Dairy Boots

Ed and I went to Walmart to pick up a pair of boots last night. Our old boots hadn't survived The Great Colorado Purge. I thought if I threw them away we'd be forced to get some nicer ones. That did not turn out to be prophetic. I'm not sure if Walmart carries "Dairy Boots" in Colorado, but that's what Ed ended up with. I was fortunate to get a pair of bright red "Rain Boots." While they are not beauties, they were the perfect thing for our Sunday afternoon walk in the back of our property. We tried to follow the survey markers for our new road. We ended up following the deer path back to our house. We met one of our neighbors on the way back. He was friendly and didn't seem to blame us for the fact that a new road would soon be winding it's way behind his house.

Piano and Organ

The organ has been unbanished from the loft, and has taken its rightful place on the main floor of the house. It seems happy again. It was always a little lonely upstairs. It reminded me of the spooky organ in the attic on the Ghost and Mr. Chicken, one of my favorite Don Knotts movies.

The piano also seems happier, as it has more room to spread out in its new room. We still have to hang pictures on the walls and put a lot of stuff away, but it's a start!

Purple Gloves

The unpacking goes on. Seven years ago when I did this my hands got raw and painful. Even touching another piece of paper sent chills down my spine. This time I nipped it in the bud and bought a box of really pretty purple non-latex latex gloves. In addition to being very attractive, they've made unwrapping all my treasures (?) a joy! Okay, not a joy, really, but less painful than the last time I did this.

Cardinal

Look what we have in our backyard! We have at least three cardinals. It's been fun watching them. I'm glad we don't have any leaves on the trees so we can see the birds better. This one posed nicely for me.

Before and After

These pictures remind me of a scripture from Mosiah, Chapter 27, Verse 29:  I was in the darkest abyss; but now I behold the marvelous light of God. My soul was cracked with eternal torment; but I am snatched, and my soul is pained no more.

I finally cleared the boxes out of the kitchen. It was especially difficult, as we're remodeling. I had to find enough dishes and pots and pans to get us by for the next few months, and store the rest in the garage. It felt good to sit down for Sunday dinner in a box-free zone!

Eldersburg Ward

Our ride to church is over a pretty pastoral road. There is a nice view of the church at the top of the hill over a little valley. If you look closely, you can see the spire right in the middle of this picture. The building is a little cozy (small) for the large ward, but it is new and pretty. It was fun looking around and wondering who would be our new friends. This is an Internet savy ward. They even have a Relief Society site where sisters can chat online. It was ward conference, and with all the visitors people pretty much ignored us till they read our records in. After that, we made a lot of new friends!

Maryland Wins in Buzzer Beater!

We went to the University of Maryland basketball game Saturday and watched the Terrapins (Turtles) beat the Georgia Tech Yellowjackets. We were wondering why we would even consider loosing a half day of sorting boxes of stuff at home, but it was a good opportunity for us to go out with some friends of Ed's from work. It turned out to be an exciting game, when a last second shot won the game for the home team. We also had some great square pizza from Ledo's, which has been serving Baltimorians (not Baltimorons) for 50 years!

Homowners Again!

We closed on our new house Tuesday, and celebrated with some Triscuits, Gatorade and orange juice (what was left in our cooler from driving across country). It ws quite euphoric! The next morning reality set in. Ed went to work and I met the movers. The truck with the musical instruments caused such a stir in the neighborhood that a traffic accident ensued in front of my house. It involved a neighbor in the driveway staring at the truck while pulling head first into the side of a passing vehicle. The truck driver was unharmed. However, he couldn't turn around and had to back his big rig a half mile up the street to get out of the neighborhood.

The first of our other vans came shortly thereafter with their U-haul. In order to get everything in the house they moved it to the U-haul first, then drove into the driveway to unload it. I spent the first morning digging a path from the front door around to the back of the house. They used it to move the items into the basement. My arms are still sore from that. I was happy, however not to feel left out from the storm of the century. We didn't experience it while the snow was falling, but we have been inconvenienced enough by the aftereffects that we, too will have a story to tell years from now when people are reminicsing about the "big one."

