Sunday, February 24, 2013 @ 10:12 AM
This is the pictures after Maury and Nikki and girls, AND Rich were here yesterday to pack. We asked the kids if they’d help us with the books and that turned out to be an excellent decision! Maury kept taping boxes and then stacking them and Nikki kept packing and they didn’t sit down until all six bookshelves were packed. I was so thrilled though also in a state of shock. I had a hard time keeping up with everything and there was a little bit of a meltdown later, and then again earlier this morning. We helped label a few boxed and talked with Grandchildren, but nothing like the kids. Rich also helped in that he was in the sewing room and he took down the last three shelves. Mostly some fabric and CS’s quilt kits. And then he took down the stuff on the wall primarily our shelves. He did a lot of work, but it was left a little messy so today that will be my job to go in and organize that a bit. I have some fabric to be putting away … He jumped the gun or more likely I fell behind. *sigh*
UGH … so much for the good feeling I had to do cream on Rich’s feet and trim the nails. The trimming isn’t bad it’s putting lotion on our hands. We hate it! Man-o-man … gotta calm down again. *whimpering badly* Shoot, shoot! Shhh, shhh. Let’s take it easy girls! It will be ok. Trying to take it down a couple of notches. Shoot, shoot!
Ok, girls we’re going to have to get over this … we washed the hands several times. We give Rich foot massages all the time. It’s not that … it’s just we hate lotion. There that’s better. We just talked to Rich again … he is going out to do some small shopping for groceries and get us ice cubes and more packing tape. He’s a good Rich. Just gotta get back to normal. Shoot, whiney again … he says he’ll do the shirt load, but we have to steam them. BLAH BLAH! This isn’t working out so well. I like it when Rich goes and does HIS stuff and doesn’t give me stuff to do HMPF!
So far we woke up with the cats and then we went back to bed with Rich, but his alarm woke up at 6 am and we’ve been up with him ever since. It is now 10:40 AM. We talked and somewhere about 7 am we had a melt-down so took our medicine and then slept another half hour. AND THEN, we watched the Sunday morning show. It’s a long show. But, it seems to calm us down. We’re usually peaceful with it and get into it as much as Rich.
Last night we thought we were going to get lucky, but Rich turned on the TV in the bedroom so he could get a backrub too – and that seemed to put us to sleep … DRAT! I hate that when it happens! I think honestly though he was tired, and it was a nice way of putting me off for a bit. It was a hard day all around yesterday, but Nikki and Maury and the girls made it kind of fun too … just one of those shaky mental times for us. The girls didn’t really realize we were moving. So that was kind of interesting. I guess we’re not getting it really published as much as we thought. I suppose if you are not paying attention to Facebook, you are really not hearing all the BIG news.
Shoot shoot …. Rich was in here again asking for help. That guy has to go! Not trying to be the mean Ann, but we need some quiet time to ourselves and our thoughts where we aren’t whimpering and complaining. This is the task we have in front of us today, but might be afternoon. Again Rich beat us to the punch. Oh no here he comes again. Oh ok, that was good. He just gave us a kiss … He be our smooch guy … I guess we can forgive him then. He was getting a bit silly … he knew he kept interrupting our thoughts. But, he’s like a school boy out for summer vacation. He’s got tasks ahead of him today like the shopping, and then he was going to look at his drawers which are mostly fishy stuff, and he’s going to take his rods in to get fixed, and I’m not sure what else. I heard him say something about dinner, but that was too much for our brain.
Last night we made a list on the new Cozy calendar associated with FlyLady on what has to get done. We realized though that it is MORE than a week’s work, but these are the things that are looming in our future. We felt good about the cleaning up of clothes in that Nikki said they can get a 20% discount if we donate. YAY! That’s a winner all around.
Shoot shoot Rich came back. He forgot his wallet. He got our “you gotta be kidding face!” We made sure to tell him we needed our own time too. He does that by going out and we do it by staying in. It works out evenly that way. Silly Rich … I THINK he’s gone now! Hehehe we’ll look forward to him returning just as much just wouldn’t mind if a couple of hours lapsed. He knows we are behind in our writing and that really feeds our internal souls.
Ok, ok … so does playing with Rich, but now is the morning!
AHA! A couple of peanut butter rice cakes later AND breaking into the stash of diet coke from the pizza last night when the kids were over. WALLAH! Better times ahead. We feel a little more stable. As to the list … I think the moving parts cover most of what we have to do over the next month, besides the cleaning. There will be other times of course, where we will want to be over at the new place, especially on the Friday after closing when some of the furniture comes in. YAY!!! Good deal there!
I know there will be some time too where we are taking better pictures and measuring things so we can figure out the placement of furniture and stuff proper. I’m most worried about the double couches being in the living room together. I seem to remember it being 12 feet wide and it’s only a 15 foot room. We need to assure there is enough room for a walk way AND get in Rich’s chairs beside the pass through bar stools. I think we’d do fine without Rich’s chair, but that’s obviously a big NO-NO! He’s still King of his Castle, so we’re pretty sure it will get worked out, just would prefer to go in with some measurements.
