The trash men are going to earn their wages today when they stop at my house. This is the final pickup before we move and we are still adding to the pile...

All my treasures are wrapped in bubble wrap (and popcorn) and carefully packed away. Now it is time to get everything else in boxes... hopefully it will go fast! Hubby is still working in the back part of the house. Today he plans to get the under the house part finished and paint. More work is waiting for us in West Texas as we have to pull up the carpet and put a coat of Kilz on everything before we move into our new home. Hopefully we can get fresh paint and flooring finished in two or three days while everything sets on the truck. Then we plan to end this fix it marathon for a year or so when we hope to build our "keeper" house.

I have today and tomorrow to get finished packing and clean out the fridge and cabinets as hubby has extra help lined up for Wednesday to get the truck loaded. Since I'm never supposed to lift or tug again, I plan to vacate the premises while they load.... I'll finalize some banking, turn in our post office box keys, pay some final bills and maybe get a pedicure.

We plan to sleep on an air mattress Wednesday night and head out early Thursday morning to begin this new chapter of our lives. Even with all this activity, it is hard to believe this is really happening! After almost twenty-three years of saying I'm a transplanted Texan, I'll be a Texan again. Guess you just never get over where you were raised...

Imagine this kitty is me doing the happy dance! Our loan for the acreage is approved; we close on Friday the 16th.  Now I can do change of address forms and all that good stuff. Oh my! That means I have to get utilities turned on there. I better get busy!

My oldest friend Sattsue has her xanga up and running now. Go by and leave her some lovin!

Today has been a weepy day. First I woke up at 3:30 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep.... missing Moma and couldn't turn my mind off. I finally got up and just watched the slide show from her funeral over and over again until time to wake hubby for church. Then everyone I talked to at church this morning had the same effect. on me. Don't know why I even bothered with make up today! Guess it is just finally beginning to sink in that we won't see these folks every week anymore. One of my closest freinds and her husband took us out to lunch after church.

This evening was our last Life Group before we move, so they had a special meal for us and spent the better part of the evening sharing memories. We cried a lot but laughed some too. Our LG pastor (who's wife was home recuperating from surgery) is also hubby's best friend. Don't they look like a pair that could raise a ruckus...

I got individual pictures of everyone and then right before we dismissed for the evening we had one of the teenagers take these pictures of us all together. Some of us had cried so much it looks like we all have red eyes.

These are the folks who have seen us at our best and our worst over the years. In this last one everyone's true personality is shining.

So for now, the capsule version is that everyone of these has it's own personality and this one turned out to be the most relaxing one so far. Or maybe it just seemed that way to me because I didn't have Moma or Daddy's welfare in the back of my mind coloring everything. I literally only turned my phone on once a day to call hubby and then turned it back off. Stephanie took so many great pictures I didn't even get my camera out of my suitcase. Go to her blog for more pictures. It was wonderful to get away for some girlie fun.We'll spend this week finishing up the remodel here and if they accept our offer the next week packing. Don't know how often I'll actually be on here in the coming weeks. Don't forget about me during the silences ya hear!

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UPDATE:

My girlie weekend began Friday morning with a solo trip to the airport. Hubby was flying in from house hunting in West Texas so we had almost an hour together in the airport before I left for Gena's. My flight was pretty routine. This time I sat beside another woman who was also traveling to the metroplex area to meet girlfriends for the weekend. I had to bite my tongue to keep from blurting out, how much more fun our weekend was gonna be because we wear tiaras! We rode George Bush from the airport to meet up with the other sisters for some yummy Chinese at Pei Wei's (a fast food style version of P F Changs)..

Gena dahling was driving her sweetie's big ol' supercab truck and mine and Stephanie's suitcases were in the bed of the truck. Halfway into lunch the bottom fell out on one of those scattered thunderstorms and we ran out into the rain to grab our luggage and get them sheltered in Danette's trunk. Well, that girl has the good old'fashioned kind of car where you have to use a key instead of a clicker so we were both drenched by the time we got back in. That wasn't nearly so bad as the fact that it pretty much stopped raining about the time we walked back into the restaurant. Go figure! (I'm sure someone took an embarrassing picture of our wet look, but I don't have it.) Friday afternoon and evening was very relaxed. Can you guess who's foot is who's?

We supped upon our choice of 3 soups so everyone could taste them all, or one or two. Funny how us native Texans seemed to like the hotter ones better than the others did. We sat around and told stories on each other and giggled until hours past my usual bedtime. Since most of us had already met before there didn't seem to be the adrenaline high we've had at earlier gatherings.  My roomie for the weekend was Michele. We got the downstairs guest room that adjoins to the bath with the automatic lights. Nothing like having to pull back the shower curtain and wave your arms to reactivate it mid-shower because you aren't used to such luxuries and have suddenly found yourself in the dark... After a long weekend in that comfy bed I'm sure Gena-poo forgot to insert a pea under our mattress because the two princesses slumbering upon it slept like logs ~ a sure sign we didn't feel a thing! Life is tough at Gena's!