We slept in our own bed Wednesday night. Well, I slept. Ed stayed awake listening to the furnace whistle in the intake vent. He got up at 4 a.m. to adjust the vent. Getting showered was also an adventure.  We hadn't realized that the hot water was set on the lowest setting. So, one of us had a hot bath. The other had a cold shower. You can see this probably put Ed in a good mood. To cheer him up, his car was delivered to his work yesterday. But to make him sad it took an hour to get home. He had driven the commute several times before buying the house. It was always about 40 minutes. Hopefully, the last two days don't represent his future commute time.

Today I'm going to unload some more boxes. There are 942 of them! I'm hoping to find a sauce pan in one of them!

Walk Through

We went over to the house yesterday for a final walk-through. There are a few items left for the builder to fix, but we were pleased that they had plowed the driveway and a path to the service door. Here are Ed and Ron (our realtor) shoveling a path to the front door. The storm that was predicted last night turned out to be a bust (thankfully). We are planning on closing on the house this afternoon and the movers will come tomorrow. We don't have any idea where they will park the vans. We went to Home Depot to buy a mail box. Three people asked us if the snow plows had run over our mail box, too. They suggested waiting till the thaw to put up a mail box. We might be picking up our mail at the post office for a while.

We saw two bright red cardinals in the trees behind our house. They reminded us of spring, despite the deep snow surrounding the house.

Do You Think it Snowed Here?

We went out to dinner in downtown Baltimore last night, but we had a hard time finding a parking place. The snow was piled up everywhere! This is what it looked like in front of our restaurant. Ed is so small behind this mountain of snow. We found a parking place in a covered lot, but that was only by circling till someone else left. It was like musical parking spots. When someone left, all the cars zeroed in like sharks in a feeding frenzy. We were lucky to get a spot, and to enjoy a lovely Valentine's dinner together at da Mimmo's. When we left the sharks (cars) were still circling, and we made someone's day when we vacated our parking spot.

Leave the Driving to Ed

We had dry roads all the way across the country this weekend. We apparently stayed ahead of the storm. We saw Kansas had a 30 car pile up on the freeway yesterday. We were lucky to get away on Friday afternoon, thanks to our very efficient movers!

Other than two short periods, where I spelled him, Ed did all the driving himself. We listened to a book on tape (Stone Cold by David Baldacci), and when that got tiring I rested on my lady bug pillow (thank you, Verlene!). We drove into town yesterday, just as our book drew to an end. All the good guys killed all the bad guys in a very definitive, if not entirely satisfying dénouement.

Zachy Plant Goes to Maryland!

We couldn't leave our Zachy plant in Colorado, as Cary Hyde gave it to me in memory of her son Zach. I think of him every time I water it, and I didn't feel right abandoning it in Colorado, so our Zachy plant (along with Crystal's fern) got to ride in the back seat on our trip to Baltimore. They also got to join us in the hotel room every night.  We'll be glad when they find a permanent home!

Foot High Pie

If you travel through Indiana, be sure to stop in Pieron for lunch. We did! The Blue Springs Cafe is celebrated for its foot- high pies. This coconut merengue pie hit the spot after a long morning on the road. If you stop there, be sure you have some cash in your wallet, as they don't take checks and they don't take credit cards!

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

We're already safely ensonced in our hotel in Topeka, Kansas tonight. It's been a whirlwind week. We had the world's most efficient movers. They had almost everything packed and loaded in 4 days. This morning they came over to pick up our bed, a table and chairs, and one sofa. We just vacuumed and swept behind them as they finished rooms, and we had very little to do by the time they left.

Amanda came down from Greeley Thursday night. We went out to eat at Carraba's--the first place we ever ate when we were moving to Broomfield. We haven't exactly kept Carraba's in business over the past seven years, but we thought it would be a fitting end to eat there our last day in town. Poor Amanda had to sleep on the couch and we made her share our bathroom in order not to get hers dirty. She was, however, the grateful recipient of the leftovers in our fridge. (The ones that survived the mold test).

