I'm exhausted and I've only just begun! Dad took Grandpa to the Seattle airport today. They had to leave around 6 a.m. to get Grandpa there for his 10:55 a.m. flight. It was a direct flight to Dallas on American Airlines. Erin texted me that he'd arrived safely and was in good spirits. Hooray! Later she posted on facebook that she'd gotten him fed and the kids were vying for his attention, and Grandpa seemed to be enjoying himself! Yay!
So, with Grandpa headed for Texas I was able to make some tremendous progress on dejunking his house and beginning preparations for an estate sale. Bless my dear friend Sharon Smith's heart for coming and helping me all day today! We were able to get all of Grandma's books (I hope) out of boxes and categorized and alphabetized and most of them displayed on makeshift box shelves for the sale. There are TONS of books. I'd guess close to or over a thousand. There are also TONS of movies both VHS and DVD, again I'd have to guess around a thousand of them. Those are already in cardboard drawers so we won't have to move them around. I may take the rest of the DVDs which are on shelves in the office into Grandma's bedroom where the rest of the movies are.
I was able to shred quite a few documents. Sharon indicated that Ray may be able to burn any additional documents that need to be disposed of. We saw another box that was labeled financial and tax documents and I'm sure they're old enough to dispose of. It would really help with my time if we could just burn them instead of having to shred them AND it would save some space in the trash. I've already filled two of the big recycle cans and two trash cans along with taking a truck load to the recycling center and I'm not done going through boxes.
I plan on using the various rooms for shopping areas. Movies, bedroom furniture and Grandma's clothes will be in her room. Kitchen items will be displayed in the kitchen and dining room, living room will have furniture for sale, etc.
I will be putting most of the items we don't want to sell in Grandpa's room, other than the items that are too large (like the piano). I'll put a 'sold' sign on those items. I've also been taking items that we need to get rid of from our house over to Grandpa's in the hopes that we'll be able to sell them at the estate sale. We will keep Grandpa's self-propelled lawn mower since ours had the bag stolen from it. We also had another mower that wasn't self-propelled that Grandpa sold to the neighbor last night. Then another neighbor was inquiring about whether we were selling the organ. She might be interested in purchasing it.
Dad's sold his 4 wheeler trailer and has commitments for people to buy the snow plow blade and aerator attachment for it. I sold Grandpa's washer and dryer and have an offer on his freezer. Hopefully we'll be able to get enough items sold to put a big dent in the costs to move down.
Speaking of the costs, we'll be using ABF Trucking to drive our possessions down. I got a quote today from Mayflower and they wanted over $14,000! Whew! We'd have to take out a loan for that! ABF will run anywhere from $3,800 to $5k+ depending on how much space we take in their trailers. I would LOVE it if we only take one trailer and then we'll only have to pay the $3,800. That is a big chunk of change!
Better head to bed. It's almost midnight and Barney's coming in the morning around 8:30 to complete the final repairs (hopefully) on our house for the sale.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Friday, February 8, 2013
Stress, stress and more stress!
I have never in my life felt as much stress as I've felt with this move. I wake up in the morning and can't go back to sleep. I lay there with my brain flying 90 miles an hour as I think about what needs to be done. I try my best to remind myself that Heavenly Father's hand has been in this from the beginning, that we're doing what we're supposed to be doing and He'll take care of us, but when you're in the throes of the battle, it's sometimes hard to stay calm. Many days it's a challenge to be strong and not cry at least once a day. I keep crossing items off the to-do list, but every day there are more items to add to the list than it seems like I'm able to cross off.
When I posted on facebook yesterday that Grandpa was flying down to Texas next week in anticipation of our move, one of our high school friends Rob asked if this was the first sign that we were moving. That gave me quite the chuckle! My response to him "I'd say the first sign was when I lost my mind as this whole moving process began: getting our house ready for the market, selling it and all the joys associated with that including inspections, appraisal, required repairs, paperwork..buying a house while we were in Texas last month, dealing with that paperwork, getting quotes for insurances and moving trucks, trying to dejunk Grandpa's house with 6 years of accumulated paperdoll cutting and saved margarine tubs and jars and...so that we can prepare it for the market. Waking up early every morning and having the wheels spinning faster than I care for them to spin... So no, I guess this isn't the first sign, just one sign that will allow a little pressure relief from my brain!"
I'm glad that I didn't remember how stressful moving with the sale of one house and the purchase of another is, because I probably would have never gone through with this craziness. I am not only facilitating that, but also the preparation and sale of Grandpa's house, the transfer of property management on our rentals to Barney and Carolyn Zauss and of course trying to see that Grandpa's needs are met, etc. Darvin still doesn't have a job which wasn't stressing me out because I know Heavenly Father's hand is in this and that he wants us to move to Texas, but Darvin and Grandpa are both stressing about it which then makes me feel anxious!
Then there's the question of the pets. I found a wonderful home for Miss Kitty with the Warnstadt family in our ward. I was going to try to take Tigger with us at Briana's request, but he's so old and feeble and he's quite shy, scared and reclusive. Even if he was able to survive the trip (Emily Warnstadt said that they had an old cat who didn't survive their move!), I'm not sure that he'd be happy living with two dogs at this point in his life. Briana REALLY wanted us to bring him, so I have stressed and stressed and stressed about this too. She doesn't want to keep him at their apartment as they'd have to pay an extra deposit and additional rent each month. So he'd be at our house until they bought a house, and we don't know when that will be. I was at the pinnacle of stress and needed to find some ways to alleviate it. I don't want to end up having a brain aneurysm like Margaret did, so that's what I decided to do. I texted Briana about my decision and haven't heard back from her, so hopefully she's not angry about it.
