Twenty-five years ago...

The title to this post almost sounds like the start of a fairy tale. Well to be honest it was, mine. On August 23, 25 years ago I  married the most wonderful man in my life. He was smart, funny, opinionated, sentimental, handsome and a romantic. 

He had a good memory for things most guys tend to forget. He remembered the day we met, birthdays and our anniversaries but gift giving was always a struggle for him. First we gave him hints then we just would come right out and say what we wanted. But it rarely translated to what we got unless we purchased our own gifts, because he always thought he had a better idea.This meant a bicycle (can't ride), a frying pan (yep), a very good knife (he said mine were all crap) and a weather station. Yea, the last one is still in the box having never been opened because he was going to put the gauge up on the house. Then there were the times when he bought gifts because he thought we would like them and he put them away for the future. I found one such gift in his office when we were packing some of the stuff up. It still had the credit card receipt in the bag.


This was also the guy who was very hard to get gifts for when the time came. We asked for ideas and got lists of obscure books, guns (out of the girls money range) and tools. He also took a long time to get these lists to us. One year Sarah threatened to give him a pretty pink sweater in her size. "Dad, doesn't fit you, darn I guess I will keep it for myself." He got the biggest kick out of that comment.


As the years pass I find myself finding things I know he would have liked. Why, does this happen, who knows. I miss him even more today than ever. More happy memories come to mind when I look at pictures of him with the girls but it is still tinged with a lot of sadness. I seriously doubt it will ever get better...

Who knew...and didn't tell me?

All things related to this new 'old' house have been fun and frustrating at the same time. But I guess that is to be expected. The air conditioner began to have issues a week ago Sunday so I had to call someone out to look at it. Three hundred dollars later it was fixed. Not that it wasn't working but it kept running even with the thing set in the off position. So everything got a tune-up while the guy was here and now it I don't have to worry about that till next year.

I have a problem with spiders here, too. Not that I didn't at the old place but there seem to be thousands of the darn things. Sarah said the other day that my neighbors probably think she is a bit crazy. Because every time she drops Cash off as she approaches the front door she does a bunch of 'ninja' moves to clear the spiders. Since I rarely go in or out through the front door I didn't know about this phenomenon. My friend Camille confirmed it yesterday. It seems the tree in my front yard is like a home to the damn things. Just great.

My automatic yard watering system doesn't work and I need to replace it. There were no manuals left so that I could figure it out either. So I will be off to Home Depot sometime this week to get a new one. Home ownership is so much fun...

So different...

After living in the country for over twenty plus years I had forgotten what a difference there was living in the city. Moving out to the country you lose lighted streets, paved driveways, peace and quiet. Yes, I said peace and quiet. Because in the late fall, spring and summer the noise of farm equipment is ever present. And if you live close to the road it is also really dusty.

Yes, city folk who move out to the country for peace and quiet don't usually get it. But they do expect it and tend to be quite vocal when it doesn't happen. The country folk get a big kick out of those neighbors expectations. Not much in the way of excitement really happens out in the country other than the occasional car accident or police chase that occurs in the middle of the night. 

But move to the city and you see all kinds of things. As I type this I can see my neighbor painting this very odd looking fountain she has in her yard. It is a giant palm tree with a small catch basin at it's base. Truly not a collectors item...

The realization...

There are definitely going to be some things I will miss about living in the country. I will miss the beauty of the farms that are close by, the sunrises and sunsets on the horizons, and my fabulous neighbors and family. Though I have moved only about ten minutes away from the old house it is a big change. The upside of my move; no road noise from the 24/7 traffic, no constant dirt from fields being worked up, no pollen from the cottonwood trees or cars landing up in my pasture after they have driven off the road. I will miss the text messages from my neighbor Mary asking me to check and see if she closed her garage door, the impromptu visits from my nieces Evangeline and Estelle showing off their latest clothing purchase, and seeing my nephew Graham driving by on one of the tractors. 

In the trivia department I can boast that after 22 years of hearing farm equipment drive by, I can now identify the piece of equipment and its manufacturer correctly most of the time.  I can also identify young crops in a field, drive a car with a manual transmission and drive in the snow thanks to Steve. Though the latter two I never pursued because it wasn't a great experience.

In the new experience department I had hoped to do a great many new things with Steve instead I am doing them on my own and not really liking it but having to do it never the less. Watching Cash grow up and experience new things was something we had planned on doing together but now it is just me. Though a good many times I feel Steve's presence and know he is watching over all of us I would rather have him here physically to see what a wonderful little guy our grandson has become.

I won't have internet till Tuesday but my computer won't be moved till Wednesday sometime, as I am having some stuff done to consolidate programs on one versus three. So I will keep in touch by coming back to the old house as I still have internet here. I don't have TV's set up yet either so I am watching movies on my laptop till that happens on Tuesday. So I will post this for now and then do the next post when I am officially online at the new place. 

Spending my first night at my new house. I am  already feeling a little strange... 

Moving = major stress...

It has been almost a month to the day since I last did a blog post. Things went slow to super fast and hectic in just days. I am not 100% moved in to the new house yet but I am close. Bedroom furniture is there now as is most of the kitchen, living room and craft room. All the loose ends are still at the old house. Ran out of boxes but that was short lived. Thanks to my brother-in-law Mike and a couple of his workers they moved all that plus loads of boxes on Wednesday. While we; Sarah, Angie, Mary and her daughter Jenifer packed and cleaned more stuff. Whew, what a job...

This girl...

Is AMAZING!!! She sorted and packed literally all of my kitchen in just over three hours. Some of the stuff was a little hard for me to put in the donate boxes but Sarah was right, I needed to not keep stuff I wasn't using. I have to say there were some mementos that I wanted to keep but after thinking about it this evening they are better off in those boxes. I think she will be proud of me that I haven't even thought about pulling anything out of those donate boxes.


This initial post is a couple of weeks old. Sarah has since come back and worked on my built in cabinet in my bedroom doing basically the same thing. "Donate, donate, donate" is her motto, I think. She is my rock star!

**The photo is a couple of years old. I had to search for one I thought she wouldn't object to my posting. It was Cash's first Halloween.

Slow going...

Things moved fast in the painting and cleaning department thank goodness but the packing is going really slowly. Some boxes have been pretty quick to pack but then there are those that are harder because I come across stuff of Steve's. The decisions to keep and what to take with me in these cases are sometimes hard. Some are no-brainers but then there is the occasional trinket he loved that I don't seem to want to part with so it might move to the new house.


I started this post at the end of May and I just realized I had never finished it. That is about the way things are right now. I am SO over the packing and moving thing.