Quick, Quick, Hurry, Hurry

Yay, we are officially in!!! Johnny had the help of Nelson and a good friend, David Williams. Between the three of them all the furniture is now at the apartment and most of the boxes!! I just have to decide which decorative items to take and I'll be doing that between now and Sunday. For now, there is no cable nor internet access at the apartment. SO ~ I'll just have to pop in every so often from the house and let you know how things are going. Johnny was so afraid our furniture was going to be too big, and it is a tiny bit, but it looks so good and I'm so excited with the possibilities! The guys did an awesome job!!!

No snapshots yet, but there will be some tomorrow!! Come back. See what's happening!!

Moving Tuesday!

Guess what this is?! I'll give you a hint. It has keys and an automatic garage door opener,that fits in my purse!!

I was with Noah and Ian this evening, while Jen and Brandon went out of town for the day, and got a call from Johnny saying, "come home and get me! We can sign the lease and see the apartment!" I called Nancy Maddox, who sweetly came to the house and watched the boys, while I went and got Johnny. There are a few more snapshots, click here to see them. The kitchen is not a bad size, but there are few cabinets and drawers. I've lived in apartments before, back in the '70's, and they were larger than apartments today. However, these ARE brand new, the grounds are going to be lovely, the walls are textured, and we begin moving tomorrow! Can you imagine how excited we are to know we will be sleeping on a bed tomorrow night?! The air mattress has been comfortable, but getting up off the floor gets harder and harder.

Johnny is planning to paint the garage in the morning and will begin moving furniture and boxes after lunch. Stay tuned for updates on the messes in two places now!!

Photographs!

Here are the snapshots from the meal at MarChelles, downtown Prattville! Thank you everyone for coming and thank you Jenny for the pics!! She has more on their family web site along with snapshots from a trip they took to the Children's Museum, which totally fascinated Ian!, and some funny observations of the latest T-ball game. Click here to go to their page. By the way, this is the second post tonight so keep reading after this one~
I am so totally still in love with this man and I know he feels the same. Staying with me while I struggled to stay alive in ICU had to be the hardest thing he has ever had to endure and my heart hurts when I think of the pain and fear he experienced. Our daughters and my brother kept him sane and made sure he was rarely alone. He still worries about me, but we don't sweat the small things anymore. Shoot! We don't even sweat the big things anymore.

Ian Todd will be five this December and has just found out his mommy will be at school with him next year. He is so excited! There's a cute note about Ian and tonight's bedtime books you'll enjoy on their page. Please note the "A" on his pullover. Can you guess who is hoping this child will attend the University of Alabama on a sports scholarship?!

Nancy Maddox. Jenny's second mother and a dear friend of mine. Her Brandon has become the son we never had and we thank God for him each day. When he came into Jenny's live, we knew a prayer had been answered. She and Thaylon love the grands as much as we do. Well, maybe. {a wink here}

And this would be our Jenny with her sons. Our Alabama babies. MarChelles has these old brick walls that have to be hundreds of years old. Ian and I were in the waiting area after dinner and I said, "Ian, look at this brick wall. It's very old." He crawled up on the sofa, reached out and tentatively touched it and replied, "I hope they washed it."

Noah James. A man after my own heart. The child loves to eat. I mean he really loves to eat! Here he is eating the cookies that came with his meal. And yes, he ate them before the meal. I just love it when one gets to eat what he wants when he wants. Kind of breaks up the routine and makes mealtime funner. (and yes I made that word up) Johnny teases me about my love for food because for the past week or so we've had to eat most meals out and I get up every morning planning where I want to go for breakfast, lunch, AND dinner!

Here's the group~John and me with Noah; Nancy and Thaylon Maddox; Kay and Kirk Mayfield, dear friends from Wadsworth; Johnny's sister JoAnn; Brandon and Ian (Jen was the photographer). No, Jo does not have her tongue sticking out and Kirk, along with Brandon, is watching a man playing the guitar. Just in case you're wondering. I would've been. Again, thank you everyone for coming and sharing this special time with us and thank you Brandon and Jenny for pulling it together and treating us to a scrumptious meal!

