mary

Good morning, Y’all!

It’s been a busy week.  I’ve spent a lot of time unpacking boxes and trying to decide where to put everything.  I’ve arranged and rearranged cabinets and shelves.  I’ve arranged furniture and rearranged it.  We finally have everything in the house, including the new entertainment center and cocktail tables.  Yesterday I got some nice curtains for the living room and finally got them hung last night (I had to go back and get new rods cuz I bought the wrong size).  I still have boxes to unpack and stuff to organize, but I’ll get there.  But this is the first time in a long time that we’ve had a place where I can decorate, hang pictures, and all that stuff.  So I’m enjoying that.

And we’re enjoying living in a place where we have some room to move around.  Our little place up in
Indiana was very cramped, and we were limited in what we could do.  Here our living room is twice as big.  Our kitchen is 5 times as big and we have a nice dining room.  And we have 2 spare bedrooms…one we’ve turned into Micheal’s office and the other is going to be the spare bedroom and my sewing room.  I have plenty of walls to hang pictures of the grandkids on.  And I can finally hang my map of the
US to put my state keychains on…all 42 of them!  We have a huge back patio that is covered where we’re gonna put a couple of lawn chairs and we’re gonna get one of those outdoor fire pits to sit around and enjoy when then evenings get colder.

Yeah, I think we’re really gonna enjoy it here.

And I’m going to try to find some time to get back to blogging more often.  I apologize for deserting my buddies.  I haven’t meant to.  Things have just been so busy lately.

And the bigger and better kitchen is enabling me to cook more healthy meals so maybe that will help me get my weight loss back on track.  I’ve had so much to do the past few weeks that I’ve not had time to think about eating junk that I shouldn’t.  And I’ve been a bit more active, even though it’s not making the pain any easier.

I’ll get there.  It may take me longer than I’d like, but I’ll get there.

It’s done.  We’re finally, totally and completely residents of
Goose Creek, South Carolina.  We made it back down here Friday evening with all our things.  One of the guys that works for Micheal had offered to come over and help unload the truck Saturday morning, but we ended up not needing him.  We started taking a few small things off the truck and two boys from next door came over and started helping.  An hour and fifteen minutes later the truck was empty.

The rental service was scheduled to come in early Saturday afternoon to pick up their things, so it was a bit crowded in here.  I called Saturday morning to confirm the pickup time and they said they were going to have to reschedule us for Monday because they had to go pick up a housefull furniture from a woman who was a month behind on her rent.  I told them that wasn’t going to happen.  I told them that I’d scheduled that time well in advance and I needed their furniture picked up because we had so much stuff in here that we couldn’t move.  We went ahead and moved all of their stuff into the living room so we could put our bed and dining table together.  They did finally come and pick up the rental furniture within the time frame originally scheduled.

If we ever move again (I should probably say ‘when’), I’ll be there to supervise every aspect of the packing!  Cheryl had called me and told me everything was packed and all that was left was getting more tape to seal up the boxes.  I told her that could wait til I got there.  Well, I got there Sunday evening, looked around at the number of boxes, then called Micheal to find out what size truck he’d rented, and then told him I didn’t think it would be big enough.  He said it was the same size as the one he used to moved our things to
Fort Wayne.  I told him that by looking at the boxes, it just wouldn’t work.  We couldn’t figure it out……

Til I started looking in the boxes.  Some were only about half full, some were only about ¾ of the way full.  Only one or two were completely full!  I called Cheryl and told her there was a lot of repacking to do.  Obviously she didn’t have the experience packing that she said she had.  So she and her friend came over and we started repacking…and decreased the number of boxes by a least 1/3.

But when we got everything here and started unpacking it all, we realized how much they really didn’t know how to pack.  They would take something small and fragile, put it loose in the box, then pile hard heavy stuff on top of it.  Just as an example – boxes of Jello with canned food packed on top of them.  The Jello is still usable, but the boxes are crushed.  Luckily we haven’t found anything important broken…yet.  But if we do, it will be the first time in over 6 years of moving around that we’ve lost anything.  Well, there is one exception…my container carousel.  I have one of those space saving food storage container carousels that sits on a shelf and spins and holds 3 different sized containers plus lids.  They had laid it on its side in the box and piled heavy stuff on top of it.  It still holds the containers but it doesn’t spin anymore.  But that’s nothing major.  Oh well.  We don’t have anything that can’t be replaced.  

What was really funny is we still had the original boxes for some things, which I’d told her about.  She didn’t repack those items in their original boxes.  They packed the item and then packed the EMPTY box separately, sometimes in the same box!!!  Like I said, if (when) we move again, I will be supervising the packing 100%!!!!!

Other than all that, we’re settling in quite nicely.  We have at least half of the boxes unpacked.  Most of the kitchen is unpacked and a good portion of the office.  Our new entertainment center, coffee table and end tables will be here tomorrow.  The kitchen and bedroom are almost completely organized.

I’m holding up pretty well, so far.  I’m doing everything a little bit at a time.  I’ll start unpacking a box, then sit down for a few minutes.  Actually, I’ll sit in the recliner and find a good movie on TV.  Every time I get up to go to the bathroom or to get something to drink or something, I’ll unpack part of a box.  So far it’s working.  But I told Micheal that I don’t plan to do this again for a while.

