Last load

 With just Mark and I moving our meager belongings and our car being so small, it has taken more "loads" than we thought that it would to get us out of the cabin. The truck has been more than helpful to, to say the least. Today we have one more small load, mainly cleaning supplies and the last of Marks clothes. There are a few totes in the storage shed of the parks. After that all of our things will be in our new home. 😊  

Right now everything has gotten just stuffed into a cabinet to get the totes unpacked. So it will take me a loooooong time to find and organize everything. I do enjoy organizing so it will be fun and especially in our new home. Most of the kitchen items that Carol left are things that I will never ever use or they were in really bad shape to use. I don't think she used much of anything. There wasn't even a pancake turner here. I'm so happy that God gave us some thing to salvage from the fire and that generous friends and family sent us funds to purchase some of what we will need.

Our new home has a large extra room and it has a queen size bed in it. Mark will love that when he has a bad night with his RLS. Loveseats aren't much for sleeping on he will fit on much better. Today one of my goals is to get the boxes on the bed emptied and the bed cleared.  This room has turned into the drop spot since we now have the living area clear of totes and set up to a functional space. 

One more cup of coffee and I think I'll start on my to do list. Up early so I have more morning to get things done and can relax early tonight. Saturday I'll do a bit of cleaning of the cabin and call it good enough. The park has a couple that do the cleaning, so I just need to do the job of cleaning my mess.

Thursday, Dec. 29, 2021

 Yesterday we put in a very long day, 5 hours is just too long for us old farts. Mark slept like a log but I hardly slept at all. No matter how tired I am if the house is a total mess I just can’t sleep. It’s too hard when I keep thinking of all that I have to do. 

Today Dish Network was installed and we are so happy to have some programs to watch. A neighbor brought over an Italian dish for our supper. I loved it but Mark did not so he had a bowl of cereal in the evening. We have been just sitting tonight.

Tomorrow morning I have to get the stuff out of the hall closet at the old place and Mark and Chris will bring the stuff from the parks storage shed. I know my kettles and kitchen stuff that I salvaged is in there and Mark has some things too. I can’t remember anymore, that was over two months ago.  We also have a huge WM order that we will picking up. I was going to have it delivered but the list kept growing and growing so I felt is was better if we got it ourselves, plus I want a bottle wine and Mark some wine coolers. We will need to take the truck too. A bag of softener salt and the rest won’t all fit in my little car or any smaller car. We also need to get a new thermostat. We just can’t figure out this one. And we can’t remember what Brian said. I like things to be simple to operate and this one is NOT.

I have a lot of stuff to get donated to a charity. Most of Carols stuff was pretty awful and some things I will never use in a million years.  
Mark got my computer up and running and I actually have room for it, now that it's not on the dining room table here.

Today I got the new bedspread, bedroom curtains and a k-cup holder. Amazon was two days early again, and I'm thrilled. Tuesday I’ll have some more things coming. Little by little I”m replacing what we lost, although not all will be replaced and some never can be replaced. Thanks to wonderful people donation money we can replace some needed items. I'm still trying to get some clothes, but I'm not real fond of the styles, they just don't fit me or my taste.

  Chris and his son brought over my power chair this afternoon and I’m thrilled to have it here. I’m praying now that I can sleep tonight.. I didn’t get much sleep at all last night. We quit early tonight so sleep should come more easily
Pictures will come when things get put away, it’s still a disaster here.

Early move in day

 Tuesday around 2 we got a call from Brian asking us to come over. He handed us all the keys and said we could start moving into our home at 4. What a gift from God that was. I totally broke down and scared Mark and Brian but Carol knew it was just a release valve. She handed me a kleenex told them it's a woman thing. I'm so glad she understood. I just couldn't help the tears.  

So anyway we slept in our new home and new bed a day early. 

Out of room

 Just three more sleeps and we can move out of this cracker box. But we can't do anymore packing. The back seat of the truck is full and in case of rain we can't put anything in the box of the truck. And the car can't get loaded up in the back incase we need it to pick up something. There is VERY little floor space in here so there is no place to put any totes or boxes. That is unless we don't want to move around in here at all. The most that we have left to pack is food, clothes and few cooking utensils, since most everything was lost in the fire.  

