Exceedingly Mundane

Let’s see… I keep saying I’ll make some kind of interesting blog post, but still, I keep just jotting down what we do every day. My own online diary… B O R I N G! I know, but still a lot going on and it’s all I can do just to record some of this for my horrible memory 🙂

Last week was another busy one, but another good week. On Monday, I ran errands all day. And by all day, I definitely mean all day, I think I went to 7 or 8 places. Walmart, Home Depot, the dollar store, Kroger, Sam’s, Ace Hardware, the bank, the post office and the old house. The Sam’s Club run was, as I had predicted, monumentally large! I had gotten low on so many items, and didn’t even get everything on my list, but still had an overflowing large buggy. Glad to have the pantry and new kitchen to stock up for!

Tuesday and Wednesday were relatively quiet days. I tried to mostly stay home unpacking. Tuesday morning I got up, made myself some coffee and sat out on my back porch, trying to catch up on my Bible reading. I’m SO far behind. I would say that I enjoyed the peace and quiet, but there’s construction all around us, so I heard all of the trucks, machines, equipment and workers. Still, it was very enjoyable! Wednesday was the home inspection at the old house, and Tim got a long list of nit picky items that will need to be addressed. He played golf Wednesday though, and had fun 🙂 Wednesday, I made red beans and rice for supper, which was good.

Thursday, I finally got my rear in gear and got out the door to go walk for first time in the new subdivision. I will have to work on a route, and learn the distances. Later that morning, we met with the landscape guy at new house, as I had a lot of questions about the plants (what are they, how to care for them, how to prune them, when to prune them, etc, especially the roses they planted out front), and Tim had questions about the irrigation system. Tim spent a big portion of the rest of the day on the phone with items from the old house inspection. After work, he headed to Lowes and then the old house to work on items on the old list that we weren’t going to get an electrician or roofer to handle. He got home really late, after dark and was exhausted. He had eggs, sausage, grits and homemade biscuits to look forward to, so that helped a wee bit 🙂

Friday, I got up and went again on a walk, and found a new route! I mapped out some streets that gave me about 3.2 miles, which is about what I like to walk. After I got home and had breakfast, I was talking to Tim and saw a white blob fall out of the sky and land on our driveway… A weather balloon landed on the house!! Tim climbed up on the roof to get the deflated orange portion down, and we put the recorder box in a prepaid mailing envelope attached to it, to mail it back to NOAA. It was pretty cool! Tim spent more phone time, working on items for old house (termite inspection, electrician and roofer), and then after work, we both went to the old house to finish things up (last cleaning, Tim fixed the washer spigot, cut grass, loaded up the mower and weed eater, etc). After that, we came back home (to the new house, can’t call it that much longer!) to meet Gail and Don and then go eat a late supper with them and Elizabeth at Majestic Burger. Don and Gail spend the night, so were our first houseguests at the new house!

Saturday, Gail and Don left early for a soccer game for Katelyn and I asked to tag along (Tim stayed here to work in the garage). Katelyn did really well and scored two goals! After the game, Gail and I dropped Don off at Lake Caroline to play golf with Tim, and then we went shopping. I got a few new things for the house (sponge holders, cast iron griddle, drawer organizers, new rug for front door, two fall wreaths). Poor Gail got to drag around with me from store to store, looking for doo-dads that I wanted. And this was just the tip of the iceberg, there’s still SOOO much more we need, especially shower rods. No one can come stay and take a shower in the guest bath, since I don’t have a rod and curtain or a shower door yet! After shopping, we met the guys for a very LATE lunch at Jason’s Deli (3:30 PM, I was beyond hungry, and fairly irritable!). Don and Tim stopped by the old house to spray a wasp nest, then they went to get the treadmill from the storage unit. Don and Gail headed home, and I know they were exhausted, because Tim and I both were!

Sunday was church and Sunday school. Then, we stopped on the way home at GermanFest (in Gluckstadt) for brats, sauerkrat and shish-ke-bob. We used to go every year when my dad was alive, but had not been in the last couple of years. The sign said 28th annual, and I didn’t realize it had been going on that long! We got enough for us for lunch, and us plus Liz for supper. We had a late lunch, and watched some of the Packers/Bears game after church, then we went walking down the street to look at new houses. We stopped to talk to the neighbors two doors down, the first family that moved in on the street, but we had met everyone but them 🙂 We visited a long time, maybe a couple of hours! Then, we came home to meet Liz and watch the Saints/Cowboys game on Sunday night football (my poor Saints, they can’t win this year, boo hoo)

Monday, we were up early to let Liz use our shower, then get ready to go to the closing. We closed on the old house today, and have now ended that chapter of our lives. I miss the old house, it was the house my parents helped me get when I was still single, that I had when I met Tim, that he came to live in with me when we got married, and where we had lived all of our married life until a couple of weeks ago. A lot of memories there, but it’s time to put that in a box on a shelf and move on to the next chapter. We have a beautiful new home, and as of closing, we now own only ONE home! After the closing, Tim came home and went back to work and I went on another large grocery run. We went after work to get the last load of stuff from the storage unit, so we could close it out by the end of the month. It will be nice to not have to pay for that every month now! Our garage and dining room are our storage units now, LOL! I fixed chicken fried rice and egg rolls for supper, yummy. I’ve been craving Chinese food for quite a while now, can’t wait to go soon.

