To garage sale or not to garage sale

Busy, Busy day. Trent was in Dallas overnight (yes, on Valentine's day:(). I got up this morning and got Julianne to school and then came home. I was determined to get some packing done. The problem I ran into is that each closet is already so full of boxes that it is hard to know where to start packing. So, I cleared out the piano room downstairs and started moving all the packed boxes down there. It was a lot of up and down the stairs! Currently the room is about half full. It makes a huge difference. I can actually see some starting points. Meanwhile the kids were busy playing and playing. As I was carrying stuff downstairs, I came across this big pot of mine and thought I would boil the 2 frozen chickens in the freezer at the same time, rather than transfer them to the new house. So I started that and after about 3 hours I turned it off and let it cool. When I went to debone them, they were not fully cooked, so I had to turn it on again. During this time, Deann called and wanted to see if I wanted to do a garage sale. I really have pared down lately and did not think I had a lot of stuff, but I agreed to do one with her hoping that that would motivate me to go through things quicker. At 2:30, my neighbor came over because she had a showing at her house. That was nice, because then I could go get Julianne without loading up all the kids. Andrea and I were chatting and I mentioned that Deann and I were doing a gargage sale. She wanted to see all the things Deann was selling but didn't have a car to go over. She called Deann to set up a time and Deann said she needed to return some movies to me anyway and so she came over and picked up Andrea. We also swapped kids for playing. When I went to pick up Julianne and take Andrea home, Andrea had bought everything Deann was selling! So no garage sale. In many ways I am relieved. Andrea was then locked out of her house and so she came over and we all had dinner and got the kids bathed and ready for bed. Madelyn did not have a nap so she fell asleep early and so did Adam. Julianne and Catherine were really good and read on their beds. All in all it was a good day. The kids were great!

Still haven't packed much

Today Julianne had the day off from school so we went to check out her new school. It was very impressive. She liked it quite a bit (or at least she pretended too!). They had cool murals of aquariums all over. Then we went to see some friends who used to live next door and then moved away and now we are moving quite a bit closer to them. It is still not as good as next door, but closer is better. The kids played well. I did lots of things, but no packing. Maybe tomorrow. 15 days to closing.

Shorthand

I have baked 200 cookies and made the frosting to top it for a primary activity.

Madelyn said -- "I hate the gym" today. It was really funny. She has not been much of a talker and then suddenly she is stating her opinion.

Catherine played with disney paper dolls for several hours today and watched Cinderella III for the fourth or fifth time.

Julianne -- is almost finished reading her first real book all by herself. Junie B Jones and the mushy gushy valentine. My favorite part about listening to her read are the words she comes up with in place of the real one. She always gets the first and last letter correct but all the ones in the middle are up for grabs! For example today she substituted bathroom for bottom -- but then again I remember seeing that when reading it really is only the first and last letter we notice and mostly match the middle part with words we know will work and make sense in context . . . so that is exactly what she is doing.

Adam -- likes his tummy now for playing. He wants it all . . . in his mouth.

Trent is working long hours and is stressed. Our home is almost finished. We close in 18 days. Moving, Busy season, recruiting, deadlines . . . it is taking a toll on him.

I am resolving to start packing more.

Going to try to use like a journal

I really want to use this more like a journal -- keeping track of all sorts of things like movies and books and other interesting info. . . So here goes.

Today, I went to the gym. I attended the 8:30 cardio class. Some days I tolerate the class, other days I enjoy it. Today the routine was quite boring. . . Then I took the Odyssey into get the hatch roof light checked and the coolant. My mom picked me up and we went to the Incredible Pizza Company. Today is their 1 year anniversary and so the buffet was free and everyone there got a 10 dollar gift card to the arcade/game area. They have go-Karts, bowling, putt putt, a kiddie area and more. I had not been there and was actually quite impressed. Trent and I had tried to take the kids there a while ago on a Saturday. It was packed and we never went in. The whole area outside was filled with rough looking teenagers just loitering around. We even commented that it seemed like a not very famliy friendly place. Several weeks later, I noticed they took out a full page ad in the paper where they announced new rules to maintain the family atmosphere. Everyone would now have to purchase food to enter and they had to adhere to a dress code. Apparently it worked! It was filled with families today and I am sure we will be back. Catherine really liked the bowling. It was with little balls that she could do. She even got a strike! Madelyn was funny, she wanted to ride on all the rides, but as soon as they started moving she was done.

After eating pizza and playing, we went and checked out a consignment furniture store at Richmond and Chimney Rock. They had all sorts of interesting pieces -- some I liked, some I laughed at. Then I called my friend, Christy Richards. She had brought a scrapbook to Enrichment last night that she was donating for auction at her daughter's school. It was incredible. . . a lot of the pages were sewn together with decorative stitches. I was amazed. She did it on her embroidery machine. I called my mom and told her all about it. My mom wanted to see it. So we went to Christy's home and looked at it. I think I am gonna have to try it out! She also told us about a cool die cut machine thing called a cricut. I have not seen it before, but it cuts out letters and things for you. It retails for 299 dollars, but she said she has seen it at hobby lobby for 200. Maybe my Mom will buy it! She also told me about club scrap. It is pretty cool too. It is a monthly mailout to you with all the supplies you could imagine along a theme. Each month is different.

We picked up the car and raced to get Julianne from school. She had a blue day! Yeah! We came home and our friends met us at the park in our neighborhood. It was a nice day! We had fun helping the girls learn to jumprope. After the disney movie Jump in, everyone wants to double dutch. We practiced turning and me, Deann, Jennifer and Andrea all attempted to jump into double dutch. We all failed. The girls stuck to single rope. Maybe next time.

We came home and while making dinner watched Cinderella III. The girls had watched it with Trent the night before, but I had not seen. It was quite good! Trent is working furiously trying to get things in place so he can take some time off for our move. I got an email from our super today saying that the carpet would be in tomorrow. Things are really progressing and we are so excited! Well, Adam was the first asleep and although it is only 9:18 p.m. is already awake. I better go help him out. Maybe I'll get to read tonight -- my current book is The Prize winner of Defiance Ohio. It is good.