So now that we have found out we can't pack up anymore items. We have decided that Wednesday, when either of us gets up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, we will just start packing and moving things to our home. When we get tired we can take a nap or go to bed early that night. I know once we get up, our minds will be busy moving so we might as well do just that.  And we still have a day or two to continue moving our meager belongings. Our age and physical abilities are preventing us to go balls to the walls like in our younger days. But again, we don't have that much, just no place to put anything in this place.  Frustrating to the nth degree.

The anxiousness of moving has set my heart rhythm way off kilter. Sometimes I think it is going to pound right through my chest. But as soon as I get busy with something else it slows down. It is scary though since I have an accelerated heartbeat the way it is. The meds don't seem to be working with the type of anxiety we have been living through.

We've been hearing on the news and reading about cruises that are being held up due to trump virus cases onboard. The couple that we have purchased our home from have an upcoming cruise scheduled the day we move. I'm sure they are anxious about the outcome for them. Will they be able to go or not? If their cruise gets cancelled they will have to stay at a motel because we are not giving them one day longer in our home. They are quite wealthy so they can well afford to stay at a motel if they need to. Being they are from Canada puts them in a stressful situation as well.

Christmas was not much for us this year. But I did manage to listen to the church service on line. The fanfare was just not there. It was just another night in December with no birthday celebration for Jesus. But prayers of thanks were given numerous times.

WINTER

 Today it has a real feel of the first day of winter in the air. The wind is blowing, no sunshine for warmth  and it is going to be a slow go to reach the predicted high of 71º. And from the sounds of it the rest of the week will pretty much be the same.

Yesterday we met with the previous owners of our new home for a celebratory cocktail and visit. Brian is going to great lengths to make sure we will be happy in our new home. He is showing us all the paper work on every appliance, and showing us how the things work. We had a very enjoyable visit. 

Today I ordered room darkening curtains for the bedroom window that faces east. We like darkness, or I should say I much need darkness for sleeping. The bedspread that they are leaving is  washed out maroon so I ordered a bright new spread as well. Actually I have not sent the order off but am waiting until it's closer to our move in date. We just have NO room here for much of anything. As we begin packing up our few belongings it will be dangerous to even walk in here. And that is putting it mildly.

Yesterday they began tearing down our burned up home. Mark checks on the progress each day, but I choose not to watch my home being further destroyed. We are anxious for the whole ordeal to be done with.

Holy crap it's cold

 Woke up to 42º this morning. Yesterday the wind was horrendous and thankfully that has stopped......for now.  We are to expect a high of only 62º for today, tomorrow and whenever. We have to find jackets soon. Thank God Lincoln got me some earmuffs, so I at least have warm ears. Mark has some heavy and an insulated flannel shirt that he can get by with for awhile. All I have are two sweatshirts. But I'm looking for a jacket.

Thankfully our insurance agent found a company to insure our new home. So all is set for the move on the 29th. Well, I hope so. You see, the wind last night also had rain with it and torn off the tarp covering our boxes and totes. We are hoping that the rain didn't compromise the boxes too much. The empty boxes we were saving got moved around but still on the steps. No room inside this cracker box so all have to be outside in the elements. 😕 I'm hoping that this is the last of the wind and rain until we move from here. ha he We are counting the days and hours. 

Official

 We now officially own our home, but we still aren't moving in until the agreed upon date. Insurance on the new home is pending due to the fire loss of our previous home. The fire report will show that it was not our fault. Today we should hear something.

As each day goes by and we get closer to our move in day or anxiousness grows. Having a place we can call home again is great, but not having our personal items around us will take some time to adjust to or get over. So many times my mind goes back to something I lost in the fire and the tears and anger flow. Not a day goes by that this doesn't happen. I know Mark feels the same way, he lost just as much of his personal belongings as well.  And he is doing his darnedest to hide his feelings and to help me muddle through and smile. I form strong attachments to things. That is so not good. We are lucky to have each other and a roof over our heads.

