Working Hard vs. Hardly Working

Brian and I have been trying lately to get some stuff out of our storage shed to be sold. That way, we can pay off more of my student loans, get us a second car, pay off his car, basic bills and such. When Brian and his sister attempted to open a liquor store, they spent over $1500 on shelving units. When the business didn't go through, we were stuck trying to store all of those shelves. So we bought a contract and started leasing out a storage unit. Last week, I listed the shelves, with 4 pictures on craigslist and within 48 hours, I had a guy interested in them. What is unusual is that he would be willing to come from central Missouri to us to get them. He was really interested! Last night, Brian called him and worked out some of the details (like the numbers/dimensions that I didn't know) and said that he was going to stop by sometime on Monday morning.

Today, we went over to his parents' house to get some pictures of some stuff they wanted me to list online. So, I grabbed the pictures that I needed and got some information about the items. When we all got back home, I got a phone call from another man about all of the shelves. I told him that we already had a potential buyer, but if Buyer #1 didn't take them on Monday, that I would give him a call and he could come get them. He's from OKC, so the drive is much better! It looks like either way, by mid-afternoon tomorrow, I should have half of my storage space free!!! I also have about 10 other ads on craigslist for things from a picture to alcohol bar signs (decoration aforementioned liquor store). His mom wants to sell 2 water troughs from the horses they used to have. His sister wants me to list her two dogs and all of their accessories (dog houses, automatic dog feeder, bathtub). I worked out the math for our items. If we get our asking price on everything that I have for sale (except for my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law's stuff), we will get just over $2300!! That would be AMAZING!!!! Now maybe we might could get the Kindle that we had to pass up on Valentine's Day...

No mice, just the droppings

So, I spent all day yesterday (after only 4 hours of sleep) cleaning out storage sheds. Fun, right? No, not really. You see, it would have been better if I hadn't been so emotional. Monday night, Brian and I stayed up until about 3am alphabetizing his ENTIRE DVD collection. There are well over 500 movies/tv series/documentaries in his entire collection. This has been a project that he has wanted to get done for a while, but we finally sat down and took the time to do it. He has me alphabetize the stacks of them while he puts them on the shelf and makes sure they are all facing the same direction. No big deal. Until about 2am when I start reversing the alphabet. Trying to figure out which "Battle-----" went first was not something we should have left until the very end, but the good thing is, they are done. We will have to do it again when we move because we add to our movie collection daily (I'm horrible at math, but I think it all averages out to about 1 movie a day). He was so excited that we were finally caught up, and I felt a huge sense of relief, too!

Back to the sheds...Brian has a whole bunch of stuff at his sister's house. This week is Dump Week here in town. You can use the city dump for free all week long, so that becomes the perfect time for the family to clean out the sheds and the stuff in the house that doesn't ever get cleaned because of time or life happening around it. We had so much crap piled up to take the dump that it took 3 trailer loads to get it all there. And one trailer to get the stuff that we wanted donated to the Community Thrift. Guess what? There is still more stuff, in the other shed. :) Yay for family hoarding!!!! lol really though, you don't know how much stuff you accumulate until you go to get rid of it and remember that you have it to begin with.

Miracle of miracles, yesterday, we found a TON of mice crap everywhere, on a lot of the boxes and huge plastic bins, but absolutely no mice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I'm exhausted.

Recovery

OH. MY. GOODNESS. It has been such a long weekend! It's been great, but very long! It all started Thursday night. The kids went over to Nana's house to spend the night, which was a blessing in disguise, simply because I didn't have to cook dinner that night. I got a phone call on Thursday night from Brian that said that he would be working until 3 am. It wasn't really a problem, except he and I were driving to Tulsa on Friday to pick up Andrew to spend the weekend with us. So, I went to bed to catch some ZZZ's before the 4 hour trip. I hate going to bed without my man. It does not make it easy to sleep. Anyway, we finally get back home from the trip, the kids come home, and Brian goes back to work. I spend most of Friday cleaning the kitchen, boiling eggs for the kids to color, making a huge pan of baked mac and cheese for Easter family dinner, then cooking dinner for us. Then, we are up late because Jim, Brian's brother, came over after he got off work, and Brian finally gets home. Of course we have to have the obligatory Nerf Wars (which is an adventure in and of itself. There is only one, put it on your bucket list!). Finally,  I can sleep again.

