Getting things done

So I wouldn't feel totally embarrassed if someone were to walk into the house right now. What we have inside is mostly unpacked and put away. We still have quite a bit out in the garage to go through, not to mention about 4 loads of things back at the other house. But things are quite livable here. The wireless network is finally up and running (thanks to Geek Squad). We had to use a range extender in order for the kids' computer to connect to the network. It took Mr. Geek Squad nearly 2 hours, so it wasn't a simple, straightforward thing. Made me feel better about not being able to do it myself!

The landlords have a landscaping team here working on the backyard. They are putting in a large patio in back and on the sides of the house. So for approximately the next 2 weeks, we have to take Campbell outside on a leash in the front yard. It's not as convenient as opening the back door, but loads more convenient than the 2 months we spent in the 3rd-floor apartment last year!

We finally had our interview with the principal of the Christian school on Tuesday of this week. It seemed to be a mere formality. Emily has been accepted and will start there in the fall. She gets to take SATs with the current students in a couple of weeks. {You know she's looking forward to that.}

Last note: Anyone else planning on going to see The Wild? The previews make it look somewhat like a Madagascar wannabe... I suppose we'll see. I'm loathe to think that Disney would ever deliberately steal someone else's idea. The kids and I will probably go later today.

Settling in

So it's been a busy week or so around here. We've been in the new house since last Friday night, and it's starting to feel like home. The movers did a great job getting the big stuff into the house on Saturday, and we've made several trips back to the old place to get more of the "little" stuff. We still have a few trips to go, but the great thing is that we're able to actually find places for things here instead of just putting things away "just for now."

I didn't get the computer hooked up until last night, and the new internet account wasn't working until this morning. I have lots to catch up on, but can't get too distracted from the job at hand.

Nice to be "back", though.

Where's a good massage therapist when you need one?

Yesterday, the kids and I hauled out 4 Rubbermaid tubs of books and 2 laundry baskets full of movies and books. I got all of these books shelved (and there is still room for more!) .The only remaining books in our current house are ones that might be hidden in the kids' rooms (I know Emily has some Harry Potter books in hers) and one bookcase with homeschooling materials. Today's plan is to have the kids pack up toys and other non-clothing items from their rooms. We may or may not take a load to the new house. I'm falling behind on stuff here, like laundry. I have a large basket of clothes awaiting folding and more that need to be washed.

We did decide to go ahead and have the pros move us, so that is being done this Saturday. We'll get as much out of here as we can on Thursday and Friday and will probably be spending Saturday night in the new house. Phone service is already on and cable is being activated on Thursday afternoon. We'll get the internet service going shortly afterwards.

I think I'll book a massage appointment when this is all over.

Progress

Man, this time change is kickin' my hiney! I've never had this much trouble adjusting to setting the clock ahead, but this time I'm having a harder time getting to sleep at night, which means I'm not getting up as early as I'd like. I guess it doesn't help that I spent the afternoon and evening yesterday working on stuff at the new house. The kids and I headed over there yesterday afternoon with 3 Rubbermaid tubs and 2 small rolling suitcases full of books, plus a small laundry basket of games. We managed to get those things put away and then Brian met us there when he got off work. He and I got the other 3 kids' beds put together (we put Halle's together on Sunday) in time for us to leave that house a little after 9pm.

Today we have a moving company coming to give us an estimate on moving the big stuff (couches, tvs, refrigerator, freezer, washer/dryer, dressers, desks, entertainment center) for us. We decided it wouldn't be fair to ask Brian's students to give up their only days off to help us move, plus we don't want to worry about the liability issue if something was to get broken. If the price is right, we could have all the big stuff moved by the weekend.

The kids and I will load up more books today, as well as any stuff from their rooms that they want to go ahead and start putting away. Hopefully today we'll be able to make more than one trip before Brian gets off work.

Numb3rs

Number of trips made today to the new house with a full trailer: 2

Number of mattresses currently in the new house: 4

Number of bed frames currently in the new house: 3

We also managed to move the Clavinova, 3 bookshelves (minus the books), 4 4-ft. tables and folding chairs, almost everything we had in the garage (2 storage cabinets, 2 shelving units, a slew of Christmas totes, and several Rubbermaid totes of outgrown children's clothing). Tomorrow after church, we'll get Halle's bed taken up there, and possibly even our bedframe (we'll keep our mattress/boxsprings till we make the "real" move). We'll probably put all the beds together so that the kids and I will be able to start bringing in some of their stuff they don't *need* here at home. I can also work on getting a bunch of our books on the library shelves as well (upon examination today, we decided that library wall is more like 12-14 feet wide.... *insert big smile here*).

Number of hours of sleep I'll get tonight: ????

Beauty is as beauty does

One day closer to starting the move.... We didn't get to take Em's bed down until last night; just no time after church Wednesday. This time it went much more smoothly. Now we only have the twin beds left to disassemble. I'm guessing those won't be too difficult. Brian will start taking stuff over tomorrow while I am at Noah's ball practice with him in the morning. Then we'll all work together the rest of the day.

