Good morning Linda. Did you get Emily's quilt loaded? Or, will that be first thing this morning? What's happening over at Lindaland? It's about 7:20 AM here. Rich just left to have coffee with Bob. We were getting a bit crabby. He was being negative and it was like ok, you can leave now! We have things to be doing. Don't you want to go out with Bob? Soon? I was getting terrible. And, then after he hits the first step down we remember to tell him we love him BLAH! Sure couldn't have proved it this morning. We told him ... we're being crabby ... BUT, that doesn't really dismiss the part it is my responsibility to then get out of it. We did for the record then take our medicine. GOOD Ann’s!
Last night we packed a couple more boxes so we're up to 9! YAY! Moving guy for the estimate is coming by at 2:30-3:00 PM. I hope Rich is here because he always thinks I messed it up somewhere. Not a lot, but it will avoid him some stress to talk to the movers in his own language. Anything that saves some stress is good. For the record, we were ancy last night in that when we had to pause to let Rich catch up with the bagging of mulch, then we'd go back into the other room to see what could be done next. Rich is going to stop at the U-Haul place to get my wrapping paper on the way home from Bob's SOOO we're going to wait and then pack the china so we can gain access to the closet. We're pushing Rich for an alternative date in case the movers can't do the 25th. I want sooner, and he’s being indecisive ... hopefully he'll figure another date when he comes home and checks his computer. We'll see. Again, hopefully he'll be here.
When he gets back we get to place the order for the chairs. We both needed his credit card, then he'll pay from the savings account my mother's check is in. YAY!!! We figured out how much more we want to spend. We're still looking at the poker and table tennis. Together we've gotten it down to $800. The poker table is a board/felt/cushion thing that sits on top of the existing table. That saves quite a bit of money. And the Table tennis table is a little more because it is an indoor/outdoor table. I also like that it comes in two complete separate tables, so it is easier to move. I still want it in the sunroom, but the alternative would be the garage. One way or another I want it to withstand outdoor temperatures because I don’t think the sunroom is heated/cooled like the inside of the house. I'm so excited about it. Rich hasn't said no yet, but he hasn't said yes either. Both these would come from Sears and be delivered. The two leftover items would be that Rich wants an outdoor patio set for the sunroom and his bike. We're hoping that he goes with a recumbent bike because it's easier to sit in, and we're not so positive on the patio set, because it will compete with space for the table tennis table. PLUS we already have chairs for that room. It's a tossup.
There back again. Our Internet page was a little goofy so we posted so we wouldn't lose what we had. It's now about 7:44 AM. We told you the part that Rich has "left the building!" I was real appreciative that Nikki saw some of our posts over the last couple of days and has volunteered to come over and help. We had the one project in mind in putting up things in the sewing room - shelf by shelf, and then maybe helping us take down from this end and pack the books. Everything else i think I'm good for. Those other things I can do, but admit as to the shelves either packing the books from here, OR reloading onto the shelves from the sewing room, would best be a two person job. I'd like to take a walk-through with her too to plan on where the extra stuff goes. Rich is in charge of the kitchen, but it just be fun from a girl's perspective to think through some things out loud. Plus, I'd love for her to claim some ownership feelings in the place. Basically, I want her to be comfortable and for the girls to have sleepovers ... yeah you knew we were going there, right?
We had a good visit with Rich's family the other night. We're still dealing with angry issues from Bud, because he is so critical of everything. I only got in one of the disputes with him. He was saying that my windows were little and there was no light coming in. I knew he was wrong, because the windows were either double wide or regular wide, but they were almost down to the floor where his are higher. After a few skirmishes, we got out our phone and showed him the pictures, but he still wouldn't admit he was wrong ... BUT he was. He's just argumentative. He continues to tell people basically that they are not good enough. Nothing his wife does is good enough and he's very critical that Rich can't take care of property including the little space of grass we have. That's just crazy!
We talked about it with Mark and Rich on the way back to bringing Mark to his truck. He was going to sleep in it overnight, because he has been having trouble respecting Bud too. We asked him what the problem had been, and he said that Bud was jealous of what we were getting so it was his way of evening things out. Bud had told Mark too that we were getting something too luxurious. Excuse me? If it's in the price range - why not get the best of what we can? Do we deserve less? I don't know ... there's going to be some hot button issues if he thinks he's coming over to unload all that negativity on us after we move.
