My wisdom for today.

My aunt once told me that babies were a trick that God plays on us...
because they are so cute and we want them so much...
but then they turn into kids, teenagers and young adults!

Some days I truly feel tricked.
And I feel the pain and heartache that kids bring into our lives.

Other days its all good.
And I feel the love and fun that kids bring into our lives.

You raise them thinking
"these are the hard days"
"when they grow up it will all be worth it"

And then they grow up
and still cause you heartache
and stress
and worry

but now

You have very little influence.

And you can tell they think you don't know what you are talking about
or that what you are saying is irrelevant to them.

So whether we have little kids
or youngish kids
pre-teens
teens
young adults

We just have to...

Enjoy them.

Every stage has its trials.

We have to find a way to enjoy.

Finished in the nick of time...

About 5 minutes ago

I finally finished refinishing the cedar chest I got when we moved in here.

Sadly, I never took any "before" pictures.

I hate it when I forget to do that!

But you will have to trust me...

It was in pretty rough shape.

It was really dirty

Missing a leg

the finish was cracking and old

the copper pieces were black

_____

When we were looking at this place to rent it, 

the garage and house still had a few things that needed to be removed

This beauty was in the garage in a corner, covered with bugs and cobwebs.

I told the realtor that if the owner didn't want it

I would take it.

She told me a few days later that it belonged to the owner's mother

and they wanted to keep it.

No problem.

But later when the owners came to clean out their stuff

she asked me if I still wanted it.

She said that none of her siblings wanted it and she didn't have space for it.

I was pretty excited.

_____

I seem to be drawn to furniture that has a lot of character

which is to say

that upon closer inspection

this piece of furniture was probably made by grandpa.

It was not made by a skilled furniture maker.

Things are pieced together in interesting ways.

There are obvious signs of the thing being "handmade"

and all of the copper pieces have been hand cut from a sheet of copper.

Interesting.

But that is part of what I love about it.

It's quirky and different.

It sat in the same sad condition for probably a year.

Frank was not impressed with my project.

Once winter ended this year I realized I needed to get going on this project.

So I started.

But I'm pretty slow.

Then we decided to move...

I knew I had to put it in gear and finish!

As I was working

Frank would wonder aloud if this was a good time for another project.

He had a point.

But I could not move this thing unfinished!

I will have enough to do once I arrive...I don't need this hanging over my head.

I carefully removed all of the copper pieces

I sanded it down to the bare wood

(with much help from my awesome friend Annavon)

re-stained it

cleaned all the copper pieces

Ordered new decorative tacks

(3 times...kept getting it wrong...but that's another story)

found the missing leg!

And put it all back together.

I know I came in just under the wire

since we are moving in only a couple of weeks.

The lighting in my basement is uneven

so you'll just have to believe me when I say the coloring is even...

In these pictures one side looks lighter.

I hope I did justice to grandpa's handiwork.

It's going to look good in my new family room.

An excuse to buy stuff

Since I am about to do a big cross country drive

I decided that was a good excuse to buy some stuff.

I haven't bought anything at all in quite awhile

because nothing makes you hate your stuff more than moving!

and I do not want more stuff.

However

Driving across country is a big venture

and I decided I "needed" a couple of things for my car.

I got:

a cute hanging trash bag from Etsy

(hasn't arrived yet but here's a picture from Etsy)

A magnetic holder for my iPhone

since that's what I'll be using as my GPS, I figured it would be nice to have it up and easily visible

I already like it a lot!

And a charger/plug for the car that fits into my cup holder

My car has a plethora of cup holders so I love to find things that tuck away into a cup holder.

Handy but not in my way!

Here you can see it in place.

So perfect.

It has several USB slots and one regular plug.

That way Carter can watch movies on my laptop or iPad while we drive.

I got so excited a few months ago when I found the tissues that fit into the cup holder.

I still love them.

I have given up gum, so I now have a cup holder available for some new gadget.

I wonder what it will be?

Sixteen

Carter turned 16 at the beginning of June.

He got his permit two days later.

And he now drives almost everywhere in my little blue car.

Not even embarrassed of my girly car.

When I asked him if he felt older, he said "no"

What the heck?

Wrong answer.

Sixteen is a big one.

He had a surprise party with friends.

And then kind of a quiet actual birthday with me.

