One box at a time

Trying to get my things unpacked and I just couldn't help myself...

Washing my hands

Got my apartment emptied yesterday! Yayyyy! So glad to have that off my plate! I also found out that I have been officially released from lease and my re-let is satisfied, meaning all I have to do is turn in the keys to hell. W00t!

It took us about a half a day. A asked me if I was sad that all of my stuff fits in a Dodge van.

...No, not really. My stuff is everywhere in his apartment, and I have more stuff in Birmingham! I talked to Mum yesterday. I'm going to splurge on a u-Haul and get some of my stuff from Birmingham and an entertainment center from Montgomery. A dresser and an entertainment center is our wagon-wheel coffee table. But it's worth the trip. :) A is being such a good sport. Yesterday was a hard day and I should do something special for him. Stress has made me an evil monster and I don't like that. He has been so wonderful and supportive of me, I need to make extra sure I'm showing him how much I appreciate him.

Pricing at u-haul doesn't make much sense. To pick up a truck in Montgomery and drop off in Tuscaloosa is $294, 151 miles, and 1 day of use. To pick up in Tuscaloosa and return to Tuscaloosa is $100, 400 miles, and 3 days of use. ....the obvious choice is the latter... but I honestly expected the former to be the cheaper.

I'm so relieved to have this stress off of my mind! I can't for the words! I don't have to deal with those crazy girls anymore! I'm too old for that kind of environment. The more we move forward with this decision, the more I become reassured that A and I made the right choice; whether we preferred this timing or not, it was the right choice.

Confession: It felt really good to take the shower curtain...yeah, that was probably my favorite part... Don't judge yet (Meme). It's my curtain, I bought it, it's re-usable, and I plan on putting it up in our bathroom! However, C came in as I was leaving and went in the bathroom. I heard her shut the door and then heard her sliding the curtain that was left back and forth. Mentally I could just hear her saying, "that bitch" and I couldn't help but giggle inside. She's lucky A was there to stop me from taking the rings that held up the curtains. Those are mine, too, I don't need them, and A got me to admit I'd only take those for spite...

I can see my grandmother reading this thanking God that A was there to keep me from being vengeful and laughing at the same time. So maybe I won't tell the story about how I was drinking a beer while tearing down the shelving unit (that's mine) that shelved all of their pots and pans.

Moving Days

The closer the summer comes to an end, the busier it seems to get. Yesterday was a patho test (90! W00t!), today is moving some of my things in with A. Major problem with moving is not knowing where to put all of our things. A has a lot of stuff...

My friends and I were talking the other day about starting a time capsule type deal. Journaling all of our nursing school experiences. When we're all done, we'll sit down together with several bottles of wine and read them out loud and eat tacos!

This summer has been hard, hard, hard. I've never physically felt stress like this before. I was telling A that I didn't understand this at all, considering I've dealt with much bigger monsters and much harder obstacles in the past. That being said, the last three months in Tuscaloosa have been.... different. I'm reluctant to use "depressing". That is far from the truth. But I guess the further I get away from April 27 and the more life goes one, the more I realize that dealing with the storm is much like a grieving process. It's just one of those things everyone deals with differently. I just happen to deal with stresses like that by putting more stress on myself. Makes it easier for me to pick myself up, dust myself off, and get back on the horse again.

I guess when I think about it, the physical manifestations of the stress of this summer is probably on par or better than expected. Wish I could have had the 40 lbs weight loss again... Storm, 13 straight days of work, little time off before starting summer 1 nursing school, passing my nursing classes AND working at the same time, moving... It's been a busy summer and full of change!! with change comes beauty like a butterfly

Letter of Disguist

I have to add to my little list of things that keep happening during my move. They keep calling me asking for keys I've already turned in.

Dear Apartment Manager,

This letter is in regards to the horrendous moving experience I have had at your complex. I was one of the few people who chose to stay in your shithole due to location and proximity to campus. I enjoy being able to peddle to class and save on parking. That benefit and your low rate (which I now know why is so low) are the only reasons I have for staying in your poorly run housing.