Mark though HAVING a truck driver's mouth was actually nice to be around. He tries to be a gentleman around me and we appreciate that he loves his brother like we do and although the family in general is competitive with their thoughts as being the right ones ... Mark is still a nice guy. We hope he takes advantage and does some of his sleepovers with us. It wouldn't be as much stress on him as being with his mother, and he's taking medicine to hopefully stop smoking. That would be the bad part of things. We've been talking about the smoking and it is still causing problems. I don't want to insult Rich's mother by making her stay out in the sunroom, but that will be our designated smoking space. AND she'll be by the window AND we'll get a smoking fan to draw the smoke odors. Hmm, shoot forgot that's on our shopping list too. We were thinking it be a good time to introduce her to whatever electric cigarette Jon, Rich's son is using so he can handle being in his mother's house without smoking. It would give her something of an alternative in the kitchen where she would I am sure prefer to be sitting. We'll have to see. I think we're going to ask Rich to get the information and then just provide it at the house, if she will try it. We'll see.
Seems like we are a chatty Cathy this morning; chances are we'll transfer this note over to the blog entry. We get started and writing to you feels so close to writing in the blog that it just merges as one. The difference is that when we address a letter to you, Dr. Marvin or the girls, then we feel as if we are covering your areas we talk to you about. On our end, I'm not really a private person, is that noticeable? Hehehe
Maybe at this point, we'll end here though and then go to readdress some other issues we're having in our thoughts that are probably more boring and better suited for the blog. See you soon! Is tony home today by the way?
LOVE YOU!
Us
Ok, ok … we’re back to our normal blog writing. Linda you will have to catch-up from here J
This is by the way as far as we got with the moving last night. It feels good to be this organized.
#1 Sewing Room – Shelves Color scraps especially from ironing table and pink shelves
#2 Sewing Room – Shelves Scrap fabric by size and irregular, stray pieces and Gramma’s boxes from shelves and table top, pens
Suitcase New Sewing Machine FRAGILE – rug upholster
#3 Sewing Room – Shelves Tread, Gramma’s Brick-a-brack, odd pieces from shelves
#4 Sewing Room – Storage Gramma’s White sheets/backing, free-stitch samples/learning, ironing sleeve, round turntable
#5 Sewing Room – Shelves Batting, applique rolls & stabilizer, old cross-stitch, old calendars, and gorilla quilt
#6 Sewing Room – Shelves Baskets, light box, rulers, stencils, Olfa, square cutting mat
#7 Sewing Room – Tables Ironing pads, sewing table inserts, ruler holders, irons, thread catcher, drafting table supplies, markers, & pens
#8 Sewing Room – Shelves Majority of quilting books, decorative fabric rolls, CD’s and pictures
#9 Sewing Room – Shelves Magazines, flat books, stuffed animal, and red poncho from Roger
Canvass Bag Old Sewing Machine FRAGILE – Blue Bernina bag
Canvass bag Sewing Room – Storage CS fabric kits – heavy - red canvas bag that includes directions and fabric both loose and kits
Today, we continue in the sewing room, but hopefully we’ll start with my Grandmother’s china after Rich gets back with the paper. I have probably gone over this before, but after the china gets packed and we move the baker’s rack from in front of the door, then we can take down the canvas shoebox holder from the closet and restack it in the empty under bed thingy from Linda’s scraps that have already been ironed and folded. That should also clear up a little more clutter from the table. I see next moving the fabric that is on the shelves or out in the open and then placing most of those plastic bins in the closet with the others WITH the goal of being able to shut the tops YAY!!! There’s at least one maybe more that has to be packed under the table. Then we will move anything else under the table including some empty cases and our rolling bin, so we can move the table. I’ll ask Rich to disconnect the TV first. Then hopefully Rich will help us getting down the rest of the quilt kits on top and that is going to take a lot of boxes and I’m not sure we have that many, but we will see. We have to remember packing the upper part of the closet too. We’re going to assure that we have a separate stash of fabrics just for the ones’ that are used only as backings. We really don’t have too much regular fabric, but the stuff we do have, we’ll make sure to fold uniformly.
