Heather and J bought a house and Dave and I went down to Texas to help them move. 10 years of accumulation of stuff to move out of an 800 sq. ft apt. to a 1500 sq. ft. house. It was to be a surprise for Heather as it was her birthday and she had no idea that we were coming down, actually we were on the road when she called my cell phone to complain that I had not called her to sing her "Happy Birthday", she thought I was still at work. Her daddy started to say something and I had to do the hand wave thing of "hush up" so she would not know we were on the road. But as luck would have it she found out anyways, and we sang her happy birthday upon our arrival at their new house, they had just signed the papers that afternoon.
They have a lovely home, it is an adorable 3 BR 2 and a half bathroom with an open area kitchen and dinning combination that opens into a solarium off the back side of the house. Once everything is moved in, sorted out, put away and tossed out, they will be so happy to have more space. We spent two and a half days moving the kitchen, part of their living room and getting the shelf liners done in their new kitchen and putting away their canned goods,cereals and dry mixes in their pantry.
We went to a Japanese Steak House for dinner on Saturday night with J's parents, sister and brother-in-law, to celebrate Heather's birthday and their new house. The food was very, very good and the show equally as good. We then went back to their house for a small celebration with the family and one of J's co-worker, Ken and his wife Jennifer and their darling little girl Gracie. The air-conditioner was working great at that time. When we went in on Sunday it had quit working, the kids had to have it fixed. Thank goodness they took out a warranty on the house and appliances.
J's mom, Irene fixed some wonderful homemade sub-sandwiches for lunch on Sunday, I fixed two roasts and let them slow cook all day and we had French Dip sandwiches for a late dinner mmmmmm they were good. On Monday, Irene made some of her famous chicken salad and brought that and croissants and Sun Chips to the house for lunch. Jerry, J's dad came to the house as did Ken and Jennifer to join all of us for lunch, it was lovely, the only person missing was Heather as she was at work. Actually it was quite comfortable in the house, as there is an attic fan and the kids had opened the windows on the back side of the house and the fan was pulling in the cool morning air.
We worked until 1:30 and then locked up the house and left for home. Dave decided to go to the "Big Lots" store to look at some yard tools for the kids, I went to the fall decorations area of the store and purchased some decorations for the front of their house. We went back to the house to "plant" the decorations and take a picture. We then stopped by the local liquor store and Dave got a case of his favorite beer, "Fat Tire". It's too bad that they can't carry it here in Oklahoma.
We then got on the road and headed home. We decided to take a detour to Sardis Lake in SE Oklahoma. It is a State lake that I had heard of from friends for years and now was as good a time as any to go see it. We then stopped at a campground for a quick break, the sites were clean and beautiful. We then took the scenic route up to Wilburton over to Krebs and through McAllister and back to the turnpike to be greeted by a huge thunderstorm that had lots of heavy rain and lightning. We finally got out of the storm around Shawnee. All-in-all it was a good weekend. We are a little sore but better for the experience.
We made the decision to start unloading our house of all the clutter of 39 years. It will take some time but like the kids it will get done and we will feel better about it.
Amore & Arrivederci For Now
