What you miss...

FOOD?!?!? I adore Sonic Happy Hour drinks! I'm not sure if ADORE is a strong enough word. It was how I survived many a day with Rose Hill Primary school and people like the Stupidhaus'. It is through the love of Happy Hour I was able to persevere the ups and downs of the Primary School, the small town and grey days! It was through my love of Sonic Happy Hour I weaseled my way into two hearts of two AMAZING teachers at Rose Hill. (It is amazing how a Happy Hour soda can make a teacher your friend!!!)

There are a few things I have discovered do not exist in Indiana. I knew I would be hard pressed to find anything resembling a Taco Shop, but who would have thought I would have a hard time finding a Sonic? I discovered the first one in Clarksville, IN over Christmas break when I was sale shopping for my Christmas Crafts! It was conveniently HAPPY HOUR when I discovered it and I was stoked beyond belief!!! As I drove closer, I saw it looked like this:

A very deserted and CLOSED Sonic!

The next one I discovered was this past Sunday. Prince Charming was home and watching the Knights, so I decided I would venture out to Ace Hardware--our toilet will not stop running and I couldn't catch it, so I had to find a specific valve for our brand of toilets and they were only at Ace--I digress....so I decided I was foot lose and fancy free, I would enter S-O-N-I-C into the ol' GPS. AND HAPPY DAY! There is (WAS) one in New Albany, IN! Woot. Off I went on a mere detour to find this Sonic! It looked like this:

Horribly closed and boarded up! 

From a distance I started to get my hopes up! This is only 10 minutes from my house! 

Sad Day. The hunt shall continue...

I went to Google and searched for Sonic. I found a location finder and entered my Knobs zip code into the system. I discovered one across the bridge and put it on the to-do list for yesterday. It was exactly 1:54 when I left the mall at Clarksville, IN and decided I was already halfway to Louisville, so I would go in search of the last one within 20 miles of my house. It was perfect timing for Happy Hour, so off I went. I called Ms. Music Teacher to let her know her friend was officially crazy as I was on a hunt for Sonic. She called me brave. (This is why I love her! Most people would have told me I was crazy for going into the big city for a Cherry Limeade, but she applauded my bravery. What a great friend!)

This is what I found:

I didn't just order drinks....oh no! I ordered drinks, dinner, snacks and lunch for tomorrow. My mere happy hour $5 purchase was $19.82! Prince Charming is out of town tonight, so consider this dinner! I got home as the Jedi Knights were trying to get into the garage as they had just returned from school. This was the first time they had tried to use the garage code, so they were a brief shell shocked to discover I was MIA. I yelled I had a surprise out the van window as I was pulling in. Obe Wan was rushing over and the first thing he said was, "Sushi?" No, no Sushi, but I do have SONIC! They were concerned about my whereabouts but when I showed them the bags of goodness all was forgiven and forgotten. They were both thrilled to see they had two drinks a piece. DUH. IT was Happy Hour!!! (Said in a sing song voice....)

Cheers!!!

Do you see that GRIN? Yep, that is a smile of pure happiness!

Four more days until I'm Kansas bound. Sweet goodness. I need to go do laundry!

Sisters!

Wichita Sister, Portland Sister and Ms. America!

 So, during the week we moved (going back in time...) both my sisters came to visit! It was a blessing! They both helped me unpack, offered me advice (mostly solicited) and just hung out with me. It is hard to move so far away from everyone, but having them with me for a week was wonderful!

The Nephew is addicted to sugar. He crashes hard when he is on empty!

I had GRAND plans of a sister's night out, shopping, eating some awesome food in Louisville and just some hang out time. Well, The Nephew and the weather had other plans. Portland Sister handled all the children great! She was patient and kind and went to her room when she wasn't. It was perfect. I had them both together for 2 days and one-on-one for a few more days!

We managed to get 80% of the house unpacked! Swell. Obe Wan was truly sick of The Nephew by the end of the trip and I think The Nephew was done with him as well. These two pictures were taken on our last day together. They capture the moment perfectly!

 The Nephew was sitting so calmly. I believe this was during one of his crashes. He had just eaten half the box of donuts. No, I take that back, he doesn't eat the donuts. No, he just picks off the glaze!