We should probably try to figure out some of what’s been going on since Tuesday to Sunday where we weren’t writing. I’m pretty sure something was happening. Hmm, maybe one thing was for sure that we had problems with a cold – where the worst was that our throat was hurting. I think today it felt a little better. It feels fine right now and we DIDN’T take the cold medicine in the last 24 hours. We’ve been taking Nyquil and Dayquil, trying to keep on top of it, which has produced a lot of sleepy behavior. We had gotten 14 boxes packed in the sewing room before Rich went in there yesterday, but compared to what the group did … it seems like barely anything. It was significant to us and some important things got packed like my immediate sewing things (other than fabric) and wine glasses and my Grandma Rasmussen’s China. I feel pretty good about that. I think you heard the hard part where we hadn’t gotten the wrapping paper, but that seems to have worked itself out, and yesterday we even got a box filled with pictures and nicknacks from the Living Room packed using the paper. Rich was right as long as we had it we might as well use it for ANYthing breakable. Usually we just do an open box for pictures, but this way felt more secure.
The one thing we did with consistency was to continue working on Rich’s Mulch job. He says we have packed about 6,600 of the 11,000 piece order which has taken QUITE a bit of time. It is good stuff to do between things, especially before things get otherwise started for the day or later in the evening when Rich wants to watch TV. The scary part is that Rich says that after this order there might be more. He says he won’t commit us to ALWAYS be doing this job, but we have to be prepared. He’s been real good in that he suggests if I get tired that just he might work on it. That helps a lot. But, then he gets a couple of boxes ahead of me and then we’re knowing that we have to catch-up. Most the time I don’t mind it, but I get a little grumpy thinking that we might be doing piecework so that his ex-wife continuing getting her $3,000 a month allowance. That’s when we feel bad. Rich gave us both a break from the work when he finished the last bag of product, and brought my finished boxes down to the car. He cleaned-up the workstations and told us we’d take a couple nights off. That was really nice of him. The times I can think of the project as doing something that will help him, I feel better. He’s hoping to get a couple more lucrative contracts, or enough so that we don’t have to do piece-work. He keeps all the financial stuff in order. I will ALWAYS feel good about just giving him my disability check to make the most of our payments. I know that between us we’ve been able to keep our expenses way under what his ex takes. It’s a start at least. Just don’t think too much of her. This morning Rich said she’s not doing anything to take care of a mold problem in the house and that he might end up paying for that. He thinks she should move into something smaller she can handle, but she might always be helpless. *sigh*
But, then again … we’re helpless sometimes too. Just we’re happy with Rich … can’t say the same for her. Ok, girls … let it go. This would be another occasion of having the green-eyed monster to dinner.
So, moving on – we had a couple of Dr. Marvin appointments this week. We did the last of the appointments where we come in at 4-4:30 PM on Tuesday and Thursday nights. This next week we will see him during the day at 1 PM on Tuesdays and 11 AM on Thursdays. It will be a bit strange getting used to the time, maybe in part by the change in his mood during these times of the day, but also in losing some special times we’ve had with him for a long time. He looked in our records and I think he said we’ve been seeing him on Thursdays since 2005. I knew the Tuesdays were newer, because we used to see him on Monday mornings at 8 am before work. We’re much better at getting through weekends then then back before Rich was around. Before it was our alone down time and it had been a lot to handle. Life is sure as hell different with Rich. And, MOST times I can appreciate it. Just not if I don’t get to write!
We are both excited about the new changes coming although any change IS a change. Dr. Marvin has been trying to help us bridge from one way of living to another. Most of the talk is about the move or the new place. We also though take time to go over medicines and being able to pay our bill. Right now UIC is holding us up because they haven’t worked it out completely between Medicaid, themselves, and the medical collection company. We’re only talking about $2-3000, but it is enough to be a problem, and we’re still not getting our Medicaid cards in time. So far in 16 months, we’ve only gotten the card once in enough time so we could order our medicine with it. This month wasn’t one of those months we had the card, so we had to go back to the MAP program. I will admit though that Thursday was one of the fastest times we’ve been through there. From what I could see we were working with different staff. I don’t know if Dr. Marvin did anything in talking to them, but the wait was reasonable. We’d planned an hour and a half of our Thursday life to be sitting waiting for them, but it was only like 20 minutes. SWEET! Fortunately, we knew we were going to be waiting so we brought our Kindle and continued reading the work of David Allen on his Getting things done. Most of the waiting time then was done in front of Dr. Marvin’s office. The amount of socializing his secretaries or the people in his outer office do is sometimes criminal, but the alternative would be to wait outside in the general waiting room and we’re not going near that with a ten foot pole. Just too many variables. I know we got a blessing in being able to wait so close. It avoids some of the afraid time.
Probably because there has been so much going on concerning the move, there may not be as much to tell. We do find ourselves reminiscing between one place and another. It is like it is hard to get a grasp on it, but the closing will be in five days, and the move will be in 29 days. It’s like living in a wishy-washy state of shock. Rich tells us often enough of stuff that will happen that’s either the same or different and we find ourselves trying to be calm where calm isn’t as normal as nervous. It seems to be a big deal moving “out to the country.” Oh yeah we did a lot of phone/internet searching this week too. We changed the address through the post office officially on March 25th, our moving day. We made a list of all the contacts we might normally do business with, but didn’t finish Rich’s business list. Maybe we can do that tomorrow morning.
