Satellite TV is up and running, I got my new wireless laptop - and I’m back in the world again.  YEA!!  Regular blogging will now be possible again!

Two days a week I share my classroom with another teacher.  We each work with children individually or in small groups.  So it is no problem sharing the classroom.  Today when I was working at my desk, I overheard a conversation between the other teacher and a kindergarten child:

Child: “My dad had to move to another house because my dad was so mad at my mom.”

Teacher:  “Okay, get your things together.  It’s time for you to go back to your class.”

Child:  “My dad loves my mom.”

Teacher:  “Uh hmmm.  Let’s go.”

My heart broke for the child who was expressing something important to him, and I was angry with the teacher who either couldn’t or wouldn’t listen.

I got a note from my mother, Ruthlace, that she had received an email about being Blog of the Day.  In checking to see what she needed to do to note the occasion on her blog, I saw that I also had been nominated for today!  YEA!  So thanks whoever nominated me!

Each afternoon when school is out, Sweet Stuff (1st grade) comes to my classroom, and I drive her home.  This afternoon I had a meeting to attend in the classroom next to mine, and so Sweet Stuff waited for a few minutes in my room until her daddy picked her up.  After my meeting when I returned to my room, there was a white board on the front table on which Sweet Stuff had written a message to me with a dry erase marker:  “I love Grandma Carol.  I’ll see you tomorrow.”  Sweet, sweet, sweet!

I’ve found that moving can make one’s world quite small.  Things are disconnected at the old house, and we must wait for them to be re-connected at the new house.  The DirecTV folks won’t be at the new house until later today.  That makes almost two week’s we’ve gone without watching TV.  Quite honestly, I haven’t missed it much.  It has made me realize how much of a habit it is to watch certain shows.  It’s not that the shows are so enormously entertaining.  It’s just that we were accustomed to eating dinner and then watching TV - whatever was on.  A similar thing happened with the Internet.   We had DSL problems at the old house that left me internet-less at home for over two months.  I was starting a new job.  So I sure wasn’t going to blog from work.  Now at the new house, we have a high-speed connection again, but I don’t have my computer yet.  So I borrow RT’s when I need to.  Last night, for the first time in months,  I spent about 5 hours working on a project online - and it was nice.  I read blogs that I would normally not read, and I had a blast.  The only negative was that I didn’t get to bed until after 1:30 this morning.  Once in awhile that’s okay.

So without TV and with no Internet for so long, I feel that my world has grown small.  RT and I have been doing more reading.  We’ve taken more walks.  We’ve worked on the house.  I haven’t been able to easily keep up with what’s going on in the world well enough to know of anything beyond my small world to blog about.  I’ve yearned to blog, but my topics of interest have been narrowed down to things related to our moving.

TV will be restored by this evening.  My new wireless computer will arrive later this week, and by the weekend we will once more be connected to the rest of the world.  For now, though, it’s comforting to remain small for a few hours longer.

In Sunday School today, one of the class members talked about what his mother told him when he was growing up.  She always told him, ‘The sky is blue above everyone.”  The man grew up in Iran, as a Muslim.  As he was growing up he said that even though his mother was a “hardcore Muslim” she said it was up to him to choose his own religion.  Apparently he eventually chose Christianity.  He calls the USA his home now - he’s been here for over thirty years.  He talked of how the Iran shown on TV is not the same Iran that he still occasionally visits.  He talked of Muslim, Jews, and Christians living together in harmony.  In Iran?  Yes, he said, in Iran.

I don’t know about Iran and whether or not Christians, Jews and Muslims can live together peaceably there.  I DO know that the sky IS indeed blue for everyone the world over.

We’ve got closets.  What we don’t have are shelves in the closets, and that poses somewhat of a problem.  Thankfully, it’s a temporary problem.  Sigh!  WHY does it cost so much to put a few simple shelves in closets?  It looks like RT and I will be doing the work ourselves.  Even doing it ourselves, though, it’s going to be costly.  As we looked at closet units at Lowe’s today, RT kept declaring, “We’re building our dream!”  He’s like that.  One of the things I love about him is his sense of humor.

We have put towel racks in only one bathroom - and that one bathroom is not the master bath.  So that’s a project that we’ll get around to real soon.

We’ve now spent a full week in the new house.  The newness hasn’t worn off.  I think it will be a long time before we stop marveling every day at the wonder of actually living here.  Our new bed (and mattress and box springs) were delivered this past week.  It is THE most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept on.  Oh. My. Goodness, it is comfortable.  During the day we work like crazy, but we’ve both been sleeping great every night.  Truly - it is one of the best investments we’ve ever made. 

