Things I now miss during this time of the year...

Of course besides the blatantly obvious, Steven, are the things I had gotten used to living in the country. The smell of the earth after the first rain, seeing the sun rises from my kitchen window and the visits from my sweet nieces Evangeline and Estelle. The sounds of the owls at night coming from the woods, the farm equipment passing in front of the house and the sounds of children laughing while playing on the hay fort next door. Then there is also the sounds of screams coming from the haunted maze the last couple of nights before Halloween. Yes, I would bundle up and stand in my driveway to hear the sounds. They were strangely comforting when I knew that my kids were out there helping to 'scare' those silly people who thought it was fun to traipse around in the dark of night in the maze.

It saddens me to know that Steve is missing out on this time of year. He loved operating the trebuchet. Watching the kids and adults alike holler and laugh at the launching of the pumpkins into the sky. I know he would have loved watching Cash enjoy the hay fort and maze. I am sure he is looking down at us and enjoying it all...

New house...old house

Thank goodness for my little girl. She has come to the rescue on clearing out the attic spaces on the old house. Very little from the attic will get moved to the new house because most of the things belong to girls and they are deciding what to do with all that stuff. It is amazing what you find in those spaces. A good much of it is what Sarah calls "what were you/Dad thinking?" and to which I have to agree. Yep, makes you realize that living simply is so much smarter.


We have the basement and the spare room off the garage left to do. Then it is trips to Goodwill and the dump. Really need to do this so I can sell the old place. My goal this week is to tag all the stuff I want to keep and place in a pile the things to be donated so that when it is time to go to the dump there will be no questions as to what goes because it all will. My dear brother-in-law Michael has offered to move any last stuff to the house and make the trip to the dump for me. He has been the greatest through all of this.


I am looking forward to the day when I don't have to do anymore things at the old place because it just makes me sad to walk in to the house. I keep praying that it will all be over soon and I can truly move on.

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...