Settling In...

We've been busy the past few days making arrangements for things, finding furniture, finding appliances and getting the boys enrolled in school. We've had some down time, but we find ourselves needing to entertain the boys shortly after we think it's time to relax.

To help entertain them we brought our Monopoly Here & Now game with us. We are able to set it up on the island and we can usually play for 15 minutes or so. Tommy could play for hours and we feel horrible every time we want to take a break. While checking out the Wal-Mart near our house Tom spotted the Pictureka! game on a shelf. The boys had seen a commercial for this before we moved and we said that we would consider purchasing it after we arrived in CA. That is exactly what we did. We broke it open (and Tommy literally broke the top to the box by jumping on the couch lol) last night and played a couple of rounds. It's a good game for kids their age. What's especially nice about it is if you have a few younger players who aren't able to read (or understand the mission cards) you can just do the blue cards where everyone can play every turn. The first person to 6 cards wins! Of course you can adjust the number of cards to win if needed. The hardest part was keeping the dice away from Alex and keep him from messing with the game tiles. lol

Our stuff arrives tomorrow though! I am so excited and can't wait to see if this place feels more like home than the last. Our gas dryer arrives on Friday and I'm stoked. lmao It's silly I know, but after going to the laundry mat we spotted on our excursion to Target the other day I cherish having the convience of having a washer and dryer at my own home.

I need to get dinner started though, so I'm off for the night. I've got some pictures from the trip and the house loaded up. I'll link up or post tomorrow...hopefully.

We have arrived!

Wanted to update fast. Here's a bit I posted on the family blog yesterday.

I am aiming to update with day-by-day action here soon.

On the move..

Don't have time to re-write a whole post at the moment. I'm so tired I could have been sleeping 2 hours ago.

Find out how things are going here.

Digi-Dare #104

I was finally able to do a layout for the digi-dares. You can find this weeks challenge here.

Getting down to the last details of the move. Of course, as luck would have it, I have a horrible runny nose and have been sneezing up a storm. I'm not sure whether it's allergies or a cold, either way I'm miserable.

Last Sunday in VA

So, it's our last weekend in VA. I had wanted to be able to go out and do something fun, but in the end our procrastination got the best of us and we spent alot of time sorting, organizing and cleaning. The house is by no means ready, but alot of it will have to be done after the house is packed up. It's weird to know that by this time next week we'll be on the road but everything we own is still sitting out like we'll be here in a month.

We have some errands to do tomorrow and hopefully we won't have to run out for anything else. Tomorrow we are also going to take down all the curtains upstairs. I need to finish up (or rather keep up with) the laundry. Alex has a bag all packed up. Tom has his dress clothes and Alpha's ready to go, I have my dress clothes packed. After we run out tomorrow I think I'm going to be able to pack up most of my bag.

Ah, nonsense to all of you I'm sure. It's all just randomness that is running through my mind right now. I did get a layout done today, will try to get the preview saved tomorrow and get it posted. It's the first one I've done in about 2 weeks. Tom and I have been organizing our music and making up playlists for the car ride. We asked the boys if they wanted to go to Graceland and they said they didn't know who Elvis was! So we went on a YouTube search for Elvis clips and finding songs in iTunes.

Well, it's about time I remove my butt from the couch and finish cleaning off my bed so that I can drag my tired butt in there later.

Less than one week

That's right, less than ONE week until we move. As I look around my house I see nothing but chaos. The older boys are getting impatient that we keep putting off doing things with them because there's still just so much left to do. Tomorrow we have promised time after lunch to sit and play a board game or cards with them.

The window on the truck broke again, so Tom spent an hour or so fixing it. The boys helped me clear out the 3 rooms in the basement. Most of the stuff that was in there is still in the main area of the basement, but some of it made its way upstairs. We have to figure out how much stuff we are going to be able to fit in Tom's car so we can fine tune our list of things we are bringing with us. Now it's just down to the little details, cleaning, organizing (what we can without fear of the packers destroying our progress) and throwing away/donating what we don't need.

There was a going-away party for Tom today at Chili's. We walked in and I thought it was just 3-4 tables...I was wrong. There were guys at every table up and down one whole side of the restaurant. Our table had a big bunch of balloons wrapped around a special present from Mark, a handle of Southern Comfort. They also gave him a plaque with an alligator head on it, all the guys signed the back. It was neat to read some of the things that were written to him. I hope that Tom will work with some of these guys again, others can stay here. lol

Ok, it's late and if I'm going to get up and moving in the morning I should head to bed.

If it's not one thing, it's a broken truck window...

So, the title should tell it all. To make a semi-long story short, we just saved ourselves $489 today. Our rear, passenger window stopped working yesterday on our way back from the store. We spent a couple hours outside trying to see what the problem was, in the end we figured it needed to be looked at by professionals.