I will never participate in one of your transfers again. I will only sleep under the roof I pay you for. I have had the absolute WORST moving experience of my life and in reality, this wasn't even really a move!

I strongly suggest you make changes to your Chinese fire drill style of transferring occupants.

I have turned in my keys, I put them in an envelope, wrote down the apartment number, signed your little yellow form, and handed both to you, in your hands, in your office, after you tried to calm me down for the 5th time during this transfer.

I hope you're fired.

Sincerely,

Steph

Welcome back to stress

I had this idea at the beach. I would start using OneNote to write my blogs and then just upload all of them to Blogger when I got back home. I haven't done that yet. Today's my first day back at work and I got really tired of waiting for iPhone to catch up with my typing speed on my Blogger app. Damn new update... I ended up writing ONE entry and I'll post that later.

In the end, the vacation was awesome!

I got home to a disaster, though. My patio furniture was stolen, I moved my stuff from upstairs to downstairs without a place to live since I STILL didn't have a key with hours left before I HAD to be out of the old room... My apartment management is awful! They even put me in the wrong room! So after I got permission to move my stuff, I find out I'm supposed to be in a different room THEY ASSIGNED early, despite my request MONTHS ago for the room I wanted. That office management came scarily close to seeing me lose my temper. Thank God A was there to keep me calm.

The best part about coming back home so far is the welcoming hug I got from A when I got home. I love being held that tight. I missed him.

Now I must get back to work... Corporate day...

One Pooped Puppy!!

I am feeling a little too drained to write. But I want to write.

I thought I wanted a night to myself and now I'm bored. In my defense, it's been super hectic the last two days! Yesterday at work, I got stranded at a gas station for hours while Habeeb, the manager, kept telling me, "You are too small to drive that big van! Too small! Why do they have such small girl drive such big van!?"

Before Habeeb chided me for driving a huge Econoline, I was fighting with FAFSA about the loss of my grant... at this moment, I just realized that I did NOT get to call back today to find the form I need to fix that... GDMFPOSGD!

Then I got home much later than expected and had a pizza, beer, and packing party with future roommate and a co-worker. We got so much done! Thank God! Now all I need is the key to my new room and to move my clothes. It was very helpful having three sets of hands putting things I know I'm not going to need immediately in a box and moving them to the new apartment as I could. We had fun, too, or at least I did.

Now my "to-do" remaining pretty plastic. I knock a few items off, pack room up, go to Birmingham, wash clothes, and I'm only making room for more things to be added. Go to library, pack for beach, finish the weekend warrior list at work, sleep.

I've got so much going on in such a short period of time that burn out syndrome is really kicking in! I'm so ready for this vacation! More mentally than physically... especially after I had to step on that scale today... I'm so ready to have books, sun, and sand!! A whole week of zero responsibility: home, school, or work! -- OK, ONE responsibility that I didn't get to do today that must be done ASAP!

So after packing, working, moving, driving, waiting, pushing, organizing, recording, digging, fixing, bleeding, arguing, and I can't remember everything else because it's all blurring together, I'm sitting down and enjoying a beer.

I just may sleep tonight...

Pure Chaos

Moving from one apartment to the other should never be this hectic!

I absolutely hate moving, with a passion. To make it more miserable, my current apartments have just held a mandatory meeting where they informed me that I need to have my stuff packed and ready to go. It has to look like a moving truck is ready to get me. Then I'll be informed sometime during the first three days of August when I can actually move my stuff. In the meantime, all of my stuff needs to be in the common area. WTF.

So, to clarify, I'm to pack up my belongings, place them in a common area for people to pilfer through when they come to inspect and view my apartment. There will be management, cleaning crews, maintainance crews, and potential residents with free and easy access to my belongings while I'm away.

