Move, Part II

Finally ready to pack up Rich’s house in Westminster.  But it was also Snowpocalypse 2009 (not to be confused with Snowpocalypse 2010 where Rich was snowed in all alone with about 5-6 feet of snow and no food…)

The wind was so fierce you can see it blowing the snow off the evergreens in this picture.

The intention was to pack up on Friday and leave Saturday morning.

 

Which did not happen.  It started to snow Friday night and by the time we woke up on Saturday it was a winter wonderland.  There was no way to get the truck out of the driveway with that much snow, so we had to wait until Sunday to see if we could make our escape.

Sunday morning was clear and beautiful.

 

And Lana got right to work clearing the front walkway looking very fashionable.

 

Truck was packed and ready to go…

But the biggest challenge was still getting the truck out of the driveway, which

 

is

 

pretty

long.

But Rich finally got the truck out and then did some creative maneuvering with the cars and the cats.  Here you can barely see the car at the end of the driveway.

A few miles from the house we saw a bunch of college students having a good time on a huge snow-covered hill.

 

And, after hitting the Safeway, we were officially on our way.

 

There was some beautiful scenery…

 

I especially like all the little towns on the back roads on the East Cost.  We went through a few on the 2-hour trip to get to the highway.

 

Hello, fuzzy West Virginia. 

The short drive through West Virginia was probably the most harrowing because the roads were pure snow.  They hadn’t plowed these particular roads at all so it was a little dicey.

I got lazy with the pictures after this (I know you’re sad about that). 

We headed into Tennessee and spent the night in Knoxville.  Trevor and I have some friends that had moved to Knoxville a few months previous, so we were lucky enough to stop by their house for a really quick visit the next morning before starting off again.  We made it through Tennessee, Arkansas and the eastern part of Texas before arriving late that night (about 1:00-ish if I remember). 

It was a long drive, but at least Trevor and I got to ride in the Subaru with Motley (the cat), who is sooo laid back – she just chilled in the back seat the whole way.  Rich & Lana had to ride in the Penske with Jay and Bob who were freaking out and needed to be drugged to calm them down.  Good times!

Rich has to make this trip one more time when his house sells.  He left some of his furniture in the house so it was staged for showings.  Speaking of, anyone looking for a house on 28 acres in western Maryland?  (LOL at the ostrich eggs pic – WTF?)

Rich & Lana move to Texas

In December, Trevor and I flew out to Maryland to help Rich & Lana pack up and move to the great state of Texas!  We had to cover 3 different locations on 3 different days.  First, we had to pack up some of my grandparent's stuff that was in their house in Baltimore.  My grandfather bought their house in 1953 and they lived there until last October when they moved in with my mom & dad down in Dallas.  So we went by their house (which my aunt & uncle now live in) to get their bedroom furniture, clothing and some other personal stuff.  So, Day 1...Baltimore:

Injury on Day 1.

Location number 1 complete!

Next onto Rich & Lana's apartment in Harrisburg, PA.

Boxes…

Paintings…

Pizza.

Lana's brother Max and his girlfriend Shannon were a huge help.

And they are so cute.

Rich is trying to be cute, too.

Finally empty!

Time to celebrate!

Next stop: Westminster, MD.

School Christmas Program

Told you I was catching up!

Every year Noah’s school has a Christmas program for each class – from little babies all the way up through Kindergarten and the after-school program.  Although this was Noah’s 3rd program, it was the first time he actually participated.  In previous years he would practice his songs at school so diligently and then stand up on the stage and look around like WTF and OMG.  Not this year!

His class on stage…

SINGING!  He knew the words and everything!

Hand motions…

and even playing the air flute!

At the end of the night they try to get ALL of the kids up on stage together.  That goes as well as you would expect.

My mother tried to get video, but she wasn’t paying attention and was pushing the stop button every time she wanted to record, and the record button when she wanted to stop.  So we have some good video of the floor and assorted audience members.  I won’t post it here, as much as I know you want to see it.

Nonagenarian

Not a word I use often, but appropriate since this blog is about my grandparents, who are now both in their 90s!  Pretty amazing.  We gathered at my parents house in late November and again in early December (yes, I’m trying to catch up) to celebrate with dinner and cake. 

Singing Happy Birthday to Mee-Maw

Noah is trying to get her to blow out the candles, but unfortunately, she has no clue what’s going on (damn Alzheimer’s)…

So he finally elects to do it himself.  She’s okay with that. 

Mmmm…cake.

Poppie’s birthday was next

He loves coconut…and so do I, so this cake was sooo yummy

I think he’s now the official candle extinguisher

 Happy 90th Birthday to Anne Wallace

Happy 93rd Birthday to Roy Wallace

Conversations with Noah

Noah (looking at something on the bathroom counter): Mommy, what's that?
Me: It's a tampon.
Noah: What does it do?
Me: It's a girl thing.
Noah: But what is it for?
Me: I'll tell you when you're older.
Noah: Oh....like when I'm 4?

---

Me: Who are your friends in class?
Noah: Umm...Austin. And Mackenzie!
Me: Mackenzie is a cutie.
Noah: Yeah, she's GORGEOUS!

My Sickness

If you know me at all, you know I really like to be organized. Some (*cough* Trevor *cough*) might call me anal. Or Monica.

But the fact is that I really, really, really like things to be clean and organized. I can't help it. I make the bed every morning, I clean up every night and I want to curl up in the fetal position if there are too many toys on the floor.

So you might call The Container Store my mother ship. I could spend HOURS wandering every aisle. The possibilities for organization are ENDLESS and they come in all sorts of colors and shapes and materials!

Needless to say, when Rich & Lana bought me a gift card to my favorite store, it was gone in less than a week. (And I've been known to save gift cards for YEARS.)

Today's project was the bathroom cabinets.

Before

That white shelf only covered the front half of the cabinet (due to the ass load of plumbing back there) so there were things just thrown behind it.

After

The purple bin holds all of our extra soap, toothpaste, razors, etc. (right up front where Trevor can find it). The rest of the crap is all mine.

Before

Trevor's cabinet. We started out putting medicine in that plastic shoebox, but that quickly spilled over the side and just kept growing. He had crap thrown behind those bins, too.

After

Oops, it's 2010.

And I forgot to update my blog at all in December. I do have some pictures to post, which I will probably get to sometime in March (okay, seriously shooting for this weekend).

Now you're expecting me to write that in 2010 I resolve to update my blog more often, right? I would, but who are we fooling? Although I must say that the primary reason I don't update more often is simply because that it's a pain in the ass to download pictures off the camera. Coupled with the fact that I'm lazy, and you can see why December 2009 is a gaping blog-hole.

So maybe I need to update more often WITHOUT pictures! Which would be a viable option if I had any writing skills whatsoever. Which I don't. I read some blogs and I'm so envious of their use of words and imagery and I think 'I could NEVER write like that!'. But then I think of the other 99% of blogs I read and realize that those people have writing skillz similar to mine. And yet I read.

Oh, and speaking of the internets, this morning I was driving to work in the left lane with a group of other like-minded speeders. And you know how when you join a new message board people say that you should just kind of lay low for a while - kind of lurk around until you're familiar with the style and flow of the board? So this jerk in a minivan (of course) enters the Tollway and immediately crosses 3 lanes of traffic and deposits himself RIGHT in the middle of our little caravan. Just like that! Totally messing up our carefully coordinated flow. And I immediately thought 'I'll bet that guy doesn't even lurk before he posts!' And then I thought 'I can't believe I just thought that.' Maybe I need to cut back on the internets for a bit.