Clearing Out the House

Izaak, Bre and Dakota left this morning so they could be back in Eugene on Sunday.

 

The rest of us worked hard.  Josiah had planned to rent a small Uhaul truck to move a couch, table  and two recliners to Seattle. He upgraded to a 20ft truck to help everyone get their stuff to OR too. Worked well. The "men" received a call telling them the truck in Yuba City needed to be picked up in Roseville... instead of getting it at 0800 it would be 1200 at the earliest.  This put them loading a truck in triple digit heat. Shew. They headed out. The rest of us began dismantling furniture, cleaned a BBQ grill and moved it all to the living room and front yard to be ready for the 20 foot Uhaul truck.

Dismantling Arielle's bed desk.

 This piano was my Uncle Bill's. Mom guesses it is 79 years old. It is going to BreAnne - but she doesn't have room in her house so it will go to Krista's to store. Our electric piano will go to BreZaak until they have a bigger place.....in other words they are storing it for us - and it will be much better stored at their house than in a storage facility.

 

Washing BBQ guts

 

Michael stopped to play it one last time...

 

Alex isn't supposed to be doing anything strenuous - so he took 204 photos of the day for us.

 

All felt the worse was over when the piano was loaded.

 

Because a sprained/jammed finger isn't enough....what could go wrong with THIS plan?

Jared and Larissa

 Enjoying a final rest in my recliner....I'll miss it.

 

We gave Mom and Dad the elliptical

 

We've loved the mega grill and are glad Izaak is going to get it

 

This is a well-packed truck.

 

We broke the "Sunday ice cream" rule and everyone enjoyed a cool treat after the hot day.

 

and games.... We wanted time to stop so we could enjoy more time together.

 

The house is clearing out. This is a good thing. 

Nothing Says Congrats like Silly String



 Time is precious. We knew we wanted to spend a bit of extra time with our out of town retirement guests: Sathers and Simmons.....and we wanted our family to meet our adopted Spurgeon family....and we wanted to have Daniel and Cynthia over at least one more time before we moved....so we invited them all over Friday Night. Judging by the look below - I wonder if it were all a ploy to get to hold Eliana for the first time. LOL

We laughed when the kids kicked Arielle off the kids' table, but allowed Bre to sit with them even though, "You've been to college and all."

Joy, Stacia, Nolan, Daniel, Bre, Nathan, Seth, Zach

 Some of the "adults" present

Krista, Gma, Cynthia, Arielle, Alex, Larissa, Jared, Dakota, Jamin

 This may be one of my favorite photos

John and Nadine

 Nolan - the human jungle gym

Seth, Nolan, Zach

Nathan - just because I won't be able to take pictures of him in a bit

 Seth is SO photogenic - but he seems to have reached the age where he'd rather not have lots of photos taken....look at that sparkle in his left eye. LOL

Nolan and Seth

 It was a DELIGHT to connect with Annette in person!

Matt and Rachel  - truly a blessing to our family 

When I was cleaning out a closet I found a bunch of poppers - we saved them for after dinner on retirement night.....

Michael loves fireworks and this is as close as we can get in CA...."someone" seems to have armed the kids and a few adults with cans of silly string....what could their even intentions be? Nothing says congrats like silly string. 

I think this was the point when he realized he was in for it!

Happy Retirement, hon. It's been a joy to work and minister beside you. I look forward to playing a bit more....and watching to see the next step unfold.

BreAnne - our oldest

It was fun to reconnect and relax with family and friends. I loved hearing the chaplains share their stories....

Unexpected Gift from Kids

I am developing a reputation of gullibility. I could TELL there was a surprise gift for Michael afoot. I thought Cy had developed an odd habit - but you know - anyone living alone could get a bit "odd" - he has taken to making odd sounds - "ca- caw, ca-caw" but I'm a mother so I went with it. Whatever. He's a bit odd. It turns out those were warning sounds as the presentation of "the gift" was prepared.

 

Our plan after the ceremony was clean the chapel, come home and veg, and then have some friends over in the evening. Instead, Michael spent 2 1/2 hours in a meeting. ::snort:: I could tell the kids wanted him home....and finally, he was home.

 

They let us know they had a presentation before company arrived.

 

BreAnne had created a powerpoint presentation. It began with Zippity doo dah.....and quickly went through each assignment and various PWOC pictures from the past 24 years. I was touched and satisfied. 

 

A Slide popped up saying they had a gift for us but first - "What do all these things have in common?" And it began to show exotic beaches. I love beaches. They had a photo of us on the beach. I was making all sorts of guesses. Michael figured it out quickly. Larissa took a zillion photos of me as I guessed one thing after another....here is the moment when I realized what the gift was! I couldn't believe it. Y'all these kids aren't rich.....

They BOOKED a Carnival Freedom Cruise for us! Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Cozumel...BOOKED it. We sail from Galveston.  I looked up and said, "Oh, GOOD. I wanted to go to Galveston this year! It's on my bucket list." Which cracked everyone up.

 

Josiah explains they all pitched in to book us the cruise. The younger three will stay in Eugene after an early Thanksgiving. Michael and I will take the trailer down to TX. We'll have 7 days. They've paid for excursions. I can't remember all the details but I know we need to log on and figure out what we want to do.  They paid for it and booked it as they knew we'd take forever to decide when we'd actually do it if we were left on our own.

 

Group Hug