"It is my job to make sure that you grow up to be a productive member of society and not a burden to it!" ~ my dad.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Home Sweet Home

For family, friends and followers, I thought you might like to see some pics of the warm & comfortable place the Lord saw fit to land us while we work through our financial difficulties. We have been blessed with a very loving & generous family who were more than happy to take us in.

This is the home we live in.

This is the street we live on. At the end of the street is farmland.

At the other end of the street is farmland also. This is the view from our driveway.

If you look in the middle of the picture, you'll see a small batch of evergreen trees - waaaaay back there.

That's the Arlington Cemetery. I love walking through cemeteries (in daylight) and reading the headstones. There is such a history on those blocks of stone. I'll be covering more on the Arlington Cemetery in a later post.

Punky playing in the side yard. She has no idea that it's COLD outside and she really should be wearing more appropriate outerwear. I mean, really, where is her mother?!

If I understand correctly, that green stuff covering the ground is called "grass". They say it's pretty easy to grow around here. Being an Arizona girl, I wouldn't know about these things.
Until next time...Love to you all!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

WFMW

Organization Bins, Boxes & More!

I could not survive without my organizational items. I about fainted the first time I walked into an Organized Living store. I thought for sure the Mother Ship had called me home. I won't tell you what happened when I first discovered IKEA. This is, afterall, a family friendly site.

I will use any excuse to go to the storage section of a store and snatch up the latest, cutest, handiest little square box, cloth bin or set of drawers. For instance, I am not a jewelry-kinda-girl. I'm probably one of five women on earth who actually tells my husband NOT to buy me jewelry. As a result, I do not have one of those sophisticated, grown-up, faux-velvet lined jewelry boxes. Instead, I have this:

And because my daughter has more-than-her-fair-share of hair, she also has more-than-her-fair-share of hair accessories (okay, I'm a bit addicted to the hair pretties). I have found those little compartment trays work perfectly for keeping her barrettes and smaller items neatly arranged. Another three-drawer unit works great for her larger hair ties and headbands.

Here's a tip: Go to a hardware store to look for these little bins first before heading out to your local craft or scrapbooking store. They sell the same exact thing to men for less! Go figure!

Since we have moved in with my IL's, all four of us are sharing one bathroom. Albeit a large bathroom, but still. In one closet I needed to find room for myself, hubby, two little ones, medicine cabinet items and cleaning supplies. Yikes!

I simply could not have all of these items just thrown in there willy-nilly. Walmart $2.50 bins to the rescue! This is only half the closet. The organized half!

Target has a nice selection of closet organizers, as does Lowes' and Home Depot. There is also as assortment of cute and colorful cloth bins to keep your stuff hidden yet easily accessible. The unit below is in the kids' room. The different bins hold a selection of various toys. This also helps to make clean-up easier for the kids.

Your organizational items needn't be just square or plastic. They can just as easily be decorative as well. I found these silver topped glass jars on the sale table at Pottery Barn years ago. They are perfect for my bath salts and cotton balls. The poodle bin holds yet another stash of my daughter's hair accessories as does the little crystal jar.

The three vintage soap dishes help designate a spot for a few of my pretty things while adding a bit of shabby style. You can easily find items like these at garage sales or thrift shops. The white one on the right (holding the butterfly clasp) I found at a thrift store and was originally brass. I simply spray-painted it white giving it new life! My brother taught me that anything, anything, can be painted. So give that dingy old thing a second look before you pass it by and simply envision a new coat of paint on it. You'll be glad you did!
And that's what Works For Me!

Check out a slew of other great ideas over at Rocks In My Dryer.

My other Works For Me Wednesday posts:

A Place for Necklaces

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Playing Catch Up

Wow! So much in the last week - I just can't even put it all in words. I thought I'd share a little of our last moments in Arizona and the first few minutes in our new home state.

We had several angels straight from heaven come to help us with the last minute details, packing and loading. I don't know how we'll ever be able to repay them for their generosity of spirit and friendship. This I do know - we will pay it forward. :)

My friend, Anita, helped on more than one occasion. She, along with my friend Katie and step-mom Jackie just took charge of the packing and had us ready to go in record time.
Anita's hubby, Leonard, was probably our biggest angel. He helped in so many ways even going so far as to help some of my relatives load some of our furniture they had purchased onto their vehicles. I'm not kidding when I say this, he had a smile on his face the entire time!

