Application Day!!

Halloween.  Senior Night.  Final home football game.  Dart Wars.  Bonfires.

Quite the day if you are a senior at Little Miami.  I'm not sure anything could make it a busier day or a more stressful week.

Oh wait, it was Application Day at Ohio State!

So before all of the evening festivities began, Will dotted all the i's on his essay and we submitted his application.  The wait begins.  In just 60 short days, he'll know his future.  He's worried.  I'm not.  Not for one second.  

 

Not such a wonderful day in the Neighborhood.

Nothing says welcome to the neighborhood like an ambulance, fire truck and about a dozen officers.  But seriously, please say a prayer tonight for our neighbor who was hit by by a car just at the end of the cul-de-sac while she was out with her dog.

Toccoa and I will be a little more careful tomorrow when we head out for our walk.  

Yep, you're seeing it right.

Have you every seen 500 condoms?  Yes, 500 condoms.  Seem like a little overkill?  Not if you're using them to play BINGO.  Yep, it's all for an RA program.  Just imagine opening your email to find that picture!

Yummo!

It's the little things.  It's not the box at Will's feet or the bare walls.  It's the first home cooked dinner in the house.  With so many boxes left and work to do, it was the easiest dinner we could find...but it was made with Jeffs two hands and it was yummy!!  We're getting there.

It's only October!

Can you believe that they gave it to him already?

 Apparently, it's an incentive to keep working hard!  It came along with a t shirt, a coffee cup, a key chain.....and the order form for his cap and gown.  Oh heavens, it's only October!

Jeff says it's being presumptuous.  I say it's preparing us for the inevitable.  Either way, he's on cloud nine and I'm holding back tears!

The girls...

The worst part of moving?  I used to think it was the boxes, the chaos and the mess.  Then I realized it was the pets.  I can handle the boxes, the chaos, the empty fridge and searching for my socks.  The girls...well they don't handle it quite as well.  

Fancy seems to have settled in....

Toccoa looks as though we've moved her to a foreign country...

And Willow...well she's just a nut.  She's still pacing.....

Just five minutes!

Hahahaha!  It'll only take five minutes!

Apparently, he learned project timing from Jeff.  Add an hour for every five minutes they say it'll take.

But seriously, can I tell you how impressed I am that he put together his desk and his new television stand without asking for help.  Not that there was a doubt he could do it, but it used to be a complete lack of interest.

Now, if you took his phone away, it'd have been done in less than five seconds!

On a completely serious note, thank you will for all of your help this weekend.  Moving isn't fun or easy, but you were a HUGE help (especially with the puppies!).

We're in!

It moving day.

And we're so very tired.  Most everything has made it here that's coming right now.  But we have A LOT of work at both places still to do.

But tonight I'm enjoying a cocktail, counting down the minutes until I can crawl into bed.

All of the work will be here tomorrow.

The House Built with Love.

It's time to say goodbye.

Hunter has already spent his last night here and last night was Wills.  Tonight, Jeff and I will spend the last night in our home.  I know that we're moving to a new house, one that will be filled with laughter and love.  It'll be the place the kids visit on vacations and eventually bring their kids to visit.  It will allow us time to camp, travel, catch up on years worth of movies and maybe finish a puzzle or two.  It doesn't come with yard work or truck loads of firewood.  And trust me when I say, I'm excited for that!!  It'll be house we retire in (I hope!).  It'll be the house we make a home.

But I would be remiss if I didn't shed a tear or two tomorrow.  It's easy to walk away from the chores and the work, it's harder to walk away from the memories....

