Woot! Woot! Today the big truck was unloaded! Yay! No more sitting on a mattress – now we have a couch! Clothes – I have my clothes! I’m seriously going to light a bonfire and burn the clothes I’ve been wearing for the past 10 days. When I packed for the trip here, I only packed a few things. It never occurred to me that the rest of my clothes wouldn’t be immediately available. There are so many boxes, especially in the kitchen. I had no idea I had so much kitchen stuff. Where did all this stuff come from? Of course I would never say that out loud. At least not within earshot of JD! “What? Yes, as a matter of fact, I do need all  5 of those cake plates. I’ll find a place for them. Shouldn’t you be out in the garage arranging tools or something?”

There was a group of 3 strong, young men that unloaded the truck. It took them 3 hours. They did a great job, and for the most part everything ended up in the correct room. Frankly, I’m just happy to have everything in the house. I didn’t even mind putting the heavy boxes on a towel and dragging it across the house. Really, not a problem!

I’m anxious to get everything put away so I can focus my attention on decorating. I’m picturing a boxing ring. “Ladies and gentlemen, in this corner we have color – and in this corner, we have beige!” Actually, JD is pretty tolerant of pretty much anything I do to the house. I just like to rattle his cage every so often!

We even had a home cooked meal tonight. I think we were all more than ready for that. I didn’t care that there were boxes  stacked 5 feet high blocking the stove, oven and sink and refrigerator – I was going to cook. And I did. It was quick, easy and oh so yummy. Who knows, maybe I’ll even cook again tomorrow!

My sweet husband and I are compatible in every way. However, when it comes to taste in furniture we are clearly at opposite ends of the spectrum.  As in from two different planets. For example, give both of us a piece of paper with a square on it and tell us to create something, he would color only the inside of the square, and only with a beige crayon (or any other shade in the brown family). Mine would more likely be a variety of complimentary colors and I might just color everything except the inside of the square. Get where I’m going with this?

This morning we took off, measuring tape and room dimensions in hand. We were ready to make some decisions. We arrived at the first furniture store – it was huge (remember, everything is big in Texas!) Three floors of furniture to plow through. Not to mention the over zealous sales girl (who shall remain nameless) that jumped into my path as soon as I crossed the threshold. I made it clear to her that we were just looking, it was our first day out, blah, blah, blah. She politely said, “okay, y’all just let me know if I can help you”. Aisle after aisle, room after room, nothing – except over zealous sales girl. She kept appearing out of nowhere! How does she do that? Every time I turned around, it was, “how y’all doing?”, “Ya’ll still doing okay?” Yes, We’re still okay, just like we were the last 5 times you asked! We left empty handed. Nice stuff, but a bit more formal than what we were looking for. I felt kind of bad, like we should have at least purchased a lamp or something!

Off to the next store. We were greeted there by not just one, but an entire team of salespeople. They must have done the old rock, paper, scissors before we walked in to see who was going to set the furniture trap. We managed to look around some, but those salespeople are really stealthy. They pop up out of nowhere!

On to the selection process…

Me: “I like this, do you like this?”

JD: “Well, I don’t don’t really care for that so much. How about this beige one?”

Me: [sigh]

Repeat 6 times

Of course I’m exaggerating (but not by much). We did manage to agree on a few things and I’m really hopeful that I can accessorize my sweet husband’s beige world with some color =)

Well that didn’t take long. My first Texas cold. It’s 89 degrees out and I’m wearing a sweater. Not much of a voice either, but thankfully I don’t need to be able to talk to blog!

Today we sent the boys home. I know they were anxious to get home to their families but I felt sad seeing them go. We really couldn’t have done this without them. Thank you boys, love you and can’t wait for you to come back. Hooray! My 12 year old granddaughter is still here. We have lots of adventures planned for her. We sat down and wrote a list of activities and things to do while she’s here. Shop for cowboy boots, go horseback riding, and just exploring in general.

Regarding said list, nowhere on the list was the removal of a dead skunk. When we first got here, there was definitely an “au de skunk” odor in the air but I just figured there was a skunk out on the property somewhere. Well, in fact there was! Right outside the bedroom window!!!  I elected not to be a part of the removal process but I’m told it was pretty gross   (In 12 year old terms!)

Tomorrow the house will be full with the arrival of the big truck with all of our stuff (enough of this glamping already!). Drywall guy, painter, granite guy. It’ll be a busy day.

i think that’s it for today…smell ya later! (Skunk humor)

We woke up this morning only to discover that there was no water pressure. Zip. Zero. None. Nada. Before (in California!), I’d turn the handle and water would magically come out if the faucet. Now, we have a well…not so much the wishing kind, but if it was, I would have wished for water. It seems that when the pool guy serviced the pool yesterday, he opened the valve to add water to the pool and left it open. All afternoon, all night, overnight. Long time, huh? Yep, long enough to empty the storage tank.

So, being unable to take a shower what does one do? One jumps in the pool (that’s where all the water from the storage tank was anyway, right?). This was at 8:30 in the morning. Let me tell you that in CA there was no way I would have ever done that because the water in the morning would have just been way too cold. However, that is not the case here! The pool felt amazing, a great way to wake up. I swam back and forth a few times, and was just beginning to marvel at how nice the warm sun felt. And them I saw it. Oh my gosh, what is that? No, it can’t be. It’s a – a snake! Everybody out of the pool! Okay, it was just me – I don’t know how I did it but I was out of that water and standing at the side if the pool in a flash. You have to understand that I do not have any appreciation at all for crawly things, be it spiders, lizards, etc. I cautiously bent over to get a good look at the anaconda that had interrupted my morning swim only to find out it was actually the hose on the pool sweep. New pool, new equipment. Heh, heh..[insert red face here]

Well today was certainly a big day. After three days on the road, we finally arrived. It was a beautiful day (okay, it was a little on the warm side), blue sky, a few puffy clouds floating along. You know, the pretty cotton candy looking kind. 

Having been empty for almost a year, the house seems happy to have us here. I know that sounds funny, but that’s how I feel. We’ve had some remodeling done and although it’s not quite complete, I would consider it move in ready. We’re looking forward to bringing both the inside  and the outside to life as we make it our own.

Remember the pup I told you about ? She was so excited when we arrived. She hopped out of the car and immediately started exploring. She didn’t know where to go first, so much to see, so much to smell! As we all wandered into the backyard, she took one look at the pool and in she went. Picture the commercial where the dogs have big denture looking smiles – that’s how happy she looked!

The guys unloaded the smaller truck – may we all just take moment and give a big round of applause to everyone that helped with the packing, the cleaning, the driving, and now the unpacking…Woot! Woot! Now we wait for the big truck to get here. That’s when the real fun starts. You can’t see it, but I have a really fake, forced smile on my face right now. I am not looking forward to unpacking all of those boxes. Ugh.

At the end of the day – ick, I hate that saying, but I really do mean literally at the end of the day, we turned off the lights and went outside. The stars! Millions! The Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, the Milky Way, it was really a perfect way to end the day.

And now, Its time for some much needed sleep. More adventures tomorrow. Nitey nite zzzzzzzz….