We pushed Rich to get the insurance taken care of for the house, but he had to wait on his State Farm insurance guy who told him four days into the process that they couldn’t insure the place. Our Realtor, Carolyn gave us an alternative person in town, but Rich put it off thinking he could get ahold of her on Saturday, which he then couldn’t, so it’s a big Monday thing. I’m pretty sure you have to have new insurance at the time of closing – or title transfer. The other part that isn’t done yet is that Rich’s accountant somehow screwed up in getting something signed proper so we are still waiting on a nineteen thousand dollar check. It’s kind of a big deal. It’s supposed to be here in time, but it was also supposed to be here by now, so it’s a little unnerving.
I changed the utilities, so we now have gas and electric as of the first. Water and garbage is being paid by the owner of the land. The hardest part was getting some kind of cable service/satellite to replace Comcast who doesn’t service the area. I think we ended up getting Dish.net for the TV and about a gazillion channels, but it’s not as dependable as cable. And, the same we’re going to have some kind of dish for our Internet through a small local company called Airlogic. At least, the Airlogic guy seemed nice and he looked at the exact specifications of our house and didn’t freek-out telling us they don’t service that area. We went through about a dozen places trying to find something acceptable for the money. We ended up paying like $80 and we’re only getting 7-8 mbps. Comcast gives us 22 and is going up next month to 50 mbps. That has been the worst part yet. We have apparently thought the company for TV that gives us “the Hopper,” so we’re HOPING that works nicely. It’s a matter of being able to record and view different shows at the same time.
Our big marker dates, are Friday, March 1rst, Friday March 8th, Wednesday, March 12th, and Monday March 25th. The first day is closing and the start of our new services, the second day is when we get most of our new furniture, besides the recliners, and we get our TV’s installed, then the 12th we get cable, and on the 25th we get everything else.
That was one of the other things that happened this week. Basically, Rich desided to go with a moving company called, Dibble Moving. They came in about $650-700 under the other mover. He said it should be an all-day job by four guys, and they will take apart some of the furniture like the desk, bed, and dresser from mirror. Rich told him everything would be done in time and boxed, and that we would take things like the clothing and the dishes. Those are things nice not to have to worry about.
Hmm, Rich is home again. It’s now about 11:45 AM, so I guess he gave us SOME time to stablalize. I’m not feeling bad, but hearing the door seems to make me a little defensive. Just thinking he’s going to come in and say dear? We need to be getting some things done! HEY … we ARE doing stuff. If I don’t remember our time, then who would, and then would have just passed us by and there would have been no marker for our turn spent in life. Hmm, maybe we better go smooch him anyway ;)
Was afraid of that. He said, I thought you didn’t want me. NOOOO DEAR! It’s just that we wanted some time to ourselves. He said something then about having to work, and we said writing is one of our jobs, but then he said it was a hobby, and we reminded him we’ve made money as an author. Well, it makes perfectly good sense to me. Sometimes you just have to pause those few moments to get things down. He said, Here! (rather gruffly) and handed us the rolls of packing tape. They only have 50 yards on each. He seems to think that’s enough, but I don’t know if he realizes that SOME people put more than one stream of tape on the bottom and top of the package! I’m afraid we’ve made him a little grumbly. Shoot, shoot.
Hmm, and then our she-cat comes in with an attitude. Shoot, shoot, how did all this happen? Guess not much to do there, except continue to find peace with ourselves while not disrupting the others’ space, but if they want me to do THEIR stuff, then THEY are the one’s at fault! Ok, girl shhh, being defensive again. There there … we had a nice talk with Rich. He’s just hungry because he set his schedule off by eating pizza early in the day so he hasn’t eaten since then. He’s having a pop and we’re back to turning off my music so he can use his TV. It’s a matter of sharing space, hmm? He says he’s only going to take five minutes, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he fell asleep for twenty minutes. And, then he’s going to look through his drawers to clean them up and gather his fishy stuff. It’s a good Rich … It’s now noon.
Linda is going to be gone for several more hours. She went to a coin show with Tpony and yesterday she went to a quilt show and met my sister, Emily and the Twins, though none of those had arranged time with her. It turned out to the benefit of all like a nice surprise hey – there’s my girlfriends kind of time. Linda got a few things, but not real lot. She said she got the Triplets a gift. WOW! That includes me and our birthday won’t be celebrated for another half year! She’s REALLY on top of things! No word as to what the other four got, but Janet spent time with Linda at a meeting, and then she and Jean spent time sewing for Ann for promotional reasons.
Sometimes, it’s hard to miss Linda for a WHOLE weekend!
I suppose we’re getting close to the time we should be doing some work. Maybe we’ll get to that now. I’m feeling a lot better about having something down, but feel it be nice to get the room taken care of while there is still light coming into the room. Ok, then catch-up with you later!
AHHHHH, our baby is sleeping ... why do they all look like angels when they do that?!
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