The Move, Phase I

This past weekend, we moved out of our house and Cate, Timmy and I moved into my parents' house until we find a house in Phoenix. I don't think that any move is fun but this weekend was a disaster. The storage people underestimated how much space we would need to fit all of our stuff and the packers and movers did a terrible job. After they left, everywhere we looked we found cabinets that had not been emptied, clothes in the closets and a slew of coke cans and water bottles that they just threw on the ground. A mess, a really huge mess. So we thought that we would just be cleaning an empty house on Sunday, but we were actually finishing their job, figuring out what else we could give away and hauling tons of extra stuff to my parents' house. We got it done and the renters moved in the next morning. I am so glad that that part is done.

It is strange to rent your house out. When you sell a house, you fix things up, do the best you can and then after you close, you wash your hands of it. You are done. When you become the landlord, it is kind of like having strange, unknown, very long term house guests. You want them to be happy, to like the house and you hold your breath when their name comes up on the caller id, wondering what they have found that is wrong, or what quirk of a 60 year old house you forgot to mention during the walkthrough.

So now we are settling in here. I bought some new, exciting toys for C&T and plan to take them out as needed. Even though my parents have a lot of toys, they are not in their usual routine and seem less able to occupy themselves for any length of time.

So today we played with some fresh play-doh and new tools. Timmy might have eaten a little bit of it while I wasn't looking. In the past, all he did was eat it, so this is progress.

We also loaded up on new library books last week, which Cate LOVES. One of her favorites is, "No more Cookies," which is about one cookie obsessed little girl. At the end, this little girl's mother offers to make frozen chocolate dipped bananas with sprinkles. It seemed easy enough, so after a trip to the store for sprinkles, Cate and I worked on this during Timmy's nap.

We saved these for after dinner and both C&T loved them. I think that Timmy was silent for 10 minutes while he worked on eating his banana. Cate kept asking him, "T, do you like these? Do you like the sprinkles? I made these for you."