Category Archives: Addyson May

Falling Leaves plus…

We gathered for our 2nd Annual Family Hunting trip. The guys spent a couple days hunting and then we filled in the days with Fallish things to enjoy. They are able to hunt a few miles from where we live. We now have a cold room which is a good place to hang the deer while they are prepped for the phase two job of butchering and packing the meat. This year Josh and Dan each got a buck their first day out. Josh opted to take his deer to a local meat processing company. Dan and Jamie packaged their deer on their own.

Before the Western Washington kids headed home we all enjoyed a Thanksgiving meal together. The family shots from our Thanksgiving are coming soon.

Crowned

Addy received some princess dress up items from her Auntie Laura and I was with her when the items were opened for the first time. She chose this crown for me to put on my head and since that first wearing of the crown she’s deemed it Baba’s crown. We put our crowns on and then I am directed by her to take her to the bathroom mirror to have a look. She has two others that she will wear. Soon her throne will be disturbed with the addition of a brother or sister. We will find out on Sunday evening if we are adding another granddaughter or a grandson to our family. The whole family will be together since Josh, Laura, Katie and Andrew are driving over the mountains for our 2nd annual family hunting time and Jamie’s family are invited over for the reveal, also.

I’m still considering a name for our new space…maybe our country bungalow although we don’t have a broad porch but some of the other requirements are met to call it a bungalow.

17 more cardboard boxes left to empty and 2 large bins with photo albums. We finally caved and ordered the parts to put together our three bookcases since we still have not found the original hardware that we put in a logical spot that has turned out to be not so very logical at all. In the future when we finally come across those parts we will have a good laugh.

Here I am with another crown with those bookcases in the background. This time around those bookcases will be in the office here at the bungalow so they will be filled from top to bottom with books and no tchotchkes.

Happy Friday y’all.

Baby Grand…

I’m happy to report the legacy of this Baby Grand continues with our Grand Baby!

On Monday October 1st all the parts and pieces were put back together at our new home. Addy and her parents came for a short visit on Monday and Addy was introduced to the Chickering. It’s fun to see the history and legend of this baby grand continue with our newest grand baby. This piano is designated for our daughter Katie and when she has a home that can manage it she’ll need to arrange moving it. Until then it’s fun to see another generation enjoying the keys…

So Grateful…

…for our helpers.

We got to Colville on Sunday September 16th with a loaded truck, trailer and RAV. We unloaded some things at our new place and then headed to our son and dil’s to stay until our containers arrived and our internet was hooked up. Dear worked remotely from our kids’ home each morning of this first week.

Monday thru Thursday we cleaned and got things ready for our stuff. Dear has lots of painting to do but we will hold off on that for later.

The containers arrived on Wednesday September 19th. Laura, our dil, flew in on Wednesday and we enjoyed her company and Addy enjoyed some extra attention. Addy’s “dadin” (she calls her daddy dadin) was bow hunting in Colorado and she enjoyed the added family attention while he was away.

Our Satelite TV and Internet service was installed on Thursday September 20th. Because of sketchy cell phone service we ordered a booster which we will install soon.

We started unloading the first container in earnest on Friday September 21st. Our 18 month old grand loves to help and she lifted this light bin and moved it around. Our son Josh arrived on Friday and we enjoyed an extra pair of hands. Friday night was the first night we slept in our new home.

Katie and Andrew arrived late on Friday evening to Dan and Jamie’s and the whole crew came over early on Saturday to empty more of the containers.

Addy was still in her jammies and enjoyed her first breakfast at Baba and Gramps’ house.

Addy loves getting rides on the dolly.

We all laughed as Jamie did the boom box shuffle!

Dan arrived home from Colorado early on the morning of September 23 and after a couple hours of sleep came over to help, too.

Our DIL, Laura took these panoramic photos of the front and back of our property and the rest of these photos in her collage. Always a good feeling to have all the containers emptied, except for the baby grand piano. We are waiting for our son to recruit many more young men to unload it.

Our Sunday crew in our front yard. So grateful to God for each of them and their willingness to help us and grateful to God for his watch care over all of us!

Our internet is working with some cut outs and slow uploading but I’m so relieved that we can get a connection. We still have many boxes to unload and lots of organizing to do so my time remains scarce in blogdom. Hope to be back to more regular viewing soon.

Happy Fall y’all!

 

What to Do? What to Do?

I’m wondering what I should do with my three remaining days of living in the Puget Sound area of Washington State. We recorded yesterday and received our keys at 6pm. It was getting dark when we headed over to take a quick walk-thru to drop off a small load of stuff. We (myself, son, DIL and grandgirlie). Dear remained on the west side of the mountains with responsibilities to wrap up.

This is our new driveway and I went to the street to take photos of the drive for our container delivery people. Addy spotted me and made a run for it to join me. I had to catch her at full speed before she toppled over! This was yesterday.

Today I drove the six hours from Colville to Lynnwood with my companion on CD being Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope. Now I’m deciding what I want to do on this side of the mountains before we leave to our new home on Sunday. We are moving from a major population area of close to 4 million to a community of about 5,000.