 I have No idea what Wichita Sister did, but Portland Sister is posing for a pic! Portland sister is always stealing my camera through the years. One year my MIL made the mistake of telling her to take pictures and GAVE PORTLAND SISTER HER CAMERA. She quickly learned you get random selfies and who knows what else?!?!

Kansas Bound in 17 days....

Move In Day!

February 16 (going back in time. Making sure we are all clear on this....) 

By 8 a.m. the snow was already pouring down and our KS truck driver was informed that ALL moving crews had shut down for the day and were not coming out to help unload the semi!!! WHAT?!?!!? This is when I became a mover! We lead the truck up the hill and we (Two guys and ME!) unloaded the entire semitruck. We started at 9:30 a.m. and ended our day at 11:21 p.m. I drove them down the hill and was at the rental getting my plants at 12:30 A.M. By the end of the day, we were all frozen cold and the nephew was wasted. 

The scrapbooker was not taking pictures!!! Thankfully Wichita Sister DID!!!

 Here is a picture from my walkout basement on the evening of Monday, February 16.

Here is the same picture on Tuesday, March 3. See how much snow we had land on the Knob?

Moving before the storm

Wichita Sister

As promised, I am going back in time to Saturday, February 14th--the day of Love-- We left a day earlier than anticipated because MIL saw the forecast was going to take a MAJOR down turn. I looked at the radar and saw nothing, but I have always joked if you want to know the weather ask my FIL, the tree farmer! He seems to have a knack for knowing the weather! We packed up, said good-bye (again) and kidnapped Wichita Sister and the nephew! It was not a bed drive considering I had a 21 month old with me! :) Amazing what technology can do for a long trip!

The nephew

Off we went for 12 hours back to Indiana to move into the KNOB house!

We got there around 1 in the morning and all crashed. I knew I had a LOT to do the next day to get the rental property ready for the moving truck for Monday morning. Needless to say, the moving truck decided it would be best if the truck was loaded on Sunday afternoon by the two guys from Kansas! Yippee!

We managed to get the rental property packed onto the truck and put our beds at the back. Prince Charming suggested Get A Move ON head up to the Knob and unhitch the rig and leave the trailer there over night. (WAY TO GO! AS THE STORM WAS COMING!!! This ended up being a COMPLETE blessing in disguise!) I had to lead the way in the ol' rockin' van as GPS shows a way that would cause a semi to Jack KNIFE!!! So, onward and upward!

Devil's Butt Crack--the 10 seconds of silence stretch of Knob Road

 We were successful at parking the rig, unhitching the trailer and getting our beds off the truck! YEAH! We had a HUGE empty house and didn't know where anything was as we were thrown off guard by packing/loading and moving on Sunday.

The boys had a blast playing in the empty house! I'm so 

glad we ended up parking the rig because the S-N-0-W was coming. We agreed to meet the semi on Monday morning at the bottom of the Knob at the McDonald's. Wichita Sister and I decided we needed to make a fast Wal-Mart run to get milk and a few things. B-I-G mistake. This is Wal-Mart when you say the F-O-U-R letter word in Kentukiana....

The line took 45 MINUTES to get through and EVERY bag of salad was gone. I'm not kidding. Every bag was gone. Milk and bread were scarce, but the salads MIA. WOW. I'll tell you what....if a Zombie Apocalypse comes, you can only IMAGINE the last thing I will be grabbing is a bag of salad?!@?! Who does that? 

Here is what starts falling in the middle of the night....

The house gets packed!

I think I will go back and forth in time on my blog. It is my blog, so I am the boss. Kinda a nice feeling. And I know I'm an English teacher---but really, who has time to edit these days? I know you want INSTANT gratification on my stories, so the less I edit, the faster you get results.

I really despise books that go back and forth through time without letting the reader know. I will be the story teller who tells you exactly where we are in time. We are going back to Friday the 13th of February. I should have known by the date it was going to be a horrible day. I wasn't really thinking through the pack on the 12th, load semi/close on the KS house/move out of KS house/close on the Indiana property remotely from KS/say goodbye to many memories of my favorite house on the FREAKIN THIRTEENTH!!! I do believe God was sitting in his rocking chair, with a big bag of popcorn on his lap, watching the comedy unfold.

