Adieu, old house...

Well, we did it -- we got everything packed up and out of our first house by noon yesterday (with 25 minutes to spare!).

Ben said his good-bye to the house on Friday, when his "grammy" came and took him out to her house (we made three subsequent runs of stuff, so it was very helpful to have him elsewhere). We walked around the house and said good-bye to the different rooms. When we got to Ben's room I got all teary-eyed, and Ben had a couple tears, too. He seems to be dealing pretty well with things. He did tell me a couple times after his nap yesterday, "I want to go to your house." So we went through how we don't live in that house anymore, that for now we live at Grammy's and soon we'll be able to live in the brick house. Well, hopefully sooner rather than later!

I was so excited to go to Kohl's yesterday and buy new bedding for our bed. It's going to stay packed up and get it's grand unveiling at the new house! It's a neutral (sort of creamy with black abstract-ish floral pattern, for lack of a better description), so feel free to leave suggestions for wall paint (we're only going to do two walls -- not the ones that have the steep roof angle).

The kitties are managing. Cleo was in hiding for the first night. She was discovered just before we left to go up to the house yesterday morning for the final cleaning/move, much to our relief, hiding behind the TV components. She has been blocked from that spot (which she kept returning) and has finally starting venturing. Arwen and Shadow have both been fairly adventurous, and very affectionate at night, never leaving the room Andy and I are using.

We found a new home for Zoe, and Maggie's living at Andy's dad's until a better home can be located. As some of you know, Ben is inexplicably terrified of them. Not just our dogs -- all dogs larger than Scout (my mom's Yorkie -- so that's most dogs). We were at Todd and Sara's last night and their dog, Lucy, walked past Ben and he ran to me saying, "She hurt me!" So we decided to find new homes for our dogs, and maybe when Ben and his brother are both bigger and able to help more we'll get another dog. A smaller dog (but not as small as Scout!). At any rate, the search continues for a Maggie home, and in the meantime she's getting some attention from my nephews up at Andy's dad's.

And that's about it. Back to school tomorrow. Those research papers my students finished before break are waiting in the living room to be graded, and, to use a much over-used phrase, they aren't going to grade themselves! Good thing it's cooler today -- it won't be quit as hard to make myself do them!