The Last 2 Weeks In June

We finally made it thanks to these guys!

Such a professional and pleasant group of guys. They had us packed up at mom's in two hours and into my house by 12:30. Mom said in all her moves (even overseas) she had never seen them take such great care of her furniture. They wrapped pretty much every piece in blankets and plastic wrap. I highly recommend them if you're in the Dallas area.

My house looks like a furniture outlet store but with a little rearranging each day gets a little better. Here are a couple of pictures inside at it's worst.

The garage is not too bad. We actually have a path to the back of it.

These last two weeks have been so busy for us with all the packing and the heat was relentless. It seemed that every day brought us something unexpected to deal with. We had to have the ground lowered on one side of the house because it was over the foundation. After they repaired that and put in new sod we found out the sprinkler system had sprung a leak. The gardener was able to fix that after digging about 3 feet into the ground through a lot of tree roots.

Cleaning off a shelf in the garage I picked up a gallon jug of drain cleaner which was so old it cracked in half and went all over the floor. I tried paper towels but it was too big of a spill so I decided to hose it out. Well the floor of the garage slants in toward the house so the water just kept coming back in. Sweeping it out wouldn't work either. I called Tom to bring the blower out and we were finally able to get it out. What a fiasco that was.

On Saturday while cleaning the house after the move we found out one of the faucets to the washing machine was broken and could not be turned off. It had to be capped and we were able to have a plumber come fix it 3 hours before we closed on the house.

These are just a few of the highlights. I will not go into detail about the fools we dealt with at the title company or my daughter having another car wreck (she's fine). I even polled the firemen to see if they were married. I told them I had a beautiful daughter who needed a husband with good car insurance.

The worst is over, the heat is gone temporarily, we have learned from this 1st move enormously and if you're looking for mom she's with me.

We are all quite happy about that!

The First Two Weeks In June

These last two weeks have been a blur. So to clarify it for myself I decided to break it down day by day. On the:

1. Monday - Worked, went to mom's to continue purging and packing for the coming garage sale. Found her having chest pain, called 911, admitted her to the hospital, she had a heart attack late that night.



2. Tuesday - At the hospital, mom on nitro drip for pain. She had stent surgery and found out the stent put in last February was 95% blocked. They replaced it and gave her lots of morphine to keep her still. (Mom likes to move). Forgot it was Rosie's (my orange tabby) birthday and she didn't get my annual "Happy Birthday" song. She turned 19!



3. Wednesday - At the hospital, quiet day both of us dozing most of the day. I swear they pump sleepy gas into those rooms. Oh well it's a way to slow down and you can only read so many magazines.



4. Thursday - Busy morning with Dr's visits. They performed an echocardiogram in her room and I got to watch. It's amazing to see your mother's heart pumping on the screen. Kind of like the reverse of a fetal sonogram. I have not told anyone this but I swear it looked like hands were cupping her heart as it beat. With the reports good, she was sent home. Now I had time to really get to work on her house.



5. Friday - Purging, packing, grocery shopping, pricing items.



6. Saturday - Back to my home, Jackson's graduation, celebration dinner, pricing, sleep!



7. Sunday - Laundry, throwing out left over pizza boxes (my men don't cook). Checked on the new home and then to mom's to pick up heavy items for coming garage sale.



8. Monday - Work, late meeting, pricing.



9. Tuesday - Work, mom's, I'm stressing about where in the world the clean out valve is needed for the plumbing test after the foundation repair on her house. It's another $400 if one needs to be put in. Buyer's appraiser goes to mom's. That goes well. She makes her first outing since her heart event on her own to the grocery store and buys good stuff like cookies. I get there as she is unloading her car. Still can't find the clean out valve. Haul more stuff home and pricing.



10. Wednesday - Early to mom's to meet foundation people. It's an interesting procedure. They drilled 45 feet into the ground for the piers and lifted the house and "voila" the cracks went back together. I gave the workers all the tools and garage stuff their wheel barrows could hold and the monster TV in the living room. They couldn't find the clean out either. The engineer comes to inspect the repair and gets another check. He gets a lot of money for using a fancy tape measure. The used furniture guy comes and only wants two pieces we are selling and not the really heavy dining table and chairs we want him to take. Load up more stuff and go home.



11. Thursday - Wait for a break in the rain to go to the rental center for tables. Have to zig zag because of police barricades because of flash flooding and kids being rescued from the water. Come home and set up in the garage for the sale. Back to the rental center for two more tables. Continue set up. Meet plumbing company at mom's for the great "clean out" search. Very nice older man determined to find it. Ta da, after about an hour his keen eye and using his special clean out finder tool, he found it between the thick boxwood about a foot in the ground. I was impressed. The plumbing test was done, we passed with no leaks from the foundation repair and no charge. Whew! Home to haul our furniture we are selling into the living room for tomorrow.



12. Friday - Up early for the sale of the century. We drag Jackson out of bed to help pull everything outside for the sale. The sale goes pretty well the first day. We got rid of the furniture and I do mean that, we practically gave it away. Selling lots of thick hardbacks for $1. Nobody wants them. Close up at 2 and head for a much needed cold shower. I did get an interested buyer for mom's table and chairs. We meet them at her house and watch them load it. A very nice family and I'm sure they thought we were really stupid for selling it as low as they offered, $75.00. We were just happy to see it go. That sucker is made out of the hardest wood I've ever seen. It weighs a ton!