Walking through the woods trying to envision the house.  Hunter falling in the gravel driveway running to catch the bus.  The boys playing in the creek...and beating each other up on the back porch!  Poker at the fire table and spaghetti sauce on the ceiling.  "Hey, Mom" from the upstairs.  Bees in the basement and the wasps outside.  Heated wiffle ball games and our first movie in the theater room.  Seven's favorite spot to sleep.  The raccoon in the tree and the mice in the shed...and the cats that ran them all off!  Picking paint colors and plungers...for the horrible drain in the shower.  Craft room #1 and craft room #2.  Daycare kids and studio clients.  Sleep overs, prom parties, bonfires and surprise birthday parties.  Broken lights and the dreaded bonus room clean ups.  Baby birds, baby deer and baby bunnies.  And a coyote to challenge them all.  Bee traps and ant traps.  Tons of rock (literally).  Pitching practice and prom pictures.  Girl friends and best friends and play dates for the puppy.  Oh, and the pink paint!  Chasing the bird through the house with a fishing net...all thanks to the pizza guy.  Canceling our newspaper because after a year, they still couldn't find our house.  All because we lived in the forest...with the fox.  Hurricane Ike.  And let's not forget Will sneaking out to get a fish or Hunter entertaining the neighbors with his singing as he mowed the lawn.

It's impossible to list all of the memories.   Jeff promised us a house, but what he actually gave us was a home.  One filled with love and laughter.  Every nail.  Every board.  Walking out the door tomorrow will be the hardest thing I've ever done.

It's the last place we'll all call home.

It's all in the view.

So many boxes, so little time.  The movers arrive in less than 36 hours and man, have we got some more work to do.

But this view was worth a two minute break.  

2 days and counting......

I'm lovin' my oven!!

I got to spend a few hours today at the duck house, awaiting our new appliances.  It's amazing what a difference an oven can make.  Changes the whole look of the kitchen.  Can't wait to see it when they're all in!

Three days and counting......

Thank you, Bell.

If Bell can do it, so can I!  It's funny what you run across when you're packing up.  This book should be all packed up with the Christmas stuff...so I'm taking it as a sign that it wasn't.  And if that wasn't a sign we should move, the heat pump dying this morning definitely is.

4 days and counting.....

Bye Bye

Goodbye brass, hello awesome!

We made great use of the time spent waiting for Time Warner.  Two lights done, four more to go.  But what a HUGE difference they've made.  

5 days and counting.....

Very helpful.

Thankfully, I have the cat to help me pack!

6 days and counting.....

Welcome.

Every day it feels a little more like home.  Especially when I get to decorate it with the little "house warming" gift that Jeff got.  And there's a Christmas one too!

Seven days and counting....

Here we go.

 

Let the countdown commence.  Eight nights (and seven days) to get the rest of the house packed and ready for the movers.  I'd love to say we were ready....but we're anything but.  Thankfully, we have two full days this weekend.  Here's to hoping that helps put a dent in it.  

If I go more than two days without blogging, please call to make sure I didn't fall into a box.  

Wish us luck, we're going to need it.

Go away.

Rain, rain go away!  I know I'm not the only one that can't take another day of it, right?  The lawn needs mowed.  We need to get Will's fall pictures finished.  Unfortunately, the leaves are going away with the wind.  Or in todays case, came crashing down with the tree that fell.

It feels like Spring....but I know that warm, balmy weather isn't going to follow this rainy season.  But mostly, I'm just tired of this being my view.  If i have to work, at least the sun could shine in my window.

Getting started.

No school day!  We had brunch, played at the duck house and laughed and talked.  Then we headed home so Will could get to work.  He's on a deadline, you know.

What do you say on the day your baby starts applying to college?  

I've been at a loss for words all night.  I thought I would have something witty or funny to say by the time I sat down to write this.  Or maybe something insightful.  Words that would express how quickly time passes and that this, like all things, is just one step in the walk of raising children.

Instead, I have random thoughts.  I'm speechless.  Stunned.  Terrified.  Proud.  Nervous.  Excited.  Worried.  Thrilled.  Old.  Not that old.  Did I mention proud already?  

While he may have mumbled "I hate this" several times, I know he was as excited as excited could be.  He's ready.  Now let's just home that Ohio State is ready for him!!

 

Crap, I forgot again!

The good news?  We had a fabulous weekend!

