Moving Day!
My sister-in-law moved this past weekend. We helped.
For most of us, the words "Moving Day" strike terror in our hearts. This day was no exception!
We arrived at our destination--aka "old house"--shortly after 9 a.m. Saturday morning. The first thing we saw was a bunch of trucks and a large trailer in front of the "old house." This was good, because we were afraid we would be the only ones there to help, other than maybe one or two of her four children.
If you're a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, as we are, one of the perks of membership is an experienced moving crew who will come and load up your stuff for you and haul it away to your new digs. For free, other than maybe some donuts or pizza. And they like it best when you have everything ready to go, boxed up and waiting, so all they have to do is load it into the van, trailer, pickup trucks or whatever moving option you have chosen. They really HATE it when you're not ready, although you'll usually not hear them say so. So when we parked and made our way through all the trucks to the door, this is what we had found--the
ultimate experienced moving crew.
By the time we got there, the trucks and trailer were pretty much packed, so we helped with the rest of the loading, and loaded stuff into our truck as well. To cut to the chase and not make this any longer than necessary, suffice it to say that we got furniture and boxes and all from the "old house" to the "new condo." And that is where the fun REALLY began!
Dsil and her dh (dear husband), had lived for a good 25 years or so in a 3,000 sq. ft. Colonial style mansion, modeled after the one her dh's sister lived in, in Tennessee. You may be aware of how much stuff accumulates after even 2 or 3 years of living in one place. Plus, with the wide double-doors in the old mansion, and wide hallways, no one probably even noticed that the oversized couches, dressers, and several fancy curio cabinets were a mover's nightmare. Two years ago they sold this mansion (all their kids had been gone for several years and they plain just didn't need or want to live in this large a house), and moved into the present
"old house," just a few blocks from the OLD old house. Now they were moving from the NEW "old house" to a condominium. And while obviously moving the oversized couches, dressers and curio cabinets hadn't presented much of a problem going from the OLD old house to the NEW old house, it was going to present a problem here.
The condo was upstairs. To get upstairs, you had to go up a narrow, totally covered stairway. Dsil assured the men that she had measured and the curio cabinets should go up those stairs and right into her new home. NOT! With a bit of huffing & puffing they could get the first one up to the turn. But it was too tight to make the turn, so they had to come back down again and park this one in the garage. They tried the next one, which was a little smaller, with the same results. I think there was a third one which they didn't even bother with and just moved it to the garage. Her son will probably rent a forklift and lift the things onto the garage roof, which is flat, and they can be hoisted over the deck railing and into the
sliding door fairly easily.
We learned a few things with this move.
#1. Make use of the free, experienced moving crew.
#2. Have plenty of boxes for the move.
#3. Have them packed and labeled with what's in them (she didn't) and where they go (she did).
#4. And this is the most important!!!!! Get rid of stuff BEFORE you move. Have a garage sale, donate, give away, or throw away, but look at what you have, determine if it's really something you need--and jettison the rest.
Dsil's dh assured us that when the moved from the OLD old house to the NEW old house, they got rid of a lot of stuff. They must have accumulated a LOT more stuff in the two years they were in the NEW old house. With a downsize in our future someday, it is a good time to begin our own program of getting rid of stuff!
Monday, April 30, 2007
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
JT: Future Sports SuperStar!
A few days ago we dropped in on our #2 daughter and her family for a quick visit. They just had a new baby and we hadn't seen him (or the rest of the family for that matter) in about a week or so, and it seemed a nice night for a visit. Especially since we were in the neighborhood.
Our 21 month old grandson has had a "thing" for balls since he was pretty young. If you are out of ideas for a birthday or Christmas gift for the little guy, buy him a new ball and you will be his new best friend. He packs them around, he throws them (naturally), and just in general loves balls of every size and shape. He was playing a game of "catch" with his mommy, and one of us commented on how much he loved balls and how good he was at throwing them (remember, he's not even 2 years old yet).