We see the kits as going on top of the shelves, and we see the linen closet being used for the regular fabrics and we’ll continue using the white canvas bags in the guest closet with bins underneath. I think it is going to be a big enough closet. Rich’s extra closet in his room will be used for extra coats and sports clothing for his officiating. We had to do that to deal with there being no real closets toward the front or back door. I think we’ll still have to get something for the breeze way. Rich said we could put a couple of the old chairs so someone can sit down to put on or take off anything, but we see that as only a start. I believe there is another linen closet by the master bath and that will fill-up soon enough with towels and ALLL that stuff we have in our regular linen closet like supplies and stock of assorted items. We will want to check out those containers at the bottom of the closet to see if something can be done there to make them more useful. Maybe there will be containers we can use to move the underwear and sock drawers. Just they will be done at the end. There might be some old towels and sheets and tablecloths down there that we’ve forgotten about. We’ll have to check. Rich also said something about finding or getting new linen for the spare bedroom.
Pswhoo! That was a rough spell. Rich called to say that the place I sent him for the papers was closed, so then we came up with an alternative and assured him they had stocked, but then he said it would take him a half a day, but when we looked it up it’s less than 5 miles away and it would have taken 13 minutes one way. Damn he can make me crabby. So he came home without paper and he stuck me as to not being able to pack the china. Now as a second back-up plan besides being cranky again, we’ll move the china to the kitchen counter and then we’ll manhandle the baker’s rack on our own, AND we WILL get to that closet! HMFP!
Ok, calming down again … we just took a few moments and we ordered the two chairs. He’s going to send me an email to confirm the order, but it should be smooth. We won’t however know the ship date yet, because the chair has to be made with our particular cloth and they can only give us an estimate and he said he was going to put the ship date LATER like 4-6 weeks, just to cover them. He said they will get a date in a couple of days and then when it arrives, they will coordinate the delivery time. We will look forward, but as to now not much to be done until things all happen in the right amount of time. Can’t rush these things. I’m glad we started a couple of weeks in advance. Just gotta calm down … we’re looking to get that email in. Again PATIENT right? In the meantime, we picked-up the place including dishes, bed, and moving the clothes. I should probably start a load of laundry … it is that time. Sigh.
Ok, we’re good. We started a load of wash clothes. Roberto surprised me by sticking his head around the corner. He said there is bad news and good news. I thought oh my gosh there’s going to be a problem. But, then he said the bad news is that we’re leaving and the good news was that we were getting our own place. I’ll miss him. We’ll check with him to see if we ever needed the help, could we pay him to come out. He did say he did some work out there before and knows where it is. That was nice. I’m REALLY going to miss him. He’s always taken care of us well. I worry about Rich getting to things like hanging curtains and such, but we’ve both agreed to go with what’s there for the time being.
There we took care of the chairs and now Linda is on line. We got a lecture from her and it sounded like she was scolding me for not keeping Rich’s wishes in check. And, then she made sure to note that our Grandchildren don’t come over often. So, then our feelings got hurt. But, we let her know that we heard her, but it didn’t feel good. She’s ok, just that we’ve been grouchy.
We’re back now. We had to say good-bye to Rich because he said he needed a box packed in a half hour. It turned out it took 32 minutes, but we were close. He’s gone now and all the natives can calm down again. That reminds me … we were going to take an extra stress pill this morning. I think we’re due.
Good-good that’s done. We’re finding the problem with Pandora … Damn commercials. *sigh,* but it’s free right? We emptied the dishwasher while we were out there. That was a good deal. I’m not sure if I took one or two pills. I couldn’t remember if we took one when we first went out into the kitchen and then did dishes, or if we hadn’t done that yet. I guess the worse possibility will be that we’re mega-relaxed. *sigh*. We’re going downstairs in 25 minutes to get the clothes. Thankfully, Rich changed the load when he was bringing down boxes. We were going to ask him, but he asked if he could do it for me … that was nice. We’ll do that and fold the clothes, and then vacuum the living room floor, and then take our shower and get dressed. That way we’ll be ready for the mover with plenty of time. We caught up to Rich’s mulch product, so we’ve got nothing to do there.
