The pack's in the Mail--a lesson if you are moving!

You know the saying, "The check's in the mail," right? Well, right now I have 2 packages I ordered that were sent and have never arrived. It was in no way the senders' fault. The first was an ebay item I won: a set of all 6 Josefina American Girl Books AND some more Josefina books. It was such a good deal, too. I was so excited since we'd planned to teach this series in the fall at our homeschool co-op. The other was some stamps that were on clearance, then another set with a discount. These were sets I'd been eyeing & waiting for the time that I had enough money to get them. To get them on clearance was above & beyond my hopes! Why, you may wonder, if the senders aren't at fault, have I not received my things?

Well, it happened like this. The first one was my first ebay purchase in quite some time. I was so happy to win and anxious to get them that I paid immediately (I try to do that all the time). The sender was so gracious and was sending them out the next day. It was only later on that "next day" that I realized a problem. I never changed my mailing address in ebay or paypal. Ouch. We did file a change of address and had a few items forwarded to us, so I wasn't really worried. I did contact the seller, though, and told her to be on the lookout in case it was returned.

The second package should have had my new address, for I'd gone into paypal and added the new address. I marked it as primary address. I changed my address with the stamp company, too. I placed my order and got an order confirmation. I never looked at it because this company is so reliable. I then ordered something from half.com and noticed my old address was still in paypal, so I deleted it. I ordered some other things online that were also on sale (I had sold some stamp sets to earn money to do this, as money is always tight and I only buy things like this if I've earned money to do it). Those items came really fast.

I waited & waited but neither the ebay nor the other package came. I THEN looked online and saw that my stamp order had been sent to my OLD ADDRESS! It was NOT the fault of the sender. They go by the address on paypal. It was paypal that had messed up. I contacted both the ebay seller and the stamp seller. I have not heard from the ebay seller, but the stamp seller (who is just the best person to do business with---it's Clear Dollar Stamps) told me then it had not been returned to them. I checked again today & no, no returned package.

I finally did what I should have done to start: I went to the Post Office. Thankfully the main PO hub in SA is near my house. A lady helped me right away. She contacted my branch and they checked in several places but had nothing for me. She checked with the actual drivers for our mailboxes and they did not have anything. I left a message yesterday asking if anyone had actually gone to the old mailbox and looked inside. It's one of those blocks of boxes & you need a key to get into it. I haven't heard back.

In the meantime I'm just frustrated that I didn't check on the ebay or paypal info sooner. If you are going to move, in addition to changing your mailing address with all your utilities and such, you need to check your paypal & ebay accounts. Maybe next week will be the week the packages show up. And, for right now, we aren't sure when or where we'll have co-op so maybe I have awhile more to plan!

Sneak Peek at our "New" Home

We are still up to our ears in boxes. Hmmm, maybe just up to our waists now. I took a few pictures of our upstairs recently. Since then I have almost finished painting the master bedroom, have half the craft room painted with shelves up on one wall, and have added details to the girls' room. I LOVE their room. It is the perfect all-girl room for their ages (10 1/2 & nearly 13). I'll add pics when I get finished painting & have things a tad more organized. The downstairs, well, it may take more time before it's blog-able!

This is where the royalty sleep: The Princess and the Queen (DRAMA Queen that is)

This is where the staff live, uh, I mean our bedroom/office. The room is 15 1/2 ft. x 15 1/2 ft. I love it!

This is the first part of our Energizer Bunny closet (to which everyone replies either "WOW" or "I'm so jealous!"). I didn't show the bathroom because it's so small if you blinked for a second you might miss it.

The closet that keeps going...

and going...


and going. It's 70 sq. ft. of closet. Our bedrooms weren't that big at our other house, I'm sure!

!The craft room in transition.

This concludes our tour for today. Be sure to join us again for another look at the Garrisons ever changing home. (hee-hee!)

Honey, We're Hooooooome!

Just a quick post to say we are HOME! We are in our "new" house and out of our old one. We finished doing all we needed to do there about 9 p.m. last night. Phew. I have a sinking fear that they will find fault with our clean up job, or we will have missed some big thing and not get our deposit back. However, we did the best we could and have the paint splats and lack of fingernails to prove it! LOL!