This morning Tom dropped off the truck & AA came back to him with a quote of $575 plus $40 for the diagnostic fee. It was a bit much, but we figured it needed to be done and that was fine. I sent my brother, Kyle, a message letting him know what was going on. He wrote back telling us we were being screwed. Thanks. lol So, he suggested calling around for prices on the parts. So we did and found that we could get the motor for $135 from the Ford dealership when AA was charging us $210 or more. Then we called 4 or 5 salvage yards and one of them had the parts we were looking for and it would only cost us $125.

So we jumped into the truck to buy it. After we got there Tom saw that they also offered a military discount. So, we got almost the parts we needed, including a door handle and a 6x9 speaker for $111. Tom was going to take the truck to work tomorrow because we don't have a star screwdriver. So we took care of sorting through some clothes and closets and made some phone calls. Tom called Eric to offer him some clothes and he said he would come by to pick them up. He came by and brought his star screwdriver set and offered to help Tom try to get the motor in the door.

Almost 4 hours later and it's done! It's fixed and after a little WD-40, opening and closing just fine. What's odd is that the cable inside was all chewed up, so I wonder how it got that way, did something shift in the motor? Anyway, it doesn't matter much as it's fixed now and will hopefully stay that way.

Also, someone from the moving (or packing company) called tonight to schedule a walk-through tomorrow at 10am. So it looks like our pack up and move out days are good. We sold our elliptical on Saturday, now we need to get rid of the entertainment armoire in the boys room, 2 gamecubes, a box full of VHS tapes, and the infant seat and stroller combo. It's a start and before we know it, we'll probably end up having to just set the stuff at the curb or drop it off to Goodwill.

{Jackpot!}

Funny how a little bit of shopping can make me feel a bit better. lol I probably shouldn't have, but I took advantage of Shabby Pickle's $1 day today. Kits, alphas, elements, 4 pages worth of goodies for $1 each. I limited myself there to just a couple dollars. Then The Lily-Pad put out their BYOC for the month of October. There are so many new things, so I went a bit overboard there. I figure I'll even out for the month when I don't have consistent internet access for a couple of weeks. lol

Now, if only I could get motivated to get the rest of my lengthy to-do list completed. It's 2 weeks from today and our house will all be packed into boxes and onto a moving truck. 2 weeks from today the boys will say good-bye to their teachers and classmates. I'm having a hard time figuring out what I need to pack ourselves and bring in the car. I'm really trying to limit it to a few things for entertainment for the kids, our pictures and scrapbooks, and of course, some clothes. Then I remember the teapot of my great-grandmother's, the crystal glasses from my other great-grandmother, and various other sentimental items that can't be replaced. I think we'll be ok to let the movers pack the crystal and the teapot, but I think I might try to get it in the car if there's room. Like it's going to be that necessary to have those when we move and are without everything else, at least we'll have a pretty teapot and some crystal glasses! lmao

Almost dinner time so I should get something started. I'm hoping to get the desktop cleaned up and backed up this weekend. Then I can stash away the external hard drives. Any little thing to keep it moving, right?

Happy October!

So, it's October 1st already. Why does it seem that there is still so much left to do before we move? More than likely that nagging, suspicious fear of things left undone is because there is still more than enough left to do. Almost enough to say that it would be fair to assume that I shouldn't be spending any time sitting in front of the computer today until it's completed.

Funny how I'm still here..... :)

I did make a hotel reservation for Oct 17th. Tom also picked up the 2 new DS games for the trip to CA. I began our shopping list of things we need for the drive and something new seems to crop up every 5 minutes or so.

Another problem I'm having is the ever-growing list/pile of items I feel necessary to bring with us. I am so paranoid that the movers will damage or lose something that I want to bring everything that means something. Right after this anxiety attack I put things in perspective and remember that us all being together is much more important than anything I think necessary to cram into the truck with us. Ah, but don't mistake my sudden wake up call for letting go of control of it all...There are definite dealbreakers. While I would love to bring all of our framed photos I know that is just not possibe, neither is bringing all of our shot glasses. Funny, funny, I know. I remember how upset we both were when Tom's gold-leaf shot glass from New Orleans fell from it's shelf and shattered just after Hurricane Katrina. He was down there during Mardi Gras in 2002 and had a great time. I wish I could say that the memories will live forever, but for my dear husband, it's hit or miss. He probably couldn't tell you when he went or for how long if anyone asked him. He'll remember almost missing curfew and being stuck in the bathroom because he was puking. lol

Off to waste time searching for new songs for our road trip...Maybe a new song for my myspace, check on our Amazon order. Yeah, I know I should be placing online orders so close to the move...but hubby needed a new bluetooth headeset and Amazon was a lot cheaper than Best Buy and we get free 2-day shipping. Then I ordered a new wireless remote for my camera and 2 4gb memory cards. The price shocked me because I hadn't intended on purchasing new memory cards, but they have a $45 mail-in rebate. Check it out at Adorama...they have a deal on 8gb CF cards and one on a SD card also.

Ok, ok....I'm outta here --