Celebrating Tuesday Early

This Tuesday will mark a beautiful time in my life with Johnny. We will have been married twenty-five years and my tummy still tightens when he walks into a room. He brought with him two of the cutest little girls that became two of my closest friends, as well as daughters. Jenny and I were truly blessed when John walked into our lives. Happy Anniversary a bit early, my love.

Tonight, Brandon and Jenny invited us for dinner at MarChelles and we had such a great time. If you haven't been there, you need to go at least once. Nighttime is a very romantic time to go, although the prices are better during their lunch hour. At any time, the setting takes you back to a quieter time in life. Several of our close friends and family met us there, and our Alabama grandsons entertained us all with their smiles and their love for laughter. Jenny took snapshots and I will share them as she sends them. Can't wait to see them!

It was two years ago, also this Tuesday, that he brought me home after spending seventy-seven days in a hospital room, seventy of those in an ICU Critical Care cubicle. I still don't recall much of the first year, spending much time in recovery, therapy, and counseling for trauma. We survived, however, closer than ever and knowing that life is far too short, far too precious to worry about the annoying moments in life. So Tuesday will definitely be a time of joy and a time of thanksgiving. And ~

also happening Tuesday, we move into our new home!!! Crossing fingers, feet, legs, arms, and praying, praying, praying that nothing stops us we should be sleeping in a bed, finally!, and able to wash our own clothes as of Tuesday night!! We are pumped and asking Him to please let all things go according to plans. It is getting harder and harder to get off that air mattress each morning {insert a groan here}

Jenny has been washing our clothes, thank you Jen!, but it will be so nice to have my household back in some semblance of order. John is not wearing a smile often these days unless Ian and Noah are near. I don't know how your man handles best laid plans that continually go off on a tangent, but this man of mine doesn't handle it well. That frozen smile and those eyes that warn 'don't step on me' are becoming too familiar these days {insert a wink here}

I hope your day has been filled with love and laughter and that tomorrow will bring a restful respite for you. Be sure to check back for pics of our time in historic downtown Prattville!!

It did. It has. And they love it already. We'll be moving next week into our new home on the other side of town and will be there a bit until we find something that grabs our hearts as this one did. We're packing, grinning, and getting ready for a new chapter in our lives together~

If You Love Home Decor

then by all means, go check out the sites I have listed to the left under "Places I Go". Through Susie's site I blog hopped to others just like me that love to decorate, move things around, and look for cheap ways to make a house look beautiful. I think you'll enjoy them!! Happy blog hopping, girls!!!

Hiding the Thermostat

What a unique idea!! This is my second post for the day, but I just had to tell you about my visit to Nesting Place. I love this site and she has the most awesome home decorating tips. Cheap ones at that!! Go visit! Now!!

And So On, And So On~

Right. We just thought we were moving Monday. "the best laid schemes of mice and men" ~ Robert Burns (I believe)

The apartment manager called early early Monday morning, after we'd loaded one trailer of furniture to say the walk through's by the inspectors had NOT been done and that they could not let us sign and gather keys until this happened. So. We're in waiting mode.

UPDATE: John just got off the phone with the apartment manager. AND. It was not. good. news. Apparently a retainer fence that was to have been built behind the complex, wasn't. So now it has to be built before any inspections can be approved. We're looking at the first to middle of next week now. {insert frustrated face here} The good news is that we can continue packing, get all the boxes going into storage to the storage building, move all the furniture left to the tiled areas of the house, and move all boxes going to the apartment to the wooded areas.

By doing this, we can stay on schedule with getting the carpet stretched and cleaned. I won't have my washer and dryer {insert grimace here} but Jenny has one!! And she has two of our grandbabies to boot!! Nelson has offered his guest room, as has Jenny. It's nice to be loved {insert heartfelt smile here}

Stay tuned. This move just gets better and better. NOT.