Wichita Sister

The nephew

I discovered an entire SCRAPBOOK closet wasn't packed in my basement and had to call the moving company, a nice man from Butler Rural Electric shows up to DISCONNECT my electric because the winners who bought my Kansas property didn't take the time to put the utilities in their name. DUH!?! Who forgets to do this? (For those reading for content...this electric shut off should have been what we in the English field call...foreshadowing....) This is all before EIGHT in the morning. Wichita Sister and nephew show up a bit after this to join in the fun!

So, Wichita Sister gets to see the rest of the day unfold. (Hold on to your hats because it unfolds by golly!)

By 11:30 the representative for the IN close is supposed to be at my house to have us sign the papers. She calls saying she is clear on the west side of Wichita waiting on paperwork and won't be there until at least 12:30. Now, I'm stuck at an empty house, but the best thing that happened all day was Ms. Music Teacher brought me lunch! So stoked because she brought On The Border! Woot! I have yet to find a good Mexican place in IN. 

Ms. Music Teacher

By 12:30 the rep (which will now be referred to as Ms. Whitetrash) is still MIA. She calls around 1:00 to tell me she drove half way to my house before she remembered the paperwork for the close was sitting on her kitchen counter. Now, how mind you, is the paperwork that was on the west side of Wichita miraculously on HER kitchen counter?!?! Ms. Whitetrash finally arrives to learn my real name is AMERICA not Amy and ALL the paperwork is wrong. She gets on the phone and proceeds to yell at the title company about her lack of pay, her being her and waiting forever on the paperwork ALL in front of us....meanwhile, a nice young man pops his head into the kitchen to let us know he has shut off the water in the house. COULD THIS GET ANYMORE CRAZY?!?! Sometime during this mess Ms. Music Teacher leaves, my mom shows up and my kids are outside because it is so glorious and because they are scared of my W_R_A_T_H. Wichita Sister gracefully takes all children out to the driveway to watch my house get emptied, not onto the truck, no, no, because I have so much wonderfully stuff (edited for my children to read) they have to use every possible space, so ALL of my belongings are out on my driveway. YOU SHOULD HAVE seen how slow my neighbors were driving by. I will not miss Wisteria Lane....back to Ms. Whitetrash.

Ms.Whitetrash is now on my porch ranting and raving about how horrible this experience has been, she finally gets off the phone and returns to my kitchen table where Ryan and I are still sitting. I tell her as calmly as I can her behavior is unacceptable, it is unprofessional to discuss pay in front of her clients, and we need to sign the paperwork so she can remove herself from my house. OMG. YES, I really said that out loud. I felt like Meg Ryan in the scene from You've Got Mail. (I've added the clip so you could enjoy what I felt like!) 

At 5:00 the Realtors are wanting to know when we are going to be out of the house. The contract stated clearly we were to be out by 7:00 on Friday the 13th. Hindsight, I wish I would have stuck to Sunday as the new owners became vultures! They kept driving by and texting. Here is what they saw as the continuously drove around my house:

Did they really need to ask when are we going to be out? Really?????

By 6:30 I was at Los Cocos in Derby, KS enjoying some fine margaritas with some friends. I could have probably drank the pitcher. Did I mention the water people came back at 4 and unlocked our water but were told NOT to turn it on? Those evil people who bought our house didn't want to pay for our water, but were SO INTELLIGENT they didn't even remember to change over the utilities? Somedays it doesn't pay to be nice. I shouldn't have let my Realtor know everything had been shut off.

Now, I am a ranting, raving mess. I will go work on Gotham City and post new pics of my progress tomorrow.....I can't even finish telling you about Friday the 13th. I'm done. Peace out.

The BIG move!

Well, we have moved to Floyd's Knobs, IN from Kansas. There are just too many important people in our lives to not somehow stay connected. I have always wanted to have a blog and be important on the Internet, but who in the WORLD would ever want to read about US?!?! Ah-HA. Move four states away and B-I-N-G-O. You have instant followers. Okay, so it isn't a huge fan club, but grandparents count for something! So, thank you to Mimi & Nana for instantly being in our fan club.

With our house still on the market we ventured out to a rental--sight unseen! I'm not sure I would be willing to do this if we had purchased a house, but since it was a temporary move, I trusted my husband, and we moved 1/3 of our house, two Beta Fish, one very old Golden Retriever, Gabby, and my two Jedi Knights! 

I will start with the drive and venture onwards and upwards through our days here on the Knob. 

Gabby & Luke Skywalker

Gabby & Obi Wan Kenobi

 Meet Bruce & Blue--our twoBetas