Moving, & a Scary Experience!

Greetings!  I realized yesterday that it's been a few days since I last posted.  I've been busy packing, needless to say.  Busy, busy, busy ... packing, packing, packing.  It's amazing how much stuff a person can accumulate in just a few years.  Before we moved here 6 years ago, we had a big 2-day moving sale.  We sold all our furniture with the exception of an end table, a storage cabinet, & our mattress set.  We also sold a bunch of kitchen things, craft things, DVDs, CDs, & all my shop equipment.  It was fun to see their reaction when men would say to me, "I can't believe your husband is selling all his shop equipment!" ... & I would say, "It's mine."   : )   Anyway, I have decided that we need to have a big "moving in sale" once we get settled in our new home.  The problem will be convincing myself to part with so much of this stuff that is so neat!

I am really, really envying the Amish now ... a simple lifestyle without a bunch of clutter.  Sigh!

As far as a new home is concerned, at this point we are looking at a homeless existence.  You wouldn't think finding a nice rental home would be so difficult!  I have searched online for rental homes in 12 different states ... 12!!! ... & have found some nice possibilities, but ARGH!!!  There were two mountain top homes in North Carolina that were well priced, beautiful inside & out, with gorgeous views, but driving 20 minutes down a mountain & who knows how much farther in a snowstorm to get to an ER if need be?  Not practical.  There were a couple of nice homes in a few other states, but $2000-$3000 & more for rent each month???  Again, not practical.  We drove 3 hours last week to look at a home in Tennessee only to find that the realtor handling the home totally misrepresented it to us   : (   Some of the nice homes that caught our interest turned out to be too small, or they were in a noisy area, or they wouldn't be available when we needed them, or there was some other problem.  Closing is just 3 weeks away.  I have joked with John that maybe we can park our moving van in a Walmart parking lot, sleep in the car, & wash up in their bathrooms until we find a place.  I know that God will lead us to a nice home somewhere.  I hope He leads us to it soon   : )

A couple weeks ago I had a rather scary experience.  I was out in the garage mixing some weed killer in one of those plastic containers that you pump to get pressure into them in order to spray the mixture on the weeds.  I was nearing the end of the pumping when suddenly the container blew up in my face with a deafening BANG!  John had gone out to run some errands, so I was alone.  Thank God I was wearing my glasses!  I was startled for a second ... didn't really realize what had happened at first ... then I rushed into the house where I took off my glasses & immediately turned on the kitchen faucet & started rinsing my face & neck with water.  I then ran into the bathroom to remove my shirt & to do more washing with soap.  When I looked in the mirror, I couldn't believe it.  My hair kind of looked like this ...

... but my bangs were spiked too!  I wish John had been here to take a picture ... lol!  (I can laugh about it now, but it wasn't so funny when it happened!)  My hair was sticky, my clothes were sticky, my skin was sticky.  Again, thank God I was wearing my glasses!  They were new ... I had just gotten them the week before ... & they were totally destroyed.  It looked like someone had shot a bunch of gravel at them or something!  Can you imagine the damage that could have occurred to my eyes?  Luckily the glasses were under warranty & I was able to get a new pair without having to pay anything.  After washing up a bit, I went back out to the garage where I found the container lying on its side with the weed killer all over the floor.  The container had apparently spun around while the pressure was being released because the mixture had sprayed in a circle all over everything in the area.  What a mess.  I cleaned it up as best I could, then took a shower & had a interesting story to tell John when he got home.  He said I shouldn't so stuff like that when he's not here, but who knew?  I had mixed weed killer in those kinds of containers for years without a mishap, but this was a new container & I obviously did not attach the spray tube correctly as that is where the explosion occurred.

The appraiser is due to arrive in a little bit to do his thing ... then I will resume packing.  Wish I could invite you all over for a big packing party with pizza, pop, & a big pile of cross stitch stuff that you could choose something from as a thank you for your help    : )