I'll try to get pictures soon to show you. The girls room is just so "tweenager" looking. It's perfect for them. The bedspreads Mammaw (my mom) bought them look like they were designed with the walls in mind. It is odd having 2 single beds rather than bunks, but it's such a cute room. And let me tell you, standing in their old empty room we realized how TINY it really is. I feel like a plant that was in a too small pot and has been replanted in a great big planter.

On the down side, I woke up sick today. I can't find my bottle of ibuprofen. I need to have Phil look in the car to see if it fell out. I had big plans to work today but spent most the day in bed.

My computer is still on the blitz. I NEED to get a Pampered Chef letter out so I need to see how to download addresses & import them to my webmail. I'm able to use either Phil's or the girls' computer, so I can get my daily "fix".

Pictures coming this week.....I hope!

Moving Days

My dear faithful readers, um, I mean, anyone out there who happens to stumble upon my blog, since I have probably lost my readers from lack of posting, we are in the midst of moving. We'd been bringing boxes to our new house for a week or so, and on Friday we were able to have our furniture moved by the wonderful Central United Van Lines. My dad still knows the manager there, so our "housewarming" gift was a truck & 2 moving guys. Even though I've been around the moving business my entire life (minus the first 2 years when Dad worked for Hormel), I had forgotten how easily & quickly professional movers work. These 2 men were somewhere between Phil's age & my age, I think, and they worked circles around anything we could do. In 4 hours, they had torn down and moved our stuff from one house to the other. Phil & I are working on boxes and after several weeks, we are still not quite done.

This week we've been working like crazy to empty the garage and house. We opted for a U-haul rather than multiple loads on a pick up and van. Tomorrow morning we'll get up & unload that into our new garage, return the truck by noon, and head to our old house to finish loading what we can and start cleaning. I have to also paint 2 rooms back to a neutral.

We have not lived in a home with an upstairs since 1995 when we had an upstairs apartment. I grew up in homes that often had an upstairs, and at one point lived in a 3rd floor apartment. I was a TAD thinner and in better shape back then. I'm discovering muscles in my legs and back that I never knew existed. I know about them now because they SCREAM out at night!

If anyone is still around & reading, thank you! If anyone is bored this week & wants to come help clean, come on over! :>)

By the way, I am working from the girls' computer (they are at my mother-in-law's house this week) because mine apparently got a virus & now has no internet connection at all. It's rather frustrating as I am trying to get a Pampered Chef show finished for a friend. Looks like I may be downloading my PC program to this computer so I can send the show in. Pray Phil has a minute to work on my PC! Pray for strength & endurance for us, as well, as we finish up at the old house. We will really start unpacking next week.

Have a super day!

Boxing Days

Have you heard of "Boxing Day?" In Canada, December 26th is Boxing Day. I didn't know what that was until I met a friend from Canada and since have "met" folks online from Canada. Traditionally, it was the day when you would take packages to your friends to celebrate Christmas, after spending Christmas Day with family. I hear that today it's something akin to our "Black Friday" shopping spree.

We are having boxing days here. While I am not making up boxes of gifts for my friends (which I would enjoy a great deal more), I am filling boxes. I am also filling bags: BIG TRASH BAGS with stuff we've collected. It's amazing how much STUFF can accumulate in one's home. Compound that with an Asperger Child, who tends to collect EVERY scrap of EVERY piece of paper, plastic, and more, and you've got a real mess on your hands. If I told you the depth of filth I've uncovered, you would probably never visit my home, so let's just say we are moving into a CLEAN house and you are welcome to join us!

I did have a stroke of genius last week when I asked my parents to take the girls and their umpteen boxes to THEIR house and help them sort it out there. They had no distractions like they do here, so they worked all day like busy beavers. They didn't get rid of as much as we'd hoped, but they did whittle it down quite a bit.

The property manager has told us they can start showing this house on Friday. That is less than 24 hours from the time I am writing. Hopefully, they will not come at 1 a.m., but I will be feeling the crunch by then. They will show the house on an appointment basis only, so we should have fair warning.

