Bye, Bye, House!

We had the new house inspected today. I took a million pictures. Before I get to that, however, I wanted to take a quick look back and say goodbye to our old place.

This was my last look at the house as I sat in my car, ready to pull out of the driveway:

This is the massive amount of trash we left outside as a result of our move. I wish I'd had more time and more space to take more of the boxes with us.

And the view in the rearview. Well, the trash in the rearview. It would have been cooler if it were the house...but you can't have everything ;)

Goodbye, House.

Tuffy Trial

After reading this review at Cooper & Lola, I have been sorely tempted to try these Tuffy Toys.

As I think I've mentioned, My Love, my three doggies, and myself, are all living with my MIL. It has only been like four days, and I'm going a little bit crazy. Don't get me wrong. My MIL is awesome. Obviously. And maybe a little crazy ;) I mean, that should be obvious at her willingness to let her son, her daughter-in-law, and their three dogs move in with her...even if it's temporary. It's just been an adjustment. We're all trying to acclimate to each others' schedules, My Love and I are living out of suitcases and boxes in various locations, and the dogs (plus my MIL's dog...who barks...ALL THE TIME...if he even senses that something he probably won't like is about to happen...and then again if it that thing that he thought he might not like if it did indeed happen actually transpires) are driving me crazy.

Thus my excursion tonight to the pet store. I was on a mission to acquire some things to keep my energetic doggies busy and out of my hair.

As I was perusing the aisles, I remembered the review I mentioned earlier.

So, I went ahead and bought two Tuffy Toys, hoping that they'd be shared by my two chewers.

I got the Ultimate Tug-O-War toy, which rates a 9 on the "tuff-scale"




And I also got Shack the Shark (good for play in and out of the water), which rates a 7 on the "tuff-scale"



HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Oh my gosh. As I was writing this, I noticed that both new toys were missing. I looked behind me, and Sadie had dragged them both into the foyer. When I asked her where her new toys were, she proceeded to snatch the Tug-O-War toy off the floor, and army crawl under the barrier of chairs that my MIL set up to keep the dogs off of the carpet.
Let me rephrase this: my dog appears to love the toys so much that she has taken up residence in the fortified dining room so as to discourage the other dogs from attempting to share. Hahahahahahaha!

Sadie has emerged, and I'm going to go inspect her progress. Oh, wait, Poor Beau took too many steps toward her lair, and she ran straight back to defend "her property."

Poor Beau keeps looking at me mournfully. I'm going to go rescue the toys, and give one to him for a bit :)
Hmm...so, I had to give Sadie the Tug-O-War toy, and put her in her crate so Beau could play with Shack in peace. I should say that it appears Sadie inflicted some damage on Shack, but only on his weakest point, which is the little fabric tab coming off the tail...which I should have probably cut off, now that I'm thinking about it.


Anyway, here's Sadie in her crate, clutching her Tug-O-War toy:



And here is Beau, who finally got a chance to inspect at least one of the new toys:


Thanks again to Cooper & Lola for testing out these toys and sharing their experience so my doggies can have an outlet for their energy! :)

Almost Finished

I woke up this morning with a bad word in my mouth. No good.
I had planned on waking up at 5am to get up, paint the areas I had spackled around the windows in the house, and pack up the remainder of the kitchen.
When I woke with a start, it was 8:22am.
Bad word indeed.

I startled my likewise comatose husband awake, and began running around like a crazy, disoriented person. You see, today was our last day in our house. And it wasn't starting out very well.

I had to take him to work. We left his car at the middle school where our church meets. There was a reason for it, but it's lost on me now. It was particularly lost on me this morning as I tried to convince myself that, of course his boss wouldn't mind him being late if he realized the emergency crisis situation we were facing in getting the house ready for move out! I mean, seriously, the cleaners would be here ANY. MINUTE! Alas, My Love did not think his boss would understand, and insisted I take him to work.

This in and of itself is not horribly interesting. Let's throw into the mix...um...three dogs, perhaps? Oh yes. My three, amazing, but crazy doggies (see them in my last post) joined us in the car, because I had to drop them off at my MIL's house so they would be out of the way for the day.

Let's recap: woke up super late, rushed the hubster to work joined by our three dogs, whom I then dropped off at my MIL's house. After that, I went home.

I had left the front door unlocked, because I knew the cleaning lady would beat me there. We still had some electronic equipment in the game room, and the kitchen was just a mess. I could hear a vacuum, and tried to holler at the lady to let her know I was there. Despite my best efforts, I scared her a bit. Oops.
I then went into psychotic "get everything out of her way" mode, and spirited everything into the driveway.

Upon completion of my task, I did a happy jig, then accessed my computer super fast. Checked "the facebook," checked email

** OOPS! Fell asleep before I finished writing this post. Let's resume, shall we? :) **

Actually, prior to checking email or "the facebook," I checked the weather site, because it looked awfully dreary. I looked at the weather-in-motion map, and saw no precipitation in our area. Dandy! Then I checked the fun things on my computer, only to discover minutes later that small drops of what I can only describe as water began falling around me. On me, on my laptop, and on the bajillion things I had just lugged out of the house and into the driveway. :enter mini-panic here: Of course, now I had to try to prioritize things that needed to get under cover sooner rather than later, and haphazardly chuck everything into the garage. That was fun. Somehow, I made it, and I don't think anything sustained any long-term damage, thankfully.

I called the carpet cleaning company for their ETA, because I was going to run some errands as soon as the cleaning lady left. They said someone should be out between 1 and 3. But ten minutes later, I had a phone call from the technician, who said his manager had just called to tell him I wasn't on the books for that day. First I'd heard of it. Fortunately, that guy was awesome, and is presumably going to do an even more stellar job tomorrow on the carpet to make up for having to reschedule. Since I was no longer expecting anyone at the house, I ran my errands.