Friday morning we had another company come and pick up our musical instruments--to be shipped in a climate controlled van. Ed's car was also picked up to go on a car carrier. We feel like we're being treated really well through the move. We  filled up our own car with a lot of things that couldn't be shipped. We threw in a snow shovel just to make sure we could get into our new house after we close.

My visiting teachers came over just at the vans were pulling away this morning, so they helped sweep and mop up the tile floor. It was so nice of them to show up at exactly the right time. The house looks just like it did seven years ago when we moved in (if you don't look too closely)!

Ed did most of the driving today, although I spelled him for a while. We put our two plants behind him. He looks funny in this picture with the plants, but not nearly as funny as we both looked coming into the hotel tonight laden with suitcases, briefcases, and each of us with a large plant on one arm.

Thanks to all of you who dropped by to wish us well this week. It meant a lot to us. We'll miss you all! It's been a great 7 years together!

They're Here!

Today is moving day. We have 10 guys at our house wrapping and packing and disconnecting. There is nothing for Ed and me to do! We're wandering around taking down some curtains, just for lack of anything else to do. We have gigantic moving trucks outside our house. It's a little embarrassing. Even after we spent the past four months purging, we still have a lot of junk! So far, everything appears to be going very well. I guess the real anxiety comes on the other end. Look what a sad, grey day it is!

The Fabric of Life

Yesterday was a bittersweet day at church. It was a great meeting,with testimonies by so many people we know and love. We've seen them all grow and serve faithfully for the past 7 years. It was like a microcosm of life right there in Sacrament meeting. The choir presented me with the most incredible momento--a quilt sign by all of them. Phyllis passed out the squares, collected them and sewed them all together. Robin embroidered a sign in the middle that says "We Made a Joyful Noise." They certainly did. I loved the choir so much.

Kenna hosted an open house for us in the evening. It was fun mingling one last time with our dear friends from church. Ed says we have to move now or everyone would be mad at us if we stayed.

Melting Pot, Expanding Waistline

The Hartmanns took us out to the Melting Pot  fondue restaurant on Saturday. After 24 years in Denver we finally got to go to this restaurant. It was an entire evening of eating. We had a nice, quiet table and were able to enjoy visiting as we dipped our bread, veggies, lobster, steak, chicken, brats, etc. in first cheese, then boiling oil. If that wasn't good enough we got to dip brownies, cheesecake, poundcake, strawberries and rice crispy treats in chocolate at the end. Good friends and good food! It doesn't get any better than this.

Bishopric Extravaganza

The entire Bishopric went out to dinner Friday night to celebrate our move. Or, perhaps, mourn would be a better word. But it ends up being like an Irish wake, a good excuse to get together and talk about good times we've had together. We've had plenty of them, too. The Bishopric will miss Ed's sense of humor. His job has been to say the things the Bishop was thinking, but he couldn't say because he is Bishop. He has turned that job over to Rand now. Mike is the lucky counselor. He gets to be in charge of raising and lowering the pulpit now.

Can Stress Cause Kidney Stones?

Ed came home Thursday night, just in time to spend the weekend disconnecting all the wires on our electronic devices and patch all the walls from our wall hangings. I was so happy to have him home, even though he wasn't worth much after a week in Baltimore suffering with kidney stones. That is all passed now (literally), and he's feeling much better! And to make things even better, it snowed so much in Baltimore and Denver that he had to cancel his trip this week. He's going to stay here and help with the move all week instead. This is Ed resting up from working all day!

Twisted Farewell

The Twisted Sisters had our last meeting today. We didn't even take our instruments. The best part of the band always was the talking, anyway. To make it even more fun we went out to lunch at Buca di Beppo's. They opened especially for us, and we had the whole restaurant to ourselves. It was great fun. They gave us the Pope room, (see picture above). It has a large bust of a Pope right on the table, so we felt like we were in good company. We talked about food, family, friends, church, and even our waiter, whose last name was Clam! We were happy he wasn't marrying any of our daughters!

Thanks to all the Twisted Sisters, past and present for playing with me! It was the best of times!