Nearing the finish line...

Yes, we are almost there - the way-too-soon arrival of March 29th when the apartment keys are no longer ours.

For the last month we've been taking van loads over to the house whenever we go to clean/paint, and on Friday we finally made the big move with our big stuff...along with the phat cats.  We put Urple into the kitty carrier because she's a clawer, and I picked up Merry because she just hides her head when she's scared.  Merry experienced a similar drive before when Dan took her to the vet, so she was mostly fine hiding her head in the armpit of my coat.  Urple was freaking out.  About halfway through the drive, I think Merry realized we had passed up the vet, thought HOLY CRAP, and started yelling like her sister.  I was as nervous for them as they were!

Dan set up their stuff in the laundry room, and as soon as we brought them in, they bee-lined it to hide in their litter box together.  We brought them out to explore a little later, and Merry was all about it.  She went from room to room, walked around, looked out the windows, and moved on.  Urple didn't want anything to do with the house.  In the meantime, Dan read that you should keep the cats shut in a small room for 24 hours until they get used to that small space, and then let them wander around while everyone's asleep, so back to the laundry room they went. 

We stayed the first night in our new house.  And because we were living out of boxes, and I still couldn't believe that we were staying in OUR house, it was a little weird and a lot SWEET at the same time.  Everyday I get a little giddy just walking around and noticing things - thinking about how lucky we are.  

Saturday the cable guy came for a visit and flipped the switch for our internet - first priority, baby.  We also had lunch plans with our small group.  It was the last meeting of our Consumed journey together and I'm going to miss the group each week.  Dan and I already had a good plan going with our finances, so the journey solidified that, but I'm also looking at other consuming things a little differently...media, time, relationships, etc.  Not sure if my new view of ads is really a good thing, though, because instead of letting them fly in one ear and out the other - now I just want to kick the advertisers (and even news writers). 

[Hey, when you get that shiny new tax refund, or that government stimulus check...why don't you buy a BIG SCREEN TV with it?  You could buy some other junk that you don't need, too!  YEAH!  Or you know that 401k that's just sitting there for your retirement WAY down the road, you could go spend that on a new house down-payment!  LOOK AT YOUR OPTIONS!  Oh here, have another credit card while you're at it - you deserve it!]  No, thanks.

Here's a good post I read today about financial (and personal) clutter and how it can affect your happiness.  It's something I've been thinking about even before our journey - just getting rid of stuff we're not in love with and continuing to make wise choices in the anti-clutter battle.  One goal in mind = even though we have this new house with TONS of storage space, I don't want to fill it all.  If we have STUFF that's unappreciated or just sitting around waiting to see the sunlight, I'd rather give it away to someone who will appreciate it. 

I'm happy to report that we painted our office Saturday night, so we can mark it off the looooong list of painting duties.  The color is somewhat dark, yet pretty much what we were looking for in that room and I really enjoy seeing it.

Sunday was Easter.  We went to church and had an awesome service.  Mandy talked about a skit that her church did, and I'm curious if our skit/dance was similar to theirs.  I don't think there was a dry eye in the house.  Afterwards, we spent most of the day with Dan's family.  It was mostly relaxing, but all I could think about was getting back to the house to unpack and clean a little more.  We did only come home with one bag of candy, compared to past years with his family, so it looks like we won't have to send his little brothers home with handfuls each time they visit. 

This week

• So far we've moved almost everything from the apartment.  Now there are just small things that can be thrown into boxes as we clean.  We also have to paint over our three bold accent walls, otherwise we'll get charged if the painters have to use more than one coat of their neutral.  The sooner we can get out of there, the sooner we can't avoid all of the #$%@#*! construction getting in and out of that place. 
  
• Even though living out of boxes isn't ideal, I think I've found all of my clothes.  Now how to arrange them... 
  
• Tuesday night we put together the couch and TV stuff in the living room - looking good!  Our setup isn't the best for including the corner fireplace, though, so we look forward to eventually finding a new living room set and moving our current stuff to the basement family/game room.
• Since the office was painted and the carpet was cleaned, we can start to figure out furniture placement.
  
• We still want to paint the laundry room before we move in the washer and dryer.  Those will be welcomed into the house with smiles and three large baskets of dirty clothes. 
  
• I'm trying to stay motivated and move along, but I am about D.O.N.E. with all this packing and moving.  I'm ready to focus on the house and work some magic.  Oh, and I'm requesting a good decluttering as we unpack, since we didn't have enough time with the gazillion other packing/cleaning/painting tasks this month.
• I took pictures of our painted rooms Tuesday night and I just need our super fast desktop computer to help me out with the editing/uploading process.  Pictures = soon = sooner than the last time I said "soon."
  
• Last night after packing more at the apartment (we're so close!), we treated ourselves to steaks at Outback.  It was well worth it.  And when we came home, we couldn't find the cats.  They have so many places to hide in the big house.  We finally found Merry curled up in the guest bathroom sink, and Urpel was the hardest to find hiding in our entertainment center.  I hope losing the cats isn't an everyday occurrence - we're used to them greeting us when we come home.  
  
• I still have news to tell, but this post is long enough already.  I'll save it for another time.  ;)
  
• Let's roll Thursday the 27th - the weekend is right around the corner!