Saturday morning, we get up and get all dolled up for Easter dinner with the family. Spend the morning there, celebrating Easter, E's birthday, Grandy's birthday, Naw's birthday, and the birth of my new nephew. So then, back home to clean the kitchen from Friday's cooking.

This morning, we had to skip the Easter service at church to take Andrew back home. Brian worked late again last night, so both of them slept in the car while I drove the whole way. Brian and I had enough time to relax after we got back and before he left for work again today, so we did! It was a great break. Other than that, I have done a whole lot of nothing, trying to gear up for this week. A told me tonight that he is having the OK standardized testing this week. Math on Wednesday, and Reading on Thursday. E will probably have a practice run-through. She's only in 2nd grade, and they start counting in 3rd grade. So next year, if she doesn't pass (which, Brian and I have the highest confidence that she will), she will be repeating the year. This one is just a preview, if you will, of what is to come.


Busy life, but I wouldn't trade it for the world! I love my family.

In Loving Memory

In memory of a life so beautifully lived, a heart so deeply loved 

There is a memory candle that gets lit every week at my support group, and this is what the candle holder says. I think that it is fitting, considering the last week.

Yesterday morning, I found out that my great-uncle Field had passed away of a heart attack on Monday night. Please, be with my family as we celebrate the life he lived. We are honored to be related to this wonderful man, who loved his family and God more than anything else. It is sad for us, but we all know without a doubt that he is celebrating Holy Week and Easter in Heaven with the Lord of Lords, and he is so happy about it!

Brian and I are working on our family trees, to combine them for the wedding. I needed some information about my great grandmother, so I dug back into my Senior Scrapbook from high school and found what I was looking for. In her funeral paper thing (I really have no idea what it's called, but it is the paper that they give you that tells you a little bit about the deceased person's life, like her birthday), there was a poem that was printed on it. I wanted to take a moment and share it with you:

I AM FREE

Don't grieve for me, for now I'm free. 

I am following the path God laid for me. 

I took His hand when I heard Him call, 

I turned my back and left it all.

I could not stay another day, to laugh, 

to love, to work or play.

Tasks undone must stay that way.

I found that peace at the close of the day.

If my parting has left a void, then fill it

with remembered joy.

A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss, 

ah, these things I too, will miss. 

Be not burdened with time of sorrow,

I wish for you the sunshine of tomorrow.

My life's been full, I savored much,

good friends, good times, a loved one touched.

Perhaps my time seemed all too brief,

Don't lengthen it now with undue grief.

Lift up your hearts and share with me,

God wanted me now, He set me free.

With all the two deaths of family members that we have survived these last few days, I have to remember that we are not crying for them. They are no longer in pain, they aren't hurting or sick anymore. We are crying for us. AND IT'S OKAY. Crying is one of the most healing things that you can do, so if it helps you to cry, then please cry!! 

Getting back to normal

I can not wait until our lives get back to "normal". This funeral stuff is so stressful. Yesterday, I spent some time going through the kids' closets trying to find something acceptable for them to wear to the funeral tomorrow. I finally find them. We got up this morning and bought E's shoes, too. Then, I spent about an hour today ironing Aaron's clothes, Brian's clothes, and another shirt. Finally, I had to hand-sew a bead back on to my dress. I'm so tired.