And, that ends this portion of my boring daily life and my modified online diary! Poor blog, you are pretty neglected except for these daily snippet posts 🙁

To make a long story short, we closed as scheduled (pretty much!) on Wednesday and got moved in over the weekend.

Tim and I had planned to start moving in stuff ourselves on Wednesday night, but after we closed at the attorney’s office and drove to the new house, we found it was still very dirty. I was SO disappointed! They finally got it cleaned Thursday afternoon, so we started moving small things and our electronics on Thursday evening. Friday, we moved our bed, a few essentials and the food. We spent the first night in our new house on Friday, then got up really early Saturday morning. Tim decided at the last minute to rent a truck (which pleased me no end!), and we had to go get it. That turned into another long story, as in, he gets to the place and they are like, sorry, we have no truck for you. Argh. I had to go back and get him and drive half way across town to a different rental place, but all’s well that ends well. We got a Penske truck, got it to the house, where a lot of folks were sitting around and waiting. All of Tim’s family got there early (Terry, Emi, Brittany, David, and Tony, and then Mark and Ethan, Gail and Don, Suzanne and Elizabeth came later). We got the furniture and boxes loaded around lunchtime, then headed to the new house. They all started unloading while I went to go get pizza, chips, fruit and drinks. They unloaded most of the big truck before the guys would stop and eat, they were dedicated movers, I tell you! We were so grateful for everyone who came to help and how smoothly it went. I only have one piece of furniture scratched badly (that we were eventually going to replace anyway), and so far, nothing breakable has been broken, so that is nice to have such a great move 🙂

Tim and I had a long day Saturday. After everyone left late afternoon, we headed to Home Depot to get a dryer cord and back to the old house to visit our dear neighbors and try to clean up the garage. Also, we realized when we got there that we had left a few things out back, so we loaded those up. By the time we got home and unloaded and moved stuff around in the new garage, it was nearly 10:30. I caved and ate a yogurt, even thought I detest eating that late 🙂

Sunday, we decided to sleep in and missed church. We were both so exhausted and I was extremely sore. I hit a new one day total on Saturday on my Fitbit tracker, over 33,000 steps! I cooked our first meal in the new house Sunday morning – scrambled eggs, grits and toast! Tim forced me to dive in and use our new gas cooktop for the first time, and needing to cook forced me to unpack some of my cookware! LOL! Let the unpacking begin! There are boxes everywhere, and we still have the entire storage unit to move here, but we are so happy and having so much fun, that we don’t even care! 😀

Sunday at lunch, we went *back* to Home Depot for a different dryer plug, and Tim got the washer and dryer going late Sunday afternoon. I did one load of laundry and was happy that the laundry room did not flood 🙂 After Home Depot, we ran by the grocery store for milk, juice and some lettuce. After all the fast food, I’m really craving a salad or something healthy, LOL! After that, we watched the Saints lose another heartbreaker (they are 0-2 now, with both losses coming in either the last 6 seconds or OT and being lost by a field goal). Then, we did some hunting, sorting, unpacking and trying to find a home for things here. That’s going to be the hardest part for me, figuring out where to put stuff!

Monday (today) was another busy day for me. I got up early and headed to the old house to clean. I spent about 3 1/2 hours cleaning, and my sister Suzanne came over and helped me a ton by cleaning the fridge and breaking down a bunch of boxes we had leftover, and getting them to the curb to recycle. She followed me back to the new house after we finished, for some leftover pizza and helped me line kitchen shelves at the new place. I did not buy NEARLY enough shelf liner. I’ll have to head back to Walmart on Tuesday for a boatload more, like 12 or 14 more rolls! There are a lot of cabinets and drawers in this new house, hahaha!

Tim is at the old house now (Monday after work), to take down a couple of items, and fix some holes in the wall and paint. He may be late getting in, but I hope not. He went back to work today and had a busy day, conference calls, and more scheduled for Tuesday. I think he wants to take more vacation and get things done at the new house 🙂

Maybe one day I’ll get industrious and take some photos, but for now, just text updates. I’m glad he got our server back online, so I can post to the ole blog!