Of course I have to be difficult. I told management that I will be out of town and gladly leave my belongings on top of my bed, in my room, where they will be locked away. I informed them that I will be back in town on the second day of my move and at the time, I'll start moving my stuff downstairs, and my new place will be ready by at least that day if they expect me to be completely moved out of my old place by midnight of the third day.

In the words of Tim James, makes sense to me. Doesn't it to you?

Man in the house

My new roommate has moved in.

Let me tell you how chaotic this has been! It should be very easy for someone to move their paraphernalia in a home, however, you also have to move your stuff out so they have room for there's! Geez!!! I have a lot of stuff! Fortunately, I'm not a pack rat!

My guest room is where I had stored my Christmas decor. All of that has been consolidated and moved to a storage closet. The rest of the items in there were is to dispose.

I think I've found a good fit, for a roomie that is. D #2 works nights, I work days. To make things even more fun, he has several similarities with the guy I'm currently seeing (D #1). Keeping the conversations straight has been very interesting! Here's a list of what they have in common:

• Both have the same name

  Both are from the same state

  Both are in the same industry

  Both work long hours

  Both raised cocker spaniels

  Both cook Yes!!!!

Let's just say that I have confused the history of these two more than once... But they've met each other, and to make it even more hilarious to me only maybe my roommate gets along with the guy I'm dating maybe better than I do! WTH?!

The day the Blackberry lived

When you move, several things get lost very easily. Take, for example, your favorite coffee mug that you didn't pack until the last second, that box with all your some of your office supplies you were sure you put in the car when you were loading or a favorite photo that you always displayed.

Speaking of photos, that reminds me that I haven't seen some of my favorite liquor signs that I always hang in my kitchen...and Trey's never really liked them, either...

In our case, now several items of mine our M.I.A. One of the most important, a phone charger to my Samsung A747. While I am addicted to text messaging and my phone, I do need my phone for several reasons: work, work numbers and messages that I have sent and received regarding work.

Saturday, when my charger was still at the house, I new I needed to make sure I put it in a special place - that special box that I would know exactly where it was at exactly the moment I needed to retrieve my phone charger. Sunday, I charge my phone for what would be the last time. I unplug my charger and place into a smaller, brown box and tuck the top of the box together instead of taping it. That way I would know for sure that it was my box with my phone charger. Trey, I must be disillusioned at the point after this move but this is what I was absolutely positive happened, picked up the important box and put it in his truck. That night, the box was left in his vehicle because we were completely exhausted at this point.

Monday, while my phone is losing some of the precious charge I got from Sunday, I can't seem to locate the box.

Tuesday, not a lot of charge left, the box is missing, and miraculously, a huge box full of yard sale items that was supposed to go with my in laws appears. Let me explain this, my in-laws don't like for us to throw away things. Something about, "You may want this later," "You may need this later," "Why would you want to throw away a perfectly good chord you might could use later," - I don't know but bottom line, they didn't want us to throw away/sell our unused items. Even though my rule of thumb is that if you haven't thought about it in over a year, it's gone, baby, gone.

When I found the box of yard sale items, I immediately thought, "It's a switch!" then I realized that was a little ridiculous and thought, "I bet Wayne and Judy took the wrong boxes - and I bet they have the box with my phone charger in it? But how? We put it in Trey's car?"

By this point, I had to find my phone! Granted, it's been a bit quiet at work and one day without those numbers would probably be OK, I couldn't go more than a couple. I need my numbers. If I could have synced them, I would have but you can't do that with this phone. It's not a Blackberry like my old phone, i.e. the love my life phone.

If you've known me two years, you've seen me with four phones. Maybe five. I change every six months due to some freak accident or other. I'm not staging my phones deaths, they really do get dropped on brick floors, stepped on and turn possessed. But if Trey or I upgrade and don't have a problem with the old phone, we keep it, because I might need it!

Trey upgraded his phone to the iPhone earlier this year, from his Blackberry (he copied me first), and I remembered seeing it when we moved. Now I was looking for two items: a charger or a Blackberry!