Dropping In, Dropping Out

This week will be ultra busy and I'm starting it out feeling not quite up to speed. UTI's can make me feel horrible all over!! I'm telling you! John and I both have had many anxious, 'wish we could move some stuff' moments this weekend. We can't begin until we get the keys Monday morning, but are already planning to be there with a trailer load when we sign the lease. I hope to post some 'before' snapshots of the apartment tomorrow evening and I expect to be offline more this week. Stay tuned and check in. I'll be back. Eventually~

Just an update~

To update you, well there's not really anything different. The house is still a wreck. Only worse. There were problems, unexpected ones, with getting one of the a/c units fixed. Johnny brought home boxes, but I'm doing circles trying to figure out the best way to pack what's going to the apartment and what's going into storage. aarrggh!!!

Good news ~ we are NOT having a yard sale!!! We have someone that is taking it off our hands! They have a booth at a flea/antique mall and that takes care of that! I am so relieved. There's a Bronco filled with clothes, shoes, and purses going to Goodwill early Monday morning. All of the furniture we wanted to sell has sold. I spoke today with Deanna at Sweetwater Apartments and she says everything is looking good and we should get our keys to the apartment Monday morning!!! Please God, don't let anything go wrong and don't let anyone change their minds about anything. Except for the house, and for some unforeseen reason, if it doesn't sell, we're still moving out, and giving the other couple a call.

It's a freeing feeling to get rid of things I haven't used, or even seen, since the accident in 2006. And I'm not through adding to the growing pile in the living room that's designated for the flea market! Can't wait to get the furniture into the apartments, the kitchen cabinets readied, clothes hanging in the closets, and boxes to the storage facility - and most of those will be Christmas! Johnny is cheerfully storing all the yard equipment and working on cleaning out a garage that became a 'drop all' place. It was never just his and I hope to remedy that once we leave the apartments. He needs a place to park a bass boat, his tools, and a workshop bench. That's long overdue, bless his heart.

Last night we went over to some friends home and had a most delicious meal. The laughter, conversation, and relaxing were much needed and very much appreciated. Thank you Deborah and Lorenzo!! It was just what the doctor ordered!!

The Have's and Have Not's

Wow, you must read this~

Brief Notes of the Day

It's raining. Again. I worked. John cut grass. The house is a mess. Still. We are sleeping on air mattresses. The yard sale will be late Friday afternoon, the 27th, and Saturday morning, the 28th. The next two weeks will prove to be crazy, exciting, tiring, unbelievably busy, and just all around fun. Stay tuned~

Treated With a Visit

We have some great friends that came in this afternoon to spend a couple of days in central Alabama! They're from central Florida and on their way to south Louisiana! Yeah, I know, this isn't exactly on their way, but we're flattered they drove OUT of their way for a visit. Jim works full time, but uses his vacation time to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity. They are headed to Covington, LA to help build three homes! We are thoroughly enjoying their visit and have plans to show Sue Prattville tomorrow. They leave Tuesday and we'll miss them. What a blessing it is to keep up with them on a computer!! That works when phone calls get too expensive and snail mail is to slow. So here's to you and Sue, Jim, a great friendship, and many more years of laughter~

A Father's Day Celebration

Brandon and Jenny came over late this afternoon with the boys. Since Johnny is working a day shift tomorrow, we won't be able to celebrate with him tomorrow after worship SO Jen suggested we order in and have a family celebration here! Amidst the hustle and bustle of moving. It also happened to be the perfect time to watch the Orientals doing their obstacle course races. If you have never see this, you are missing such a treat! I don't what I enjoyed more, listening to Jenny laugh or watching Ian try to do what the athletes were doing! There was much laughter, much happines, more laughter, and good food~
and with such a tangle of legs, arms, fingers and noses, toys, drink cups, and pizza plates, (and the red Christmas balls Noah found!)

what more could a dad ask for after working all day, only to come home to moving boxes, a blow up mattress where his king size bed used to be, and to find that there's still no groceries in the house?

Thanks, Brandon and Jen, for making the evening such an awesome time for all of us. You had no idea it would be just what we needed to end a week on~

To my husband, the father of my girls,

Happy Father's Day~

You've made it possible for so many

of my dreams to come true.

You are my rock,

my hiding place,

my comfort during storms.

You offer us your love,

your support,

and I know that there is nothing

absolutely nothing

that you wouldn't do for me

and our daughters.

I pray we are blessed with your presence

for many, many years to come.

Happy Father's Day, John~