Hmm, then the next thing would be bringing the dishes to somewhere so when Rich comes home we can wrap them. I’m thinking that if we cleared my cutting board table and put the fabric over on the sewing machine table, we’d be more comfortable doing the dishes from our sewing room chair rather than the kitchen table. So that will be the plan after we calm down AFTER the shower. Do you ever get tired of me piecing together moment to moment plans? We’re thinking the organizing is a great part of us writing in our blog. I don’t know what I would do without this avenue of thought. Shhh, it will be ok.
Linda is out for a good part of the day. We forgot to ask when she’s coming home, but she’s out to lunch PLUS with one of her old friends she hasn’t seen in a long while. I’m hoping that she has a good time. I think if I were out with an old friend, there would be a glass of wine too! But, we’re thinking that’s not really Linda’s style. Silly Linda!
We had something special happen yesterday in that an old friend from as far back as the second grade, LuAnn Sims, who lives now in Colorado shared with us that she also lives in a mobile home. I was so glad to hear someone else talk about it. The other one that mentioned it was Cathy Rainwater-Crowder. She quilts AND she also lives in a MFG home – she says for 12 years now. I guess I just didn’t know too many people before who had done it other than Rich’s mother. Though to be fair, Sandy my Dad’s second wife had lived in a mobile home before they got their place. Before they got their home, my father sold his place and they both lived in the mobile home. I remember seeing it at the time and really liking that there was a sunken living room. It doesn’t even begin to compare though to our new place. Just so proud of it. I enjoyed seeing too the pictures of LuAnn’s home. She gave us pictures of the outside and the kitchen before she moved in. It was very nice to get her note. Feel like we all have to stick together Hehehe.
Ok, looking good. We folded the whites and put them away, and then we vacuumed AND it’s still before noon. As soon as we can we’ll move onto the shower. Just need to let the back pain subside. BLAH! We also folded our couch blanket. NOW the cats can come back out again. They really never got used to the vacuum. It seems to be their cue to skedaddle. Eh, be the life of a cat.
I have to say that I’m feeling better, less crabby. I feel like things are in control again. I wish I could be like this all the time, but I guess under the medicine we’re a mess L Just have to keep working on it.
In other news? Oh yeah … we got a pop too! It must be the afternoon! YAY!!!
Well, I suppose that we are calmed down enough to maybe step in the shower? Why don’t we get that taken care of right away. BRB
AHA! DONE! We’re moving along this morning J Just checked our email and FB too. We also cleaned up the email a little in unsubscribing to several organizations mostly to do with looking at houses. I don’t have to look anymore. We also called Rich and asked him again to call Charlie. He keeps putting it off. Then he complained because he was working and about ready to be at the second appointment and then he complained about having to stop somewhere for boxes. We told him right off Roosevelt and 20thjust down Maple … He’s just making life complicated. It seems that as soon as we get ourselves calmed down we get riled up again. Just a little one this time though. We’re thinking that he is feeling a lot of stress with all the money and details that need to be taken care of. We told him we’d do the packing … just needed the paper is all. We’re not so liable to carry a 25 lb. box up those stairs. *sigh* ok, ok … no use complaining too. We’ve been working hard to get over that. We have 2 – 2 ½ hours before the mover gets here for the estimate. I’ve only really got a couple choices left. We are either packing or writing. Hey! I have been working! AND, writing is part of my job/life too, right? Hmm, still defensive. Girl, girl, girl – you got it bad! I know that when Linda gets back she’s going to ask me if I’ve been packing. *SIGH* Shhhh. You can do this, you know? Maybe if I walked back there for just a few minutes and came up with our next plan. That seems to have been working this morning so far. Ok, grab a sandwich AND our powers of observation!
WOW! It’s been a whirlwind. We did go back in the sewing room, and we moved a few things around. Basically, we grouped stuff that had been under the sewing machine table … SHOOT Rich is back and we’re already growling at each other. Didn’t mean that to happen … just wanted him to put his chair back, so Thom had a place to sit, BUT, that was goo complicated, because he thought he’d bump his supply of product. We like backed out real fast, but just don’t know why things are so escalated. Rich is quick to raise his voice. He DID bring home the paper though so we’re grateful for that. Did you hear the part in-between? Thom is coming over! He had called yesterday or the day before, but we hadn’t heard it, so we called him back and because he has a holiday off for work (President’s Day), he said it would be easier to stop by then to talk over the phone. That was a good deal for us AND fortunately because the guy was coming for the movers, everything is picked-up and we’re in good order. Well as much as one can be with all the boxes. LOTS of them.
