BUSY BUSY DAYS...

Well, I have had a very busy and very productive few days. On Thursday, after a visit to my regular doc’s and a successful and eventless ear flushing, I went down to Newport Beach and had my wonderful niece do my hair. Whatever would this gal do without that girl I can’t be sure, but I imagine I would not have the wonderfully colored hair that I do, or be quite as “current” as I am, haha…Seriously though, Jessie is wonderfully talented and I soo enjoy my time with her. She is like a good dose of Mel, as they are so much alike. When I got home that evening, my youngest son James had arrived to help my hubby load up the truck with all the furniture that I am both giving and exchanging with Mel. When Mel was a sophomore in college we bought her a BEAUTIFUL queen sized bedroom set with the idea that she could take it with her when she married and she would have at least a start on some nice furniture. At the same time we bought ourselves a HUGE Cal-King bedroom set which was really the first time in our married life we had ever done so. Well, the master bedroom in this house is GIGANTIC…It has really been nice. But now that we are moving, that bedroom set is WAY TOO BIG to fit into our new room nicely. Soo, Mel & I decided to trade. She has the room for the giant furniture, and I soo loved her set; it just seemed like the logical thing to do. Plus I had bookcases and book collections, and my gorgeous, wonderful (sure to be sorely missed) vanity. It matches the bedroom set perfectly (like they were made to go together ~ but they really weren’t). I just got it a few years ago and have enjoyed it like I can’t begin to tell you. But try as I did, there is just no where to fit in to the new house. Sooo, off to Mel’s it went. For some reason, I do like the idea that if I can’t enjoy it, she can. We also loaded up the futon that was in the grandkids room, and her treadmill that she had left behind. It ended up being a fully loaded truck of things. Friday morning my hubby and son headed off for New Mexico. Now Mel lives near Hobb’s (which is only 40 miles from the Texas border), so it is a good long way from here. A good 15 to 16 hours. They drove straight through. Jeff & I have made the trip several times, but we ALWAYS stop for a night, making it 2 very manageable days. After they had left on Friday morning, my sisters Diane & Danae arrived and we set off for a day of shopping. Danae is also getting ready to move, so she was looking for a lot of similar items that I was. Several hours later, we had managed to find us both new rugs. We are tiling our new family room and I needed a nice sized area rug for the room. I think we may have hit every store in our area that carries rugs, but we did manage to find BEAUTIFUL ones. I am very excited about mine. I also found a buffet for my everyday eating area. I needed a “certain” look, and a “certain” price range, haha, so this wasn’t easy, but I am very pleased with what I found. And finally, I found some bar stools for the counter bar that is also in the everyday eating area. Both the buffet and the bar stools match my everyday eating table REALLY well, and I am anxious to see it altogether. We also had dinner out, and went and saw the movie Letters to Juliet. We all enjoyed it soo much. They came back over here and spent the night with me, and we spent the entire next day packing. How grateful I am for their help can’t ever be expressed enough. We got soo much done, though there is still quite a bit to go. Packing up 24 years of life is NOT an easy thing to do, both in actuality and emotionally. I found my mind MANY times wondering back to so many memories and times in my life. It is a strange sight and feel to see all the boxes piling up waiting to arrive at our new home. I am mainly very excited to experience this new season in our life, but I have never let go of old ones easily so my emotions are all over the place. On Sunday, we all headed out to Huntington Beach to go to church with my mom and stepdad where they were re-newing their wedding vows to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. How darling they were as they stood on the alter holding hands and promising to continue to love one another forever. I am sure my sister Diane will post about this and share her pictures. I don’t take pictures anymore when she is there to record the event, as hers are ALWAYS soo good, and soo much better than mine. Jeff & Jimmy arrived home Sunday night tired, but happy that the trip was a complete success. Jim got to see Mike & Mel’s house for the first time, and Jeff told me of all the wonderful improvements that have done to their place since we were last there. Thank you soo much Jimmy for going with dad and not only helping out, but giving up your long week-end to do so. And I am just as grateful to Larissa who soo willing shared her hubby with us. I know that made your week-end LONG and harder. I am soo happy you got to go to Big Bear though with your parents and had not only something fun to do, but someone to help look after the kids. Yesterday, Jeff & I headed out and found and bought all new appliances for the new house. We got wonderful sales and we both were very pleased with what we managed to find. This pretty much completed what I felt like I needed to have handled before the surgery on Friday. Escrow is SUPPOSE to close Wed night (though you know how that goes, haha) and we should get the keys and be in Thursday morning. My brother who is doing most of the work for us will meet us there and hopefully it can all get started. It will be weird for me not being able to run over and see the progression etc., but I will have to give myself time to recover. There is still soo much that needs to be done, but I am doing my best not to stress on it. This week I intend to spend some time with my grandkids, and mentally and emotionally prepare myself for surgery as best I can. Melody arrives on Thursday, and how I am looking forward to seeing her and having her here for me I again can’t properly express. I am soo grateful for my God and my family who are helping me cope with all that is on my plate right now. My emotions on the surgery are all over the place as I imagine you can imagine. I will write more about this later as this is already way to long, haha…But I did want to let you know how much is getting done, HOW WONDERFUL my family is, and how GRATEFUL I am for all the prayer support. Hope you ALL are doing well, and have a wonderful week.