Monday, February 22, 2010

Quick Hand Update

Okay, so Landon went to the dr. today. They said his hand was doing fine. We did not realize the bone was actually broken all the way in two, but apparently it is. We both must have misunderstood last week at the dr. - we thought it was just a hairline fracture. Anyway, it's a full break....and Landon has been sort of careful, but he's also been trying to move stuff, etc. with his cast on. So...the dr. really cautioned him about trying to use his fingers and all. Obviously, it will make MAJOR problems if something moves wrong. BUT, things were great today. The xrays were good and the hand is healing fine. The cast should be on for 3 weeks, and Landon should get it off on the 15th.

He did his first funeral today (first one alone, that is). I know he did a great job! He also did a great job preaching yesterday - ya'll, I think he is really talented...anyway, I'm really grateful for where we are. I am, however, not grateful for the crazy EXPENSIVE gas/water/sewer/garbage bill we received. We have that stuff (all of it, that's right, weird huh) through the City of Winder. We received the bill and it was very expensive. We think it's because when we first had the gas turned on (because the bank wouldn't since it was a foreclosure) there was a leak in the crawl space. Not a gas leak, but a leak where the heat was leaking into the crawl space through a big hole in the pipe. Our realtor suggested we leave it on anyway though so that the pipes didn't freeze in all this cold weather we've had. Well, it was insanely expensive. I called them this morning to see if they could "help" us any with the bill. Guess what? They said no. Then I asked why it didn't break any of the gas costs down per therm. They told me what they were for last month but said that info would never show up on our bill. Also, I asked if we found gas cheaper somewhere else, could we only get water/sewer/garbage from them. Guess what? She says they are the only ones allowed to provide it in this county. I think that's what she said. I said, "Don't you think that's like a monopoly?" She said, "I guess so." Anyway, HOPEFULLY this major bill was because of the leak....and HOPEFULLY it will be a more normal amount next month.... if not, you better expect to keep your coat on the entire time you visit our home during any winter months.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

One Hand Down

Alright. Finally. The important story. So, Landon broke his hand. And, I didn't ask him this, but I guess he doesn't mind me telling the story of how it happened. This past Thursday, Landon was trying to put up our new mailbox. Since we bought a brand new construction house that then foreclosed, there are few final details that are not done (like no towel racks, or toilet paper holders, or shower curtain rods). And, no mailbox. After much deliberation, and I should have taken a picture of the mailbox, we picked out a mailbox at Lowe's. Landon decided to put it up last Thursday. He was trying to hammer the stake in the ground. I think the directions suggested you put another piece of wood on top of the stake and hammer that piece on top to help drive it in. Landon has NEVER hit his hand with the hammer. In fact, although I know Landon's had a lot of injuries in his lifetime (sports, stuff like that, when he was little), he has not had hardly any since we've been married. Now, he is kind of haphazard about stuff - like taking the stairs too fast, sliding around on socks on hard floors, that kind of stuff. But, all in all, he has not hurt himself badly (I don't think) since we've been married. Well, he was doing a couple of last hammer hits before the post was good and secure, and guess what, he hit his left hand with the hammer. He hit it about right here (and btw, this is NOT Landon's hand - I just found it on google images....I do think it's weird I've put another man's hand in this picture, but whatever).
He said right when it happened, he didn't realize how bad it was. Even Thursday night, we just bandaged it up - and get this, even after it happened and he went inside for a while, he went back outside and finished putting it up!!! Yikes!!! This man is determined! Anyway, it looked really bad - and was really swollen. It was BAD. I felt so terrible for Landon. I don't have any problem looking at most, I repeat, most, gross stuff, so this was not a problem to help with or look at it. I just felt so awful for him though and sorry for the pain he was in - I just wanted to cry. On Friday, he went to the urgent care place in Woodstock that has an xray machine. They said it was broken, and they put it in a splint. On Monday, we he had an appt. with an orthopedic dr. They re did the xrays, and then put a cast on it. Take a closer up look at the cast.