And one favorable note…I got on the scale when I got back to Fort Wayne, and had only gained a couple of pounds since we came down here, even with all the eating out we’d done.  So I guess I haven’t done as bad as I thought I had.  Now I just have to find my scale again.  It’s still packed in one of those boxes stacked in the spare bedroom.

Well, I’m off to read a few blogs, go get some groceries, then do some more unpacking.

Y’all have a great day!

Good morning, Y’all!

Well, tomorrow morning I’ll be heading back to
Fort Wayne to get ready to move our stuff down here.  My housekeeper called yesterday (haven’t found a housekeeper here yet…gonna have to work on that).  She and her friend have most everything packed.  I told her to wait on the bed, the bathroom and some of the kitchen as I’ll need those things while I’m there (oh, and the TV and computer…gotta have some form of entertainment!).  So, there won’t be much for me to do, but I have utilities to get transferred back to the landlady and cable boxes to return…things like that, so I have to be there on a couple of weekdays.  I’ve already had our mail forwarded and changed the address on our credit cards and such.

So really, there’s not much reason to be heading up this weekend except the trip will be easier than on a weekday.  I won’t have to worry about commute traffic.  And even though I could make the trip in one day, I’m gonna break it into two and spend the night along the way.  I don’t want to over do it.  Yeah, I’m learning, finally.  I’ll drive about 8 hours tomorrow (with stops) and then only have about 6 hours to drive on Sunday.

Micheal will fly into
Indianapolis Wednesday evening.  He’ll get there about 7:30.  It’ll take a little over 2 hours to get back to Fort Wayne from there, so we’ll stop and have dinner before leave
Indianapolis.

Thursday morning we’ll pick up the moving truck.  Our housekeeper already has a couple of guys to help Micheal load the truck so it shouldn’t take long.  We’ll head out as soon as they’re finished.  We’ll stop along the way and spend the night and get back here sometime late Friday afternoon or early evening.  A couple of the guys that work for Micheal have volunteered to help unload the truck so they’ll be here early Saturday morning.  I’m gonna have the rental people come pick up the rental furniture that morning so we’ll have room to get everything in.

We did go shopping last Sunday.  We bought a beautiful light cherry entertainment center and a coffee table and end tables that match it.  They’ll be delivered the Tuesday after we get back from
Fort Wayne.  They cost a lot more than I would have spent, but Micheal said we can afford a few nice things for a change, so why not.  We’ll eventually buy a bedroom suite and a few other things.

Micheal is planning on us doing some entertaining so it’ll be nice having things to really be proud of.  And we have plenty of room here for that.  We even have a nice large covered patio in the back.  We’re gonna get one of those free-standing outdoor fireplaces to use out there.

I’ve been trying to watch what I eat.  I’ve been eating a lot of salad the past couple of weeks.  I don’t have my scale here, but judging from the way my clothes fit I don’t think I’ve lost anything but I’m sure I haven’t gained any more weight back.  So that’s a good thing.  After we finally get settled in, I’m gonna start concentrating more on making that scale go back down and keep going down.

Well, I’m gonna go read a few blogs then pack what little I’m taking with me tomorrow.  I’ll post again after I get back.

Y’all have a great day!!!

Good morning, Y’all!

I think we’re finally gonna be able to take it easy for a few days.  The past few days have really been exciting…I’m being sarcastic, if you really want to know.

Thursday evening I was cooking dinner and Micheal was putting new locks on the doors.  You had to jiggle the key in the lock to unlock the front door and the back door wouldn’t lock at all.  Anyway, I was standing there at the stove and I could hear water running.  It was raining pretty hard so I thought maybe Micheal had left the front door open so I walked into the living room to see.  No, it was closed, but the sound was louder, so I headed down the hall and looked in the front bathroom.  The toilet was overflowing and the tub was full of nasty water.  I yelled for Micheal and he came running.  He stopped the toilet from running and I grabbed the cheap mop I’d just bought but it wasn’t doing any good at soaking up the water so I went to the other bathroom to grab the few towels we have here.  The shower stall in the other bath also had water standing in it and it was just beginning to run over into the floor.

I think I’d said before that this house has hardwood floors all through it except the kitchen and the bathrooms.  The kitchen has linoleum and the bathrooms are tiled.  We were busting our humps trying to keep the water from running out onto the hardwood floors.  Luckily there is about a half inch rise at the edge of the tile in the door way…a sort of lip that was keeping the water in the bathroom.

We finally got the water mopped out of the floors and Micheal started plunging the toilets and the shower drain.  There was so much sludge in the tub and shower that it just wasn’t funny.  We finally got the water down but the mess in the tub and shower was truly nasty.  While Micheal was working on the plunging, I called the landlady.  She wanted to put us in a hotel for the night but we just didn’t want to go.  We’re both tired of hotels.  We had it where the toilets were usable and that’s what mattered.