Christmas this year is a bust as far as our usual traditions. I've done my best to make a few special treats that are easy to make when living in a closet. But the amount of counter and cabinet space limits that as well. For people that don't have much of anything anymore, we sure filled this place.  That is easy for anyone to do here. 

The weather has really gotten cold for us and we have no winter coats or jackets. Yesterday we looked around and found only one store with jackets. But they were all Carhardt and nothing I would want to wear to church. Plus the price was way out of our affordability.  We gave up after 3 stores had nothing and hardly anyone was wearing a mask. Back to online shopping. It's safer and more to choose from. Thankfully Lincoln found earmuffs that I like and gave them to me for Christmas. Now I won't get cold ears or earaches in the cold. I hate wearing hats, I had to do enough of that in MN winters. So we still need to find warm coats and gloves.  Oh and warmer shoes and socks. Sandals in the winter isn't a very good idea, not even in Yuma. 

What would you do if you lost everything but the clothes you have on now? Trust me, you have no idea.

Thankful but stressful

 Just 22 days until we move into our new home. And I can honestly say it has been a long stressful time living in this tiny place. Grateful for the roof over our heads but so sick and tired of not having any room to move or room for our meager belongings that were either donated or we managed to salvage from the fire.

Every turn we make something either gets knocked over or we end up with a bruise. I am not a short person but I can not reach into some of the cabinets without a step stool or over stretch my arms leaving them in pain. There is a horrible sewer gas smell in the bathroom anytime water is run. I think the drains need a good cleaning after all the times the sewer backed up on us the first month here. With my sense of smell it's nauseating.  I pity the person renting this place on the first of January.

In spite of the lack of room I am baking some simple cookies for Christmas. That is taking up the very small amount of counter space we have.  There is very little cabinet space to put much of anything so too much ends up on the counters. The small kitchen space I've lived with in other places, but lack our cabinets is not something I can handle. Now if we didn't eat or if I didn't cook, we could use the one cabinet that has food in it to store other things that are stacked on the counters. But it's too costly to eat out every night and that gets old in a hurry. And I prefer my own cooking. I don't like food out of a box or a can unless there is no other option or if it's a time crunch thing. Too much fat and salt for anyones health.

This wasn't meant to be such a negative entry, but I am missing so many things and ways. It's hard to be positive all the time. Sometimes I just have to let it all out! We lost everything including our beloved Miss Lola. It's really hard to stay happy all the time after all that.

One step closer

 Today we paid for our new home. Brian, Mark and I went to the bank this morning to do a wire transfer to Brians bank in Canada. He had all his paperwork from his home bank all ready to go which helped for a smooth transfer. The lady at the bank who helped us is the same person that helped us set up our banking account and the loan for our SmartCar 4 years ago. So she knew us well and knew that we were full time Yumans too. In 3 to 4 days Brian should hear back from his bank that the money is in his account. Our next step will then be to transfer the title, get insurance on our home, on the the 29th of December, move into our  home. As much as I don't want to wish my life away I hope the next 26 days go by smoothly and quickly. After all we have been through it's hard to be optimistic about anything. But by the grace of God all will go well. That's what we are praying for.

Since I have no Christmas baking to do or at least no room to bake, I am trying my hand at some simple crocheting to keep me busy. Mark has been cleaning the guns and getting them back into working order. He just recently found my gun in a big glob of melted plastic. How he got it out of the glob is beyond me, but he did.  And is working on that. His guns are in good/safe working condition once again. The gun cases have a strong stench of smoke so they are not allowed in the house. hehe I've inhaled enough of that stench to last me a lifetime. I can't even stand the smell of a campfire anymore.😛

Our son would like to come and help us move, but we have so very little to move from here to the new place. It will take just one to two hours to move what little we have and a friend from the park will help us with that. The heaviest item is my power lift chair that Mark got for me. It would be great to see Lincoln but would love to have him see our new place and us when we can just sit and enjoy our time together. This move will be very emotional for Mark and I and we may not be the best company, even though we are super excited to move from to our new home.

The manager from the office gave me two Christmas stockings today. So we have a couple items of Christmas decorations plus our little 16 inch $Tree white Christmas tree. Big difference from previous years.