We gave the kids the option of either going to school tomorrow or going to the funeral. They decided to go to the funeral, but not because they don't like school. In fact, when we pulled them out on Friday morning, E was constantly worried about the tests she was missing that day. It made me realize that to adults, second grade tests are really inconsequential in our daily lives; but to a second grader, it was a major stressor. I need to remember this when they have things at school that are important to them. Even though it really isn't that big of deal for them in the grand scheme of things, it is important to them because it is happening now. I know that Brian was really glad they chose to go to the funeral with us. He was hoping that they would want to go, so that they could say goodbye to Grandad and so that they could possibly meet other family members that they had not known previously. E seriously considered going to school, and had told us that she would rather go to school. But then, she let A talk her into going to the funeral to meet more family. A is just like his daddy, always wanting to meet his family and have family time. I love that (and more) about both of them!

Once things settle back down for us, I think I will do a post about some book reviews. I've done a lot of reading lately, and maybe I can inspire someone to pick up a good book...

The Circle of Life

On Sunday, March 25, 2012, Brian's sister and her husband welcomed their 3rd child into the world! Mike is a beautiful, healthy baby boy. He was 7 pounds, 3 ounces and 19.5 inches long. We are so excited to have another super little one around!! He's so adorable!!

On Friday, March 30, 2012, Brian's Gradad (his grandpa) passed away at 9:39 am of cancer. He lived a long, full life, spent serving his country in World War II and creating a wonderful family with his wife.

The kids left for school on the bus at about 7:30 that  morning, and Brian and I were trying to become fully awake when we get a phone call from Nana saying that Grandad is in the hospital and he isn't expected to make it the rest of the day. We stay at home long enough to wake up a little more, shower, run by the library, and get the kids from school before we drive down to Moore to say goodbye to Grandad. We explain to the kids on the way what is going on, and because they are so young, they don't really understand all of it. We are about halfway to Moore when we get another phone call on my cell saying that Grandad had passed away. Because Brian was driving, I answer the phone, and was told to tell him the news. It's one of the hardest things I've ever had to say to him. We had expected this for a while, but it still hurts.
Throughout the course of the day, we had family who had to go back to work that afternoon, and the kids were really bored, so we sent them back home with Aunt K. Most of the extended family leaves, but say that they will be back later that night. We have to meet at the funeral home to finalize arrangements at 2:30, and while we are killing time waiting on that to happen, conversation turns to some OK government official, mayor, I think. It gets brought up that his son shot himself and it becomes a focal point of the conversation. Brian looks over at me and asks me, "Are you okay, sweetie?" By him asking that, immediately, I'm not okay. I would have been a little upset but able to hide it if he hadn't asked me. So, I start crying and I'm hurting. It then has to be explained to everyone else in the room why I'm so upset at a general conversation about a man's suicide. Everybody apologized a lot, and I told them that I was okay, and that its just one of those things that is going to happen from time to time. I would rather this conversation happen with family than with strangers who don't care if they upset me. The rest of the day, however, I don't stop thinking about Chris. I can't help it. Grandad's funeral on Monday will be the first funeral that I've been to since Chris' in 2011.
At 2:30, when we go to the funeral home, we walk in the door of the lobby and immediately, I'm back in that place, mentally, where I was when I helped with Chris' arrangements. Almost everybody goes back into the back office when it's time, and they invite me to come with them. I decide to stay in the lobby. I don't want to go back in there. Part of it was out of respect. They all knew Grandad way more than I ever did, but part of it was selfish reasons. I didn't want to be put in the same position of helping make different decisions about something I was not ready to make.

Yesterday was such a long day. This whole week has been really long. Brian has gone to OKC every day this week, and he is exhausted. Then he losses his grandfather. Thankfully, he got yesterday off of work to spend time with the family.

I'm sad. We will need one less boutonniere at our wedding, and one more little silver candle of remembrance. We will cherish the memories that we had of our lost loved ones. We will always remember the love that was shared between us. We will continue to welcome new life into our family.

decorations!!

Mom emailed me a picture tonight of one of the wedding aisle decoration bouquets! I was so excited that I had to post a picture on Facebook, and on here as well! Plus, this way I can pin it to Pinterest and hopefully other brides can use it (or a variation of it) for their wedding! So yes, please pin to Pinterest, if you feel inclined to do so!

  

The only thing that this is missing is the ribbon to tie it to the chair!!! Thanks, mom!!!