Here We Go!

So, we are finally leaving today. We have been in Denton for three weeks getting my Mom and daughter settled. We have also been enjoying the flu or similar virus. The van is packed with everything I think we will need for 3-6 months. This is definitely a bitter sweet day. I am going to miss my little girl that has grown up all the sudden, My mom who I have never lived more than 45 miles away from, and my son who has grown up and out of the house. I will be back when the Grandbaby comes. I am excited to get to be with my husband of 9 yrs this month (can you believe it?), I have always dreamed of traveling around and seeing different places. I am excited that the kids will have this opportunity to see the USA.

I sit here, online writing when I should be putting everyone and the last few bags in the van and leaving. No one else seems to be eager to wake up and go. Well, I should use these last few moments before waking everyone in prayer. I'll try to update and post pics from the road!

Nobody's Counting

Ok so, we have 14 days till we are out of this house! I really can't believe it is happening so fast. We will spend 3ish weeks in our hometown visiting friends and family, and doing stuff we've missed for the past 16 mths. Then we will be off to wherever Hubby is. We have had to put off buying our truck for a few months, but our countdown to having one and buying our trailer is ON!

Now, we are at the hard part of packing, what do we need for 14 more days? What do we need for the next 14 mths?? Everything I take to Denton, is everything we will take on the road with us. Everything else must stay here in storage.

I figure there are stores in every part of the country so IF we realize we need something we can just buy it right?? Which reminds me I am off to buy blue jean baby diapers for the grandbaby. Have you seen these?? They are adorable! Almost makes me want another baby. If you have a baby you gotta get some!

Skeptic and Familly Building

Ok, so I am a skeptic, and I despise video games. One of my biggest pet peeves is to see a grown man sitting around after work or on the weekends playing video games. My next pet peeve is to see children or even men sitting in a dr.'s office, bank, grocery store, wherever, playing a handheld video game. I also cannot stand to have to Wait on my children to finish a level to be able to save their status or whatever. For the record I DO not allow them to do that if I am needing them right away. I am proud to be the worlds meanest Mom.

We have owned in our house several different versions of game players. They usually stayed in their "home" in the closet. Occasionally we would pull them out and play all day or two, then back they'd go. At most the kids had 2-4 games to choose from.

Now we enter into the age of the Wii. The interactive, family fun advertisements, health benefits could Not sell or buy me. We were Not getting one. I was not spending that kind of money on something that would sit in the closet.

Suddenly, this late winter I decided we would go ahead and buy one of these things. We would not buy any games, we would use only Wii sports. On any child's birthday they could pick a game as a gift. This will add up to a whole library as we still have 5 children at home. Each with their own birthday. This brings me to my next topic.

Family Building, I have to say that I put strict rules on the use of our Wii. We only play at nite after dinner. This way, when I loose focus and forget what I have asked, told or assigned to any given child, I don't have to contend with the game system.

After dinner has worked well, we work off dessert, the kids are more worn out and they are limited on time. I have been known to accept bribes for daytime use. (hey I have alot of stuff needing to be done before the move)

What I have been the most surprised about the whole Wii ownership is family building. The kids all play, share, take turns so well. For Avy's birthday yesterday we got her Disney Sing It. This is the Best investment so far. We have sang, danced, laughed, and just had the best time with this game. Everyone seems to get along so well when we are playing the Wii. I even bought a special bag to carry our Wii, so it can travel with us. The skeptic in me, is still there, I am sketical of every game on the shelves at gamestop as I sneak a visit all by myself several times a week.

32 days

Well, we have 32 days left until we vacate our house. The final countdown in ON! We are all so excited, but so busy and tired as well. The kids are in swimming lessons so I won't have so much to worry about while spending the summer in hotels. Maybe, just maybe we can relax at the pool alot. I am taking a few days to pull myself together and making some list. Hopefully everything will run smoothly from here on out. I'll try to post more, but not much excitement here lately.

Stuck On Hold

Today I was making calls to the utility company, cable company, truck rental company for my mom's new apartment. I was on hold more than I wasn't and that is when I realized this feeling I've had is that I am stuck on hold. We can't move until June 10th when Mom's apartment is available. After that We can't leave until camp for Chase is over on July 3rd. I am leaving my home here the day we move mom. No need to come back to an empty house, and pay all that rent. We've done about all the downsizing we can do. I don't want to do the final scrub on the house or paint just yet we still have 6 weeks left before we leave. So, here I am stuck on hold. The kids start swimming lessons next week, that will be two days a week or maybe four that we will have something to do. I don't have alot of money to spend to do things as I have to save to get a truck to travel with before July 3rd. We have been spending alot more family time together playing games, playing wii, reading outloud and a ton of other things to keep our boring days going. We are all so excited that it is making time go by so slow. I am sure that in a few weeks I'll have a post that says "where did all the time go?" but for now it is barely ticking away.

In other news did I mention I am going to be a Grammy?? Yep we have our first Grandbaby due in Dec. We are soo excited!! That does kind of throw a hitch in our coming home for Christmas plans, we'll have to be home when baby comes and may not be able to stay for actual Christmas. Oh well, what a better Christmas gift than a brand new grandbaby???

ALL OR NOTHIN BABY ALL OR NOTHIN!

