are moving

    A big aspect of this year has been looking for a house.  It has consumed so much of our time and energy and been such an up and down adventure that I forgot that not everyone has been a part of it. That has lead to some surprise from people I love and care about. Although, they should all be glad to have not been a part of the journey that was fraught with tears, hope, disappointment, fights and just so.
much.
fun. 

But finally, FINALLY, I will share with everyone:
     

WE ARE BUILDING A HOUSE!!!

     We are moving because our current house is getting too small.  Jarrad has a job that allows him to work from home.  That is great - he can literally work from home in the middle of the house.  Which is not always the best thing when kids are home for the summer and Daddy needs to get on a conference call- so we want an office for him.  We found that we also needed another toilet - when you have SCI, you basically get a whole bathroom to yourself every other evening and no one else can use it.  We would  like for folks to be able to visit more and that means we need a place for them to stay.  And we wanted someplace that would be easier for both of us as we got older. 
     Is it perfect?  No.  We can't afford perfection.  But we can tweak it as we go.  This is going to be our house, God willing, for the rest of our lives. 
     We are very excited.  We are counting down the days (84) until we close on our new house.  We are praying and crossing our fingers and toes that the current house will sell and for asking price too.
     Come on, wouldn't you want to buy our current house?  You just can't have it till December!

 

 

Current House

New House

  

I don't want to move!

    I spent the past 2 weeks going through stuff under the house.  To my shame, I just bought plastic totes and threw stuff - like smaller plastic totes - into them and shoved the bigger totes under the house.  Cleaning that stuff out left we with 25 (!) empty plastic totes.  They are in the back yard.  Now, all that is under the house is Christmas and fall decorations which I will not get out until we move.  Not sure if I will have the energy to put up a tree but I kind of don't have a choice.
     Everything I pulled out, I asked myself, do I want to move this?  For most of it, it was no.  It is was still very hard to get rid of.  I have a friend who just started teaching art and she took a lot of the fabric and yarn and scrapbook paper.   And the many, many smaller containers that were in the bigger containers!  I am glad that they helped her and it helped me to not feel so bad about getting rid of all the stuff.
      Today, the same friend and her teenagers come over and went in the attics.  Yep.  2 attics.  They are not too big, but boy were they crammed with STUFF!  Boxes of books and memories.  They spent the afternoon going through some of it with us. It was fun to read how in my first years of teaching, I wrote that I was insane and should have gotten a job in a morgue as that would have been so much easier.  Found some old high school photos and looked at Jarrad's high school photos - so cute!
     While we got rid of half the books and a bunch of other things, there is still a lot left.  The idea of moving it and finding a place for it in my clean, empty house is overwhelming.
    I just want to wave my magic wand and make it all disappear.