I don't even remember all of what I did (though it was written down on a to do list, and I crossed off everything on my list - what a GREAT feeling!)

While I could describe the rest of the day to you in detail, I don't know how much benefit it would be to you. I unloaded my MIL's van, took out the back seats so we could use it to haul stuff, then went back to the house to pack. My brother came to help me. He made me laugh. A LOT. I was literally doubled over several times. That made moving more fun.

OOOoooh! The Uhaul!!!! :enter scary music here: There is a story here. And I've located it in the archives of a weblog I used to write in. But I haven't figured out how to link it just yet...and copying and pasting it just seems cruel, since this is already SUPER long.
Plot synopsis of previous weblog: Year 2006 + Uhaul + Rain = no working Uhaul
Current experience: Year 2011 + Uhaul + Rain = no working Uhaul
Conclusion based on common factors: Uhaul + Rain = no working Uhaul

But, my brother jumped it, and it sprang to life. The mechanic came to check it out, and gave it the green light. We were able to unload an entire truckload, while My awesome family and a friend came over to help us with the rest.

:sigh: And that's that for one day.

Oy Vey!

It's 1:02am central standard time.

I'm still packing up the house. WHY can't I be more efficient?
Maybe I should do hypnotherapy.

I'm sitting in my living room, with my feet up, my sweet sheltie, Lars, asleep beside me (Sadie and Beau are upstairs with My Love).

Random side-note - While I know I've mentioned my dogs before (you can see their general back-stories here, number 5), I don't know that I've ever posted pictures of my sweet babies. So, here they are:

This is Lars the sheltie (after his summer haircut).
He will be 4 in February.

This is Beau (commonly referred to as Doggie Beau). We think he is a boxer-lab mix.
He just turned 3 in October.

Beau is a very cool dog in general, but he's really unique because of the spot he has on the back of his head that reminds me of Star Trek. I blame my delight in this on my husband :)


And this is Sadie. We think she is part pitt-bull and part vizsla.
She is 2 years old, and spoiled rotten ^_^ Sweetest. Dog. Ever!

I initially signed on to write some sort of introspective reflection on being in my home and watching it transform back into a house as we slowly remove and pack those things which made it ours. It's exciting to think about the next chapter in our lives, but hard to actually accept that things are changing. I can't go into it in detail now. Not just because it's late, I'm exhausted (both physically and emotionally), or I still have a lesson to plan; but because I just don't have the luxury of time right now. I took my break, and now I've got to make some more progress so the house is ready for the moving party tomorrow!


Lately, though, I keep reminding myself of sentiments similar to this one, displayed so perfectly on a print by vol25

New Look!

I got a new layout, I got a new layout, I got a new layout, hey, hey, hey, hey!

Isn't it beautiful?!?!? ^_^

Dream World

So, here I sit, late at night, watching random television shows as a diversion to the chaos that looms in piles around me. In an ideal, dream world, I would be mostly done with my packing by now, with very little left to do, and possibly some legitimate "play" time at my disposal.

Do you know how many projects I have "in progress?"
I don't either.
Lots, I'd imagine.
Art projects, furniture re-dos, packing, scheming for how to decorate the new house, etc.
And the ironic thing is, I have almost nothing but time right now. I could pack, "clean," and get everything organized for our move. Assuming I'm just not insane, I could get most of that done in a few days, and justify working on furniture projects or paintings.

And yet, again, here I sit. Watching TV. In a little bit here, I'm going to stop watching TV, shower, and work on a tangible list and time sheet for tomorrow. Who knows? With a little manufactured will-power and a feasible list, I just might accomplish a whole lot ^_^

I'll let you know :)

As a random side-note, we got a Wii for Christmas, along with several other fantastic presents that I will mention later. As soon as humanly and practically possible, I'm going to get Wii Fit to go along with our new system, and I can't wait to try it out! I'll start compiling goals to coincide with the use of that, as well :)

New Ceiling Fan?

Have you ever thought about all the ways technology has changed in your lifetime? Of all the advancements we've seen in the use of telephones, televisions, computers, the internet, etc.?

Sometimes I look back at old rotary phones and imagine a simpler time, when people couldn't reach you every second of every day. Sure, there are benefits to being accessible, but sometimes, after the millionth notification beep, I consider...for a moment...
...looking into becoming Amish. There's something to be said for the sanctuary of less technology.

Oddly enough, that is a bit of a rabbit trail from where I intended to go. Well, not so odd, since it is me we're talking about. But, I digress.

I came across something recently that I hadn't considered eligible for a remodel. As you may have guessed from my post title, that thing is a ceiling fan.

But, sure enough, I was perusing through Lowe's website, looking at ideas for our new home, when I saw this:


Isn't it...strange? I mean, I think it's gorgeous, and I love the myriad of possibilities it opens up for home decor...but I was just so startled to see it. This one in particular is so pretty (but so far, I've only seen one alternative, and it's much more contemporary). I'm just wondering what everyone thinks about it. It had one review last time I checked, and it wasn't very positive...but a more positive one has been added recently. Basically, you shouldn't put it over your dining room table (I'm thinking that is a no-brainer...sorry to whoever wrote that review), and you should expect more noise to come from it than from "traditional" fans.

I guess where I'm confused is: It looks different, so I understand why they call it "new" from that perspective, but doesn't it look a little bit like a ceiling-mounted-beautified-box-fan?

This conflict may not prevent me from being curious about these "new" fans...but I don't see any indication of advanced technology...just revamped design.

Just curious if y'all had seen these, and what you thought about them.