If you were to ask my husband what quality he loves the least about me his answer would be my All or Nothing take to life. You see he says I can't do anything a little at a time, it always has to be all or nothing. Now, why that bugs him I can't figure out. I mean to me it says I am not a quitter, I can get things accomplished, and many other things. The opinion of three different dr.s it has been called OCD.

What does this have to do with getting ready to be on the road full time? Well, the first conversation Mike and I had about traveling together he was concerned that this would be one of my all or nothin moments. He said it would take atleast a yr to get everything worked out. Well, I love a good challenge and I assured him it would take less than 6 months. Yep, because I am an All or nothin type girl. I see no point in doing anything half way. So, I got busy. Decided the budget and how we could make it work. Then I started putting it all into play. The first thing was to stop spending money on stuff we don't need. I decided that April 1st would be our time to put it all into action. I paid all the bills and didn't buy a single thing that wasn't' needed, by the 2nd payday of the month I was able to put almost the entire check into savings.

Now that I was able to stick to that, I needed to work on step two. Finding an apartment for my mom. That was easy and was done and secured in less than 3 business days. She will move in June 11th.

Step three weeding thru our belongings. Now, this is a step that I had decided was Not going to be an All or Nothin moment. I was going to go thru things a little at a time. Freecycle, craigslist, garage sale.com etc the stuff we no longer needed or wanted. I did really really well for about a week. I then had a frightening thought there was No way with the amount of stuff I needed to rid of that I would be done in enough time. So, I decided on a Wed afternoon to have a garage sale starting Thurs. Oh well, there is only so much self control a girl can handle. My all or nothin proved to be profitable, and some what successful. What would have taken me weeks to do and would have bogged me down has now turned into cash that I have already deposited into savings.

Now pretty much all that I have left is our keepsakes, what we are taking on road, and a few items left to go to charity.

So, onto step 4 getting the house ready to move out of. This week will be spent cleaning and getting ready to paint. Hopefully within two weeks I will be able to sit and relax with out much "stuff" in my way to distract me from what I am finding is really important. I am hoping to spend the last few weeks in this town doing the things we haven't done and not worrying about the house being a mess or keeping up with all the clutter b/c it is all gone!!

BTW, if you ask what my husband loves most about me? His answer would be my ability to see that things get done, and they way I am able to take care of everything no matter how much money he brings home. Everyone has what they need when they need it and he doesn't have to worry about it. See, he does love me best for my All or Nothin! take on this life.

Just Stuff! Right?

Freecycle, garagesales.com, craigslist, friends, the list goes on for putting my life in bags and handing it all away. I realize that the ones sitting, drooling over the sites on their computers have No idea what I am doing, that I am offering them everything materialistic that I own. Things I have had for over 20 yrs. Things I bought just two weeks ago. It all has to go. None of it is really worth much, but it is my stuff, my life, my home. Most of it will be freecycled if I can keep up with finding who wants what. The thing that is increasingly irritating is the responses of "What's your address, sit it outside and I'll be right there" and that is all they say. Then the next response will be " My granny got run over by a train and and and and so I really need those book shelves or my granny will never recover" I mean really! Whatever happened to " Hi, I saw that you were offering your children's clothes and we'd like to take them off your hands. Thank you very much?" But nope hardly any of those. I know it is all just stuff, but My stuff that I will no longer have. I just want it to go to someone who will appreciate it. Am I asking too much? Am I just too attached to what is just stuff? Should I just load it all up and take it to Goodwill???? After all I am searching for the liberation of it all and to not have to store the things that the rust and moths will destroy. I am looking forward to storing up a stronger relationship with my husband and my kids without all the stuff in the way. For me that is far more eternal, but for now this is still my stuff!

Overwhelmed

That is exactly how I feel. Trying to keep the house, educate children, sort through everything we own, pay bills, get kids to cubscouts, teach a teen to drive, yeah you get the picture. I just need someone to tell me what to do first, next, and last. It wouldn't help however, because something always comes up. Like not only did J have cub scouts today, he has box car races tomorrow and a meeting on Sunday. I signed the kids up for swimming lessons today to add to all my madness. I do find this one very important as we will be spending July - January in hotels and swimming is a good way to keep the cabin fever down, I think, I will let you know how that goes. I have looked at so many travel trailers that I don't' even care which one we get anymore.

As for ridding of our earthly possessions, well, I don't have time for the headache of a real garage sale. I can't seem to find time to list on craigslist, or garagesales.com. I have freecycled away quite successfully. Oh, and why is it that as soon as you pull something out the kids are suddenly IN LOVE with it? Esp that junk that you didn't have the heart or time to trash 6 mths earlier, but they had no interest in then?

Well, I have wasted enough time here today. I am going to try to get pics up later, if I can figure it out.

My New Adventure

This Blog, yep this blog is my new adventure. I hope I can keep up with it. About us, I am Kristie mom to 6 wonderful children, and wife to a wonderful husband Mike. This blog will tell our story as we have an Extreme Family Home Makeover. Mike has traveled working on wind turbines for the past year. It has been a challange for me as I feel like a single parent married to a paycheck. We decided after our vacation this year that we really need to be together as a family. The kids have missed their daddy something terrible, as he has missed them. So we decided what is best for our family is to sell our earthly belongings and hit the road together. We will travel with him beginning this summer and hopefully purchase a travel trailor to make into our "home" in the spring. Everyone has asked "Where will you go?" "How long will you be there?" Well, no one in this industry really knows. So, follow us here as we go Where ever the wind blows.