Back to Grandpa. He has been a pretty good trooper so far, but I'm concerned every day that I go over there about his feelings and not disrupting his life too much. I felt that it would be much better if he were out of the line of fire so to speak as I'm really going to be tearing his place up, getting rid of a lot of things and then getting the house on the market. I believe that having him away from the hubbub will be best all around for him and for me, so I found a really inexpensive one way airfare down to Dallas. Darvin will take him to the airport in Seattle next Tuesday and will be able to get a gate pass so he can take him and stay with him at the gate until the airline employee escorts him to his seat on the plane. It's a direct flight and Erin will be able to get a gate pass to meet him at the gate when he arrives in Dallas. An airline employee will escort him from the airplane up to the gate there. I believe this is the 3rd flight Grandpa has ever taken so we are making sure that they take good care of him!
Erin volunteered to let him stay with them as long as needed. Ashley had previously volunteered to come here for a few days to help and then escort Grandpa back on the airline, but for some reason Grandpa wasn't keen on that idea. I'm grateful that the girls are willing to help with Grandpa so I can take that off my 'worry plate'! I know that all 3 of them will be sweet and attentive to him and I know he'll love having the great grandkids around!
Lindsey has volunteered to come over for a week to help me with the dejunking and packing. That will be a great blessing too! Lindsey's the queen of minimalism in our family, so she's up for the job at hand. I know we'll get tons done while she's here and we'll have the added blessing of spending some time with Brooklyn before we move.
My dear friends Toni McBean and Denise Gum and her husband Gordon have also volunteered to help. So I have Toni scheduled to help me on the 16th and Denise and Gordon on the 23rd. Thank goodness for family and friends who love us!
So, there is light at the end of the tunnel and I must keep reminding myself of that every day. We will survive this and it will be so AWESOME to be living near 3 of our 4 daughters and their families! Now back to my to-do list!
When I posted on facebook yesterday that Grandpa was flying down to Texas next week in anticipation of our move, one of our high school friends Rob asked if this was the first sign that we were moving. That gave me quite the chuckle! My response to him "I'd say the first sign was when I lost my mind as this whole moving process began: getting our house ready for the market, selling it and all the joys associated with that including inspections, appraisal, required repairs, paperwork..buying a house while we were in Texas last month, dealing with that paperwork, getting quotes for insurances and moving trucks, trying to dejunk Grandpa's house with 6 years of accumulated paperdoll cutting and saved margarine tubs and jars and...so that we can prepare it for the market. Waking up early every morning and having the wheels spinning faster than I care for them to spin... So no, I guess this isn't the first sign, just one sign that will allow a little pressure relief from my brain!"
I'm glad that I didn't remember how stressful moving with the sale of one house and the purchase of another is, because I probably would have never gone through with this craziness. I am not only facilitating that, but also the preparation and sale of Grandpa's house, the transfer of property management on our rentals to Barney and Carolyn Zauss and of course trying to see that Grandpa's needs are met, etc. Darvin still doesn't have a job which wasn't stressing me out because I know Heavenly Father's hand is in this and that he wants us to move to Texas, but Darvin and Grandpa are both stressing about it which then makes me feel anxious!
Then there's the question of the pets. I found a wonderful home for Miss Kitty with the Warnstadt family in our ward. I was going to try to take Tigger with us at Briana's request, but he's so old and feeble and he's quite shy, scared and reclusive. Even if he was able to survive the trip (Emily Warnstadt said that they had an old cat who didn't survive their move!), I'm not sure that he'd be happy living with two dogs at this point in his life. Briana REALLY wanted us to bring him, so I have stressed and stressed and stressed about this too. She doesn't want to keep him at their apartment as they'd have to pay an extra deposit and additional rent each month. So he'd be at our house until they bought a house, and we don't know when that will be. I was at the pinnacle of stress and needed to find some ways to alleviate it. I don't want to end up having a brain aneurysm like Margaret did, so that's what I decided to do. I texted Briana about my decision and haven't heard back from her, so hopefully she's not angry about it.
Back to Grandpa. He has been a pretty good trooper so far, but I'm concerned every day that I go over there about his feelings and not disrupting his life too much. I felt that it would be much better if he were out of the line of fire so to speak as I'm really going to be tearing his place up, getting rid of a lot of things and then getting the house on the market. I believe that having him away from the hubbub will be best all around for him and for me, so I found a really inexpensive one way airfare down to Dallas. Darvin will take him to the airport in Seattle next Tuesday and will be able to get a gate pass so he can take him and stay with him at the gate until the airline employee escorts him to his seat on the plane. It's a direct flight and Erin will be able to get a gate pass to meet him at the gate when he arrives in Dallas. An airline employee will escort him from the airplane up to the gate there. I believe this is the 3rd flight Grandpa has ever taken so we are making sure that they take good care of him!
Erin volunteered to let him stay with them as long as needed. Ashley had previously volunteered to come here for a few days to help and then escort Grandpa back on the airline, but for some reason Grandpa wasn't keen on that idea. I'm grateful that the girls are willing to help with Grandpa so I can take that off my 'worry plate'! I know that all 3 of them will be sweet and attentive to him and I know he'll love having the great grandkids around!
Lindsey has volunteered to come over for a week to help me with the dejunking and packing. That will be a great blessing too! Lindsey's the queen of minimalism in our family, so she's up for the job at hand. I know we'll get tons done while she's here and we'll have the added blessing of spending some time with Brooklyn before we move.
My dear friends Toni McBean and Denise Gum and her husband Gordon have also volunteered to help. So I have Toni scheduled to help me on the 16th and Denise and Gordon on the 23rd. Thank goodness for family and friends who love us!
So, there is light at the end of the tunnel and I must keep reminding myself of that every day. We will survive this and it will be so AWESOME to be living near 3 of our 4 daughters and their families! Now back to my to-do list!
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