CPK and Boxes, Boxes, Boxes

We are on day 2 of our main household goods pack ... this is the big one! The movers arrived Wednesday morning and are finishing up today; one of the packers is the president of the company and we must say ... this group of packers is probably the best we have ever had in the 10 years that we've been moving! Even though they have taken less supervision than any other move, Al and I are exhausted. We trade off on "Kelty Duty" and "Mover Duty".

Kelty wanted to check out the truck and the crates ... "Hey! Where are all my toys!"

Cool! Look at all this stuff to climb on!

Tuesday night we said a final farewell to some dear friends from the squadron (the Travis's, the Frost's and the Guttman's); we met for a little dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen. It was also a chance for Kelty to say good-bye to his friends too! We will miss you all so very much!

5 Little Buddies! (From L-R: Evangeline, Kelty, Ryan, Jake, Catherine)

Our Group

Kisses Good-Bye

High 5's to Ryan

Kelty had to make a few last minute phone calls before his cell phone service was turned off. *Joke* It sounds like he's answering the phone and saying "Hi".

Grrrr ... Mover's

Well, we are off to a rough start with the mover's. We had the 2nd group of mover's at the house yesterday and those fear's of "are these people going to take care of my stuff" all came flooding back. The guys were nice but VERY slow and didn't seem to care too much about what they were doing or how they were packing. This was our "storage" shipment ... things that will remain in storage while we are gone. So here were some of the issues ...

• They broke one of my dance figurines!
• We have a few sets of white, office storage boxes with removable lids ... they are nice little boxes that contain some books. Instead of packing those smaller boxes in their big boxes they wanted to wrap tape around my boxes. Well, the problem with that ... once we get the boxes back and remove the tape, the boxes are ruined. These are good storage boxes not throw-away cardboard boxes. Seriously!
• Between Al and I, we have a lot of military plaques and framed military photos ... you know, the gifts that each unit gives you when you leave or plaques you recieve as an award. Typically each frame and plaque get's wrapped in paper and placed in a box ... they just started stacking them in a box ... no paper seperating the glass or anything! Hello! Al made them wrap and re-pack them.
• We put our wakeboard and water ski's in storage ... they are already in sports bags but Al had them wrap them in cushion paper to prevent any dings, etc. The mover's were putting the shipment stickers on the bags and then wrapping them up and taping them closed ... as a result, the exterior of the package was no longer marked with our shipment stickers. Al stopped and ask ... how are you going to identify that these belong in our shipment if the stickers are on the inseide of the wrappers? They guys were like "oh, yeah" ... we wouldn't be able to identify that these were in your shipment". AHHHHHHH!

So anyway, I hope our main household goods packers are a little bit more experienced or else I'm going to have some serious anxiety issues!!!

A Fantasmic! Night

Last night I was able to pick up a show at Disney ... I was so happy to be able to perform again before leaving. Fantasmic! performances are down to 2-nights per week due to park attendance and budgeting; however the guests have been lined up with complaints since they started this new schedule earlier this month. Guests have been waiting hours in line to see the show and thousands have been turned away once the theatre met full capacity (10,000). Last night we were asked to stay and perform 2 shows instead of the scheduled 1 ... heck ya! We had 2, full-houses!

Standing in the theatre before my call-time.

I found this photo that someone else had taken but I thought it was a great ... it really captures the enormity of the theatre. I wish I could take a photo from our perspective on the stage ... it's amazing!


The 2nd of 3 sets of movers come today. This is our non-temp storage ... these are the items we've decided to keep in FL in a storage facility. Most of our storage items are things like: non-dual voltage appliances, vacuum cleaners, boating equipment, etc. I'll dearly miss my Kitchen Aid ... can you beleive that's not dual voltage? I'd be able to use it with a transformer, however they are the size of kleenex and ruin the life the appliance. Wish us look with part 2 of our move!

Cheap Child Labor!

Well, the time is drawing near ... the first set of movers arrive tomorrow to pack our "un-accompanied baggage" ... we call it our "quick ship". This is a small shipment of necessities that will arrive before our main household goods shipment ... it's meant to help us while living in our new home until the bulk of our household good arrive. It looks pretty measly but we have things like ... a few dishes, utensils, glasses, pots/pans, kitchen towels, bath towels, air mattress, bedding, pillows, lamps, a box of toys for Kelty, extra clothing, etc. Al has to go to the base tomorrow morning so I may be doing this part alone with Kelty ... it's a small shipment and it's organized in a small space so I'm really not too worried.

Onto other things ... Kelty grabbed a little washcloth from the clean laundry basket yesterday and started to wipe things down like he was helping me clean! I walked around the house with him and asked him to "clean the table, please" and he did ... or, clean this/that ... and he went right to it! Hey! Free labor! He may have learned to eat off the floor from Pogo and Piper but he learned how to clean from me! :o)

Cleaning the edge of the tub

Cleaning the door frame

That's it! I've had enough ... I'm outa here! No, really ... this morning I put his little backpack on and he walked around the house for an hour with it! He had Al and I laughing this morning ... pushing his train with his backpack on and one sock ... it's a rough life!

Our Son the Dog .... What?

Kelty is such a little sponge ... taking in everything around him. Apparently he doesn't just learn from his mommy, daddy and other family/friends in his life ... he also learns little tricks from the dogs! Kelty likes to watch the dogs eats treats off the floor and has decided it's a trick he wanted to learn too ... before trying to put a stop to this little trick of Kelty's I had to capture it on video. He ate all of his snacks from his little snack cups like this ....

Bloody Noses, Lips and a Party!