Last week’s milestones include getting a closing date from the builder, signing loan papers at the bank and meeting with a realtor to list our current house on the market. Provided nothing goes wrong, we are set to close on Wednesday, September 10. So, a little less than 3 1/2 weeks, or as I tell Tim daily, 23 days and counting. I started out with months, then weeks and am now counting down the days! LOL!

Let’s see, for my memory and to record all that is going on, here’s another long boring recap of last week.

Monday and Tuesday, I don’t remember a whole lot, so I must have just cleaned house, done laundry, etc. I might have packed a box or two, but I still have a lot left to go.

Wednesday, we had a busy day. Tim talked to the builder, got a closing date, talked to the bank and got the paperwork cycle going. I called a realtor and setup an appointment for her to come by the house on Thursday. Tim had to work again Wednesday night, starting at 11 PM. I certainly hope his work eases up some in the next few weeks! Thursday morning, we had an appointment at the bank with the mortgage lady to sign the loan papers. Then I ran to Kroger and did the grocery shopping for the week, then came back and straightened up the house before the realtor came at 1:30. We spent time with her and she pointed out almost every picture on my walls (not just family or people photos, but pictures of flowers and beach scenes that I thought I would leave up so it looked like a home and not an empty shell!), and had me take them down. Boy, my house is very sterile now! Late Thursday evening, we loaded up another load for the storage unit and took that. We also went by the house and were happy to see that they had started on the flooring. They haven’t done the staining/polyurethane, but had the floors nailed in. Friday was another busy day. Tim worked a half day. We met Don and Gail at Newk’s for lunch, then the guys went to play golf and Gail and I ran errands. We went to Target, Home Goods and Walmart, and also got a chance to go see Elizabeth’s room at school, which I had not seen. I like picturing where people are, where they spend the bulk of their time! We all went to supper, us, Don and Gail, Elizabeth and Suzanne. We let the guys pick, so of course they picked Dickey’s BBQ. After supper, we went back to the house to show them the flooring and everything that had been done, Don and Gail had not seen the house since it was in the stud phase, waiting on insulation! We got to meet one set of new neighbors, they were moving in that day (8/15) across the street. The husband’s name is Tim, so that will be easy to remember! And they have two kids who seemed like really good kids, so we are looking forward to getting to know them 🙂

It was really late when we left the house, so we talked Don and Gail into spending the night. They left mid morning Saturday, and we got busy cleaning out the rest of the office. Tim started late afternoon painting the office, the hardest room and the one we saved for last! I packed all the pictures and knick knacks the realtor made me take down and did some other odd jobs. I still have to Mr Clean Magic Erase all the kitchen cabinets this week, Tim is doing his BEST to get out of painting those, LOL! And I agree, because I don’t want to empty them this early. We still have some eating to do in this house 🙂

Suzanne came over Saturday afternoon late and trimmed bushes for us, then stayed and had a shower and ate supper with us. Sunday was church and our second visit to the Life Group/Sunday School. We enjoyed both! Current sermon series, “All In” and our pastor is in Luke 9. Our life group is doing 1 Peter 5. Last week was verses 12-19 and this week verses 6-8, which includes one of my favorites “Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you”. After Sunday School (we do them in reverse, church first then Sunday School), we met Suzanne for lunch at Cazadores. I had the grilled tilapia, Tim had a molcajete and Suzie tried the spinach enchiladas. I *might* have eaten too many chips and salsa before food came out!

After a long lunch, we went home, changed, got measurements for blinds and headed out to run errands. Tim had an invite from Kevin to play golf, but he was tired and begged off (HIGHLY unusual). We went to Sherwin Williams and got more khaki paint for the office, to Lowes to get a blind for the kitchen window and have them custom cut a huge blind for the guest room windows (70 inches). We ran up to the new house, but apparently they didn’t work Saturday, since we didn’t notice anything from our last visit Friday night. After that, we came home and Tim had a good nap, since he had to work Sunday night starting at 11 PM.

Now, it’s Monday morning and we’re at 23 days and counting. The glass people are due this afternoon to change out the front windows and also one of the breakfast room windows that we ordered. I’m hoping for rain later, as there’s a good chance today, a slight chance tomorrow and then no rain in the forecast for a week. It’s going to get HOT after this rain moves through, they are predicting 99 and 100 for this weekend. Yikes. Our unseasonably cool summer is coming to a screeching halt about the time we need to get ready and move!

Maybe one day I will do a blog post that is not diary like, just me being able to keep up with what is all going on. I know it’s going fast and a blur and want to get most of it down. I imagine it will be like that for the first few weeks in the new house too, but maybe one day things will get back to “normal” on my blog, whatever normal looks like! 🙂

Have a great day, if anyone actually read this!!