that much harder to say goodbye.

B flew back to NJ on Monday morning, and as much as we wanted to stay behind, I needed to get back to Alabama to start the goodbyes.

We've been here 28 hours, and we've already had 2 dinners with the Colvins ( Ira, Flossie and Momma Jennifer). Last night, we joined them for their jaunt to the Home Depot for their Christmas tree. We then followed them home and watched as Momma Jennifer almost crunched the tree as she pulled into the garage. OOPS :-) Luckily for the tree, Momma Jennifer still has her hearing, and she stopped just shy of the tree shreiking in pain. With the disaster averted, the tree was brought into the house, and a little team of elves helped decorate. They were sure proud of their designs.

Here's a pic or two of the night as well as one from Uncle PJ's birthday.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great day here in Baton Rouge. We spent the day with the Dysart clan, and as usual, the food was excellent and the company was even better. Lise' had a great time. She even surprised us by asking my Aunt Theresa if she could go home with her. My aunt actually lives in Houston, but she is staying at my cousin's home who has twin 6 year old boys. So, we packed her up and sent her on her way. When B and I went to get her later in the evening, she didn't want to leave. She had a ball.

Abri on the other hand is having a rough go of things. Last night broke the streak of sleeping thru the night. She was restless all night. We got a little shut eye here and there, but nothing like we were getting used to. Tonight, it looks like we have another rough one ahead. We're beginnign to think that her ear infection isn't getting any better. We'll see how tonight goes.

B's got big plans to hit Target in the morning. Good luck to all you other shoppers out there. I may go with B, otherwise, I think I'm just headed to the Red Door with my mom, and then on to the LSU game.

Before I go, I thought I'd let you all know a few of the things we're thankful for this year:

1. For all our friends and family. Whether you are near or far, know that each and every one of you are in our hearts.

2. For our kids. What fun they make our lives. We can't imagine it without them.

3. For B's job. We're just thankful he has one at this point.

4. For the opportunities that have come our way and for those we have yet to see.

Happy Turkey Day everyone. We love you.

Not a coupon, but close

As the holiday shopping is near, I wanted to let a few of you Internet shoppers out there in on a secret you may or may not know about. Whenever you are about to buy something off the Internet, before you click order, do a quick search on your favorite search engine to see if there are any promotions going on out there. For example, within the last week, I've ordered things from both Land's End and the Company Store. Before ordering, I typed "Land's End promo code" into Google and a list of sites came up. The same happened for The Company Store. For both, I ended up with a code for free shipping. And, copy down several. Sometimes it takes more than one try before you get a winner. Some sites require you to sign up before they will let you in on the free secrets. I don't use those. Instead, I stick to the ones like www.retailmenot. It's a dollar here and a dollar there, but remember, it all adds up.

And that, as my good friend Martha would say is, "A Good Thing."