"Trey! Where's your Blackberry?"

"I threw it away."

Dammit! "Have you seen my phone charger?"

"No."

Grrr..

Wednesday. Phone is dead. Hope you didn't need me. That night, I had to find my charger. I had Trey looking in his truck again, I was opening all the boxes again; we looked everywhere! In opening up some of the boxes again, a miracle occurred.

"Trey, here's a box of some of your office stuff," I pointed to a small, brown box taped together at the top. I knew it didn't have my phone charger in it because it was taped. It was in the hallway.

When people help you move, no matter how many times you write on there "Office," "Kitchen," or "Bedroom," they still put the boxes wherever they want.

I placed the box in his office and for a shit and giggle, started sifting through the items to make sure I wasn't insane. After I got past a few pieces of paper and a few file folders, I found some chords. "No way," I started yanking on the chords hard to see if one had the little green arrow on the end. That's when I found the small Blackberry Trey used. I pushed the button on the front of the phone. It was one and still had a little bit of charge to it! Plus it was already connected to its phone charger!

I quickly plugged in the phone, moved my SIM card and checked my messages. It was such a relief to be connected again.

Then the old Blackberry addiction started to creep back up into me. I could feel all the possibilities organizing in my head. The buttons seemed too familiar. The programs just as fun as the first time I picked up the Blackberry. All the justification for not replacing my beloved Blackberry sooner was gone. Then I couldn't put the smooth weapon back down - even after Trey's gentle prodding.

It's official: I'm a Crackberry. Hello, my name is Stephanie and I'm addicted to my Blackberry.

What this means for you? More posting from my phone - as soon as I get to the AT&T store...

The Great Move

So, as far as I'm concerned, the actual moving of inanimate objects is completed pertaining to Mission Palisades 2008. Hallelujah!

I never want to move again. I really want to leave it at that. I've told you a little of what happened during the move but I really don't have enough medication to relive it again to tell you the story. Ha ha! Just joking! I really don't want to re-tell my account of our move on Saturday and Sunday because I don't want to say anything I'll come to regret later. I hope you'll understand.

Just understand that I am so thankful to have everything under one roof again, including Lucy, whom missed two nights of sleep with me! My poor baby! In fact, she was so ready to go home, she packed herself up for us!

I want to apologize for all the whining I've done about this move. It's not your fault, I should keep my mouth shut. I just think it makes for good story telling. But my attitude has been shit during this move and I don't think I should think like that. I like to try to be the happy, positive one. The one who always sees the coffee cup half full. I like feeling productive, animated and efficacious.

That being said, I am actually looking forward to the unpacking/organizing as a therapeutic lagniappe to myself. I will have all items unpacked by Friday. I WILL have all items unpacked by Friday!

Plus, Wednesday is our Thanksgiving dinner at the dealership. I'm going to make - I mean Trey is going to make sweet potatoe casserole with marshmellows on top! I love sweet potatoe casserole! Plus I/he gets to use the mixer Mum gave me a few years ago. I've never had anything to use it for and now I do - mean Trey does! OK, so I'm "helping" him make it. But don't tell anyone because no one will eat my cooking after I set the kitchen on fire the second time. But I like learning to cook, being in the kitchen has it's own therapeutic touch.

And tomorrow, I promise, I'm getting back in the gym. I swear my attitude will be higher than the mountains after I run off some of this stress!!

Commit me. No. Commit Trey.

Moving is evidence that the human species is a hair away from insanity.

It should be against the law to move with your spouse as your help. Movers should come with pack it up and unpack it specials. I should be able to close my eyes and SURPRISE! I'm moved!
Yesterday was extremely long. I never thought I was going to get in the bed. It kept threatening to rain, we were running behind schedule. Trey had a meeting in the middle of the day! But that wasn't what ran us late.