Saturday morning the night owls and morning people were obvious. One group was fully dressed putting together a Sonic order for breakfast while the others were content to wait for lunch in their jammies for a bit of protein. Three guesses which group I was in!  It was fun to just hang out with the girls on Saturday. Some went shopping, most stayed at Gena's having a good ole time just visiting with one another. Several took naps....YES naps. This was the most relaxing SoTT's gathering ever. I loved it! I spent most of my time with Jamie and found that we have a lot more in common than either of us realized. We bonded on our trip to Sonic and later that night when we rode George Bush what seemed like all the way to New Mexico for TexMex at Mercado Juarez.. Once again Gena exhibited her penchant for a lead foot which greatly heightened our bonding experience as we tried to keep up. All I can say is I'm glad my driver was used to big city traffic. I would have been in quite a pickle!

Danette was babysitting Jenna (who is a day older than Jovey) so she brought her over for a couple of hours. Then Ashley brought Jovey over for a couple of hours. We had two babies to spoil! I got to hold Gena's new granddaughter. She is every bit as precious as she and Danette keep telling us she is.

That night we all donned our jammies, boas and tiaras and officially crowned two new SoTTs, Kim and Kim.

Afterwards, those that have been to a gathering know what happens, music and dancing.... Afterwards Jamie, Michele, Marla and Sarah and I headed for the bed while the rest raised a ruckus. You can read more about that on Gena's blog.

Sunday morning we had church at home. We sang, we testified, we prayed for one another. Not a dry eye left in the place. It's so great to actually spend time together face to face instead of via the computer time. I got to share the capsule version of what God has been doing in my life lately... How things are suddenly falling into place when we've been talking about moving back to Texas for the last 3 years. God is good and faithful, however he answers prayers in HIS time not ours. Such a wonderful sweet time we had together! I shall never forget it! Afterwards we had deli style lunch then the goodbyes began. Hate those! We cheered ourselves my baking chocolate chop cookies and eating them warm from the oven. Em and Meagan made some awesome SoTT videos. I don't know if they ever published them to UTube or not. My favorite was the improv rap... " We love Jesus and we love bling... put it on your head and put it on a ring.." By late afternoon there were only a handful of us left so we played Mexican dominoes. A certain Yankee beat all us little ol Texas gals and it was only her first time to play.  (BTW, have I mentioned that both Gena and Danette used to live in the same dusty little West Texas town we grew up in as children, and are about to move back to?) Once again we sat up laughing and talking later than I am used to, but I'd do it again given the chance!

Monday we lunched at Olive Garden then dropped Stephanie at the airport. Yummy lunch, yucky goodbyes! After leaving Stephanie's little pouty face at the airport we headed to Grapevine Mills Mall for a few hours then to Sam Mi's to do some more shopping! FUN TIMES! Then back to the house to rest a bit. Did I  mention I HATE the goodbyes! Coming home our flight was delayed about half an hour. As good as getting away was I was thrilled to be back home. Hubby and I enjoyed a late supper discussing particulars of our impending move before falling exhausted into our very own bed.

This has been an emotional week as the goodbyes have begun. We have lived here for most of our adult lives ~ almost 23 years and put down roots. This is where our kids grew up and our friends are. This is where we have helped build a church and seen it grow from a few dozen to over a thousand, built a house and buried both of my parents.  We are excited about returning to Texas, confident it is what we are supposed to do, yet sad to leave. Does that make sense? Bittersweet times.... new beginnings ahead.

At a fiftieth birthday party this weekend one of my spiritual mentors did the sweetest thing.... She took my face in her hands, looked me straight in the eye, called me by my whole name and told me how much she was going to miss me. Yeah, we both cried. Sharing when-we-plan-to-leave details with our life group Sunday night wasn't much easier. Everyone was trying to be happy for us, but no one really was.

It is finally beginning to sink in that we are really  moving. Hubby left early, early  this morning for West Texas to meet with a potential employer and find us a place to live. He'll arrive back in LR about the same time I head toward Gena's on Friday morning so  I won't see him again until I get back from SoTT. That way we don't need a sitter for our critters and I'm not too tired to enjoy my girlie weekend. He's such a sweetie. He says he'll finish the second bath while I am gone~  for me to enjoy the girls and come home excited about moving. He is driving his work vehicle out there and leaving it with his parents and then flying back. One less thing to have to move,  he says....

Several folks have seemed surprised that he would be picking us out a place to live without me. But I am at perfect peace about it. We have been together long enough we know what the other one likes and besides, he is finding us a house not the house. We plan to build that after we've been there long enough to get a feel for things again.

So for the rest of this week I am going to ignore all this getting ready to move stuff and focus all my attention on meeting those crazy girls at Gena's this weekend. I promised hubby to come home pumped about moving. Maybe I'll go pajama shopping today!