See how weird it is? It's a regular fiberglass cast, but it's put on special. They had to bind the two fingers by the break together in the cast - and then, they put the cast on xtra tight. While the nurse was doing it, she was apologizing because she knew what a hard time he'd have with it. Landon asked if he could just have a splint, but the dr. explained that sure, he could, but those hand bones are so small and intricate, one wrong move with this, and he'd have to have surgery. Already, he'll have to have physical therapy.
The first night with the cast was really rough. You know how you just start to feel claustrophobic and want something off your body? Well, that doesn't come off. And, it's super tight. And, it's swollen in there. AND, HIS FINGERS ARE BOUND TOGETHER IN IT. There's like no freedom anywhere - at least with a normal cast, your fingers are out. He had a really tough night - I thought we might have to go to the ER and just have them cut the cast off because the anxiety was so bad - and anxiety is not something Landon has a hard time dealing with. He ended up on the couch watching tv for a lot of the night and was able to fall asleep once he was distracted - thank goodness. He called the dr. the next day. The nurse was not surprised to hear from him. Apparently, with this type of cast, they sometimes have to give people anxiety medication to sleep at night because of how bad it is. She suggested he take something over the counter to help him sleep. The last two nights have been successful! He's taken Advil PM and that's worked great! I am SO RELIEVED, and thankful, because I feel so sorry for him. He goes back to the dr. next Monday, and they'll xray it through the cast to see how it's coming along. And, it should be 3-4 weeks in the cast from that point. Our church has been INCREDIBLE, to help us. The move last Saturday went fantastic - because of the men and women who helped us - Landon and I are pitiful - pregnant and with a broken hand...we're pretty much OUT. It's funny because I have felt so sorry for Landon through this - it really feels like it's hurting ME, like it partly happened to me (although I'm sure I would have felt it a little more strongly if it actually had happened to me). It just makes me wonder though about having a child...you know how you hear that mothers feel pain for their children so much - I felt so much for Landon, I don't think I can stand it!

Handyman Extraordinaire


Try not to focus on Landon in this picture but on what's in the background...the BLINDS. As we've been in this moving process, we've wanted to be so careful about accepting FREE help from people. I've seen way too many pastors take crazy advantage of people because they think their position is so important....like if you are helping them personally you are helping Jesus or something. I can even remember one time after a hurricane, when I was at Wise Equipment, one of the pastors in town walked in, and bypassed the entire line of people (which was all the way out the door of the shop since it was after the hurricane), and then just stood there at the front by the counter. Finally, Dad said, "Hi So and so (uh, he said the real name)." And the man said, "Hey, I was hoping you could just go ahead and help me - I only have something small." Well, in my opinion, if you are the pastor at a church, just to clear any question up in anyone's mind, you should be willing to get in the VERY BACK of the line. Just to be clear that you don't think you deserve any kind of special treatment. So, at first, I didn't want us to accept ANY help from anyone who would not let us pay them for their help. But, maybe the Lord's been teaching me some stuff, because you know, a lot has happened, and we just really needed some help. After coming into the house and staying that very first weekend, we realized how disgusting it was - it was really dirty. Not dirty like someone made it dirty, but just dirty like a new construction house that was never cleaned and now sat for over a year. I knew we needed Ms. Diane to come clean it for us. I didn't want to ask her, even though she'd offered, because I was afraid she wouldn't let us pay her. But, I was desperate - we just couldn't do it all, and we really needed help. So, Ms. Diane came. I tried to talk to her about sending her a check, but she told me she would just rip it up and I could write VOID on it. Then, we had a blinds situation. The house has 19 windows downstairs (not counting any of the glass doors - there are 6 of those). Well, we needed to put up blinds. Especially after we stayed there the first weekend and could barely use the bathroom with nothing on the windows. So...we have a couple in the church Mr. Steve and Mrs. Karen, and Mr. Steve is a handyman (he may have a fancier name than this, but I'm not sure). I think he has done remodeling kind of stuff, etc. for years and he is crazy talented. From the beginning, they offered to come and measure the windows and put our blinds in. They said they really wanted to do it for us. Well, I didn't want them to. I knew they wouldn't want us to pay them, and I felt like we could do it ourselves. Well, we couldn't. It was just too overwhelming. So, Mr. Steve measured the windows, bought the blinds, and installed them all (he even adjusted the bottoms to fit the windows exactly - hello). He happened to install them on the day internet was being hooked up, and he helped with an outlet situation they had, found a slight leak in the crawl space and fixed it, and probably more, but I can't remember. We did at least write him a check for the blinds he purchased for us. Then we had a door lock situation two days ago. They recommended to us that we rekey the locks because the house was a foreclosure. Well, the locks are Callan locks. They do not sell them at Home Depot or Lowe's. When I found them online, I was afraid I would not choose the right finish. I had taken a couple of pictures, but it was hard to tell anything. I contacted the Delaney company who makes Callan locks. Those people were so helpful. I sent the pictures to a customer service person and she told me what the finish was. Here's what they look like:
Okay, so also, I wanted to get keyed deadbolts since all the doors are glass. The locks came last week and were perfect. Alright, I haven't blogged about this yet (I'm saving it for its own post) but Landon broke his hand last week. So, Landon decides it would be a good idea for him to try to change the lock on the front door himself. Well, first he puts it in and the key won't come out. Then he tries to fix it (and my hand is FREEZING OFF because I'm trying to help him hold it) and now the door won't lock at all. Landon is pretty good at doing stuff like this, but with a broken hand, it doesn't take much to get to a pretty high frustration level. So...we called Mr. Steve. He came right over and fixed it. It took him a little bit to get it lined up right - he says those locks can be tricky. So, that's another thing he's done for us. He did need some boxes though when he came by to help us with the locks, so we were able to give him some - we were so happy to get to do something (even if it was dumb) for him. And, Mrs. Karen said he loves our crawl space and would like to grow sweet potatoes under there - I told her to tell him to come on! He can do whatever he wants under the house!! I don't really know what the point of this is except to say....I really want us to be careful about taking advantage of people. I don't want to be like that. Yet, with me being pregnant and Landon's broken hand, we've needed some help. Our church family has been AMAZING. I've got a running list of all the people who have helped us and I want to have over for dinner. God has been very, very good to provide so many people just in the exact areas we've needed help the last few weeks.