Anyway just to finish up in the sewing room. We collected some stuff from under the table and grouped it, and then we did some more clearing of things like the table, and we washed it so that we could bring over the China and NOW Rich is home with the paper, SOOOO We’ll be good to go on wrapping that. I might steal a peek through to see what that looks like! Oh man! It’s so cool! It’s great big sheets like 30 x 18 or something close to that … it lays out on the table flat … and you just put the dish on top of it and then pull up the paper around it. It’s a real nice weight AND it’s clean. We’ll have plenty left over. Rich got the 10# boxes and one should have been sufficient. Cool cool wrapping paper for a long time. We just have to use color crayons to decorate! Wow … fun stuff! We never had better!
Hmm, now we’re all confused again. WELL, let’s see Rich came home, Thom is coming over, the mover is coming and we’ve been moving around the house doing one thing or another. That’s some pretty exciting flood of stuff happening. Thom didn’t know about the move, but the first thing was that he didn’t know that we were moving exactly. He had heard something, but no details. And, then he said why would we move from an apartment to a mobile home, but then we explained that it was paid for, and much nicer than our place, and on the first floor WITH washer and we’d own it, but the rent of the land. Just have to show people for them to understand. He also thought that it was a far way out, but I think that it’s doable, just that people have to push their comfort zone. Our boys like never go toward the farming community, except when Joe lived out in DeKalb for his college. There … we put up the pictures from our blog so that he could look at them.
We talked about him maybe looking for an apartment and then of course we suggested ours, or the one downstairs. I can hear them now working on it. Maybe Thom could stop by and ask about it. Maybe just general workman in there though. Thom was looking for something around $1000, and this one is less, and if the first floor isn’t rented, that should be less too AND on the first floor. Our place is just 18 minutes or less than 9 miles from the center of Oak Park where he is working with Chris. Eh, just an idea. We like this place and it’s got a good landlord, just that it’s old (seventies) and I’m thinking that Thom will look for something more updated and that he would have a washer and dryer and all. Eh, we can just put it out there. I think he wants to be closer to Oak Park where his uncle lives and he’s still thinking about Villa Park or Lombard the two areas over where his father used to live that he’s still comfortable with AND especially because his son Austin is there.
Ok, we’re back and it’s about 12:31AM early Tuesday morning. We’re still up and a bit hyper. We’ve got a lot to do yet with the moving and after about 10:30-11 PM, Rich went to bed. We had been working together on the piece work and before we’d take a couple of hours nap, so we’re thinking that is the problem … just maybe adrenaline from the day. Having all this stuff happening, PLUS having a mover AND Thom! Wow what a wonderful day to see Thom – the other was just like a lot going on. We had a little problem before the nap because a younger part had been out that was overly tired. She didn’t like so much either the crazy wind outside tonight. It went from 52 and rainy today to now it is 30 degrees with light snow and mist and the wind is at 19 MPH. It’s supposed to get down to 16 degrees tonight with 30% chance of precipitation and tomorrow is a VERY cold day at 3 degrees and blasts up to 30 mph. But Sunday it will be 43 degrees. Hey go figure?!
I think we’re going to get off those thoughts, although first a flicker of memory goes to the warm fire place at the new place. Thom had said he hoped that it would be warm enough and those thoughts of the walls and insulation being thick enough is real enough. I think they’ve come a long way from them being pencil thin and poorly heated, but we won’t know that until we actually try it out. We’ve come too far to back out now.
BTW … Rich finally did call Charlie this afternoon. That was nice. He seemed ok with the news and Rich gave him the address so he could see where went to. There was really no explanation why we’d gone to the other realtor. Just a fluke really – we had seen the listing for the other place and so had called THAT realtor, and then when that got a different offer that night, we looked again and saw our place, but then you might recall that right? Just figured that it be better to look at a mobile home with someone who was more familiar with them. Think we made the right choice, just feel bad that Charlie didn’t make his commission.
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