Author: jclawver

Yo ho ho!

The internet has been super cranky and unreliable, so no real updates. Sorry. (That’s aimed at my folks, mostly.) It’s also been a pain for Kevin, who hasn’t gotten out of the habit of working 24/7. 🙂 When the internet connection does work, you should see Kevin and me jump into action. It’s pretty funny.\
And for some reason, my long distance isn’t working, which is a super pain too.\
Blarg.

Status report

Kevin found us a house to rent in Savannah. Yay! Along with the necessities, it has a big backyard for the kids, a 2-car garage to fulfill my storage desires, and a guest room. (Only 15 minutes to the beach, people!)\
I’ve been mourning Wegman’s, our fabulous grocery store. Maybe Savannah will have a great grocery store, but I am not holding my breath. My parents, who live in So Miss, only have two shopping options: a Super Walmart with a bad produce section and a small corner store with a bad produce section. This is why I am not expecting much in Savannah. (Anybody from there and can tell me I’m wrong?)\
Even though we’re moving in a couple of weeks, the kids still want to eat everyday! I had to go to the grocery store for basics like milk and cereal and Popsicles. Apparently canned green beans don’t work well for breakfast or dessert.\
I’ve done the first and second stage of packing- things we don’t use often and things we can do without. I even started on the third stage- stuff that fall under Kevin’s purview and I have no idea what it is, what it does, and whether it is actually worth keeping. I need to move on to the fourth stage now: oddly-shaped, fragile objects. Ugh. But, you know, I am kind of anti-stuff right now, so if it all breaks- oh well.\
Brian has become a little stand-up comedian. “Why did the car drive on the airplane?” Why? “To get to the airport.” There are lots of variations of this- car, boat, airplane, motorcycle. They are all silly, but Brian’s delivery is FAB! I am really sorry Kevin is missing this.\
That’s all folks!

Words!

I labeled a box of books today, “Grown up books.” I was afraid to use the word, “Adult.” I am not sure who would be looking at my boxes, but whoever it is, I don’t want them to get the wrong idea about me.\
After the new show Swingtown premiered, I am sort of afraid to move to the swanky, suburban house we picked. And if you don’t know why I am afraid… Well, that’s probably a good thing.

Published
Categorized as Jen, moving

Getting rid of stuff

There’s this guy, Dave, who started the 100 Thing Challenge, which seems right up my alley since I love getting rid of stuff! My friend who pointed the article out to me said that this guy is kind of cheating a bit because things of personal value are going into a box for a year and aren’t subject to the challenge.\
I started making a list to see what I could easily purge. Surprisingly, 100 items aren’t that many! If I could get rid of something without disrupting Kevin or the boys then it would be considered mine [ie, clothes, dvds, books, bed pillows (I have three- that is 3% of my alloted total, oh noes!)]. Shared items such as kitchenware, linens, books and dvds we all like are off limits. I also decided not to count consumables like shampoo. So, here is my list:

  • Books- Pride and Prejudice, Mammoth Hunters, the scriptures, the current two books I am reading. I like to read books, I just don’t like to keep them around. Thankfully, the Harry Potter books fall under the shared category.
  • Multiple seasons of a TV show on DVDs will only count as one item. I think I only have three must-haves. Bet you can guess what they are. 🙂
  • I can easily get rid of my CDs thanks to iTunes.
  • I have about 12 items from my childhood and pre-Kevin days I want to keep- yearbooks, doll bank, stuffed animals, Madam X print, my mom’s miniature collection. I have tried to get rid of the mom’s collection twice before but each time I got sad. Since they aren’t taking up a lot of room (they are miniatures, after all), I kept them. If we get a real laundry room in the new house, I am going to display a few in there. That makes me happy in my brain.
  • A handful of electronics- alarm clock, iPod, laptop, cell phone, camera.
  • My jewelry items will count as one item since everything fits in the jewelry box.
  • I have four purses and one fun beach bag that I can’t bear to part with but when packing up my closet, I got rid of five other purses.
  • I can reasonably limit my shoes to seven pairs, but I don’t want to feel deprived. I may decide to just count each shoe rack as one item, instead of individual pairs of shoes.
  • Three coats- rain coat, heavy coat, light coat
  • Sorting out actual clothes is daunting. I did go through them when I was packing, and got rid of a lot of stuff already, so let’s count that as a win, ok? You can tell a man came up with this 100 plan because a woman’s foundation garments, slips, and stockings alone would probably eat up half of the list.\
    So, how many items is that total? Did you remember to count my three bed pillows?\
    Since I am moving and dealing with all of that, this project will probably fall by the wayside. But I am totally on board with leaving a bunch of stuff boxed up in our future garage, which will still make my life and closets less cluttered, so yay.

Brian boy

Brian just came downstairs laughing his head off, with his nighttime pull up on his head. Apparently Max did this the other night. Oh, boys. (At least wait until Daddy comes home and can appreciate this wackiness.)

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Categorized as Brian

Last day

Today is Kevin’s last day at AOL. He’d been there for 13 years. Can you imagine? That is the same amount of time spent in school. AOL helped him find his passion, meet like-minded people, travel the world, pay off my student debt (hey, super thanks for that), and develop into an awesome web dude. Over 100 people went to his goodbye party. Which, wow. Thanks, AOL. You’ve been awesome to us, which we’ll always appreciate. Bye now. Have a great summer. Keep in touch!\
ETA- Oh noes! Kevin doesn’t have the internet attached to his hip anymore. I am going through withdrawal already.

La la la

Amazing what a good window cleaning does to the view. Yes, the cleaners are here and totally worth every penny for doing the jobs I couldn’t/wouldn’t. Whatever house we decide on in Georgia, we must factor in the “Jen is a bad housekeeper” into the budget. Even just twice a year would be awesome, for stuff like behind the washer and dryer. Being able to afford things like this, even though I don’t work, is why I don’t mind Kevin being gone on the occasional anniversary: cuz I’m treated like a princess everyday. 🙂 (Excuse me while I go puke from my cheesiness.)\
Speaking of which, Brian is sick again. I hope that his leaving the AWESOME AOL school means that he won’t be sick as often. I can hope, right? He got better for awhile, keeping food down and everything, while I got sick. Ugh. Kevin came home early and doctored me right on up. I was much better by the time Brian started bouts number 2, 3, and 4. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that he will be all the way better so he can go to school tomorrow, which is his last day. I want him to say goodbye to everyone, plus they are having a goodbye party for him.\
Call me slow, but I just realized that by renting a house in Savannah, I am going to have to move again, and soon. Waaaah. Maybe I will keep some things boxed up until we get to the “real” house.\
I still love freecycle, but having to choose which person with their “please pick me” story to give the item to is so… icky. I always thought I wanted to run a charity/foundation/scholarship thingy after we made our first several hundred million (ha), but I kind of take that back. Maybe I should just hire someone to do the picking for my future-imaginary charity, yes?

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Categorized as Brian, Jen