The landlady arranged to have the sanitation department come out and check things out, which they did.  They said everything on their end was fine and that we needed to have our landlady take care of it on her end.  He did say if it happened again to call them immediately, 24/7 and not to try to drain it so they could check it under those conditions.  But everything was running fine so we thought it was just one of those things, til Friday night.

Micheal had to work Friday night and I decided that would be a good time to wash all the towels we’d used mopping up from the night before (actually this was about 1:00 Saturday morning).  Just as soon as the washer started draining I could hear water bubbling in the front bathroom.  I ran to the washer and shut it off, then headed for the bathroom.  The tub was filling up again and water was coming out around the base of the toilet.  The shower in the other bath had water in it again, too.  So I immediately called the sanitation department.  They came out and checked things again.  They said the drain on the edge of the yard was bone dry so the pipes had to be blocked somewhere under the house or between the house and their line.  Great.

About 8:00 yesterday morning I called the landlady.  She sent a friend of theirs out with a snake to clear the lines.  Barry finally got here around 2:00.  After almost 2 hours, Micheal called her and said she needed to call a real plumber because Barry wasn’t making any progress and didn’t know what to do next.

Well, the plumber finally showed up about 7:00 last night after Micheal had gone back to the office.  After 2 hours the plumber finally had the lines completely clear.  He called the landlady and told her that there were roots growing through the lines in the yard and it all needed to be replaced.  He also told her what kind of mess I had in the tub and shower from the backups (there was about half an inch of sludge in the shower in about a 16 inch circle around the drain).

Now, here’s the good part.  The landlady called a professional cleaning service and they’re gonna be here tomorrow to give the entire house a thorough cleaning – top to bottom and end to end!  I was dreading having to tackle cleaning that mess and now I don’t have to.  I did have to clean the shower in the master bathroom so we could use it, but now I don’t have to worry about scrubbing the tub and floor in the front bath.  The cleaning service is gonna take care of all of that, and they’ll clean the mess on and in the cook stove that the previous tenant left that I’ve been working on!  Would you believe I was planning to call a cleaning service myself?  I knew it would hurt me too much to try to take care of it all myself and now I don’t have to, and I don’t even have to pay for it!

So we’ve had an exciting few days.  Micheal got home from work a couple of hours ago.  He’s sleeping right now but after he wakes up we’re gonna go shopping for some new furniture.  We’re gonna get a new bedroom suite instead of keeping the rental, and we’re gonna get a coffee table and end tables for the living room.  And we’re thinking about getting one of those movable kitchen islands with a butcher block top.

Tomorrow I’m gonna sit here and relax while the cleaning service does their thing.  That’s gonna be nice.  I’ve been on the run ever since we moved in and I’m ready to relax a little!

I’m gonna go read a few blogs.  Y’all have a great day!!!!

Good morning, Y’all!

Before anything else, I gotta tell ya that I got to talk to Nikki last night!  She really sounds like a sweetheart!  And we’re gonna meet in December!  Micheal’s Grandfather has a timeshare in
Fort Lauderdale and he and Micheal’s mom, aunt, uncle and brother are gonna spend the first 2 weeks of December there.  We’re gonna drive down the second weekend to see them and we’re gonna meet Nikki while we’re there.  And I’ve gotta say that I’m excited!!!!

We finally got moved into our house, somewhat.  I’ll be going back up to Fort Wayne the end of next week to help my housekeeper finish packing then Micheal will fly up the following Wednesday.  By the end of that weekend we should have everything moved in here and set up pretty much the way we want it.

I sure am tired!  For the past several days I’ve been out running around at least part of the day every day.  Yesterday after the cable guy left I had to go get cleaning supplies and groceries.  But I played that smart.  At the grocery store, I made sure they packed the perishables separate and that’s all I carried in when I got home.  I left the rest for Micheal to bring in!

But today I’m staying in and resting.  I did finish unpacking a container of kitchen stuff this morning, but that’s it.  No more for today.  I think I’ll even have Micheal pick up something for dinner or just let him cook.  It depends on how I feel this afternoon.

I’ve not been watching what I eat too closely the past few days.  We’ve been doing so much running that last night was the first time I’ve cooked in almost a week.  But I made sure to pick up healthy stuff at the grocery store yesterday…salad stuff, Brussels sprouts, tuna…and plenty of veggies.  So I’ll do a lot better now.

And we have a nice big kitchen, so we can both enjoy cooking, at least since I finally got the stove cleaned half-way decent yesterday.  You know I just can’t figure it out.  How can people be so nasty and not be embarrassed half to death about it?  I mean, the cook stove is gas.  Two of the burners units had so much stuff burned onto them that they were just black.  I had to get a wire brush to use to get what I could off of them.  I didn’t get it all off, but I got most of it.  And there was stuff spilled under the cooktop.  It was a mess!  And the shower stall in the master bath had mold and mildew allover the girt between the tiles, so that had to be cleaned before we used it.  I’d be embarrassed to leave a mess like that.  And what’s worse, the landlady had a friend of hers come in and clean the house before we moved in and she didn’t clean all that.  Pathetic!!!!  I just don’t understand it.   I’m sure glad I’m not like that.

Ok, enough venting.  I’m gonna go catch up on some blogs.  Y’all have a great day!!!!