I wanted to be out of the house and moving by 8. We didn't get moving until 8:30. Then we couldn't find the box with the shower stuff in it so Trey could get ready for his meeting. Then it took forever at the bank. Plus, I hadn't eaten and there was so much excitement, my blood sugar was getting kind of low so I had to stop to eat something. Well by that time, everybody had quit serving breakfast, too!

Well, we get the first load to the apartment. Both of our trucks were packed full. All of the kitchen - I think, I'm still not sure! Ha! - got moved, I thought all of the bathroom, and a few things that I had told Trey not to worry about until later so we could get important things like the kitchen and bathrooms done and make another trip for some clothes. I had thought we were staying in Northport for the night until the night before and we had already - excuse me, Trey had already decided that he wanted to get the bed.

Well, our trucks aren't big enough so we got a bigger one from the dealership and got the mattresses.

Well, it wasn't big enough so for our THIRD trip of the day, we had to get the bed frame.

Here's where my therapist would have upped my Lexapro.

First. If you've seen my office or my kitchen or my - OK if you've met me, you know how much I don't like things out of order. I was already having my personal organizational issues with changing our moving plans while we're actually moving and putting kitchen paraphernalia in it's new home. I hadn't even tackled unpacking the bathroom at this point.

My goal for the day was like I said, move the boxes for the kitchen and bathroom and clothes and unpack. Grab furniture and unimportant boxes on Saturday. But as this story is going, and as you should know about Trey by now, that's not how my plans went.

So when Trey said, "Let's just get the sofa and the TV, too. The cable man's coming today," I started to feel the senselessness coming. Hello, Bryce? I need a padded room for one, please?

"OK, how about just the TV and more boxes. And clothes," I begged. "I need clothes for tomorrow."

Trey just had this puppy dog face in his eyes. I hate it when does that. It's the kind of I want it really bad though and it would really make my day and I know I'm asking a lot out of you but I want it anyway face. His eyes look like that cartoon cat that Warner Brother's draws. You know, the one with the big doe-eyes and they twinkle? The kind you can't say "no" to?

"We can just get one section of the sofa and the bed frame and it'll fit!" He had the excitement of a five-year-old. He's evidence that I already have a kid - a 32-year-old named Trey!

"And we don't have a rope, baby," I rationalized, "What are we going to tie it down with?" I put my hands on the tailgate hoping this would bring him back down from wherever he was.

"I've got an extension cord!"

Shit! Why can't I have those doe-eyes like his?

Defeated, I agreed. I agreed to ONE section of our sofa. One. Well...my Einstein decided we could get the other section on there, too.

Let me clarify something: I have the heaviest two-piece sofa. Putting the first section on the truck was challenge enough. Putting the second section on top was enough to qualify me for the strong man competition.

Once we had the sofa on the truck, we had to squeeze the bed frame into the bed of the truck. I was getting madder and more frustrated by the minute but Trey has less patience than I do and was already giving me his opinions -- even though this was his idea. We worked out getting the metal bed frame squeezed between the side of the truck and the sofa and then began tying the extension cord around the sofa.

Moving tip #476. Never use an extension cord to tie your sofa onto the truck. Ever.

It took us several passes with the extremely long cord but we got it tied around the sofa. But did you know that it doesn't stay tight as a rope? Yeah. Us,either.

I followed Trey with several car lengths between us because I was watching the rope slowly but surely slide down the end side of my sofa. I wanted to cry. And when he went over the railroad tracks, the sofa sections literally bounced on top of each other like the top section was on a trampoline! It was my worst nightmare. My beautiful tan and leather sofa bouncing into the highway for a large truck to demolish. It was halfway to the apartment that I realized Trey did this on purpose - because he wants a new sofa! Fortunately, for his sake, the sofa made it to the apartments in its original state. Now we just had to get it up the stairs...

We untied the extension cord. It took half the time it took tying up the sofa since it had gotten so loose on the trip to the apartment. Miraculously, though, despite all the bouncing, the top section of the sofa was still in its original position. We slid the elephant weight off of the truck and headed to the stairs. How do movers do this every day?