13. Saturday - Last day for the sale and hottest day of the year. The temp was about 95 and the humidity had to be close to 60%. The heat index was 105. Even with two fans running in the garage we were melting. I couldn't even give the books away. We made close to $200 that day and I closed up at 12 feeling like a heat stroke was near. What's left goes to charity. The "Last Garage Sale Ever" is over!

Our "new resting house" as I like to call it, is coming along. We now have shingles, windows, doors, and wiring.

We are getting close.

Oh Happy Day!

Yesterday was a big day! A very special guy graduated from High School.

The ceremony was at the Special Events Center in Garland which is about 10 minutes from our house. A very impressive arena which seats over 7,000. The sound system is excellent and view from all areas is really good. They have a large screen over the stage so you can see the speakers and students up close. It was a great ceremony and only lasted one hour even with almost 500 graduates.

We celebrated with dinner at the country club in Oakridge.

My nephew Chris and his beautiful wife Carrie came to the graduation and picked up a very special lady to join us for dinner.

A little wobbly after her heart attack on Monday and stent surgery on Tuesday, she still wanted to be a part of this special day! My mother is amazing. I love these guys so very much.

Congratulations "Big Guy". We are so proud of you!

I've Been Framed

We signed the contract on our house in March. Unfortunately the weather has not been cooperative. We had so many days of rain that they have not been able to poor the foundation. On Wednesday we drove out to the lot and "Halaloya" (Hallelujah) as my friend from Jordan says, the foundation had been poured. They called Thursday with a weekly report and said we may have a framed and roofed house by this weekend. Anxious to see their progress we drove by yesterday.

Sorry for the cell phone pic. My camera took a trip to New York City with a certain little college graduate. The lower floor had been framed and they were putting up the first wall for Jackson's room on the second floor. If I weren't so busy purging and packing, I'd love to sit there and watch them all day!

Memorial Day 2009

This Memorial Day has a very special meaning to me. It is the first Memorial Day without my father and it has painfully pressed on a very tender place in my heart. It is very difficult to explain how I truly feel to you, especially when I am having such a difficult time trying to compose myself long enough to write this. I just know that I feel very lucky and extremely proud that he was my father. I feel so fortunate that I was part of a military life and the pride it instilled in me for my country. Yes, the Star Spangled Banner makes me cry. My family was blessed because he was able to spend 32 years serving his country and he retired and lived to be 86 years old. So many of our soldiers do not. This day is about them.

My Uncle Warren sent me a CD with a powerpoint slide show of my dad's graveside ceremony. I wanted to post it here but have not been able to condense the file. Here are a few pictures from it.

Handing my mother the flag.

Mom and I went to the cemetery this morning. There were flags everywhere. It was quite a sight to see. This was the first time I had seen the marker since it was put down.

I have many military pictures of him. I like this one. I wish it was a little clearer. It's how I like to remember him. You can tell he is teasing the person taking the picture. He teased everyone! His smile, his stance, the white hair and tan. A soldier.

That's my dad!

Graduation Day

Yesterday was a very special day!

Despite the rain "all day" the sun was shinning in Pioneer Hall for Molly's graduation. The smiles were even brighter!The ceremony was very nice. They had 4 different graduation ceremonies this weekend with a little over 300 students at each one, so it only lasted about an hour and a half. Molly's friend Katelyn drove up from Austin to be with her.

We celebrated at "Outback" with mom, Chris and Carrie. I was using Chris's camera and not mine when I took pictures of mom and the kids, thus mom is not in the picture.

The many years of classes, studying, and homework are finally behind you. We've watched your determined spirit bring you to this day. We are so very proud of you Molly!

There is a good reason they call these ceremonies "commencement exercises." Graduation is not the end; it's the beginning.

Orrin Hatch

Blankees or Whatever Works

My favorite time to blog is early mornings when everyone else is still asleep. Unfortunately I have become more of a reader instead of a writer. It's hard to be creative when you have a zillion other things on your mind. One of the things that has kept me so occupied is going through drawers, closets, shelves, etc., in my house. I tackled a big linen closet the other day and after pulling out a dozen old comforters and blankets, I came across Jackson's 2 blankets (I'll explain that in a minute) that I had put away years ago. My discovery along with Kelly's quest for Harper to find a special soothy, inspired me to write about blankets also known as softies, blankees, or bankies in my house. Both my children used theirs forever!

Molly's was more like a sheet. You have to look closely to see it because it resembles her PJ's. It is tucked underneath her chin in this picture.

Because it was cloth it became thin and tore easily after many washings. I painstakingly sewed each rip back together trying to keep it in one piece. Yes I still have it.

Jackson's was a soft white one. He was much more attached to his than Molly was to hers. It went everywhere he went. You can see in this picture that it's already about worn out.

Heading to Arkansas for a family visit I realized about an hour down the road that we had left Jackson's blanket at home. When we stopped for breakfast we broke the news to him. I will never forget the look on his face or his response. He looked at us like we were aliens from outer space and his nervous laugh was all we needed to know he was thinking "you had better be kidding me". I told him not to worry. There is a Walmart across the street and we are going to go buy you "Travel Blankee". It actually worked, but the minute we got home he grabbed his old one and travel blankee was never used again. Thus the 2 blankets in the closet.

Molly gave hers up when she was about 6 and Jackson's eventually disintegrated into a couple of balls of fuzzy yarn.

They were a comfort to us all while they lasted.