Still sorting

I am still sorting.  My dining room table is still a mess.  I clean half the table off and then fill it up again.  My large couch is cleared off, but now my small couch is half filled.  I have decided that it's just going to be a nightmare for the next six days.  Yes, we only have 6 days that I am able to work until the movers arrive.  They arrive Monday morning, but I can't do any work at all on Saturday.  Joe has a Cub Scout camp out all weekend.  I'll work on Friday and then on Sunday, we will be gone all day Saturday.  Joe has been really looking forward to this trip so we have to go, though the timing isn't great. 

So I've been thinking in my head for the last several days about what I will miss and not miss.   I just never got around to posting them.  So here they are.

I will miss baseball.  Sounds strange coming from me, right?  I mean, I am not great lover of baseball.  I loved playing it as a child.  My brother Nick and I would play all the time in the yard next to our walnut tree.  I also played on several teams throughout the years.  As an adult though, I have discovered that I can't stand watching it on tv.  It just can't keep my interest at all.  In person is okay, but can still get boring.  At this point, you are probably wondering why I will even miss it.  Well, mostly it comes from this past Saturday night.  Joe had read a certain number of books at school and earned a free ticket to a Bowie Baysocks game.  We decided to make it a family night and I purchased tickets for the rest of us.  There were a few bumps in the whole process of taking a family to a baseball game, but the sheer joy on Joe's face as he jumped up and down, arms over head, screaming and cheering as a Baysock player hit a home run was priceless.  Nothing but pure joy.  Since it was reading night at the ballfield, there were fireworks after the game.  Wonderful fireworks.  I was so happy we got to see some since the kids are a little bummed to be missing 4th of July this year.  After the fireworks, the kids were invited to run the bases.  Joe, Tom, and Sam joined the very very long line of kids and finally made it down to the field to run.  Unfortunately, it was 10 pm and Sam was tired.  He tried to go ahead of Joe and Tom in line.  Joe grabbed Sam and wouldn't let go.  Sam cried and cried.  One of the ushers made Joe and Sam leave the line.  Joe dragged Sam over the stands where the parents were made to wait, then got back in line.  Poor Sam.  He wouldn't stop crying.  He just wanted to go run the bases without Joe holding on to him.  He never got to run them, but Joe and Tom enjoyed it.  I will baseball because Australia doesn't have it and we'll have to wait until we return to go to a game again.  Cricket just isn't the same. 

I will also miss my miniture hostas.  These little plants were given to us several years ago by Jay's grandmother Sue.  We had filled in an old concrete fish pond with dirt and she gave us the plants to fill them in.  They were the first plants we'd planted at our home and I will miss them.

I will also miss Diet Coke.  I have a love/hate relationship with Diet Coke.  I probably drink too much of it, but I won't be drinking any after we move.  Yes Australia has diet soda and even Diet Coke.  BUT, it's just not the same.  All their diet sodas have sugar in them, real sugar.  They don't taste right and aren't 0 calories.  Coke Zero (which I don't like) also isn't 0 calories.  Iced tea is also not very popular in terms of drinks.  I will be able to make that at our house, but when we go out, it will be a problem.  Of course, drinks in general are a problem when going out in Australia.  When you order a drink at a restaurant, it is small.  About 8-10 oz and refills are not free.  Water has to be requested and still just an 8 oz glass.  I am the kind of person who drinks a whole during a meal.  It helps me eat less.  Not that we plan to eat out much, but we will until we have some place to live.

I will not miss cooking dinner.  Yes, I will be cooking dinner in Australia, starting Monday, I won't have a kitchen for about 4-5 weeks.  I won't be able to make good healthy meals with a hotel microwave so I won't have to cook much.  I get really really tired of cooking all the time.  I used to love cooking, but the spark is gone for me.  At least for the last few years it's been out.  Perhaps after a break, I will get it back.

So naive

So, back in January, I actually felt like I had a good handle on everything and was ready to move.  I found out today just how naive I am.  I started with the goal of cleaning, sorting, and packing the dining room and living room.  Well, not really packing as the moving company has to pack most everything, but I need to get rid of everything that I don't want.  I started at about 9 this morning and now, at 1:45, I am tired, frustrating and we have no place to eat dinner.  The above picture is how my dining room looks right now.  My living room hasn't changed.  Unfortunately, the large couch has been covered with stuff for two weeks and looks like it will be covered for at least another day. 

I seriously can't understand how we have gathered so much crap.  (Really no other word that fits other than crap.) We've lived in our house for 8 years, but I do clean and keep things fairly organized and everything has a place.  I am just really starting to understand how many little things that I have kept that we just don't need: little bottles of bubbles, bouncy balls, various screws and nails, random note cards, leftover birthday invitations, etc.  I feel a margarita night coming on.

 Since we found out the news, I've been trying to get ahold of my parents to share the news.  My dad was out of town and my mom apparently doesn't know how to check the voicemail.  I finally got ahold of her last night and shared the news.  My mom seems pretty upset that it is finally happening, which I understand.  I love my family and friends and I will miss them. 

So I thought I would share some other things that I will miss (and not miss).  Maybe I'll do one a day for the next several days.  It goes without saying that first and foremost I will miss my family and friends.  I will also miss our new deck.  When we first moved into our house 8 years ago, our deck was shady.  While it is under the cover of trees, that's not the shady to which I am referring.  The deck was on very tall, too small, rotten supports and actually had holes in the surface of it.  It would sway if people walked on it or if the wind blew too hard.  It's hard to believe that it didn't fall down on its own.  We finally replaced it two years ago and I love our new deck.  It is an extension of our house.  The kids and I spend a lot of time on it and I can't complain about the view.   

 I love this view. 

Now, what I won't miss is the fact that we live on a corner lot.  A "U" shaped lot with about 600 feet of road frontage.  Completely too expensive to ever fence in.  The speed limit is only 25 mph, but other than myself, I don't think anyone ever goes that slow.  We live at the corner of two dead end roads, but yet the amount of traffic is astounding.  Of course, we have a few boat clubs, a restaurant, and a school on one of the roads and a yacht club on the other.  At one point, we asked the county for a three way stop.  Currently, the road on the left has to stop and the road on the right has to stop for left turns.  The incoming road doesn't stop at all.  Probably 70% of the traffic comes in and then goes to the road on the right.  We were hoping for a three way stop to slow down the traffic.  The county did a traffic study.  Their conclusions:  The average speed at this intersection was 39 mph, but putting in a three way stop would slow down traffic too much, namely the buses headed to the school.  I won't miss this intersection.