Ahhhh…the number of times I’ve started this post is just ridiculous but finally here it is.
The past several months have been crazy insane. Like starting the morning off with six cups of espresso topped off with a delicious peppermint mocha kind of crazy.
Last June, seemingly out of nowhere, the youngest child graduated high school and suddenly there was no reason to stay in town past the following summer. It’s not like we hate where we live, in fact, it’s a beautiful area but Dave landed here rather than choosing to be here and our friends and the places we enjoy going are an hour or more south. More importantly, we both love traveling and have been waiting for the time we could buy an RV and putter around the US. That time is soon!
So there we were, abruptly faced with the need to finish all of the projects we had started over the past nine years. Boy were there a lot of them, some of which were going to be quite time intensive. Top that off with two of our kids needing help moving from one place to another and my mother in law deciding to build a bunk house at the family farm (which took four weekends instead of the anticipated two) and 2019 was a busy year.
The bunk house at this point is still a shell. The exterior was completed with no small amount of swearing at how difficult trusses are and some interesting family moments. Nonetheless, the place is technically usable but we’ll finish the interior this year. Hopefully in less time than the exterior!
Our home away from home during the project
Fortunately we were able to take a few breaks and have some fun, like attending our friend’s Harry Potter themed birthday party…
At a Harry Potter themed party
…and going to Dave’s company party at the local amusement park, Lagoon.
Air gondola view of the water park section
Another picture from the air gondola
Sunset on the Ferris Wheel
The water fountain lit up with lasers at night
Fall began with helping our friends with their rather exciting Celtic / Scottish styled wedding. In case you were wondering, exciting is not a good term when used in conjunction with the word wedding but it does make the event even more memorable than normal. Originally the ceremony was planned to take place in a beautiful wooded site where they could camp with friends and extend the party. A great idea foiled by a very aggressive thunderstorm which forced a last minute change of location to a park with a pavilion so everyone would stay basically dry instead of growing webbing between their toes. Despite the rushed moving, the mad race to set up the decorations, the rain and the fairly continuous claps of deafening thunder, the wedding turned out quite delightful and was definitely unforgettable.
One of the warming fire at the wedding
October proved to be the busiest month for avoiding house projects… I mean spending time with friends and family. Every year a local place known as Gardner Village hosts a party / festival type event called Witches Night Out which is one of my favorite events to attend. Held in a small plaza type shopping center away from most consumer things, this place is a blast year round but Halloween brings out its. People dress up as all types of witches. There is dancing. There is shopping. There is food. There is a scavenger hunt for the kids all while the whole place is lit up with enough lights to signal the mother ship! I was fortunate enough this year to be joined by two of my daughters and both granddaughters. Unfortunately, I was too distracted by what was going on around me to remember to take very many photos.
But really? What October would be complete without going to a haunted house. Apparently none. Here’s the thing about my going to haunts…I actually get scared! This is an ironic problem because three of our five children have worked in scare houses and as parents we are obligated to go through them…every year. I like to say I’m just trying to make the actors feel good about themselves and their work but truthfully I jump and scream and use my husband as a shield to keep the monsters at bay while laughing like a lunatic because I’m afraid and there’s only so much screaming I can do. If you’ve ever gone through a haunted house you know this technique only attracts the monsters creating a never ending loop until you escape at the end. Dave laughs at me…a lot does he laugh at me…because these places aren’t remotely frightening to him so he is a willing shield and almost protector.
This year we went to a different haunt (one non of our kids worked at) with our newly wedded friends. The bride had spent 20 years working in one of the big scare houses in Salt Lake City and her husband who, like Dave, doesn’t scare….sigh…I love my friends but should seriously reconsider what activities I do with them. They enjoyed the haunt by encouraging the actors to go after me. Still I survived with my marriage and friendship intact.
Really, I’m only pretending to strangle my husband.
Despite the hectic pace of the year, I was still able to work on a refinishing project for my youngest granddaughter, or as I like to refer to, a much need sanity break from the repetitive work of the day to day stuff. I am so happy with how the dresser and toy chest turned out. It took several weeks intermingled with the normal house projects, but it turned out beautifully. Everything except for the stripes on the top two drawers of the dresser was painted free hand because painter’s tape just hates me, and yes that does includes the painstaking harlequin pattern. I even made pillows for both granddaughters.
The dresser before its transformation
The finished item
The toy chest before painting it
And after
One granddaughter is already into a Gothic them
The other granddaughter likes pink
As if there wasn’t enough going on, we also decided to downsize dramatically and by dramatically I mean we gave away to our children or the local thrift store, sold or sent to the landfill probably two thirds of our worldly possessions. This was the most entertaining, traumatizing and yet highly satisfying aspect of preparing for the next phase in our lives.
Without question, last year was crazy, exhausting and just a wee bit stressful. The house is now sold, items going into long term storage have been taken to a storage unit for safe keeping and there are only a couple of weeks left wandering around this nearly empty place. The search for an RV in which to live has begun; of course we will redecorate it (sooner than the year before we plan on selling this time). Dave has agreed to let me Steampunk the RV out which has a million projects swirling around in my brain because apparently I need things to do.
This brings me to my final thought. The strangest aspect of working constantly for so long is that now that I no longer have work that “must be done” I get a little duck out of water lost after my job is over each day as there is so much free time now. No worries though, after the first week I started figuring out how to fill my afternoons and am plotting new adventures 🙂
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