SNOW

Okay, so Friday, I was able to be off the second half of the day. My boss, Patty, let me go home to pack for the move on Saturday. I got home and starting packing, but for some reason having to stretch up high to reach stuff always makes me not feel very good. So, I decided to lie down on the couch for a little bit and then continue with the packing. I probably slept for 30 minutes and when I got up and looked out....it was snowing...HARD. Serious business snow (well, the most serious business I've ever seen). It was so beautiful. I could not believe it! And, it just kept coming down. I was concerned about the move the next day and ice and all that stuff, but this snow thing is fascinating. It's just so pretty coming down and so quiet - you know, it's not like rain where you can hear it hitting your roof hard. It's like if you don't look out the window and then you do like out all of sudden...everything outside is changing and you had no idea if you were inside with the blinds shut. Crazy. We so enjoyed watching it come down. I was seriously trying to pack, so we didn't go out in it to play, and I didn't even take these pictures until Saturday, but it was very fun :)
Out the front door.

Out the front door, but this is not our Auburn flag - it's the neighbor's flag.
Out the back door.
I was attempting to show how deep the snow was - the news said we got 3.6 inches.
The railing of the deck.
Another picture out the back.
Okay, this is not in front of our house, but is this fun or what? It was in front of another townhouse in the neighborhood.
So, that's it! Major snow for us! It also snowed the same at our new house, and when we got there on Saturday, someone had come over that morning and shoveled off our sidewalk and driveway and put salt down. I continue to shake my head at how our new church family has loved us and done WAY above and beyond anything we could have imagined to help us. Anyway, I didn't take any pictures at the new house...but it was pretty there too, and if it snows again...I'll try.