Trey started up the stairs and I was right behind him. We got about halfway when my hands just let go. I was so sweaty already not to mention tired, irritable, aggravated, pissed off, frustrated, PMSy and ready to quit. But I kept trying. I'll refrain from the other details but this scene is the reason why married couples should never move houses together by themselves. Ever.

Once the sofa was up the stairs, we had to rest. We were exhausted. Fortunately for us, in more ways than one, the cable man showed up to install everything. This man, Sean, he has this best timing in the world!

Sean was a huge, tough-looking man. His hands were probably bigger than my face. He was very nice and personable and was moving as quickly as he could to get our cable, internet and phone hooked up. It was a nice break from moving objects up the stairs. While Sean was fixing us up, Trey leaned over and said, "We'll get the other half of the sofa when he leaves."

I wanted to cry. My body was screaming enough! at this point. "I can't help you with the sofa. Let me call Kinley. It's almost 5:30, he'll be getting off work soon and can help you. I don't have anything left in me to get this sofa up the stairs."

"Don't call Kinley." He sounded very firm about that, "You can help me. I'll let you go up the stairs first."

"Trey, it's not a good idea. I'm just going to go call Kinley, maybe Jason will let him come over here now and help you." I begged. All of me was aching. I was thirsty, tired, I felt like I'd been beaten up. I know he had of felt the same. We'd been moving all day...up and down those stairs...I wondered why he didn't listen to me to begin with when I told him moving the sofa was a bad idea...

We stopped discussing it for a minute and began joking around with each other. I picked up the phone to call Kinley even though Trey begged me again not to. Meanwhile, Sean had overheard our debate.

"Man, let me help you."

I hung up the phone. When a 7 foot tall man built to be a linebacker volunteers, he's hired! Trey accepted his offer and we waited for him to finish, unaware of the time or the cloud coverage.

I started to unpack more of the kitchen and finally paused to watch a bit of the TV for a second. It was the first glimpse of the world around me I'd had all day. Trey was flipping the channels and paused on FRIENDS for a second when I began to hear an all too familiar relaxing sound lightly tapping the window.

"Trey, is that rain?" I asked, praying that I was hearing things.

"Oh no!" The clouds that had been so ominous all day were finally making good on their promise. We both sprinted outside to see the rain not just coming down but pouring down - on our sofa. We ran to the truck and pulled the sofa into the breezeway. For that moment, that section of sofa was as light as a feather! Upon inspecting the damage, we realized that the section was s.o.a.k.e.d.

"What do we do?" Trey demanded like I knew all the answers. But I didn't have all the answers. All of our towels were still in Northport. I didn't pack my handy shop vac into my back pocket that morning, either! I didn't know what to do.

"I brought my hair dryer?"

"Great," he answered disparagingly, "Go get it!"

"Well we have two towels, Trey! What do you want me to do?" I felt like I didn't deserve his sarcasm. But apparently he felt I did because he walked upstairs to the apartment without saying a word and disappeared. I thought Now I know he didn't leave me out here. I can't get back up to the apartment and it's raining! I hope the cable man gets done soon. I knew that if we could get the sofa inside, it would eventually dry and everything would be fine. I just wanted to try to soak up as much of the water as I could before it made it into the apartment.

Trey then re-appeared with to the towels I had used to pack. We laid them on top of the cushions and sat down, bouncing like children jumping on the bed.

I look back at this moment and laugh at us now. It was something out of a sitcom. However, we were burning mad; we were tired, irritable, sick of this move and now bouncing on a sofa. It was one of those quiet moments where you reflect on the day and think, "Did all this shit really happen?"

He talked me into trying to get the sofa up the stairs. I was headed up the stairs first this time, fortunately. It made it a little bit easier heading up first and Trey was given the opportunity to realize how difficult it was for me to push up the stairs with the first sofa section.

