1 May through 6 May - In the house!!!! Cleaned, scraped old caulk off tub, cleaned some more. Apparently, my idea of clean is not the same as the cleaning team’s idea of clean. Headed for Lowes on Sat for the first of many, many, many trips. Joe (oldest son) painted one wall in my new bedroom a dark mauve. It is going to look great when I get settled. Going to house in mornings and back to apartment to pack in afternoons. Running back and forth to Lowes. Am never going to be packed in time, but I do have all my china and crystal packed. Have called a mover to do the heavy stuff and they will come on Sat, 8 May.

Friday afternoon – Joe is putting up ceiling fans and I am running back and forth to Lowes to get needed “stuff”. Plumber and electrician are finished. Moving company called and said they will arrive on Sat at about 6:00 A.M. Movers said not to worry – if there is packing not done they will finish it. I know I will be packing until they snatch stuff out of my hands to load it on the truck. We have been carrying stuff from the garage and clothing every day from the apartment to the house.

May 7 – about 4:30 a.m. I am up and trying to be quiet about packing. My son and granddaughter are staying with me and I don’t want to wake them. Finally they get up at five. Then I start packing again – movers arrive at about 6:15 ready to roll. They want to go over charges with me – it seems their original estimate was for three hours. Good grief – even I know you cannot load a moving truck, drive to the new location and unload it in three hours. Especially with packing and taking furniture and beds apart.

By noon the house is more or less empty. There is still some stuff, but we will get that early next week. The movers arrived at the house and I told them that Joe and Rob can do the assembly of furniture – just had them carry stuff in – and put all the boxes in the garage. There will be no cars in the garage for quite some time!!!! The movers finished about 2:00 p.m. We were all exhausted but we did dig out some of the necessary things like coffeepot and coffee. Joe and Rob put beds together and Joirdana and I made them. Went on a take out Chinese run – we all crashed early.

Forgot to add that last Friday my new living room furniture and the patio furniture were delivered – got good buys on everything as the store was having 50% off sales. Stores are doing all sorts of creative things to get people to come in the door. My old living room furniture had seen better days – but since it is still sound in structure. I will call Goodwill and see if they want to pick it up. They will have quite a load as I have been sorting as I pack – if I have not used something in the two years I have been here, it is going to either Goodwill or one of the many shelters in Clark County.

8 May – Mother’s Day. Came home after church to find that Joirdana, bless her heart, had unpacked most of my kitchen and put it all away. There must be more of me in her than I think. I only had to move one or two things around and the kitchen is mostly done. YAY! I hate to shop on Sundays but after church I made a quick stop at Burlington Coat Factory to try to find some curtains. Although I had solar screens put on all windows, and that keeps out gazers in the daytime – they do not block gazing at night. Had to get curtains for my bedroom and bathroom. Joe and Joirdana went to apartment and got drapes from my old bedroom. They work great in the living room here. Joirdana even read my mind and brought back the shower curtain from the old master bath to cover the window here. I will only have to do a little “remodeling” of the curtain – and the old shower curtain will become new curtains. Still cannot find any for my bedroom or the kitchen – have really trashed mini-blinds on most of the windows – but my bedroom is a priority. We do have a temporary fix working. Am exhausted.
Joe is grilling dinner for my Mother’s Day gift. Perfect gift! If I had to cook tonight, they would all be eating cereal. Cannot remember being this tired in all my other moves. Of course all those moves were made when I was much younger and had not just gotten out of hospital. This stupid Crohn’s disease tries to whip me every so often. It makes me tired, but I have no intention of allowing it to rule my life.

9 May – Monday. Went to Lowes a couple of times. Had to take some stuff back and get some other stuff. We put a gate up so the dogs have lots of space to roam in the family room – and they can get out into the yard anytime they want. BUT Maxi is skinny enough, she squeezed right through the bars. Angel figured out how to get out too. So Joe had to so a bit of jerry-rigging. The gate is secure now. The fur kids are loving their yard!

Unpacked what seems to be a gazillion boxes, but the garage still looks full. The water softener installer arrived before seven a.m. I barely had clothes on! So I had to move boxes in the garage so he could get through. Cable guy showed up at about nine so we are back online.
Joe and Joirdana got the shrunk put together so tomorrow I can start putting away china and crystal assuming I can find the right boxes.

Bedtime at 9 – read a little and then zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

10 May – still unpacking but have to go to bank and sign letter so the insurance can get transferred to the right company. That is a whole “nuther” story and I will tell it later. In the meantime I am putting stuff away – have to rest a bit today though. I do makeovers for the women in shelters on the second Tuesday of each month.