Unpacking...

Whew! We made it to Southern California and fortunately, so did our stuff!! We have spent every waking moment unpacking boxes and with only 14 boxes left inside the house, I am seeing the end of the tunnel! I will take a few pictures soon to share our new digs. There are still boxes piled to the ceiling in the garage, and we will get to those soon. Those of you who have experienced multiple moves, you know what it is like to move from one house to another where the new house doesn't have the same number or configuration of rooms, so you have boxes you aren't sure where to put and then once you unpack, you have stuff without an obvious home.
On a high note, I have several boxes worth of stuff that will be sold at our neighborhood's annual garage sale in a few months. And only a few broken items have come out of boxes. Sadly, my piano is now sprouting blue fur, and I am going to have to find someone who refinishes furniture to come out and give me a quote and then go through the claims process with the moving company. The mover wrapped the piano in a blue moving pad, only it was a new, paper-y kind of fabric. And when the truck was driving through the warmer parts of the Southwest, the truck heated up, the finish on the piano got tacky, and the blanket stuck to the piano and parts of the blanket are now affixed to the piano!
We are headed back to the East Coast to fetch our children who have spent the last few weeks being spoiled by the grandparents. The older two were in Wisconsin and the youngest was in the mountains of North Carolina. We are all meeting up in North Carolina, where we will visit my parents for a week or so before all flying back here together to introduce the girls to their new home!!
I will post again soon with some pictures and highlights from our trip West, as well as some pictures of the new house. Stay tuned!!
Missy

PS - for all of you who are wondering what Liz is up to, she has been on vacation, doing vacation bible school, preparing for her youth group mission trip to the Dominican Republic, and holding down the fort at Sweet Funky Vintage. So, I don't know why she hasn't had time to blog, do you??!!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Well, okay, I'm not leaving on a jet plane, it is more like a really, really loaded down Chevy Suburban, but I am leaving, nonetheless. My bags are packed, and LOTS and LOTS of boxes! The packers came yesterday, and began packing up our entire house. When you see the contents of every drawer, cabinet and nook and cranny all being packed into boxes, you realize just how much junk you really have! So, here you all are my witnesses, I WILL THROW AWAY SOME OF THIS CRAP when I get to California. I have entirely too much stuff.
So, the packers came yesterday morning and they are almost finished packing up all of our boxes. The moving truck actually comes on Thursday and will load up all of our worldly goods and head toward the West Coast!
We are staying at a hotel this week while we are being packed up and moving. My husband (of whom I am very proud) is graduating from school tomorrow. He has spent the last year at Marine Corps University taking an advanced Master's degree course, and now he is finished. I lay awake last night thinking about trying to blog our adventure of THE BIG MOVE. So, I will try my best.
I was busy trying to finish up a few last minute Sweet Funky Vintage orders this morning. The packers were literally packing up my studio all around my while I sewed! Liz will be keeping things running smoothly while my studio is disassembled!
Most of this part of the packing/moving process involves me supervising the packers and the packing process. Which involves alot of sitting around and waiting. So, I have been catching up on a little internet surfing, checking email, etc, this afternoon. I have been wanting to sit down and watch the video of Randy Pausch's last lecture. He is the Carnagie Mellon professor they profiled in Parade magazine and on many news programs over the past few months. It sounded interesting and my Mom said it was wonderful, so I have been wanting to watch it, but hadn't found the time to sit down, uninterrupted and watch it. Since the girls are visiting Nana and Poppy this week and I am basically sitting around supervising some very efficient packers (who need little supervision), I finally watched it. I have to tell you it was definately worth the time it took to watch. I think the video is roughly an hour and 15 minutes. If you haven't seen it yet, here it is.

and here is another clip, this one is only 6 minutes long. My Mom sent it to me the other day and said she believed I had found my passion and my love and I thought that was the ultimate compliment.

I have also been working on improving my vocabulary on the website, Free Rice. If you haven't tested your brain power over there, I highly recommend it. Liz told me about ages ago and I have just gotten my husband hooked too! We got to level 46 today! How high have you gotten?

Okay, so here is installment one of THE BIG MOVE! Join me on the rest of the journey!

Missy

How about a fun swap????

Kelly is sponsoring s fun "favorite things" swap! Here's what she says:

shout it from the roof tops, tell your friends, invite your neighbors, send an email, post it on your blog. anything & everything that will get the word out. i want EVERYONE in the world knows about the second annual favorite things swap. i hope you are as excited as i am! here are all the particulars...

it's really quite simple: as a participant, you will be asked to choose at least three objects (i don't think anyone would mind if you decide to send more) that are some of YOUR favorite things to send to your partner... maybe it's an apron you made, your new favorite book, or that favorite flavor of lip gloss. be creative & most importantly have fun with it! objects can be new or vintage, bought or handmade... just remember, it is best to send something the you'd be pleased & excited to receive yourself.

Go visit Kelly at her blog According to Kelly and give her all your info! Have fun!