We ordered the new appliances for the duck house.  We picked new light fixtures (although I don't know that Jeff had a "fabulous" time with that!).  We got to stay up late, watch football, sleep in...it was awesome.  Oh, and we got a request for a showing on the house tomorrow.  It really was awesome!

Unfortunately, I was so busy having fun that I forgot to take a picture or capture any of it.  So tomorrow I'm putting Will and Hunter in charge of providing a picture or two so I can get back on track.  The whole away at camp thing has really thrown me off.

So tomorrow, I promise to be back with something grand!  Ok, maybe not grand, but at least acceptable :D

Go Panthers!

Its Homecoming!  

I'm not sure why Homecoming always seem to bring nasty weather with it, but it does.  Normally it's just cold.  This year, it's cold and pouring rain.  It really doesn't draw you out to the game, but then again, neither does our football team.

So when Will decided to stay in to watch Arrow...I wasn't all that surprised.  I mean, who wants to stand in the rain for hours, cheering for a team that hasn't won a game (or lead a quarter) in two years?  Oh, wait.  That is Will.  He was home for 10 minutes when he decided that crappy weather wasn't going to keep him from enjoying his last Homecoming football game....win or lose. 

It wasn't until he was out the door that he words sunk in.  It's our first last.

The irony.

Even the fortune cookie writer is a smart a$$.  As though we don't have enough sarcasm in this house.....

You stink.

Hahaha!

I was so proud of myself for blogging on Monday that I totally forgot to blog last night.  I'm really stinking at this lately!  So it's either a sign that I have nothing to say (which is NEVER the case) or that life is so chaotic that I can't even remember the everyday things.  I'm thinking it's the later.

Most of what's keep me so busy are the STUPID STINK BUGS!

Luckily, they're confined to the sun room and the living room, but dear heavens, I can't take anymore.  I've been chasing them around to capture them in water bottles all day long.  Jeff thinks I'm crazy, but it works.  The poor little things don't see it coming!

But watching them crawl outside my window all day is really starting to creep me out.  When's the first freeze?

It's been soooooo long!!

Holy vacation, Batman!!  I've been gone for a while.  Did you miss me?  I have to admit, I missed looking at pictures from our day....now matter how lame they could be.  But never fear, I might not have blogged over my break, but I definitely didn't forget to take lots of pictures!

So here it is in a nutshell!

We took a short road trip to drop this one off....

With this one.

Then this one...

and I headed to camp where I could do this for the weekend.

And Jeff did all the "camp" work....like cleaning the outside of the camper.  This was all I got to help with that, lol.  I offered to help, but something about the boot on a ladder didn't appeal to Jeff.

 After an incredibly long property owners meeting, Jeff had to come home.  Which left me with 3+ days of free time to do this....

and this....

  And when I wasn't working on that, I was driving the golf cart around to enjoy this....

 And whenever I got a little lonely, I just spent my time talking to this one.  He was awesome and visited each and every afternoon!

By late in the week, I had to sneak away from camp just to join civilization for a bit.  So I scoured the antique stores in Logan for an afternoon (boot and all!).  Here were my awesome findings...

I wanted to bring them home for the Duck House...but Jeff didn't think they were nearly as cool as I did.  I also found this....

And when you stare at it for a bit and figure it out (and how funny it is!), you'll know that it took everything I had not to buy it for a certain Notre Dame fan for Christmas :D  

The next day, they all arrived!!  We spent Saturday passing out candy (in 10 layers of clothes!) to all the trick or treaters!  I'm not sure who had more fun..but I do know who ate the most Sour Patch Kids and Swedish Fish!

After an evening of football and a morning of getting camp ready to close, we had to say our goodbyes.  And in case you were wondering, it takes this....

And this...

 to get this....

  Then we all had to say goodbye.  The golf cart was neatly stowed.  All ready to come tearing out in the Spring.

 The camper all closed up.

So the season is over and it was a wonderful ten days that I got to spend there to end it.  So until April, here are my thoughts on that....

Now, it's time to prepare for a move, Thanksgiving, Christmas and snow.  My parting thoughts?  Only 190 days until we can open back up for the season!