I got this wild idea yesterday that I can't get out of my head. The new house has one entire wall upstairs that is nothing but floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. It's probably about 8-10 feet wide (maybe even wider). I would love to actually catalog our books, like a *real* library. I have this thing about wanting to know just where each book is, and cataloging them would really help. Is there anyone else out there who shares this slightly anal trait with me???

Doing my part to make the world a little more beautiful today; I have an appointment to get my hair cut and colored this afternoon. :)

Speaking of beautiful, read this awesome Tony Campolo story I found online yesterday:

A few years ago Tony flew to Hawaii to speak at a conference. The way he tells it, he checks into his hotel and tries to get some sleep. Unfortunately, his internal clock wakes him at 3:00 a.m. The night is dark, the streets are silent, the world is asleep, but Tony is wide awake and his stomach is growling.

He gets up and prowls the streets looking for a place to get some bacon and eggs for an early breakfast. Everything is closed except for a grungy dive in an alley. He goes in and sits down at the counter. The fat guy behind the counter comes over and asks, "What d'ya want?"

Well, Tony isn't so hungry anymore so eying some donuts under a plastic cover he says, "I'll have a donut and black coffee."

As he sits there munching on his donut and sipping his coffee at 3:30, in walk eight or nine provocative, loud prostitutes just finished with their night's work. They plop down at the counter and Tony finds himself uncomfortably surrounded by this group of smoking, swearing hookers. He gulps his coffee, planning to make a quick getaway. Then the woman next to him says to her friend, "You know what? Tomorrow's my birthday. I'm gonna be 39." To which her friend nastily replies, "So what d'ya want from me? A birthday party? Huh? You want me to get a cake, and sing happy birthday to you?"

The first woman says, "Aw, come on, why do you have to be so mean? Why do you have to put me down? I'm just sayin' it's my birthday. I don't want anything from you. I mean, why should I have a birthday party? I've never had a birthday party in my whole life. Why should I have one now?"

Well, when Tony Campolo heard that, he said he made a decision. He sat and waited until the women left, and then he asked the fat guy at the counter, "Do they come in here every night?"

"Yeah," he answered.

"The one right next to me," he asked, "she comes in every night?"

"Yeah," he said, "that's Agnes. Yeah, she's here every night. She's been comin' here for years. Why do you want to know?"

"Because she just said that tomorrow is her birthday. What do you think? Do you think we could maybe throw a little birthday party for her right here in the diner?"

A cute kind of smile crept over the fat man's chubby cheeks. "That's great," he says, "yeah, that's great. I like it." He turns to the kitchen and shouts to his wife, "Hey, come on out here. This guy's got a great idea. Tomorrow is Agnes' birthday and he wants to throw a party for her right here."

His wife comes out. "That's terrific," she says. "You know, Agnes is really nice. She's always trying to help other people and nobody does anything nice for her."

So they make their plans. Tony says he'll be back at 2:30 the next morning with some decorations and the man, whose name turns out to be Harry, says he'll make a cake.

At 2:30 the next morning, Tony is back. He has crepe paper and other decorations and a sign made of big pieces of cardboard that says, "Happy Birthday, Agnes!" They decorate the place from one end to the other and get it looking great. Harry had gotten the word out on the streets about the party and by 3:15 it seemed that every prostitute in Honolulu was in the place. There were hookers wall to wall.

At 3:30 on the dot, the door swings open and in walks Agnes and her friend. Tony has everybody ready. They all shout and scream "Happy Birthday, Agnes!" Agnes is absolutely flabbergasted. She's stunned, her mouth falls open, her knees started to buckle, and she almost falls over.

And when the birthday cake with all the candles is carried out, that's when she totally loses it. Now she's sobbing and crying. Harry, who's not used to seeing a prostitute cry, gruffly mumbles, "Blow out the candles, Agnes. Cut the cake."

So she pulls herself together and blows them out. Everyone cheers and yells, "Cut the cake, Agnes, cut the cake!"

But Agnes looks down at the cake and, without taking her eyes off it, slowly and softly says, "Look, Harry, is it all right with you if...I mean, if I don't...I mean, what I want to ask, is it OK if I keep the cake a little while? Is it all right if we don't eat it right away?"

Harry doesn't know what to say so he shrugs and says, "Sure, if that's what you want to do. Keep the cake. Take it home if you want."

"Oh, could I?" she asks. Looking at Tony she says, "I live just down the street a couple of doors; I want to take the cake home, is that okay? I'll be right back, honest."

She gets off her stool, picks up the cake, and carries it high in front of her like it was the Holy Grail. Everybody watches in stunned silence and when the door closes behind her, nobody seems to know what to do. They look at each other. They look at Tony.

