Moving sucks

For the past week, my husband and I have been moving. Again. In just a year’s time. You would think we enjoy the process. You would be wrong.

I know there are those out there that see the beauty in not having too long to collect “stuff” that you just store in your homes for 30 years or more. This is actually a great way to pare down on those not so used items. Or perhaps there might be some out there that love the adventure of cleaning a different house for a change. Let me share with you some of the FUN things I got to clean up before I could move my possessions in.

 

Ok, so this wouldn’t stop you from using it, but it is pretty gross.  How about the top? Is it any better?

Nope. And that’s not just dust. I was lucky enough that it was also greasy.

This is what I got off the fridge top after wiping it down for the 3rd time.

It’s just the top of the fridge. What’s the big deal? Those kinds of things are easy to overlook. I’m sure the cabinets are clean.

Oops, looks like someone forgot something. Either that, or it was left on purpose since the cabinet had to be pried open and I’m sure they were super tired from all the cleaning they had already done. HAHAHA! I crack myself up.

I wish you all could have touched the sticky, greasy cabinet fronts. It’s the kind of experience that kids getting ready to go out into the world on their own for the first time should have. Then they would understand why mamma tells them that they need to wipe down the cabinets when they clean the kitchen. Just because you don’t necessarily SEE the dirt doesn’t mean it’s not there.

Moving on. Lets go upstairs and see if there is anything interesting to take care of….

 

HEY, this is cool! Not every day you find candle wax melted into your bedroom carpet.  Time is wasting. Lets unpack the bathroom boxes and store our things.

YIKES! I’m not putting my things in there! Looks like I need to work a little harder.

There…that’s better. Hey, shouldn’t we be finished moving by now?

Uh oh, here comes the rain! It NEVER rains in Arizona! Guess we will put the move on hold and just relax for a bit.

WHOA! All that rain and strong winds ended up knocking the neighbor’s tree down. Right into our backyard. I wonder what else we have to look forward to? Fiery hail? Plague of frogs? 

The next time you hear me talking about moving, just smack me in the forehead.

Susan Boyle - Wild Horses

If I didn't know this was a Rolling Stones song, I would never have believed someone telling me it was. Simply AMAZING.

He likes it! Hey Elvis

As Jacob was showing me a Family Guy movie clip on his iPod touch, he noticed our cat enjoying a gross cookie and grabbed the camera.

(this is our loft coffee table, so please pretend that you don’t notice the mess)

I’d brought the cookie upstairs to get a picture of him for my Project 365 (see post #362) and then I handed him to Jacob, who put him on the table.

I am beginning to wonder if it wasn’t really a cookie for cats. It was pretty gross, but Elvis licked this guy for couple of minutes.

 

Glad that at least one member of this household was able to enjoy the little guy.

A Christmas memory

One Christmas memory of mine is the year my mom and dad went out and bought a REAL tree. We’d never had a real tree in my lifetime before then. I remember being so excited and how I couldn’t wait for them to get home with our first real tree.
Our house had a big picture window looking out to the front and when they got home, my dad stopped in front of the window to display our new tree. My heart sank. Imagine, if you will, Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree. I wondered how they could have bought such an ugly tree. I remember the biggest smile on my mom’s face. Oh how that woman loved to play tricks on people. (Something she’d learned growing up)
It turned out that the tree was beautiful on the other side and that only about a third of it was a Charlie Brown tree. They must have gotten a great bargain, and my mom, being the incredibly smart woman that she was, realized that we would just put that tree in a corner and that back side would never be seen. When it was decorated, I felt like there had never been a tree a beautiful as ours.

(this is just a photo I grabbed from google images…and we never had a fireplace, either.)
Of course this is a great memory. But one thing makes it even better. Our cats. You can imagine that a tree with not many branches on one side and the other side all decked out in ornaments might not be so balanced. Add the weight of one curious cat and you have a recipe for a very funny story. Yup, that tree went down with the cat. Broke some ornaments and spilled the water out of the tree stand. I can only wish there had been home videos back in those days and that one had been pointed at that tree.

Thanksgiving and other stuff

Today I am testing out Windows Live Writer for my blog post today. If updating my blog and inserting photos this way is easier, then I’m all for it.

We spent the morning with all the kids. Jason made bacon and eggs and I made French toast. Once we were finished, we sent our kiddos off to their other parent’s homes to eat their Thanksgiving feast. No, the boys aren’t standing on a platform, and the girls aren’t standing in a hole.

Since Jason and I were alone, we went to share my sister Suzee’s turkey and fixins. We had a good time (even though Jason spent the better part of it setting up the Jones family wireless printer).

As you can tell from these pictures, the guys all stayed in the office while the women folk set up for the meal.

See how lovely Suzee’s turkey is? It was delicious, too.

Beverly was also alone with no kids, so she carpooled with me and Jason to the other side of the world. I don’t think Suzee and I could live any further apart and still be in the Greater Phoenix Area.

 

Thank you Jones family for including us in your Thanksgiving feast. We’d love to get together with you more often.

We are armed....Finally

Today, Jason and I went to Caswells Shooting Range. We've been looking at hand guns for a while now and today we "pulled the trigger".  Lucky for me that today is Friday, because it was ladies day. My lane fee, gun rental, ear and eye protection were FREE. We just had to pay for the ammo.

Before today I had never shot a hand gun. I was actually shaking when I stepped up to take my first few shots. I got to try out a 22 the firsts time. It was small and probably wouldn't do enough damage to really be used for protection. Next I tried out the 9mm. I loved it. Check out that Bad Guy target! Not too shabby for a first timer! I was shooting from 25 feet. Next time I'll try for a longer distance.

Here's the Springfield XD 9mm. Ain't it a beauty? I hope it won't be too long until we can get out and do some target practice out in the desert.

As you can tell, I am one happy mama. Just tell the bad guys not to bother coming over to our place....unless they feel lucky!

Fun with the internet

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

BlackBerry saves my Project 365

I have been taking a picture every day (well, almost every day) for this whole year. I'll admit that there have been a few occasions where I've had to go back and find a photo to make up for missing a day.

As this year winds down, I find that getting a picture taken each day gets easier instead of harder. This is because I have been taking more pictures with my BlackBerry. I've always got it with me. I have a wonderful camera that Jason bought me for my birthday, but I don't have room for it in my purse. Most of the photos from around my house are taken with my Canon PowerShot G10. But I have been using the BlackBerry's camera more and more while I'm out, or at home if there isn't time to run and grab my good camera.

There are only 62 more days left this year that I need to document with my daily photos. I'm almost amazed that I've followed through on Project 365 since it really is a huge commitment. I'm always somewhat behind on getting the photos posted to my other blog where I journal about each photo, but usually no more than 2 weeks. Now if I could just get caught up with the scrapbook side of it!

Scrapping again

The University of Montana Grizzlies were in Flagstaff again this year. They play the NAU Lumberjacks in Arizona every other year. Of course Jason and I went up early for the tailgating party. I ended up scrapping some of my photos from our day. (click the photo to see it larger)

I used a template by Simply Yin. It was part of the Digi Files 8 over at The Daily Digi. Except for the tiny tabs (by Katie Pertiet) everthing else in the layout is from Dani Mogstad's kit Softly Falling which is also part of the Digi Files 8.

Elvis

This cat could be fatter, but not much.