The house into which we are moving is owned by some friends of ours who graciously have let us go ahead & start moving boxes into the house. Phil has been taking loads over about every other night. He's also been a carpet cleaning maniac. Phil is a bit of a carpet fanatic when it comes to cleaning. Because our friends are offering us such an amazing "deal" on the house, we are trying to do as much of the house prep work as we can. Phil has now shampooed the carpet once with cold water (before we had the water turned on & used the neighbor's hose, with permission!) and again with hot steamy water. The owners suggested pulling up the carpet & staining the concrete, but Phil likes his carpet. At least he is trying to get it as allergy free as possible. The former owners had dogs, and they must have been long haired ones. Thankfully I do not test allergic to dogs anymore, and I don't think they had cats.

As I mentioned, we've had my dad's company move us in the past. That meant getting used moving boxes from them. The time we moved our goods from our apartment in San Marcos into storage (we were going to Africa), we had the most interesting boxes. They said, "Bush" on them. Some said, "Barbara's room." YES, they were the boxes that were used when George W. & Laura Bush moved from Austin, Texas to Washington, D.C.! Whether you love or hate GWB, we thought it was pretty cool to have "famous boxes!"

This time we have a few from my nephew & his wife (we hope to get more, when Nils calls his favorite aunt!). The best one we have found is a rather large box marked, "Katie's Shoes." I want to know how many shoes my niece has that filled a box that big! More importantly, I need to see if she has my same shoe size and if she shares! LOL!

I'll try to get some pictures of the new house to show soon. For now, it's off to la la land.

A Really Moving Story to share

We shared some big news with our family this week. I have to share with you the letter we sent out. Now, before reading this, you must know that my nephew & his wife are expecting their first child this summer. However, they had OTHER big news as well. Really, though, when the first Grandchild all around and the first Great-Grandchild is expected, who thinks about OTHER news? With that in mind, here is my letter. Note that I am a dork. I meant to say "Memorial Day" where I wrote "Labor Day." Just thought I'd leave it in here so you could appreciate how my dorky mind works!

We have a very big announcement to make. This may come as a surprise because we haven't had to make this same announcement for about 10 1/2 years. There is going to be a change in our lives very soon. We had expected to do this when we were younger, but sometimes God has plans for us that surprise us.

You know that announcement that Katie & Nils made this year? Well, guess what! Yep, we have the same news! It's true!

Have you guessed what it is? Think hard now. CHANGE, 10 1/2 years, same as Katie & Nils. I'll give you a minute to think about it. Scroll down to see the announcement.

It's true: WE ARE MOVING JUST LIKE KATIE & NILS! HA! HA! HA! WHAT? You didn't really think we were having a BABY did you? I'm not planning on being the next Sarah & Abraham, thank you very much, except for the packing up & moving around part! Great Aunt is a good enough new title.

Some friends of ours have a house for rent that is about twice as big as this house, in a nice neighborhood (they live in the same neighborhood) and they will charge us what we are paying NOW for our house. That is actually lower than their house payment, so they are offering this to us as a way to help us and they will not be out the full house payment each month. There is a possibility that they might be willing to sell it to us IF we like it. This gives us a chance to try it before we buy it. I keep thinking I measured wrong, but what I wrote down is the Master bedroom is 15'8" x 15'6"! We're going to "subdivide" it to use part as we would a 4th bedroom. Then the master closet is an L shape, about 10 feet one way & about 12 feet the other, and about 4 1/2 ft. wide. If that room had vents in it, I told Phil I would use that as my craft/sewing room! If you come to visit us, we may turn the closet into a spare bedroom! We'll be moving stuff in starting in May & then wil officially be out of this house by the end of May. I hope we have everything moved out by the weekend before Labor Day so we can use that next week to clean this pigsty, um, I mean house.

Have a wonderful day!

Well, WE thought it was pretty funny. Our parents already knew we were planning to do this, but for the others, I was hoping for the shock factor. Mom did say the thought went through her mind & she kept saying, "No, she can't be. This must be a joke." ha, ha!

And I hope YOU have a wonderful day!