This prompted his daddy to relate the following story:
One day, when JT was about 18 months old, and maybe younger, "Dad" was sitting in JT's room, reading or doing something. "JT" was also in the room, but his daddy wasn't paying much attention to him. The chair which Dad was sitting in was next to a dresser, and on this dresser was a plastic inflatable reindeer. As Dad sat there reading or doing whatever (he never did really tell us what he was doing), this reindeer kept falling off the dresser. Dad reached down, picked it up and placed back on the dresser, only to have it fall off again a couple minutes later. After a few minutes of this, Dad began to wonder just why this reindeer was falling off the dresser--he was sure he was putting it back on far enough from the edge to keep it from falling. So Dad watched the reindeer. At that point, something went flying past Dad's head, and the reindeer fell to the ground one more time. He picked up the reindeer again, then watched JT. WHAM! JT let fly with one of his balls and pegged that reindeer--knocking him right off the dresser.
(end of story)
It didn't take long for JT to learn to shoot baskets. They keep a diaper pail in the garage where all the disposable diapers go when they've been used up pretty good. JT loves to open the door to the garage and throw those diapers into the pail. His daddy says he only misses about one in seven tries. He's also learned to stand in his crib and shoot balls into his Fisher-Price basketball hoop. He doesn't miss very often there, either.
We can't decide if he'll grow up to be a basketball or baseball star. He is also a good slider. Their floors are made of laminate (fake wood), and he likes to get a running start down the hallway, and slide into the kitchen on his knees. Works real good when he's in sweats--not so good if he's only wearing a diaper & t-shirt. This is something else he taught himself.
Yup, in about 20-25 years, we may see headlines about the athletic prowess of one "JT --------" Or sooner, in the case of little league and/or high school sports!
Our 21 month old grandson has had a "thing" for balls since he was pretty young. If you are out of ideas for a birthday or Christmas gift for the little guy, buy him a new ball and you will be his new best friend. He packs them around, he throws them (naturally), and just in general loves balls of every size and shape. He was playing a game of "catch" with his mommy, and one of us commented on how much he loved balls and how good he was at throwing them (remember, he's not even 2 years old yet).
This prompted his daddy to relate the following story:
One day, when JT was about 18 months old, and maybe younger, "Dad" was sitting in JT's room, reading or doing something. "JT" was also in the room, but his daddy wasn't paying much attention to him. The chair which Dad was sitting in was next to a dresser, and on this dresser was a plastic inflatable reindeer. As Dad sat there reading or doing whatever (he never did really tell us what he was doing), this reindeer kept falling off the dresser. Dad reached down, picked it up and placed back on the dresser, only to have it fall off again a couple minutes later. After a few minutes of this, Dad began to wonder just why this reindeer was falling off the dresser--he was sure he was putting it back on far enough from the edge to keep it from falling. So Dad watched the reindeer. At that point, something went flying past Dad's head, and the reindeer fell to the ground one more time. He picked up the reindeer again, then watched JT. WHAM! JT let fly with one of his balls and pegged that reindeer--knocking him right off the dresser.
(end of story)
It didn't take long for JT to learn to shoot baskets. They keep a diaper pail in the garage where all the disposable diapers go when they've been used up pretty good. JT loves to open the door to the garage and throw those diapers into the pail. His daddy says he only misses about one in seven tries. He's also learned to stand in his crib and shoot balls into his Fisher-Price basketball hoop. He doesn't miss very often there, either.
We can't decide if he'll grow up to be a basketball or baseball star. He is also a good slider. Their floors are made of laminate (fake wood), and he likes to get a running start down the hallway, and slide into the kitchen on his knees. Works real good when he's in sweats--not so good if he's only wearing a diaper & t-shirt. This is something else he taught himself.
Yup, in about 20-25 years, we may see headlines about the athletic prowess of one "JT --------" Or sooner, in the case of little league and/or high school sports!
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