JOY Valentine Banquet

Okay, ya'll, I'm having to go way back to last week to update. Hold on and get ready. I have a lot to say. First, I want to tell you about the JOY Valentine Banquet we went to last Tuesday evening. Bethabra has a senior adult group called the JOY group (I think this is the same thing Woodlawn...or maybe FBC Crestview called their senior adults). Anyway, I like it. So, they invited us to come to this banquet. Anywhere there is chatting and FOOD, I am there. Even though we've tried not to go to a ton of stuff at night since we had not moved over yet, we really wanted to attend this banquet, and it was so much fun! Ms. Carolyn headed up the effort, and like usual, it was amazing. If I can get some pictures from it, I'll post them so you can see. We had about 40 people there, and this was what was at each place when we sat down:
Is this cute or what? Anyway, the dinner was AMAZING. I had actually wondered how good it would be since I didn't think we had any kind of professional keeping stuff hot equipment at Bethabra. Well, it was so good. First, we had salad. Well, the first thing I did was use (and then pass around) the cheese and bacon bits for our salads. Then, after maybe the third person put it on their salad...I realized that I was not actually supposed to have used that for salad - I was supposed to have saved it for the baked potatoes...but I was so excited. I love food, and I especially love cheese, and it was right in front of me. No worries though, Ms. Carolyn just brought us some more cheese and bacon for our baked potatoes. We had grilled chicken, green beans from the garden, and baked potatoes. It was delicious! Then, we just had a couple join us the Sunday before - the Reads, Alan and Debi. They are fantastic musicians (both of them!) and Alan sang and played the piano some and Debi joined him for a few songs. They were awesome! I did accidentally dump some of the green beans on my plate in my purse while I was cutting up my chicken...I thought I had gotten them all until we were at Costco on the way home and I was trying to get out the AMEX to use and found still more green beans all mushed up against my wallet and some receipts. Oh well, snacks for later. It was a very fun night. I also heard some of the people talking about a trip they are taking. Now, let me tell you something. I love guided tours. And, guess what? Usually, on senior adult trips, they take guided tours. I am in. Maybe, finally, now that Landon is the pastor somewhere we could take some of the senior adult trips and get to take the guided tours everywhere. No one has invited us yet on any of overnight trips....but don't worry, I'm waiting patiently....I know a guided tour is in my near future :)

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Haven't Forgotten!

Hi! I haven't forgotten my blog...just have been too busy for it. I have a few pictures I want to post, and many things to discuss...but I haven't had time! We moved this past weekend, and Landon broke his hand....and just a whole bunch of other stuff has been going on. I promise I will check in SOON, post pictures, and update!!

Monday, February 8, 2010

Chickens at the Gas Station

Okay, I must recount this story exactly as it happened. Here we go.

Landon and I leave for church Sunday morning - we leave from our new house, I mean. We drive up the road to the gas station because I need to get a water (no refrigerator in our new house, no cups). When we pull up to the gas station (singing Oh How He Loves Us from the ipod), I've already told Landon I'll get out and get the water. We pull up and this is what I see. Well, there you go. There are chickens outside the gas station. I'm not kidding, nor am I making fun. I'm just telling you - this is like within 5 miles of our new home. I'm just here to inform you. Here's what the conversation was like:

Landon: Do you want me to go inside and get it? I'm worried the chickens might not go away when you get out.
Bethany: Hold on, I have to get this picture first. No way, I can handle it. They're not getting me (they're especially not getting me because I'm so mad about them being there and I have on tights and so they're not getting my tights).
Landon: Okay.
(Bethany gets out of the car)
Bethany (yelling): GET OUT OF HERE!
(the chickens disperse and run away)
(Bethany enters the store where a gentleman is behind the counter)
The man: Good Morning.
Bethany: Did you know there are some chickens out there?
The man: I did know. I feed them bread and they come back every day.
Bethany: Hmmm... They are pretty big. How long have they been coming here?
The man: They only come here one time a day. Every day.
(right)
(Bethany pays for sprite and big water and leaves. Chickens are nowhere to be found. Bethany re-enters car).
Landon: You're not the only one who wants to take a picture. That man over there getting gas just took a picture with his camera phone.
(We then proceed to church)

Interesting, huh? You just never know (literally) what you are going to encounter on a daily basis. I told those chickens though. Landon shared this with the church Sunday evening, and some of them seemed to know what we were talking about. Don't worry, family and friends, the chicken gas station will be on the Hoschton tour when you make your trip up.

Refrigerator and Moving Update

So, Saturday night after the men's conference and us packing, etc, we loaded up and went to Brandsmart (uh, after Landon and I ate at Jim N Nicks and it was really good). We have heard about crazy Brandsmart from a lot of people, but we had never bought anything there. This store is like total bedlam. I do not like that it's not quiet....but I am willing to go anywhere there's a serious deal. We picked out a refrigerator. Here it is below:

I don't know why I thought you'd be that interested in it to see a picture, or even if you wanted to see a big picture, why I thought you'd want to see the little paddles you push for ice and water, but whatever...there it is, if you care. We really wanted stainless steel, with ice and water through the door, and we wanted in door ice. Do you know what I'm talking about? It's where the ice bucket thing is actually inside the door of the freezer, so if you have a big group of people, it's really easy to just grab out of there and put ice in glasses. And, it doesn't take up so much space in the freezer. We got a great deal (or a good deal, at least), and they are delivering it on Saturday.
The move update is this: We are moving on Saturday. I think we have an okay amount of help - if the people come who we think are coming. I'm hoping things will go smoothly and Landon (poor Landon) is taking carloads of stuff every single day - it's a lot. I know we'll both be glad once everything is at the new house. We did buy a mailbox, but I didn't want to take a picture in Lowe's (and no, we didn't decide on the one with the special key to lock things up - but Brandsmart did have a mailbox like that). I'll take a picture once we get it put up in the yard.
Yikes. This moving stuff is stressful - and you know what, I don't even think we have near the stuff most people have because of the hurricane (we still haven't totally re-supplied every single thing). I don't care if we never get unpacked (that's a lie), I'll just be so thankful to be completely over there with all our furniture and ourselves!

Men's Conference

Look at this great group of men from our new church! Don't they look awesome??! The FBCW men's conference was this past weekend....so they all packed up from Hoschton...and headed to the Frymire townhouse. Yes, that's right, they ALL stayed at the townhouse on Friday night. I left and spent the night with Kelli, but I did go by the house late Friday evening so I could take this group picture. They slept on beds, air mattresses, and couches in every single room...and somehow they all fit. I do not know how 14 men got ready for the men's conference the next morning with 2.5 bathrooms....but okay. Girls could not do this. Wait, let me rephrase. Some girls could do this. I, personally, could not do this. Yikes. I know they were exhausted after Friday evening's conference, not much sleep Friday night, and then the conference Saturday until lunch. As you already know, everyone has been so kind to us at the church, and we love so much already. I'm so excited this many men were able to join Landon and come to the townhouse for the conference. What did Kelli and I do, you ask? Well...we wild women went to Cracker Barrel (that's right) and then went to a movie. I had a great time with her! She is one of my very favorite people. I was worried about the men seeing the townhouse in great disarray and that first glance of everything being their first impression of us. Landon did a good job trying to push the boxes to the side, and I know, men don't notice stuff like that anyway. And, I know they knew we are moving....soon. I'm so happy the weekend was such a great success!

Neck Update

Okay, so I have a lot of updates. I think it's best to put them in separate posts. I want to update you on my neck. Thank you for your comments and advice. On Thursday (after it starting hurting so crazy bad on Tuesday), it started getting a lot better....and then it just kept getting better and better! It's still hurting some, and I think there are still some issues there, but it's WAY BETTER THAN IT WAS. I might check into the student massage thing Jeanette told me about once I get moved over there (This is the shortest update for today).

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Simple Pleasures

I have not participated in one of Kelly's carnivals in a long time, but I really liked this one, so I thought I'd join in. The topic is Simple Pleasures. I started trying to think about this, and I had so many, and so many of them were about food....I don't know...I wanted to share them with you. What are your Simple Pleasures?

Mine are:
Sleeping late on a day off (bonus: and waking up to it raining)
Playing Super Mario with Landon
Eating just about anywhere, but especially Stoney River, with Landon
Laughing about inside jokes with my friends
Reading books
Having a jeans day at work
Going to bed early when I'm really tired (which is most of the time)
Eating chicken and rice or homestyle chicken at Cracker Barrel
Drinking Sweet Tea at Sonny’s
Holding hot chocolate in my hand when it’s cold outside
Taking my shoes off and lying on the couch when I get home from work
Knowing the house is clean and that even if I wanted to clean, I couldn’t find anything to do (this never happens)
Drinking out of fun glasses (I used to like to buy a new glass to drink out of when I made good grades on tests in college J)
Cherry coke with chunk cherries from Tastee Freeze in DeFuniak
Breadsticks from Mia’s
Lasagna from Mom and Dad’s restaurant
Waking up at least 30 minutes before your alarm goes off and getting to go back to sleep!
Going to sleep with the dishwasher running…especially if Landon’s not home
Sitting on Momma and Daddy’s bed while they pack for a trip
A space heater at my desk at work
Someone else cutting my toenails (I mean at the nail place - I would never wish this upon a friend I actually know - except Krista :) But, family has to make sacrifices)
The excitement of snow coming (which rarely ever happens)
Getting an unexpected refund check in the mail
Watching American Idol with Landon
Watching Landon with babies
Knowing the Gators play today
Doing Gator cheers at the game – and cheering as the team runs out for my favorite part when it says "Only Gators Get Out Alive"
The smell of Wise Equipment
Watching our family pull in the driveway to visit
Feeling like we’re in God’s will