Before I left on Dear’s birthday to head to Colville to deliver paperwork and a check to close on our new home we celebrated Dear’s Medicare birthday with our kids on the western side of the mountains.

Early September Close-ups…

I had a few chances to capture some close ups of our little grand last Saturday.

We are busy signing papers, setting up services and arranging deliveries for our new home. I will make a solo trip on Sunday to Colville to deliver signed papers and a check on Monday, picking up keys on Tuesday and returning to this side of the mountains on Wednesday. Dear and I will follow each other with our very last load east on the 15th or 16th of September. The end is in sight. But…first we will celebrate a milestone birthday for Dear with our west side kids on Friday evening. Dear’s birthday is on Sunday. Life is rich…

The End is in Sight Hodgepodge

What has been the highlight of your summer so far? (It’s still summer people!)

Wow! Summer 2018 is one for the books for sure. Besides being in the process of selling/buying/moving across the state which took part of Spring and the whole summer and continues, our dear Pop died at the beginning of summer. He was 95 and ready to see his Savior, Jesus. It was good to be all together in Southern California with family and friends to bury him and remember him and comfort each other in July. Our dear Pop was known for saying, I love you, I love you, I love you, 3 times when it was time to depart after a visit. Our family has embraced that and you’ll hear us repeating his saying to each other now.

Several quick visits with this little one who is showing you her “I’m so strong” pose. We’ve traveled many successive weekends to Colville with a packed trailer and truck on Saturday morning and back across the mountains on Sunday morning with an empty trailer and truck. We managed to get all our household items in 3 shipping containers for our move from Western Washington to Eastern Washington by July 31st which was when possession transferred to the new owners. We had the month of August to empty out Dear’s shop and we purchased a utility trailer to haul behind our truck to get all those awkward shop items to our son’s property. We didn’t find a house to purchase until August 18th! We made an offer on August 19th and our offer was accepted on August 20th. Hallelujah!

2. What do you wish you’d done more of this summer? Less of?

Because it took longer then we expected to sell our home and longer then expected to find a new home there was very little relaxing in our own space this summer. Well…no relaxing in our own space. We have been homeless since July 31st but don’t feel too sorry for us because we have a beautiful space to live in during the interim at our oldest son’s house.

3. Something you’re looking forward to on your September calendar?

We close on our new home on September 11th! Our stuff gets delivered sometime between September 17th and 21st. We should have the containers emptied by September 24th. Hopefully we will have some kind of internet before the 24th. The house we chose does not have cable options only satellite options and we are still checking on line of sight options for the internet, too. Oye. Looking forward to being unpacked and mostly settled by the end of September!

In September we’ll be living only 8 miles from our little grandgirlie and her parents.

4. Best/favorite book you’ve read this summer?

The book of Ephesians in the New Testament. Thinking a lot about the Armor of God.

Favorites we listened to on CD while traveling back and forth across the Cascade Mountain range moving stuff was The Seagull by Anne Cleaves and a repeat of Louise Penny’s Still Life.

5. Share something positive, encouraging, or uplifting here.

Dear and I have been a bit awestruck that we’ve been able to push through our crazy travel schedule, our loading the trailer and truck week in and week out, our 6 hour drives each Saturday and Sunday, sleep and repeat. Only by so many answered prayers with God’s presence and help in our lives could we do it and still choose joy. Thank you to all of you who have prayed for us. “…forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead…”

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Hoping it’s all a gentle slide into the next phase from here…

Linking up with Joyce from This Side of the Pond for Wednesday Hodgepodge . Not only is the end in sight for our move but this is the end of Hodgepodge Wednesday. Joyce has faithfully managed this weekly event for 9 years and times are changing and she’s moving on.

Twists and Turns…

The air quality has been better in Northeastern Washington and Addy was able to go outside and help her daddy do a little lawn work.

We just got a call from our real estate agent saying the sellers will be ready to vacate by September 11th and we could close 9 days earlier then expected. Yikes! We are scrambling to get our ducks in a row and our trips east planned.

Before the Fires…

We were celebrating just across the water from where the Boyds Fire would start one week later. You never know what a day may hold.

Love this photo of our sweet Addy looking up at her Great Granny and Great Uncle Scott.

We have made trips back and forth across the Cascade Mountain Range from Western Washington to Northeastern Washington for every weekend in August. We know the route along I-90 and Highway 395 North like the back of our hands. Since the Boyds fire and other fires in Washington State and British Columbia started the skies have been smoke filled and unhealthy to very hazardous. This weekend was no exception. We left for Colville early Saturday morning and the skies were smoke filled from Seattle to Colville, 350 miles of smoke filled skies. It is disheartening to say the least. On our way back to the Seattle area on Sunday we started with very smoke filled skies in Colville to Spokane and then traveling west we had relief. We had rain on Snoqualmie Pass which was a blessing to experience. Here in the Seattle area the air is clear again and we’ve enjoyed some light rain.

We will be making the round trip again on Labor Day Weekend. Still praying and hoping the fires will be contained and that Northeastern Washington will experience their beautiful clear skies again soon. Looking forward to future weekends when we can stay put!

Hope all is well in your corner of the world.