So Tony gets up on a chair and says, "What do you say that we pray together?"
And there they are in a hole-in-the-wall greasy spoon, half the prostitutes in Honolulu, at 3:30 a.m. listening to Tony Campolo as he prays for Agnes, for her life, her health, and her salvation. Tony recalls, "I prayed that her life would be changed, and that God would be good to her."

When he's finished, Harry leans over, and with a trace of hostility in his voice, he says, "Hey, you never told me you was a preacher. What kind of church do you belong to anyway?"

In one of those moments when just the right words came, Tony answers him quietly, "I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3:30 in the morning."

Harry thinks for a moment, and in a mocking way says, "No you don't. There ain't no church like that. If there was, I'd join it. Yep, I'd join a church like that."

Get a move on

We're starting to get things ready for the move. Last night, Emily and I helped Brian take apart Noah's bed, a full-size metal loft bed. I much preferred putting it together... Tonight we do Emily's bed (same kind), and I hope it goes a bit more smoothly. Then we'll do Joel and Halle's beds. We're renting a U-Haul trailer Saturday and hope to get all the beds taken to the new house (about 17 miles away) that day. You're probably thinking: "You're taking the beds first? Don't the kids need them to sleep?" You don't know my kids. They much prefer camping out in the family room to sleeping in their beds. So it won't be a problem. We will get as much stuff transferred out of this house this weekend as we can, and then the kids and I will continue to take loads of books and other things over every day next week (after we finish our schoolwork). The landlord has said that we are off the hook rentwise as soon as she finds a renter. But she won't show the house until we have everything out and cleaned. Thus the hope for a speedy move. The big stuff (couches, tvs , dining furniture, etc.) we will get help with. Several of Brian's students who own trucks have said they will help. So we will have to coordinate with them when we can move the big items (and the weather has to cooperate.... doggone rain!).

It's going to be a hectic month. Have I mentioned I don't like hectic?

Faster than a speeding bullet

Yeah, I'm doing bullets again. Cuz they're faster than me trying to compose eloquent thoughts about the stuff that goes on around here.

• Noah's ball practice was not rained out this weekend, although it started lightly raining about 5-10 minutes towards the end. The wind was blowing like crazy, though. The rest of us stayed in the van, where the littlest 2 watched Chicken Little.
• Chick-Fil-A is the best chicken in the world. 'Nuff said.
• I bought some cleaning product from a door-to-door guy a few weeks ago, and Brian thought I paid too much for it. Then he used it today and changed his tune. He has cleaned the car windows, the stove, the washer/dryer...
• Tomorrow is the pre-possession walkthrough of the new rental house. This will be the kids' first time to see it. We'll be taking the measuring tape to get numbers to help us think about what furniture is going to go where. Then we'll start moving stuff over next weekend.
• Ran across the coolest thing this week while surfing blog comments: Wonderful Graffiti. I want some!

The kids are waiting for me to watch Dreamer with them and their father, so I'd better run.

Let the sun shine

What a beautiful day we've had today! Temperature in the low 60s and lots of sun. Sure beats the rain we've been having. There's a chance for more rain this weekend, but for now, I'll enjoy the sun. Just a couple more months, and we won't be seeing any rain for quite some time!

We're taking advantage of the weather to grill out tonight. A little later on, I'll be headed to a neighbor's house for a book group, where we'll be discussing Dinner With a Perfect Stranger. As this was my suggestion for the group, I don't want to miss this meeting (I haven't been able to make it to any of the other ones.)

I had to drive up to the Christian school today to drop off some more papers they wanted, then to the base to pick up a few groceries. I sure am looking forward to our move. We'll be so much closer to both of those places. We'll start moving thing over in a week or so. Whether we complete the move in April or not will depend on whether our current landlords will release us from the last month of our lease or not. It turns out that when we signed the lease, it was actually for 13 months rather than 12. So we're hoping our landlords will be generous and let us out of that last month. If not... well, we'll just pay 2 rents for 2 months instead of 1. Ouch.

To dream the impossible dream

Well, maybe not totally impossible.....

Disney Cruise Lines just announced new cruise itineraries for the summer of 2007. They'll be doing 2 "repo" (repositioning) cruises, the first being in May from Florida to Barcelona, Spain. The second will be in August and make the reverse trip. Both are 14-day trips, stopping at Tenerife, Canary Islands; Cadiz, Spain; Gibraltar; and Barcelona. In between, they'll be doing 10/11 night cruises going to Barcelona, Spain; Palermo, Sicily; Naples, Italy (Pompeii); Olbia, Sardinia; Civitavecchia, Italy (Rome); La Spezia, Italy (Florence, Piza); Marseilles, France; and Villefranche, France (Monte Carlo, Cannes, Niece). Need I say how psyched we would be to take one of these trips??? What an education for the kids! I'm torn between the 14-day (6 straight days of relaxing at sea) and an 11-night (non-stop ports, with just 2 or 3 days at sea... and not all together).

We'll be checking these out to see if we can swing it. Who wants to go with us?