Very productive

On Saturday night, with a little prompting from the McHusband, I finally unpacked my books and arranged them on my bookshelf. (I know, you're jealous of our exciting Saturday night.) I couldn't just unpack them and stick them up there all willy nilly. I had to alphabetize them by author. Luckily, I read a lot of the same authors so it wasn't too difficult to organize them even though it may have appeared otherwise.

After raking, I finished putting my books away. Each shelf has two rows deep of books and I still ran out of room. I'm going to have to look on craigslist for another bookshelf cuz you know I'm not going to stop reading.

Snow!

I can't believe it - we had snow TWICE last week. I don't know if I remember it ever snowing, even just flurries, before Thanksgiving. I'm hoping this is indicative of the kind of winter we're going to have, and I can count on spending a couple of snow days at home.




























And for all of you out there who say, "That's not snow, I've seen dandruff thicker than that!" remember that I live in North Carolina so if it sticks, even just for a few minutes, it's snow and it's newsworthy.

"That's a lot of leaves!"

So the McHusband and I were good homeowners this weekend and we raked leaves. We raked and raked and raked. And then, just for fun, we raked a little more. I don't have any pictures of the yard before, but I'm sure at this time of year it's not too hard for you to imagine what a backyard with lots of trees probably looks like.


Anyway, we got the leaves into piles and then moved them to a tarp, which we then dragged to the back of our lot outside where the fence will go to dump the leaves. By the time we were done, the pile of leaves was at least 5' deep and was almost as tall as us.




























As we said after each dump, "That's a lot of leaves!"

But it was worth it to see green grass again and to know that getting the leaves up would help us have green grass in the future.














Morgan and Tucker sunned on the deck while we prepared the backyard for their fence.




























"Are you guys done playing around out there?"















































"Wow, that's a lot of leaves!"

Chase

I have some new pictures of Chase to share. I can't wait to see him (and Kevin and Jenny, of course) next week at Thanksgiving. Jenny and Chase were in Charlotte last week and the McMom made sure to take lots of pictures. Here's one from Chase's "changing table" a.k.a. the washing machine. It was taken during the spin cycle, obviously his favorite.

And here he is looking so grown up in his Bumbo seat.



















Kevin and Chase doing the Clemson fan thing:

Judging by the look on Chase's face, it appears he's not exactly a fan of the outfit.

We have seating!

Our couch and loveseat were delivered Saturday morning. I have to give another shout-out to Hart Furniture. The delivery was scheduled for 9:15 and they actually showed up about 10 minutes early. The two deliverymen were very nice and very capable. They got the loveseat in without any problems, but the couch was a different story.

Remember, there are recliners on each end of both pieces so those suckers are heavy. Because the side of our staircase is just a few feet inside the front door, the deliverymen had to get creative and use a lot of muscle.

Tori the Supervisor would like to demonstrate just how close the stairs and front door are to each other.



















After Tori directed the guys through the door, they put the pieces roughly where I wanted them, and then I played with the furniture until I had things set up pretty much how I think they'll end up.




















The view from the kitchen - unpacked box, unfinished island and all. I'm not sure what to do about that floor lamp. I really like the lamp, but I'm just not sure if it's gonna stay in the den. An open floorplan is great and all, but losing the wall space that we had in the other house is making it difficult to find homes for my stuff.



















And, finally, the view from my spot on the left side of the loveseat. That's my spot because it has the most direct line of sight to the TV.

Yes, I know I have a problem. TV is my drug of choice and I have no plans to conquer my addiction so please don't bother with an intervention.
















Unlike with the lizards, we're saying, "Ya'll come on over, ya hear?" cuz now we've got a place for everyone to sit. And I might even share my TV with you, but only if I get to hold the remote.

New toy

The McHusband got a new toy - a gas-powered hedge trimmer. Between the bushes-on-steroids in front of the house and the clearing that needs to be done for our fence, it was a good investment. I took a few pictures of the McHusband while he was "hard at work" trimming the bushes during the last little bit of daylight on Sunday.

"I love my new toy." Guns the gas. "Hmmm, I think I'll just take a little off the top..."

"Nah" - guns the gas - "I think I'll take A LOT off the top!" (I think he was power tool-happy at this point. And even though I was inside taking these pictures through the window, I'm pretty sure I heard one of those maniacal laughs like you hear from the villains on TV. Maybe the McHubby loves his toy a little too much.)

And even though I had my own mess to take care of inside, I went out and helped clean up the mess he made. But of course there aren't any pictures of that because we women don't need recognition for all the work we do.

Actually, I just forgot to bring the camera outside.

The Big Move (the extended version)

Okay, the McHusband found the camera cord for me last night so I finally have pictures from our moving experience last weekend. Better late than never, right?

First, though, did I forget to mention that our new house actually came with a swimming pool? It's not an ideal size for us, but it works for some.

That's our cats' water bowls for anyone not familiar with our pet paraphernalia. Paco (he's less scary if he has a name) was still alive and was very grateful that I showed up when I did. I took him outside to the McHusband who got him out of the "pool" and put him on a tree. The thing is, that's not the first lizard we've come across. Paco's brother and sister, Roberto and Maria, have also visited. As with Paco, we sent them packing with a "Don't hurry up and come back, ya hear?"

Okay, back to moving day. The McHusband very deftly and strategically maneuvered the 24' Uhaul so that it was sideways in our driveway.



















However, that put the inside of the truck on too much of a sideways slant so he ended up moving the truck up to the road, but that's not nearly as interesting so I didn't take a picture.