Kelty had the biggest of all his accidents on Friday ... ended up with a bloody nose, bloody mouth and a fat lip. Of course it happened under my watch while Al was at work and unfortunately I don't handle blood well. He was playing by our barstools (which is normal), I was taking pictures of his cuteness (which is normal) and then boom! he decided to do a flip over the center rod of the stool! Here is a photo taken just before big accident ...

Saturday we threw an Auf Wiedersehen party at the house; we had a really nice time! We tried to keep everything as German as possible ... German beer, some German wine, German cheeses, pickles and big soft pretzels, bratwurst, knockwurst, german-style pork chops with sauerkraut, red cabbage, mashed potato's and of course German chocolate cake and apple strudel for dessert. Thanks to our very dear friends for coming out to celebrate our upcoming move!

I was ordering cheese at the Publix deli ... the lady helping me held up the first slice and asked if it was too thick. I said "Yes, but if you slice it in half it will be perfect". When I got home and started prepping for dinner I had these nice "not too thick" slices of cheese until I got to this piece in the package (which was the 1st slice she showed me) ... she sliced it in half anyway!

A few of our guests ... (L-R) Michelle with Catherine, Adam, Lindsey, Al, Katey.

(L-R) Jordan, Freddie, Doris (the back of her head), A.D

Kelty decided to chase the girls and try to kiss them! It was sooooo cute! Kelty and Evangeline planted a kiss right on eachothers lips! I think Kelty kissed the back of her head a little later.

Catherine wanted kisses too!

Kelty ran over to try and kiss Bear, one of the little boys, but Bear was like "Whoa, dude!"

On Sunday Kelty and I met up with our friends Michelle and Megan plus the twins for a little shopping excursion at the Prime Outlets. We got some good deals on baby clothes! Yeah for baby clothes! I also bought a shirt for myself which I still feel guilty about ... o'well. While we were gone Al had the opportunity to do some more work on the house without interuption (until we got home and Kelty wanted to help fix the door). Kelty also ended up with another bloody, swollen lip after chasing and tripping over a ball in the house. I will be amazed if he keeps all his teeth!

Today Kelty and I are going on a stroller walk with some of the girls which will give Al another opportunity to work on the house without interuption!

Catch Up

I usually fall behind on our blog when I pull my military drill ... this month was no different. I was down at Homestead for 5-days this time around so it's no surprise I'm passed due! Unfortunately I have very few photos of the last week so I'll keep this entry short ... I know the pictures are the best part!

We have some great news .... we've rented the house! We met with the rental side of Coldwell Banker last Wed, listed the house for rent on Fri, had a showing on Sat ... they loved the house and submitted their application that day! The application cleared on Tuesday, we approved a change to the lease (they have 2 small dogs so we've decided to go pet-friendly). We drive out Jan 31st and they move in Feb 1st.

I hosted a stroller walk on Tuesday for our playgroup ... the weather held out but Kelty didn't. I had to skip the post-walk lunch but still enjoyed my time chatting with the girls and seeing the kiddos. On Tuesday we also emptied our storage unit and started separating our household goods! On Wednesday we had a dent removed from the Acadia, had a household goods walk-through and met with the pool guy that will be maintaining the pool for the renters. Today Al and I had our German driver's exam on base. We also did some maintenance work around the house today.

Kelty snuggling on the blanket Nana made for him ... the other side has sensory objects for him to play with and a cute little pocket. Thanks Nana for a great blanket!

Kelty trying to stand on his head and peak through his legs. Kelty has also started giving kisses this weekend while I was gone ... they are the sweetest!

Kelty helping daddy fix the sliding glass doors this afternoon. We let him screw in a screw today too (under our supervision of course).

My Hopes For The New Year!

Sorry no photo's this post ... I have to replace the batteries in our camera. I spent a few hours at our neighbors house earlier in the evening New Year's Eve ... at midnight I was nestled in our bed with the dogs reading a Good Housekeeping magazine. :o) I don't remember the last time I was actually up to celebrate New Year's! I really wanted to start 2009 on a positive note so while Kelty took his morning nap I took a quick shower, skipped the hair and make-up, ignored the un-packed boxes from vacation and started on a new project! I wanted to start the new year by giving so I managed to make 5 fleece blankets for The Children's Home in Tampa. Now I just need to deliver them! After Kelty woke up from his nap, we ate a good lunch and then went on a 3-mile bike ride ... he was pretty content but I was a little tired by the end of the trip. After our bike ride we played outside on his 4-wheeler ... it was a beautiful day. I'll miss the sunny, cool days of Florida (all 2 of them). :o)

My hopes for the New Year ...

STAY FOCUSED ON THE GOOD STUFF

I have an amazing husband, a healthy and wonderful child, a loving family and good friends. I hope to focus on the blessings I have in my life and stop complaining about the things that aren't perfect!

"ME" TIME

I have read and I do believe that mommy's need their own time too ... if mommy isn't happy the family isn't happy. I am desperately trying to convince myself that this isn't selfish thinking. But it isn't healthy for me not to have an outlet or a break for "me". Before we leave FL I most certainly WILL pick-up a few shift at Fantasmic and I WILL take time to exercise and I won't feel guilty about it! I wouldn't mind an afternoon at a spa either (soo, girls in Tampa ... when do you want to go?) After we move to Germany I hope to get back into running a dance program and teaching Yoga ... even if only for a few hours a week.

EMBRACE THE PRESENT

I wrote a little saying on my MySpace page last year ... "I believe we are always looking forward to the good times we will have in the future ... only to get to the future and realize that we were living the good times in the past". What I was trying to say is that we need to make the best of the moments we have now, stop thinking "things will be better if" or "things will be better when" ... because when we finally reach those "if" or "when" times we're already thinking of future "if" and "when" times ... and those days we thought could be better weren't so bad after all ... the best moments we have are the moments we are living now and those moments will someday be the only memories we have .. let's make them good ones!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!