I could think of a bunch more....but I guess this list will do for now :)

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

SOS: My Neck Problems

Okay, this is a call out to any friends. Email me, call me, leave me a comment. Whatever. If you have advice, I need it. I'm having a problem with my neck. I'm sure this has nothing to do with the fact that for the past 4 weekends, I've spent Saturday night in 4 different beds. I'm sure this has nothing to do with being completely stressed, or being pregnant, or having to sleep differently, or having to pack boxes, or anything else that's going on right now. The point is that yesterday morning (Tuesday) I woke up and cannot move my head to the left. It's really, really painful. I worked from home yesterday, so I tried to put ice on it. Well, truthfully, I put a heating pad on it, and then when I researched on the internet, it said, "Do not put heat on it." Whoops. Oh well. Too late. It said to put ice on it. I did. All day. Then today, I go to work. It is crazy painful - I mean bad. I really want to give it a couple of days to work itself out. I was going out of our conference room and was carrying an empty box. I accidentally ran into the side of the door frame with the box (because my balance and depth perception are not so good anymore), and that shot pain crazy down my neck - oh my word. I thought I was going to cry - and right then, a co-worker was walking down the hall. She came over to talk to me and asked what was wrong. I explained about my neck, and she rubbed it for me. She did a good job, and it felt not so tight when she left, but then it just felt tight again soon. I may have to go to the dreaded C word tomorrow. The Chiropractor. My parents have gone to chiropractors, and I know people all have different opinions about whether or not they really work. I just don't want to go because I don't want to pay any money. I'm not getting any x-ray. I don't want to go back for more than one visit. I just want him to fix it without making any weird popping noises with my neck or back. I need a remedy. A fast one. I also feel like I'm making the problem worse by turning my head more to the good side to like over correct, and then that's making the bad side even more tense. I know you do not need all this information. The point is: I am having a problem. It is taking up too much of my time and energy. I have to get focused back on packing and other situations. Please help. SOS. Does anyone have a suggestion?

Myriad of Updates - all Centered around MOVING

Ya'll, is Landon cute or what in this picture? He wore such a cute outfit to our closing on Friday, and look at how cute he is opening the front door! :) I asked him to pose for this picture, and can you believe he did? (after I took one picture and he made an ugly face instead of a sweet face) We did close on the house Friday. Things have been pretty busy - pretty busy would be an understatement. But, we've asked for some help - which is good. We have great church members helping us with blinds (which are very important) and cleaning - all happening this week! We did spend the night there on Saturday night, which was weird....and especially weird because there was no furniture except for the guest bed (which btw is extremely uncomfortable). We have a million things to do in what feels like such a short time. That's why I'm so thankful for the help we've received! Anyway....here's Landon...opening the door to our new chapter in life :)

On Saturday, Eric and Kelli came over and helped us pack/move all day. Our big move is still in another week and a half, but we wanted to get some stuff cleaned out, and we wanted to get the guest bed moved over to the new house. Eric and Landon moved heavy stuff all day, and Kelli helped me pack all day. It was exhausting! My mom said that Eric and Kelli help us with stuff so much we should pay for them to go on a vacation. HA! They are AWESOME friends, and they help us with a lot of stuff...so...if we could pay for them to go on a vacation....Eric and Kelli, I would pay for it!! I would send you on a cruise to wherever you want to go - you choose the destination! Anyway, here are Landon and Eric....carrying a bed down one of the steep flights of steps in our townhouse.

And, here's Kelli - we were packing in mine and Landon's bedroom. This box has all my shoes...plus the sweatband Kelli is wearing. Nice look, huh? She was probably sweating a lot because I kept turning the heat back up....but I promise i tried to leave it down most of the time!!
There's still a lot more to move, but the upstairs is pretty much packed and almost gone. And, the basement room is gone. I've packed some of the kitchen, but not all of it, and haven't packed anything else in the living room. I do think we've probably done the bulk of it, but it still feels so overwhelming!
A side note. We have to buy a mailbox. Our house does not have one (doesn't it always seems like there are little issues?). We have looked at Lowe's for a mailbox. Well, all the ones we like are enormous ones. I thought this one below was hilarious. What if you drove past someone's house and saw this mailbox, just like not a business, but in front of a residence? It has a lock and key. I think this would be the crazy funniest mailbox to buy.


That's it! I'll keep you posted with the moving/packing/being overwhelmed situation.