(Dad was out of town)

I told him the story of my 16th birthday

when my brothers and Dad asked us to wait for a commercial to blow out the candles.

They were watching football.

And how we didn't have candles so my sister

took the huge candelabra and shoved it into the center of my cake.

Good times.

Not really.

Middle child.

I have all kinds of issues.

Anyway...back to Carter...

This last Sunday, when his Dad was finally in town

He was ordained to be a Priest at church.

He's a good kid.

A little snarky at times but mostly agreeable.

Helpful.

Kinda lazy...but he comes by it naturally (ahem. me.)

Super duper close to getting his Eagle Scout.

And I will kill him if he doesn't.

Loves The Office and Psych.

He's also so darn cute

(but, really, all my boys are exceedingly handsome)

My picture taken isn't so great.

But you get the idea.

I've become a lazy, phone user when it comes to pictures.

Sixteen!

And the car is gone!

Today Frank's car was picked up for shipment across the country.

We had to meet the truck out on the road since our little development 

has a "no trucks" sign.

It was cool to watch our car get loaded onto the big truck.

As it was getting loaded, a family walked by

they told their kids "look they are taking the cars away"

and I, wanting to be friendly to the passers-by

said, "yep, they are taking our car"

The parents got these looks on their faces...

and said (in their saddest voices)

"Oh I'm so sorry"
"I'm really sorry"
"sad"
and kept on saying these things as they walked past...until I couldn't hear them anymore.

And that's when I realized that they thought our car was being repossessed.

Oh my gosh.

So funny!

Bye Bye Car!

I'm so glad we still own you.

See you in Utah!

Putting my feet up and other goings on

I'm sitting in a chair with my feet up.

Relaxing.

I mean, I deserve it...I packed two whole boxes today.

Here is the view from where I sit.

My house has become a complete pile of rubbish.

Boxes, mail, stuff that needs to be packed, bags of stuff to give away, tape, scissors, packing paper...

its just everywhere!

I can't take it.

I keep rearranging and vacuuming around it.

But we've just reached that point where there's no way to pretend its a normal living situation.

_____

My good friend Bro. Danjou came over today and fixed the drawers on my buffet.

There was a twisted piece of wood that just warped over time and couldn't really be fixed properly.

It caused the drawers to stick and it looked weird too.

Since Bro. Danjou is an amazing woodworker, he fixed it right up and now my drawers work

and it looks a lot better too!

It's good to have skilled friends.

_____

Frank's tomato plants are looking mighty fine!

Too bad he's moving and will never eat a tomato from these fine plants.

Our neighbors will enjoy them though.

_____

Do you know what I dread packing and moving?

My ginormous mirror.

It weighs a ton.

It's breakable.

I spent waaaay too many hours of my life making it so I am attached to it.

But, seriously, UGH

_____

I took Carter driving on the freeway for the first time today.

It's amazing how stressful that is.

He did really great but I felt like I needed a nap afterwards!

(Now you know the real reason I am putting my feet up)

_____

Frank's car is getting shipped to Utah tomorrow.

So until we leave, we'll be a one car family.

Wish us luck!

Or maybe I should just say wish ME luck...

I'm used to having my freedom and I have a feeling I'm gonna be stuck at home a lot.

_____

The End

Packing with Debbie

Here is what it is like to pack up a house when you are me.

Carefully wrap and pack all of the A/V components.

Tape the crap out of the box.

Realize a few minutes later that you left out the remote controls.

Open box

Insert remote controls.

Tape the crap out of the box.

Be proud.

Show hubby your awesome packing job.

Lay down for a rest.

Realize suddenly that you forgot to remove the cable card from the Tivo box.

Even though the very last thing you thought before loading that particular box was

"I sure am glad the Verizon guy reminded me to remove the cable card.  I would have totally forgotten that."

Decide that since the Tivo was the first thing you loaded it makes sense to turn the box upside down to open it up.

Do that.

Pull out:

computer

cables

mouse

keyboard

DVD player

and realize

The Tivo was not the first thing you loaded into the box

IT WAS THE LAST

So, you have just completely unloaded the dang box because you opened the bottom!

Unwrap Tivo from all the careful packaging.

Remove cable card.

Reload the box and realize that things don't fit like they did before.

Tape the crap out of the box.

again

Feel less proud.

But still...one more box has been packed.

So that's something.

Blog.

Because, what fun is it to be a forgetful dork if you don't share the experience?