You know you're working hard when your knees are sweating. Sorry, ladies, he's all mine. :)



















After we fed the first shift of our moving crew, they bailed on us before we made them go back for a second load. Smart people... Anyway, we had to call in reinforcements and, well, they just didn't work out that great.





















Tucker supervised: "Get the hose and don't forget the dog food."

















"Hey, you, what do you think this is, a road construction job in NC? No standing around! Get the dog food."


















"Okay, maybe this is like road construction. I'm just gonna take a little nap while I wait for them to load the dog food."

















See, I told you those second shift workers weren't that great.

We've moved!

Sorry, no pictures today. I took some, but we don't have the internet at home yet so I can't post them. Oh well, something for you to look forward to.

The move went relatively smoothly. The moving crew (our friends Chelle, Jeremy, Terry, and Vickie) showed up around 10:00 Saturday morning, and we had pretty much all the furniture minus one table and the chairs in the new house by 1:15. The McHusband and I went back to the old house to get some more stuff and we actually filled the 24' Uhaul up a second time, mostly because the McHusband's garage is like Mary Poppins' carpet bag where stuff just keeps coming out. I swear, we'd filled up half the truck with garage stuff and the garage didn't look any different.

The cable man was supposed to call us when he was on his way to our "between 3 and 5 appointment" Saturday afternoon, but we never heard from him. The McHusband called the cable company just before 5:00 and found out that the cable guy called the HOUSE number instead of one of the cell numbers he'd give them. ARGH! So now the cable guy's coming out on Tuesday between 5 and 7. I realize that we don't have a lot of time to be watching TV right now, but what was really hard was not having the internet. I really don't know how people live without the internet.

Yesterday was our chance to do lots of unpacking and pretend like we were organizing stuff when we were really just spreading the mess out. Nah, actually we made a lot of headway. We still have a long ways to go, but so far it's not too bad.

At least, that's what I'm telling myself...

TGIF!!!

A Friday funny for you, courtesy of my friend Sara who forwarded the email to me. The subject line read, "Always check your child's homework."

This mother works at Home Depot - she sells shovels. What, that's not what you thought the picture was about?

Today's our last day in our first house. I was walking the dogs last night and as we came back from the park, I got a little emotional thinking it was probably my next-to-last walk there with them. I'm ready to move on, but we have a lot (time, money, creativity, sweat) invested in our first house, and I'm going to miss it.

The good, the bad, and the super cute

First, the good: We're getting our new couch and loveseat MUCH earlier than expected. The McHusband got a call from the local company we ordered the furniture through and they said that the stuff should be in their warehouse tomorrow, which means it should get delivered by this time next week. We ordered it Monday and were told it'd be at least 4 weeks. I have to support a local business that totally rocks so if you're in the Raleigh or Charlotte area, see if Hart Furniture can help you.

Now, the bad: Our garage door is broken again. Seriously, why couldn't it have waited just one more month before having problems? Then the new owners could put that Home Warranty we're buying them to good use. When it was broken the first time, it was one of the springs; now, it seems to be the motor or stripped gears or something. Luckily, there's a commercial door company that had the gears in stock so the McHusband picked those up today and he'll hopefully get the thing up and running tonight. You know, cuz it's not like we have anything else to do less than 48 hours before The Big Move.

And finally, the super cute: Bri sent this picture to my email from her phone this morning with "Good morning, Aunt Steph!" as the message. What a great way to start my day at work.














My mom sent me a picture that Shannon sent to her email from her phone (I'm telling you, technology these days is uh-MAY-zing) so here's a new picture of Owen, too.

Liek Fadda...Liek Son

I saw this picture today and had to post it. It's from http://www.icanhascheezburger.com/ and I thought it was very timely considering the picture of Calvin and Owen that I added below. What is it about sleeping babies and animals that's so darn cute? I think I know a puppy-owner's or new mom's answer to that: sleeping = quiet.

Li'l Stinker

This picture was taken with a cell phone. It's kinda hard to tell, but Lyla was a skunk for Halloween. Cutest skunk you ever saw, right?

Lyla and Owen

My mom sent me some new pictures of Lyla and Owen. Check out the head of hair on this kid:

Good thing Owen's not crawling since Calvin was sleeping on the job.

And here's Lyla in her Bumbo seat helping Gma (pronounced like it looks - G-ma) wash bottles. I'm thinking Lyla must not have been working too hard because she looks like she was having lots of fun.

A productive weekend

Well, I hope everyone had a good Halloween with more treats than tricks. We didn't have nearly as many trick-or-treaters Friday night as I was expecting, but we still had a solid hour of ding-dongs (the sound of our doorbell, not the pastry or costume or...get your minds out of the gutter!).

On Saturday, we took a load of stuff to the new house, got some Jersey Mike's for lunch, then headed back to the old-house-we-have-yet-to-move-out-of where I bathed both dogs and planted some pansies in planters for the new house. That evening, the McHusband and I went to Home Comfort in Cary and found the couch and loveseat we want but aren't getting:





















Yesterday, we saw our old neighbors' new house then took another load of stuff to our new house, then we headed out to Capital Boulevard to check out more furniture stores. We decided on our second-favorite couch and loveseat:











The reason we decided to go with our second-favorite choice is that we could get a really good deal, one that we would've been stupid to pass up especially because we have so many plans for the house and plans, as we all know, cost money.

Unfortunately, we'll have to wait a minimum of four weeks for the new furniture, but it'll probably be closer to Christmas before they get delivered. I guess I know what Santa'll have on his sled for us this year.