We’ve completely emptied my two storage rooms.  YEA!!! That’s SUCH a huge milestone.  We’ve gotten the “big stuff” out of the cabin.  When we started to move the furniture from the small guest room at the cabin - the room we rarely even entered, we found that it HAD been entered - and frequently - by mice.  They had eaten through the sheets on the bed (sheets, mattress, boxsprings were subsequently thrown away - they were old anyway), they had gotten into the chest of drawers and eaten through papers and left lots of lots of evidence of their existence.  So we still have THAT to deal with.  Or rather, RT still has that to deal with.  I never particularly liked that cabin, but since I knew my tenure there would be only about a year, I was okay with it.  However, now my negative feelings have skyrocketed.  I’m so thankful to be out of that place.  We not-so-fondly call it “the rat house” now - and RT gave it that nickname - not me.  RT to me earlier this evening, “I’m going over to the rat house to get that clothes rack from the laundry room.”  It’s a little funny.

I’ve been absolutely obsessive about cleaning everything before I allowed it inside the new house.   I vacuumed spider webs and dust off everything that had been in storage.  I checked drawers and under cabinets. 

Tomorrow (Sunday) is my family reunion (my father’s side) in Georgia.  RT and I decided today that we’re just too tired to fly down there tomorrow, spend a few hours and then fly home.  RT has to go out of town for the week - leaving on Monday.  I have to go to work Monday.  And there’s so much to do here.  Mostly, though, we’re both just exhausted.  It’s a hard decision, though, because I try to make sure I do the important things in my life - and family is at the top of the list of important things in my life.  I really would love to see my uncle - my father’s only surviving brother.  Not to mention my mother and my siblings.  Out of the past year, only last weekend would have been a worse weekend for a family reunion.  So we will likely stay home.  Thanksgiving is just three weeks away, though.  So I’ll see most of my family then.

Yesterday morning when I awoke, I looked out one of the front windows and watched a flock of wild turkeys pecking at seeds through the pinestraw near the driveway.  I looked out a side window and watched four young deer eating acorns under an oak tree.  On the day we moved in last week, a beautiful bald eagle flew directly over our new home, and each day I watch a myriad of birds at our birdfeeders - black-capped chickadees, tufted titmouse, nuthatches, gold finches - and even an occasional red-headed woodpecker.   We are definitely living in the midst of beautiful wildlife.

One of my goals is to photograph all the wonders of nature around me.

The past four days, RT and I have been slowly emptying the two storage rooms I’ve had rented since July 2006 when I moved in with him.  Fifteen months of paying monthly storage room fees.  Each time we uncovered another item, I was thrilled to see yet another old friend.  It has been like Christmas in October.  My dining rooms suite - I LOVE it!  My curio cabinet, my antique desk - the pretty rose-colored bowl that belonged to my grandmother.  My favorite bedroom suite - my first furniture purchase when I was newly single ten years ago - is now set up in the girls’ bedroom (i.e. downstairs guest room).  I’ve dusted and cleaned, vaccuumed and sorted, and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.  And there are still a few more items left.  So Christmas will continue for a few more days.

The past two days I’ve been off work - my two personal leave days for the year.  Tomorrow I will get back into the routine of work.  I sure wish I had a couple weeks at home with nothing to do but work on getting this house exactly like we want it.  It is a lot of fun.  Exhausting, but fun.

Yesterday we got the final building inspection approved.  So RT couldn’t wait.  Last night he got an air mattress and sleeping bag and slept (very fitfully) at the new house.  I declined the offer because “I” had to go to work today - and ended up working almost 12 hours because I decided to take my two yearly personal leave days on Monday and Tuesday.  So I stayed a few hours after school taking care of all the things I had to handle in order to be out on Monday and Tuesday.

Apparently I was so exhausted last night that I slept through one particularly hellacious storm.  RT said he woke up and heard Jake (our dog) whining.  He went to the garage (where Jake was staying) and looked outside and the trees were actually swaying in circles with the wind.  He heard a tree crash in the woods not far from the house and there was debris all over the driveway.  I was only two miles away at our “old” house, and I slept through the whole thing.  When RT said he was sleeping at the new house, I didn’t even consider it myself because I knew there was just no way I could do it.  I was too tired to do anything other than go to bed and go to sleep.

We have a U-Haul truck and two strong guys lined up to help us move tomorrow (Saturday).  Tonight, I am also sleeping at the new house.  I’ve written about camping before - and this will be similar to that except it will be in a very nice house instead of outside under the stars.  It’ll be similar to camping because we’ll sleep on air mattresses, but we won’t use sleeping bags.  I brought sheets and blankets.  We’ve picked out a new bed, and it’ll be delivered early next week.  Until then we will sleep in the downstairs guest room where there will be a bed after it is moved here tomorrow.  Tonight should be our only air mattress night.

We brought the coffee pot over (my wonderful Keurig single cup brewer), and some towels and toiletries. 

I’m writing this from the new house.  RT got the internet connection set up - and I’m using his laptop while he drives back to the old house to get Jake and a few things we’ll need for tomorow.  My laptop will be here next week.  I know I’ve written this before, but we’ve spent so much time and energy on this house the past year that it seems really strange to have it finished and to be actually living here.  Life is good.

And, I promise, I will very soon write about things other than the new house.