"Oh hey, let me help you with that!" It was the voice of salvation, the voice of Sean, the Cable Guy! Hallelujah! He was finally finished - again, with his impeccable timing.

"Sure! Tell me when you've got it and I'm letting go!" His hands were already in the place of mine and I dashed up the stairs out of the way. As I imagined, this sofa was light weight for this guy. He should be in the moving business! The piece was up the stairs and in the living room in no time.

Wet - but in place.

This Thanksgiving, I am thankful that Stephen helped Trey with the rest of the heavy furniture and not me.

For the beauty of the Earth

I am so stressed out right now. I wouldn't recommend any joke-playing on me, I might inadvertently kill you.

Currently, I need to win the lottery, I need it to quit raining, I need my Wachovia bank statement to make more sense, I need chocolate, I need clean, open space, I need coffee, I need sugar for that coffee, I need this move to be over and I need the car business to pick up.

Right now, I look over my left shoulder to see the lake and it's covered in fog. I can't even see the lake. It's just a dense, white fog. The leaves are turning and a golden color is are mixing itself in with the other green and purple foliage. All the different shades look like little spots in the fog as the cloud dances around in the woods. My pool is covered in yellow and orange leaves and it makes I feel a pull of sympathy for the lucky resident who gets to take over the responsibility of maintaining that beast.

The scene outside currently is just depressing. It's dark, dense and raining.

A couple of days ago, it was beautiful outside. I had to grab my camera. It was Saturday morning, I think, when it was so cold outside. I was in a hurry trying to get to the gym on time. The sun was shining, which always makes me more awake. I had grabbed something for lunch, zipped up my gym bag, stuffed my book in my purse and headed out the door. I had just glimpsed at the lake when I saw it. If I had been more focused on getting to the gym on time or any earlier getting up, I would have missed it.


I stood staring at the lake for a moment thinking, I really have to go, but I couldn't fight the urge to get my camera. Quickly, I ran inside and grabbed my Nikon. Fortunately my zoom lens was already mounted and all I had to do was remove the lens cap and check my settings. Then are started shooting away.

It was the most beautiful scene - right out of a movie. The sun was melting the fog right off of the lake. The sun's rays were so strong between the holes in the leaves that it looked like little beams of light in the woods. As the mist burned and rose up to the heavens, it turned an almost violet color. It matched the color of dawn perfectly. The lake, for what little of it you could see, was the perfect reflection of a blue sky yet to appear that day.

It was so peaceful looking. Not even a fisherman was out on the lake, which was very unusual. Even if we stayed here, I don't think I could ever see a morning this perfect without the sounds of a boat or two peddling into or out of the slough below the house. It's a quiet morning like that I will never forget but will always make me miss my mornings visiting with the beautiful scenes of the lake while sipping my morning cup of coffee.

Boxes are everywhere. Kitchen items everywhere. Only 1/4 of my kitchen is boxed, the dishes, pots, pans utensils - everywhere. Bathroom is boxed up with empty cartons and trash everywhere. Left over items that won't fit in the current boxes and don't fill another box yet E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E.

I AM IN ORGANIZATIONAL HELL.

I have a 1000 piece puzzle and the table's too small

I need shelving space. I'm going to run out of room. I'm thinking I'm going to store my dishes in the cabinets and then my dry goods. I'll store my appliances in the utility closet and then see what I need to do about my pots and pans.

Anybody got any better ideas?

Since this was Trey's idea, moving and all, I decided I would let him do all the moving, all the packing, all the planning, all the work. I am so bad about following through with that. However, he has packed a few boxes. He didn't tell me until last night that we weren't moving furniture until Saturday, which did me absolutely NO GOOD considering the help I had aquired was only available on Friday. So that's been changed due to what is essentially a lack of communication. I hate moving. I just want you to know that.

Bottom line, as much as I love my husband, I don't trust him to organize my kitchen correctly.

And I can't even cook!