Originally, Paul rented a 16ft truck. It quickly became apparent when the boxes started piling up in the front room that 16 feet was not going to cut it. He called the rental place to order a 22ft only to find out they were out of them. The next size up was 26 feet. Don't you know, we filled that 26 footer to the edge!



Go Team Penske! Those bookcases ended up getting left behind because we were so packed!


The men set off for Nebraska on Wednesday night. My mother-in-law, myself and the kids were due to leave the next morning. We stayed the night at my IL's winter place. Punky, for reasons unknown to me, chose to sleep in between the bed and wall.

Here we are at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, AZ. Because I had lost my wallet the evening before (turns out, it was accidentally packed and loaded on the truck), I had to go through "extra" security at the airport. The people of Southwest Airlines at the ticket counter we so helpful, so considerate, so professional. I didn't expect such wonderful treatment. The wonderful treatment continued even through security where all of our bags were hand searched and I had to have a pat-down search. The TSA agents were courteous, respectful and friendly. Even during what was a hectic experience and the frustration of losing my wallet, God showed me His light through the people I encountered. My MIL and I both commented that we had the most enjoyable airport experience of our lives. Thank you, Lord!
On a funny note: because I carried The Boy through security (as opposed to my MIL carrying him), he had to be subjected to a pat-down search as well. There is nothing quite like seeing an almost-two-year-old standing shoulder-width apart, arms spread and getting frisked! He was not amused!

As a result, the little one was pretty tuckered an hour into the flight. Thankfully, so was his sister. They were both perfect angels on the plane.
Okay, that's not entirely true. The Boy did cry out a couple of times and kicked the heck out of the seat in front of us once waking the poor sleeping lady in front of us. But, other than that, perfect angels!

Our first glimpse of Omaha from the plane. We have begun settling in quite nicely and trying, as best we can, to get used to the cold. It's going to take a year or two for our thin Arizona blood to thicken up.
Well, The Boy is ready to go to bed so I must be off. I'll keep you posted on our new adventure. I hope you continue to keep up with me. We'll take this journey together, I hope. Afterall, you make great company!

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Where We're Headed.

In case some of you were wondering just where my family and I are headed, please allow me to show you:

View Larger Map

It's a darling little town roughly thirty minutes outside of Omaha, Nebraska called Arlington. Population 1,189.

I said little and I meant it.

I said darling and I meant that, too!

Arlington has one public school K-12 with a student body of just over 600 and was named one of BusinessWeek.com's 2007 Best Places in America to Raise Your Kids.

That's all I have for now. When I get there, I will show you around the place a little more and we'll get to know some of the fine folks in Arlington together. I hope you'll join me!

Thursday, November 6, 2008

The Evidence is Mounting

Closets being emptied:

Boxes beginning to pile up:

House in a complete disarray:


Preparations for yet another garage sale:
Yep, the evidence is clear. We are definitely moving!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Tuesday To-Do List



1. VOTE!!!
2. Laundry
3. Clean out & pack spare bedroom upstairs.
4. Continue listing items on Craigslist.
5. Pack game room closet.
6. Declutter counter in laundry room.

What's on your list today?

Update: Well, I'm cutting myself some slack today since I woke up to find I had a sick daughter to take care of. Luckily, my MIL came over and spent the day helping out with her. I still got a considerable amount done, it just wasn't on my list. I ended up spending a couple of hours out in the garage helping my hubby sort out what we are keeping and what we are tossing out. Still lots to do and not a whole lot of time to do it in. We'll get there, I'm sure.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Onward And Upward!


Well, I think it's high time I tell you what's been going on around here. Since I've told most all of my friends and family, it's time to let you in on it. We're moving.

The recession has come knocking on our door (barged right in, really) and our financial and employment situations are such that we can no longer afford to stay where we are. My in-laws, God bless 'em, have offered to let us move in with them for free until we get back up on our feet.

The only catch is: they live in Nebraska.

So we are Husker country bound in less than two short weeks.

I've been busy, as you know, getting rid of lots of excess stuff, deciding what furniture to keep and delicately telling friends and family. Everyone pretty much understands as the recession is knocking on a lot of doors.

I have complete confidence that the Lord is working in my life and not satan messing with it. And even if he was - so what? The enemy has nothing on me and cannot throw anything at me that the Lord cannot overcome.

No, the Lord clearly has His hands on the wheel and is steering us down what I know will be a wonderfully blessed path. Please, stay tuned as I will fill you in on more details later to come. I, at least, wanted to get this much out.